Rage 2

Rage 2 drops players into a post-apocalyptic wasteland full of mutants, bandit gangs, and bizarre factions, where the protagonist Walker sets out for revenge after her home settlement is destroyed, aided by nanite abilities that grant her superhuman strength, speed, and special ranged attacks that tear enemies apart. The open world combined exploration of a motorized desert with intense firefights in enemy camps scattered across the map.

Behind the shooting stood id Software, which shows in the dense, precise gunplay comparable to their Doom series, while Avalanche Studios contributed the sprawling open world and vehicle systems drawn from their experience with the Just Cause series. On Xbox One the game offered a vividly colored, sun-drenched desert, an aggressive rock-tinged soundtrack, and fluid movement combining jumps, dashes, and devastating superhuman-like abilities that could be chained together into deadly combos.

Rage 2 earned praise above all for the shooting itself, which reviewers ranked among the best in the genre, while criticism was aimed at the open world's sparse content and a weaker story that felt like mere filler between firefights. The game thus remained an example of a title where excellent gameplay mechanics outweighed the structure around them, and it is still sought out today mainly by players who want purely adrenaline-fueled, quality gunplay without needing to engage with a deeper story. The unusual pairing of two different studios shows in the result as a fusion of two distinct yet complementary traditions of action design. The ability called Overdrive, which temporarily turns weapons into more devastating versions of themselves, ranks among the most beloved elements of the whole ability system, and is still cited today as one of the reasons to try the game even years later.

Why play it: For players who want purely adrenaline-fueled, superbly tuned shooting without needing to deal with a deeper story, Rage 2 offers fun from the combination of id Software's and Avalanche Studios' styles.