Review: Rage - A Game Show You Don't Want To Be A Part Of
by Felix Xiao
November 18, 2010
Overview
Mutant Bash TV isn't like other game shows that you see on TV. You still have a chance to earn some serious money, but may have to risk your life in the process. There are hordes of mutants hidden in the show that need to be killed, are you up for the challenge?
Features
Rage has 3 episodes that take place in a scary underground environment. As an on-rails shooter, the game does not let you control your character's movement. Instead, you get to focus on aiming your 3 weapons, reloading, dodging projectiles, sprinting, and collecting pickups. The camera moves by itself and you can look around with either tilt or touch controls. There are 4 difficulty levels that vary greatly, and you are graded by your performance in the episode upon completion. In order to play the game, you must have iOS 3.2 or above installed on your device.The Good
Rage is a fast paced game that involves much more than just shooting enemies as they appear on your screen. Each level includes 50 bullseye targets that you can shoot for bonus points, as well as numerous cash and ammo bonuses. To collect a pickup, you have to aim at their location as if you were going to shoot them and tap the hand button in the corner. Once you kill the mutants in one area of the map, the camera moves on immediately to the next room, and there are very few times in the game where you won't be doing anything. While it is generally easy to kill off the monsters, it's extremely challenging to collect every single pickup and shoot every bullseye, even on easy mode.
Graphics and controls are where most rail shooters currently available fall short. Rage contains phenomenal artwork with horrific blood and gore that makes it one of the most violent experiences you'll have on your device. Every time you shoot a mutant, the blood splatters everywhere, and you even gain bonus points for putting extra blasts into their body. When a monster attacks you, the screen shakes and blood starts to cover the edges of your screen. The audio effects are superb as well, featuring a menacing show host that mocks your progress. Combined with the game's effective tilt and touch control options, Rage is a truly a high-quality bloodbath.
With such a polished game, you would expect a premium price tag. However, the standard universal version of Rage only costs $0.99 at the moment. A separate app titled Rage HD is the same game with Retina Display and better iPad graphics that costs $1.99. Both versions will work on any iDevice as long as you have iOS 3.2 or above installed, but there's no point in buying the HD version if you don't own a 4th gen device or iPad, as there will be no noticeable differences.
The Bad
While Rage is really fun to play, it is also one of the smallest games in terms of content and one of the largest in file size. If you want to enjoy the 3 included episodes, you'll have to make room for 537 MB of space on your device. The game literally takes about an hour to complete, more or less depending on the difficulty setting. The HD version takes up 743 MB due to higher quality graphics. Both will take forever to download, especially on your device, so it may be better to buy the game on iTunes and then sync your device. Although you can replay the levels with different difficulty levels to get higher scores, a lack of Game Center integration and leaderboards of any sort decreases replay value.
If you're not into blood and gore, then this game is probably not for you. From start to finish, every moment is filled with violence, whether it be shooting off a monster's head or watching them claw your face viciously while you try to reload. Rage doesn't have that much depth once you get into the game, and after beating the one game mode in an hour or so, there's not much left to do. It would be nice if more episodes were included in future updates, which might unfortunately also make the file size even bigger.
