All the RAGE: A Franchise Retrospective

RAGE is one of the least discussed, least memorable big budget modern game franchises. How did that happen? Are the games really that bad? This video essay looks deeply at Rage 1 and Rage 2 along with heir DLC to dissect how bad games happen and what goes wrong to make them that way. I hope this retrospective critique saves someone the hours I put in.
Audio editing by Nate Greene.
__TABLE OF CONTENTS__
Rage 1-- 0:00:00
The Scorchers-- 0:28:05
Rage 2-- 0:38:19
Rise of the Ghosts-- 1:14:43
Terrormania-- 1:25:52
========================================
If you enjoyed this video and want to contribute to the production of others like it, please consider donating through the crowdfunding website Patreon: / noahcaldwellgervais

[@RedlegsBluelegs]

Remembering the time Rage showed up in Breaking Bad as a light gun rail shooter to show Jesse dealing with the guilt of murdering someone.

[@audiosurfarchive]

Hilarious enough, that has ended up leaving a much bigger legacy for the game than anything you could get from playing it yourself.

[@calvenknox8552]

Reminds me of mike tv in Willy Wonka playing Doom 3.

[@LadyTylerBioRodriguez]

That scene always gets more confusing everytime I rewatch. I genuinely keep forgetting its not House of the Dead or something similar.

[@spiraljumper74]

Still the only time I remember this game exists. Until today. Now I will never forget it again because it’s going in the NCG rotation.

[@lilwintery6434]

@@LadyTylerBioRodriguez there was an on-rails version of rage for ios but in the show he is playing the normal game

[@healthybreakfastt]

Noah’s most kinetic and electrifying intro yet

[@0uttaS1TE]

Up there with his FH5 intro

[@32kuba32]

@@0uttaS1TEjust wanted to point out that intro! i dont think its a match personally

[@freekashyyyk896]

The newer half life retrospective was the best intro IMO, where he just smashed the sign with a crowbar.

[@shawklan27]

It's fitting of the video's topic tbf

[@LadyTylerBioRodriguez]

It matches the overall video energy perfectly

[@0uttaS1TE]

My favourite part about Noah's analyses is that he'll sometimes cover a game or series completely out of left field. Something like his Homefront or Quake campaign video, and then treat it with the same amount of respect you'd see for the usual video essay topics, like Dark Souls. Like, was anyone out here thinking about Rage? Not until this very second but now I am locked the hell in. Primary monitor type content

[@dmer-zy3rb]

To be fair quake does deserve a lot of respect (at least the first and 3) the rest not so much...

[@RobMarchione]

Somehow I actually thought about this game just yesterday, went to my collection to remind myself that yes this game actually happened. Memorable only in its disappointment.

[@thehomiethin4790]

Preach

[@hypotheticalaxolotl]

The fact that nobody is thinking about Rage these days is part of the essay itself, and seemingly why he made it. So it's not like he just pulled it out of left field for gits and shiggles - that it IS out there in the sinister field is relevant to the topic in and of itself!

[@Xerodm]

I played through RAGE 1 twice on the 360 and I think I finished it within the last 3 months on PC. Actually looked for retrospectives on it after finishing it but there aren't that many. So this was a welcome surprise.

[@mightytoast2693]

Hearing "the emptiest open world I ever played" from someone who played No Mans Sky at launch is one hell of a critical indictment.

[@ngmajora6986]

It's the truth though, the game straight up has nothing in it's open world to the point I questioned why it's open world to begin with

[@mightytoast2693]

@@ngmajora6986 didn't say i disagreed with the sentiment.

[@GlazeonthewickeR]

@@mightytoast2693They didn’t say you did either.

[@mightytoast2693]

@@GlazeonthewickeR when someone replies to something you said with "its true though", do you read agreement into that? Because I have only ever seen that phrasing used when you are trying to correct someone who claimed something wasn't true.

[@cd2220]

@@mightytoast2693 I've absolutely seen it used in agreement. It's fine if you misinterpreted. We all do that and communication through text can be hard to read.

[@plaguedoctorjamespainshe6009]

To quote an id dev we met when leaking Doom 4 "If Rage feels unfinished, it's because it is" As soon as Zenimax acquired Id they basically told them to scrap the version of Doom 4 that was being made and to finish Rage by 2011 So it was rushed basically

[@ET0228]

so Doom 4 1.0 was scrapped in early 2011?? very interesting..

