The Scorchers

A little over a year ago, id Software released their first new IP in quite a long time.  It was called Rage, and it was a post-apocalyptic shooter utilizing id's new idTech5 graphics engine.  The game received generally mixed to positive reviews when it came out.  One of the main complaints, if I remember correctly, was the technical problems that the game had when it was first released, especially on the PC.  The other most common complaint was that the game seemed like it was trying to be Borderlands and Fallout, and failed to live up to either.  If you recall my posts about Rage back around October 2011, though, you'll remember that I absolutely loved it.  Take that, majority!

Fast forward to this week.  To everyone's surprise, except perhaps the devs at id, new content for Rage was announced after a long period of utter silence.  And that's what I'm going to be talking about today.

I haven't touched Rage since I finished it back near the end of 2011, but I often found myself using it as a benchmark when it came to graphics.  You can say what you want about the game, but the visuals are stunning.  If you do not agree, you either do not have a rig that is capable of handling the engine, or you are blind, or you are an idiot.  I'm not saying you have the like the STYLE.  But there's nothing opinionated when it comes to the QUALITY.

I had a shaky start with the DLC, because I ran into graphical problems that I don't recall having the last time I played the game a year ago.  This is undoubtedly due to id patching the game and nvidia patching its graphics card drivers.  I had two main issues:  Screen tearing and video stuttering.  The screen tearing was easy to fix.  I turned on vertical sync.  The other problem, while barely noticeable, was a bit more difficult to find.  What I ended up having to do was create new folders on my hard drive in order to give the graphical texture cache a place to be written.  (As opposed to allowing it to simply be stored in memory, I suppose.)  When I read the solution, I really didn't give it much merit, but sure enough, it worked.  After I made these two adjustments, I cranked all the graphical settings up to ultra and the game ran perfectly.

As for the DLC itself, it's $4.99 to buy and it adds quite a bit of content for your money.  I'd say that a normal person would be able to finish it all in roughly four hours, so that's a pretty considerable chunk of gameplay when you consider the price.  The story of the DLC focuses on The Scorchers, who are a group of bandits that seem to be building something called the Firestorm.  Throughout the DLC, you're partnered with a half-naked woman named Sarah and are sent on a quest to find out what Firestorm is and ultimately stop the Scorchers' evil plans.  It's simple and straightforward, and melds perfectly into the main game itself.  So much so that I actually had to go online and look up where the hell I needed to go.  I got the quest as soon as I logged into the game, so that wasn't much of a problem, but I had no idea how to get to the first location.  In retrospect, id should add a mini-map to the non-combat city areas, identical to the one that exists when you're out in the wasteland.  Just a minor nitpick there.

Now, there are a few other new things aside from the Scorchers story and their new levels.  The most notable is a new weapon called the Nail Gun.  You get it fairly early on, of course, and at first I wasn't particularly impressed.  It has nails for ammo and fires like a machine gun.  Ho hum.  But then I realized that it had different ammo types, like most of the other weapons in the game.  I found some rebars, and I was thus more impressed with the gun.  And then I found rails.  Oh, the glorious rails.  It's at this point that the gun becomes this super over-powered killing machine that enables you to see through...and SHOOT THROUGH...walls.  As any rail gun worth its mettle will allow you to do.  It's more fun than watching John try to pet Buyo when the cat's in kill mode.

How about some visuals?


This is what I was greeted with upon entering the first new area of the DLC.  Spooky.  They did a really good job with the ambiance this time around -- I don't recall it being this good in the main game.  There are a lot of subtle noises that really add to the immersion.


It wasn't long before i found bad guys, and I thus remembered something else that I freaking love about Rage but had subsequently forgot about:  Wingsticks.


The black bars around this image is due to it being a cutscene, but I wanted to show Sarah's first arrival in all her scantily-clad...erm...glory?  I didn't much care for her as a character, as it was blatantly obvious they put her there simply to be a sex symbol.  And even though she was a great shot and could handle herself in a fight, I still had to save her in the end.  It was terribly stereotypical.


Like I said:  Stunning.


Even after I got the nail gun, my weapon of choice was the pistol with fatboy slugs.  They make heads go pop.


Speaking of the nail gun...


If it makes their heads go pop, chances are I'll use it.  And giggle about it afterwards.


That couch may have seen better days, but it still looks damned good rendered in the idTech5 engine.  Looking at these shots makes me remember just how far we've come, graphics-wise, in the last ten years or so.


I'm pretty sure in this scene, we're torturing a leprechaun.


I.  HATE.  CLOWNS.


I honestly can't say enough about the level design.  It's not genius-level like Dishonored, obviously.  I'm more talking about the artstyle and and flow, here.


It seems that temples are a theme this month.  I'm finding them everywhere, in every game I play.


I refuse to make any "bigger boat" jokes here.


Okay, I'll admit, I thought the trophy room was a new addition with the DLC.  I don't see it anywhere in the description for the DLC nor on the Wiki page.  So, I guess it was in the main game to begin with!  I never saw it.  I'm thinking that perhaps it unlocks after you finish the game.  Given the ending...or the lack of an ending, if we're totally honest here...I'm not surprised I missed it.  I pretty much left the game after it ended, because I was quite irritated with it.

So, final thoughts on the DLC?  It's a good, solid chunk of content that's well worth the price of admission.  In playing through it all in one sitting (basically), it left we wanting to start the main campaign over again from the beginning.  Any game that is capable of doing that -- that is, making you want to play it again immediately despite the fact that it will all be the same -- to me means that it's an excellent game.  I've said it before, and it bears repeating:  It's the type of shooter that I grew up on, and the type of shooter that I most enjoy.  It may have tried to be more than that, and it admittedly didn't do a very good job of it.  But at its core it's a standard shooter, and a very well made one, at that.