Design Director Matt Hooper and Senior Producer Jason Kim promised to share more of Rage with the roughly 500 people packing the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center's Wyvern Theater than they've shared with anyone else to date. And they did just that in a lengthy live demo aptly titled, A Tour of the Wasteland.
"After Wolfenstein, Doom, and Quake and being in those worlds for so long, it's refreshing to be in the world of Rage," Hooper said. "We can't wait to share with you what we've come up with."
With Kim at the controls, the demo opened in one of the vast, Canyonlands National Park-like environments that have been seen in numerous Rage trailers and screenshots to date. Seeing the game live for the first time, I was immediately struck by the level of detail... everywhere. From the textures on rocks to the weeds sprouting up through cracked and torn streets, the wasteland is stunning. Powered by the id Tech 5 engine, Rage is a feast for the eyes, and explorer-types will enjoy countless hours simply soaking everything in.
Kim quickly hopped in a Class-2 Buggy, complete with roof-mounted machine guns, and took off, demonstrating one of Rage's big additions to id's repertoire, vehicle travel and combat. The transition from first to third-person was seamless and offered a nice change of pace. The Buggy's muscular engine growled and roared off the canyon walls, and its machine guns soon opened up on another wastelander buggy in a fury. The vehicles tore through the sand, circling one another in the dogfight on wheels before Kim got an angle and peppered his opponent with bullets, causing the enemy buggy to explode and triggering an impressive slow-motion effect of fire and buggy parts.
Back on two feet, Kim explored a settlement and interacted with NPCs. Again, the level of detail was striking, with each character wearing multiple layers of unique clothing, from sun-faded dusters to scavenged auto parts turned headgear. The chats with these characters were straight forward, as they offered goods for sale, missions, and info, and it didn't appear as if there will be much in the way of a conversation system.
Kim interacted with one NPC in particular who offered to teach him to use a Wing Stick -- a boomerang-like device embedded with nano tech for smart targeting. After a quick take-down-the-targets mini-game with the new device, the demo shifted to combat and Kim showed how brutal the Wing Stick can be in action.
Like Plasmid powers in Bioshock or magic in Elder Scrolls, players will have a gun in one hand and a "quick weapon" like the Wing Stick ready to go with the other. Searching for Buggy parts in a dam facility turned bad dudes hideout, Kim showed how the Wing Stick can be used for stealth, popping off enemy heads like corks with a well-aimed throw in a near-silent blur. Mixed together with a hand gun, the traditional weapon/quick weapon combo was lethal as Kim worked his way through the facility.
Along with the Wing Stick, we got to see a wide array of weapons in action, from machine guns to rocket launchers, turrets to exploding RC cars -- and they were all put to good use when the demo transitioned to Dead City. And that's where I experienced the "whoa" moment i mentioned in the lede.
Literally named, Dead City is a largely abandoned metropolis, with crumbling skyscrapers and debris everywhere, a graveyard of the world gone by. It was the first time I'd seen a city in Rage, and the transition from the red rocks and blue sky of the wasteland to the grey concrete and steel of Dead City completely changed the tone of the game, and for good reason.
Along with howling, shambling mutants, something much more terrifying exists in Dead City -- a Godzilla-esque mutant the size of a six-story building. As Kim maneuvered throughout the devastation, wary of mutants popping out of manholes from below or windows from above, we caught sight of it as it lumbered through the city, the giant's steps shaking the ground as it moved past in the distance and quickly out of sight.
Whoa.
Id has showed massive mutants in promo shots for the game and in a very brief trailer snippet, but seeing the gargantuan creature in the live demo impressed, and drew a raucous applause from the PAX East audience. But the sighting of the behemoth was simply a foreshadowing of what was to come. After being swarmed by mutants in a multi-level mall-like structure, Kim suddenly found himself face to face with the giant, and the mutant wasted not time ripping off a chunk of the nearest building and hurling it at Kim.
The demo ended as the battle began, Kim firing rockets at the mutant creature double feature as the crowd roared its approval.
Walking out of the demo, I felt satisfied id Software will deliver the goods with its first new IP since the original Quake dropped in 1996. The diversity in gamplay, environments, weapons, and enemies and the stunning level of detail indicate Rage not only has the potential to be a strong shooter, but a truly special game.
