Rage: Campaign Edition is an old-fashioned shoot-'em-up

Editor’s Note: The following article is reprinted from Macworld UK. Visit Macworld UK’s blog page for the latest Mac news from across the Atlantic.

Rage: Campaign Edition (Mac App Store link; GameAgent Store link) isn’t going to win any awards for originality, but it’s an enjoyable, action-packed first-person shooter, decked out in top-notch 3D graphics. The game is set in the near future, following an unfortunate collision between the Earth and a large asteroid. Emerging from your underground bunker after a cryogenic snooze, you discover a post-apocalyptic wasteland dominated by bandit gangs, creepy mutants, and a shadowy organisation called The Authority.

You’re immediately attacked by bandits and rescued by a bruiser called Dan, who helpfully gives you a gun and a nippy little all-terrain motorbike and sends you off to slaughter the entire bandit camp. That’s pretty much the game in a nutshell.

The action consists of a series of quests that generally involve driving across the wastelands and blasting the bejesus out of anyone that gets in your way. The story isn’t terribly involving, but this is an id Software game, and that means it’s all about the guns. On that score the game doesn’t disappoint. As you blast your way across the wastelands you’ll come across a variety of body-bursting weapons, including hand guns, shotguns, big fat rifles, razor-tipped boomerangs, and a futuristic crossbow capable of, er, mind control.

You can also upgrade your vehicle and use that as part of your armory. The driving and racing elements add a bit of variety to the game, but I was disappointed that the Mac version lacks the Road Rage multiplayer racing mode available in the PC version, as well as the two-player co-op missions.

The system requirements are pretty high. Lion is essential, along with a fairly powerful graphics card.

Macworld’s buying advice

Despite its state-of-the-art 3D graphics, Rage is really an old-fashioned shooter in the same mold as the now-ancient Doom and Quake. Don’t expect a deep, engaging storyline, but if you enjoy the simple pleasures of big guns and endless fragging then you’ll feel right at home amid Rage’s rubble-strewn landscapes.