Honestly, I found RAGE to be a great experience, one I would wholly recommend for the price it gets on sale these days.
The shooting is great, it's got a wide variety of weapons which play differently from each other, with most of them retaining their utility all the way until the end of the game. Shotguns, Rifles, a Crossbow, RPG and Minigun, everything you could possibly want.
The weapon roaster is complemented by a diverse amount of utility items, from healing bandages to companion bots that follow you around, several grenade types and stims.
You may find the enemies to be bullet-spongy at times, but that is largely solved by the game's ammo system. Each weapon has around 2-3 ammo types, with regular easy-to-find bullets and a significantly stronger ammo type which will become increasingly more useful as time goes on. I'd say the difference between the ammo types and weapons offers a good sense of progression.
RAGE also features a very large amount of enemy types, with several enemy factions each bearing a distinct look and having specific voice-acting, though all factions share the same pool of weapons. The AI for the enemies is more than solid, they try to flank you, hide in cover and reposition. Additionally, they benefit from some excellent combat animations, permitting a variety attacks and moves I struggle to remember seeing in any other game.
This is largely permitted by the outstanding level-design design. While each individual level is not that big, the game does a very good job of utilizing the space they have to offer, creating visually unique environments, a tad dragged down by the color palette at times.
Alongside its main campaign, the game features a modest open world, with a few visitable locations largely tied to one or two quests. You'll find yourself revisiting most locations, though the game does its best to take you through different paths across the level on the return trip and no location was over-utilized.
Beyond that, the open world largely acts as a way to obtain one of the game's two collectibles, farm cash (through a constant "destroy bandit vehicles" quest and the occasional race to collect sellable loot), as well as a way to pad the game with traveling, which granted, doesn't take that long per trip, especially not if you play through the game's racing mini-games.
RAGE features quite a lot of secondary activities for a shooter, and given its quest variety you might be led to take it as an RPG, which the game is certainly not. It's not Borderlands, and it's not a looter-shooter. The only upgrades you can find are purchased in the game's shops, of which there is one per settlement (for three in total).
You do have a looting mechanic to an extent though. You can loot dead enemies for cash and ammo and there are misc items you can collect and sell for extra cash. I would say the scavenging mechanic is very well-done, straightforward and easy to utilize. The game stacks these misc items and permits you to sell them in bunch. Some lootables are harder to spot than others though and the game also features small unlockable loot rooms which are handled nicely with an lock-breaking item that opens the door on its own once deployed, permitting you to stick to the action.
As for the secondary activities, the game has a surprisingly extensive racing mini-game, with more than 15 races for you to take part in. It's mostly optional, barring the few to grab the Tier II vehicle required for a quest (Which frankly should not be required given how trivial the task the quest asks is).
I found the races to be great fun. Each individual one is pretty short but there are several different race types and the overall system is straightforward. You have vehicle-specific items to use during them, provided for free, you have a boost and pick-ups scattered about. Everything you could possibly want out of a racing game.
Beyond that, it has its own Card Game, with cards you can collect across the game, and several other bite-sized entertainment options that really round-out the package.
They provide you with points (which you can also get from the Bandit Hunt mission mentioned above) to upgrade your vehicles. It's not necessary per say, but it's a big QoL improvement.
The music is serviceable, though the game often feels too quiet during its action sequences. Surprisingly, the racing mini-game makes better use of the soundtrack than the main game.
The graphics themselves are a tad outdated in terms of environments, the character models still look pretty good though.
The game has some outstanding voice-acting, you'll recognize a few voices from other Bethesda products but the game genuinely has outstanding voice-acting.
It also has several Easter eggs and references to other Bethesda products which is a nice touch!
One other big plus, you can save at any time. The game also has a solid auto-save system and a revive mechanic that allows you to get back on your feet and stun any enemies near the spot where you died, with a free recharge. It's great for keeping you play.
I'd say the biggest problem the game has is its story. Most of RAGE's content revolves around helping survivor communities, which is the better half. It reminded me a lot of Fallout and Skyrim's quest design. It works really well since when you get back at a settlement, you have people reacting to your success, thanking you and there are even background broadcasts reporting on it.
You don't have much agency in the plot. In fact, you have next to none besides the ability to refuse quests (which you'll still need to do to progress in the case of the main quests. There is no reason to refuse any quests). Your protagonist is completely silent too.
The other half, however, was not my cup of tea. The game has a painfully generic antagonist force which isn't properly justified for being an antagonist or being disliked and a painfully generic Resistance that you will be joining. The lead-up to the finale is underwhelming and in truth, the game doesn't really seem to have a proper cohesive narrative.
You're helping out this town, now you're helping out another town, now you join the Resistance, do two missions and then go help out another town while the Resistance doesn't do anything, then you attack the antagonist and...
The final quest doesn't make sense to me. It doesn't feel like a win and I don't see how it changes anything, [spoiler] considering only THREE quests earlier you see an Ark being opened and their inhabitants are all dead. Heck, you START the game in an ark and everyone except for you is dead. One quest afterwards we're told the antagonist has been pretty handly dealing with all other Ark survivors before you. How does triggering ALL of the Arks at once across the world make the Antagonist fail? [/spoiler]
The finale has neat gameplay though, and it gives you an overpowered gun. No end-game boss though.
I've had a few technical issues with the game. It suffers from a lot of texture popping, which can easily be fixed according to other players, but I personally did not mind it. I had one crash while increasing the volume and fell through the map at one point, losing 10 minutes of progress by stepping of a lift at the wrong time.
However, if you are willing to ignore the underwhelming ending and the game's story having some problems. This is an very good and polished shooter with great package value and several fun side activities to pursue.
I'd give it an 8.5/10.
