I always harp on about how expectations can really make or break an experience, whether it be a movie or a video game. RAGE is one of those games that I was a little bit worried about – it had a very lengthy development time and the game was touted to be a mix of racing and shooting in a post-apocalyptic world. A setting that I have already grown tired of from other games – not to mention the fact that iD Software's recent pedigree have not been too crash hot. However, I'm always up for new things, so instead of another DOOM or Quake, here we are today with RAGE. And despite being not quite what I expected, I'm actually pretty pleased with how this lengthy endeavour has turned out.

Mimicking what may seem to be Fallout 3's storyline at first glance, RAGE takes place in the future following a cataclysmic asteroid collision with Earth, which wiped out most of the human race. The player character, however, is what's known as an "Ark" survivor, which was a specialist program designed to keep Earth's "worthy" from perishing by cryogenically freezing them and awakening them when the time is right. Upon waking, you realise you're the only one left in your Ark, and you are promptly attacked by mutants upon reaching the surface of the planet. Being saved by a rather friendly survivor, the player is tasked with completing all kinds of tasks for Earth's remaining settlements, while attempting to prevent an authoritative faction from taking over what's left of the survivors.

RAGE's storyline really isn't all that original and it does one thing that really should be avoided in these kind of open-world games – and that is the fact that the story is not developed anywhere near as fast as it should be and makes it very hard to care or even know what's going on in the early stages of the game. Even then, when the story starts to slowly unravel, it's something we've all seen before in almost every game like this. But really, the story isn't the main attraction here, but if it were a little bit more engaging from the start it would make RAGE much easier to "digest" as the player finds their feet.

RAGE utilises the proprietary and state of the art id Tech 5, which really is the main attraction of the game. Featuring huge and vast landscapes peppered with uniquely designed characters and buildings, RAGE is a visual feast that many players may have trouble getting through. Everything in the world has had so much detail put into it, weather and particle effects are absolutely flawless and the vistas you'll be admiring in the distance feel so close yet so far away, a feat that many games don't do as well as they should. The characters in particular are something worth highlighting – facial detail and animation make them seem like real people – they run for cover with their hands over their heads if fired at, for example, and enemies in particular are savage enough to make you actually have moments where you do fear their craziness.

RAGE is also quite dynamic in that it has many different kinds of animations for when the player is fighting enemies, with many flinching whenever shot in a certain area – this kind of context sensitive reactions make the game feel so much less "canned" and adds a whole dynamic to the combat. It's interesting to see how such a feat amazed me back when I first played id's QUAKE and now it's amazing to me again when I play RAGE. This kind of thing is something neglected in most shooters today. To top it all off, this richly detailed world is rendered at an incredibly smooth 60fps, something that consoles rarely see at this amount of detail. id Tech 5 certainly has shown it's worth here.

The gameplay itself is something that won't gel with everyone. Fans of Dead Island or Borderlands will find more fun in the package RAGE has to offer than those who hated it, most of the game consists of accepting quests, travelling across a very vast landscape (usually following a bread crumb trail on the in-game map), collecting items or destroying vital components and then returning for a reward. RAGE does place an emphasis on the vehicular aspect of this though – and in doing so boasts some very manageably vehicle controls which a lot of games in this genre typically get wrong. Everything controls very smoothly thankfully.

When using weapons, it is very fun and some of the weapons on show here are just brutal and very satisfying to land kills with (many will find great joy decapitating an enemy with their wingstick or finishing an enemy off with what may arguably be the best crossbow in a videogame ever). Everything feels quite "old" though in that there are no laser sights or helpful aim assists here, most players will have to take considerable time aiming to take out enemies effectively while conserving ammo. Most of the game will require a little bit more skill than your average shooter however some items (like the boomerang-like wingstick) do feel overpowered and due to their commonality there are some weapons you will just stick with over everything else.

Checkpoints are very, very scarce and it's up to the player to save as often as possible – which is very frustrating to have played for a long session, die, and then have to start from the last checkpoint (which was ages ago) or the last save (which, if you've been engrossed enough will be long before). This is a problem that would never happen with a game these days, but part of me wonders if we've just been spoiled with autosaving checkpoints in most modern games today – but still, I do warn most players to SAVE OFTEN when playing through RAGE. The game does give players a second chance / reminder to save in the form of the resuscitation system, which allows players to bring themselves back with a rather nifty minigame and stun nearby enemies while they get back on their feet – but in the heat of battle sometimes I still forgot to save and lost hours of progress.

Typically speaking, RAGE feels more like a "survival adventure" game than a shooter, as ammo is not available in plentiful amounts unless purchased, and even then funding can be quite scarce too. To presumably combat this, RAGE does also offer a very simple yet effective crafting system which allows players to craft ammo (including different types for each weapon) and weapons from junk they find on enemy corpses and throughout the whole environment. Players can even scavenge parts (or money) to buy and customise their own vehicle too, giving the game a light element of personalisation. Additionally, there's a multitude of well thought out mini-games that allows players to earn money on the side too. All of these little components of RAGE make the overall world feel a lot more fleshed out, and in one particular mini-game all of the collectibles you find will also be useful in one of the mini-games too.

Despite being on three discs, RAGE is actually a pretty short game. The story mode will take no more than nine hours to ten hours to finish, but to finish RAGE to 100% completion will probably take up to around 15-18 hours depending on how well "organised" you are and how quickly you explore the vast wasteland. While the first two discs are reserved entirely for the single player, while the third is for the multiplayer modes – which while unique are not going to have much staying power. Online performance is admirable, with most games we participated in being almost lag free although we were never lucky enough to win a game.

There are standard race modes but also vehicular combat based modes too – which mixes things up a little bit but still doesn't offer anything truly unique, innovative or ultimately compelling, which is a shame. There's also a very robust yet short co-operative mode which allows two players to play through "legendary stories" from the world of RAGE, which is a nice diversion with a more arcade/score-based emphasis, but this mode is unfortunately doesn't go anywhere near as long as I would've liked.

RAGE's sound design is also up there with its artistic design, featuring some very admirable performances and nothing too cheesy or over the top. The sounds of weapon and bullet's hitting enemies are very well thought out and give extra weight to the weapons, while the music itself is suitably epic during some intense moments but also quietly ambient during those long drives through the landscape.

RAGE is definitely a very competent shooter but it's also something that we've seen before in many different forms, and instead of taking any risks we are instead presenting with the merging of two genres that don't fit together as well as you would think. Still, the amazing id Tech 5 engine used really does a great job at bringing the world of RAGE to life – but some people will definitely tire of the gameplay which can at times get repetitive. But if you're someone like me who loved Borderlands and Dead Island but wanted something a little bit more single player orientated, this is definitely the game for you.