[@plaguedoctorjamespainshe6009]

@@ET0228 2012 actually Rage was supposed to go out by 2011 But the Doom 4 project didn't move very far that year and then the leaks happened, so it was scrapped and it was changed to what eventually became Doom 2016

[@BIadelores]

Well that's bizarre considering Zenimax acquired Id in 2009 and Rage was in development before then, and came out 2 years later. 2 years wasn't enough to finish a game that was already in development? Sounds like it was the victim of development hell.

[@LilFeralGangrel]

​​@@BIadeloresreferring to 4 years of development as development hell makes me sad considering how long development is with modern "AAA" games.

[@redline841]

Rage died so Doom could live

[@wintermute5974]

One thing you missed talking about Rage 1 is that when it came out the new 'megatexture' tech didn't work very well for most people. Extreme pop in and blurry, smeared textures were common complaints. I think this is the reason that a lot of its artistic accomplishments didn't get much credit, because it only consistently displays them on more modern hardware.

[@penezu]

Oh true, totally forgot how bad it was on launch. Game was good when fixed later, but launch was horrible.

[@flyingteeshirts]

It's still an issue. I tried playing Rage a few days ago and spent hours monkeying with custom config files and Steam launch settings to get the game to run without severe pop-in whenever the player looks behind themself too quickly. It's a mess. I wonder if it's an engine issue because Wolfenstein: The New Order is a pain in the ass to run too now. Id Tech 5 sucks

[@Xbob42]

Yeah... still an issue for me as well. On a speedy nvme, 4080, 14900kf, etc. I move my mouse very quickly, it's just how I aim. And every time I do, these fucking textures have to load in again. It was like this at launch and I'm sad it's still this way, because it was distracting enough then AND now that it immediately kills my interest to play the game, it just makes the one thing I want to see (the neat art and world) look like ass.

[@phrozac]

I still prefer the megatexture approach over the traditional one id switched back to for Doom Eternal, since it can lead to far more organic and bespoke results. Especially, as you said, with more modern hardware. In 2011, PCs, and consoles in particular, just weren't ready for the tech.

[@kamikazemelon787]

I remember that...oh man. I was excited for this game and played it on launch. I got past it, I'm not a super stickler for stuff like that, but when pop-in happens every time you turn around then maybe you're culling wayyyy too hard or yeah engine problems. I remember doing .ini tweaks as soon as people started tinkering with it. Nothing really helped.

[@robracer97]

Nothing better than Noah making analysis videos on mediocre shooters the length of feature films

[@cookietinsewingkit]

Me ten years ago: "This game was ok, but for some reason I didnt enjoy it that much" Noah ten years later: This is why.

[@youllnevertakemealive2833]

I'm just so glad this is a kind of length to which I can safely commit.

[@langleymneely]

I love it! It’s like a deep dive into educating me on everything I’ve missed in gaming.

[@RedlegsBluelegs]

@@cookietinsewingkit Looking forward to the Bulletstorm retrospective.

[@vinny-zebu]

I thought it was fun, especially the shooting, which is something id software does best even if the game is average.

[@FredCDobbs-rd5wi]

Rage 2 was notable for one of the strangest ad campaigns I've ever seen: A series of rapidly-edited images of pudgy, middle-aged biker men and women being splashed with pink powder while acting "rebellious" (yelling, sticking out their tongues, etc.) for the camera. I guess somebody in the Zenimax marketing department thought it was edgy and cool. It was what caused gamers to associate Rage 2 with the color pink.

[@StoneAgeWarfare]

I really enjoyed the energy. Rage 2 single handedly introduced me to the beauty of Andrew WK.

[@HunterTinsley]

Maximum Cringe. Great music, though.

[@andrade9172]

​@StoneAgeWarfare I'm sorry, but who is Andrew Wk?

[@StoneAgeWarfare]

@@andrade9172 A genius. One could even say he might be a real person.

[@Skullkan6]

Andrew WK has a genuinely inhuman capacity to create the atmosphere for a great time, a "party" if you will. To the point where he was briefly considered for a position as an ambassador to the Middle East. No. Really.

[@aaronmarko]

You know, I think generally speaking, the optimal way to play Rage 2 is in the endgame after you've gotten all of the upgrades and are left with nothing but combat arenas. You know, when you're extremely powerful and you get the opportunity to play for maybe 20, 30 minutes at a time. And you know, that's really when Rage 2 is at its best - when you don't have to play it for very long.

[@wintermute5974]

The decision to spread out the powers and weapons across the map so that you can easily play most of the game with only a fraction of the arsenal is one of the strangest of Rage 2s many strange design decisions. The shooting is the one part of the game that functions well, and they deliberately cripple it at the outset. If I hadn't rushed for the weapons as soon as possible I don't think I would look back on the combat as fondly as I do.

