RAGE 2
2 hours played / refunded via Steam
The game gave a poor first impression. As I neared the 2 hour mark (the max playtime allowed for refunds on Steam), the overwhelming urge was to refund and buy later for less.
MAIN REASONS
Observations about gameplay in general. For context, I was playing on Hard.
- Enemy AI so far reminds me of Anthem - they don't move much, don't have satisfying feedback when shot - although headshot kills are really satisfying.
- The environments feel very bland: visually and interaction wise.
- Pacing is clunky: stuck in a room while a hologram NPC slowly unloads dialogue, can't leave room until it ends. Could have been done on the go considering how long you drive/run through empty space in opening hours.
- Cutscene direction is static, they feel drawn out and laborious to get through.
- The open world feels bloated in size. I had to drive through a lot of empty space during the second stage of one of the first 3 quests on the map.
- Visuals and general presentation do not match the vibrant presentation of the launch trailers.
Nitpicks that might be resolved as abilities upgrade, maybe HUD updates later, etc...
- Ammo and other pickups are hard to see.
- Ammo feels too scarce at the start, but I could be missing it due to the above (I checked menus and found now way to highlight it further).
- Hit feedback on enemies in general feels too low.
- For instance, I was fighting an enemy tower that dropped on the map (an open world encounter type event) and while the reticle went red to show me I was on a target that could be shot, there was no dmg indication as I shot it. No dmg numbers, no visual feedback. Suddenly after x amount of dmg the tower animated to show dmg had been done. Just felt unresponsive, not fun.
UI and HUD.
- Menu design feels very dated - like they took a mid 2000s style PC menu design and slapped some visual effects on it to make it seem modern.
- Menus are clunky to move through, not intuitive.
- Menus are laggy, and visual effects compound this feel.
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I obviously didn't give the game a fair shake overall, 2 hours is not enough. I didn't upgrade any fun abilities, or try anything beyond the first two starter weapons. I didn't reach the point I could engage with combat in a way that the pre-release footage and gifs in this thread show as being so fun.
But I FELT that 2 hour timer near max, and I nothing had compelled me that £40 was an entry fee worth paying. I think a game not doing that in 2 hours is a fair reason to not buy at launch.
I'm going to wait till it drops to £20 or lower and try it again, I'm sure it gets better when the combat opens up, but I feel no motivation to spend £40 bade on the 2 hours I already spent.