Game Over - Rage

You have survived another Wasteland have you? Killed dozens if not hundreds of mutants, bandits, and Authority soldiers? So how did you do it?  How did you go from being a nobody to being the Wasteland hero?  Well that is what we are going to talk about in this edition of Game Over.  As always, there are spoilers abound, so don’t say I did not warn you.

You have been out of the Ark for sometime killing both mutants and bandits.  You have heard of the Authority but have not really run into them yet.  This all changes as you are asked to save Captain Marshall, the leader of the Resistance, from an Authority jail.  After you rescue him they consider you trust worthy and send you on another mission to get evidence about Authority experiments on mutants from The Dead City. Once again you march through the mutant and now Authority infested lands of The Dead City and gather evidence.  This collection is done in the exact opposite way that you did it the first time.  If you had any hopes this was an open world game, this should put them to rest as they prove they can make areas you have been to before play out in a different linearity.  So you defeat the better armed and better trained forces, get the info, and then get back to Wellspring.

In Wellspring you amazingly find out that you need to leave since you got the Authority’s attention.  You should finish any side quests you may have had left and then head to Subway town with Captain Marshall.  He explains that he is also an Ark survivor and that this was not how the world was supposed to turn out.  You find out that General Cross had modified the system so that people who were loyal to him were the first to awaken.  He used hidden technology to create The Authority and is trying to take control of the world.  Great, we now have a personified villain and not just other faceless soldiers to battle.  This revelation though doesn’t really add to the overall story.

The next area is shorter then the first.  Once you arrive in Subway town you have to prove yourself to the local Mayor, Redstone.  He sends you on task to help his city and in return he will not turn you in to the Authority.  Not that it does a whole lot of good since the Authority eventually shows up in town anyway.  Once you complete Redstone’s quests Marshall sends you out to get a decoder box from a recently emerged Ark.  So you fight your way to it, then fight your way back (you should be used to this pattern by now).  As you return you find out why they needed the box as it allows them to decode where every Ark in the world is and get the codes to open them.  The problem though is that only The Authority has the broadcasting equipment in Capital Prime (their home base) to send the codes.

Now you have to get to Capital Prime.  To do so you first have to deactivate the bridge gates.  This involves destroying a wall and then deactivating the bridge gate controls so you can drive across said bridge.  Upon returning from this mission they give you a nice big gun that the resistance forces took from The Authority.  It is pretty much a pulse cannon that has two types of rounds.  Machine gun like pulse rounds that deal massive damage and a BFG round (you can’t have an ID game without a BFG gun afterall).  With your new equipment it’s time to head off to Capital Prime to activate the Arks and kick some Authority ass.

This is where the game goes from just a mediocre shooter to a disappointing story.  As you work your way though wave after wave of enemies using the Pulse rifle (they give you plenty of ammo for it) you finally get to the transmitting station.  While fighting off advanced Authority mutants you send the message to activate all the Arks world wide. This triggers a story cinematic.  You watch Arks over the world burst from the ground and open.  You now have an army to fight with, The Authority’ days are numbered, and then the game ends.

WHAT THE HELL!  I mean you go to all the trouble of coming to General Cross’ house, and he does not even have enough common courtesy to say hi?  No tea and biscuits, no small talk, not even a little megalomaniac boasting that your plan cannot possibly succeed?  You don’t even hear him talking to The Authority soldiers through a PA system.  They gave you all these BFG rounds for your gun and there is not a boss fight to use them in.  It is like they had started planning up this huge complex narrative and then sliced it up for DLC or a sequel.  There was no satisfaction to the ending.  You don’t even get to see people coming from the Arks or get a narration of what happens afterward.  It is left just hanging there and this just pissed me off.  If they wanted to do a sequel or something they should have at least let you fight General Cross and then have it scripted so he escapes.  This would have left a slightly better taste in my mouth as I would have had a resolution and they could do their sequels and DLC packs.