[@theenglishman]

Between Quake, Diablo, and now RAGE, Noah is in his "retrospectives of franchises with minimal story but a ton of incidental lore" phase.

[@scribeslendy595]

It's finally time for Noah's Marathon arc

[@antonhanna2423]

I unironically want him to touch the Serious Sam franchise. I'm not even being negative or anything like that, I just want to hear his five cents on the series.

[@penezu]

First time viewer, does the trash those other games as well ?

[@jtlego1]

​@@scribeslendy595god it'd be so funny if we had *two* gaming yt'ers/essayists that fell into the Bungie-verse Lore Hole.

[@theenglishman]

@@jtlego1 who’s the first one?

[@Snufflegrunt]

Rage 1 was a victim of id’s 90s-ass “when it’s done” policy, and finally declared “done” by their then-new Bethesda overlords. When it started development, the ideas they had were relatively original, but as John Carmack said, “the world changed around us.” I have my own theory regarding Rage 2: it was a test for features that would make it into Doom Eternal. So many of the abilities in that game made their way over into Eternal in a more refined form, and the ones that were terrible didn’t. I genuinely don’t believe it was expected to be a big seller, but a commercial combat gameplay prototype with an open world to glue it all together and an IP to make it recognisable. The fact that the open world stuff was outsourced I think backs me up on that.

[@megamike15]

rage 2 feltt like " you keep compareinng us to borderlands? fine we'll be borderlands." andd tthey missed the point that bordderland's humor tends to have a point and anrnt just there for shock value.

[@jtlego1]

​@@megamike15 Its always weird seeing people bitch about "Borderlands Humor" nowadays as if every quest/gag (at least in the BL2/Pre-Sequel/Tales era) was as spontaneous/random as Face McShooty or Bonerfarts (ignoring that Bonerfarts was a *punchline* after a long line of a questgiver having their names for an animal species shot down/denied). Rage 2's humor feels like what everyone *thinks* later-installment Borderlands humor is.

[@Snufflegrunt]

@@megamike15 I enjoyed Rage 2. But I think I enjoyed it because I never played (and never will) play Borderlands. It’s not GOTY material but not every game has to be. In my own personal review at the time, I call it “a collage of FPS subgenres”, which I now think backs up my theory even further. (And, uh, you might want to replace your keyboard.)

[@LateNightHalo]

Tbh the whole “they released this game as a test for another game” is rarely ever true. Doom eternal was well into development by this point. Its design goals were set out and levels and combat were being built the truth is-Rage 2 was an independent project. These games cost money and no investor will agree to “this is going to flop, can we do it for research” I have no clue why they greenlit it but no developer and publisher would allow a game to be a sacrificial lamb to bump up the polish of another single player game.

[@Snufflegrunt]

@@LateNightHalo Not selling well is not equivalent to it flopping. I don't think they intended it to flop, and it did make money. I also didn't say that this theorised gameplay test was the entire reason for Rage 2 existing. However, during interviews with Hugo Martin where he talks about the first Eternal gameplay shown, he talks about how they still weren't sure about the technicalities of the combat loop and that he was essentially playing "to make it look cool when all I really needed to do was walk up to the demons with a shotgun." There's no weak-points (apart from heads and the grenade going into a Caco's mouth), no weapon alt-fires that weren't already in D2016 and, interestingly, he talks A LOT about trying for "a long time" to find "that sweet spot". Tim Willits, arguably one of the most experienced people at the studio at that point, was the * *lead designer* * for id as a company whole, meaning that almost nothing went into an id game without going through him first, and what project was he heading up? Rage 2, the B project. That is interesting. Very interesting. Rage 2 was the game equivalent of a band releasing an experimental EP. But, again, this is just a theory of mine based on things that seem to roughly line up. Eternal even uses Rage 2's tutorial rooms a couple of times, but only a couple of times, because it was overused in Rage 2 and people told them that they hated them. My theory is that that's at least in part what Rage 2 was for - better get mechanics they aren't sure about in a project with a lower risk (and lower budget) than in a Doom sequel.

[@Starzoh]

That shadow of the erdtree analysis is gonna go crazy in 8 months

[@jurgenronaaz4695]

I'm really looking forward to "how does Homeworld 3 compare to the previous Homeworlds?" myself!

[@josukemcjoestar9856]

8 years*

[@tahirpleasant5640]

Waiting on God of War Ragnarok and Re4 Remake

[@kennykenny1616]

“You could watch every leprechaun movie ever made and still have a better time” is one of the funniest but also brutally demeaning insults I’ve ever heard.

[@countvronsky4025]

That short little aside about the Leprechaun franchise came out of nowhere, but it was fucking hilarious

[@PatrickSilent]

A Leprechaun reference? Now you sold me on watching this!

[@mikeb8138]

one of my favourite gaming moments ever was in rage 1 when you find yourself in a locked apartment, there's a shotgun on the table, and then you get swarmed by imp mutants and just blast them all to hell in close quarters for five minutes. amazing.

[@OtherlingQueen]

I might be the only person with this opinion, but I loved RAGE and it even jumpstarted a love into game design where I actually ended up studying under one of the creative leads of the game for a semester. Ever since I played it multiple times on the XBOX, I loved the gameplay, the style and the look were beautiful and unique (to me, at least), and even the unpopulated multiplayer was so fun when I got a chance to play. Many of my future concept art projects would draw inspiration from the world and the animated characters who populated it. I often used RAGE concept art as references or for moodboards, and when a teacher told me that he was part of the team as a lead I saw him as a hero or an inspiration. It's so crazy because I loved that game back then and still talk about it to people. I remember that same teacher saying that one of the issues with the development of RAGE was that it was made up of extremely talented artists (and it shows!) but all the artists could not cooperate and they were all very stubborn. The direction of the style had to change often because they couldn't agree on so many things and this was a reason why this same person respected less talented artists; "They aren't as bratty as the good ones."

[@Knight1029]

That's a cool story though! It also is very true for many games with a lacking identity. People not agreeing on what it should be.

[@penezu]

Thats interesting take and it shows on the game, but give credit to your teacher its really awesome looking and styled post apoc game.

[@DaveScurlock]

This is very cool. Funny how some haves just hit subjectively regardless of objective merit (or lack thereof). LoTR Gollum was the same for me - really loved that game (more for the story than the gameplay, tbf)

[@Kenji8787]

Thanks for sharing! Goes to show that taste is subjective and that all takes are valid.

[@yourpaljoni]

noah's delivery on the intro to the rage 2 section is truly incredible

[@parkerdixon-word6295]

38:22, for anyone who wants to go back to it.

[@Szokynyovics]

I paused and came early to the comments to find this reaction and upvote it. 😜

[@elproson1]

​@@SzokynyovicsSame

[@Derpmind]

It wasn't incredible. It was A-fucking-mazingly hilarious. I couldn't believe he had that in him.

[@KevNguyenGaming]

37:50 that coupon story is definitely from experience LMFAO

[@Tudmoke]

“I hope this retrospective critique saves someone the hours I put in” is so real. Can’t wait.

[@UrLeingod]

This is easily the least personal connection I've ever had to a franchise you've dissected; I've literally never even heard of this series, whereas I was at least peripherally aware of just about everything else you've done. So I think it's a testament to your abilities as a video essayist that I've watched this entire thing and been genuinely interested the entire time.

[@madmorgo6233]

I'm sure I owned both of the games... maybe brought on-sale and pre-owned... and I'm sure I played 'em.. once, maybe 😅

[@butHomeisNowhere___]

TODAY WAS A GOOD DAY 😎

[@carlpotter1926]

Why? Did nobody you know get killed in South Central LA?

[@AC-hj9tv]

À really good day

[@LadyTylerBioRodriguez]

Todays a miserable anniversary for me. But this cheered me right up.

[@anthonysoto2923]

Big Arlo fan btw

[@hbomberguy]

Yeesss!! YESSSSS!!!

[@portsilpa]

I suddenly have a great idea for an 1h43min long video about the entire RAGE series and it's DLC.

[@AskTorin]

Yes!

[@AB0BA_69]

Oh so you DO remember your youtube password! When's the next upload? You nerd ❤

[@kevinwillems8720]

The transition into Rage 2 is chefs kiss

[@LadyTylerBioRodriguez]

Its impossible to ever say what's the hardest I've ever laughed at within a Noah video. But that's up there. I definitely remember people with that HYPE HYPE HYPE energy that's just so I'm 14.

[@kevinwillems8720]

@@LadyTylerBioRodriguez he said it with the enthusiasm of the "Hell comes to frog town" announcer lol.

[@jdw72090]

At the very least Rage 1 felt like a fascinating experiment gone wrong that had some really great game feel. The gunplay managed to get me through it along with the very strange aesthetic. Rage 2 wound up being mediocre which is quite possibly the worst thing a piece of media can be. Its just diet Far Cry, and not just like normal diet, but like a diet version of an offbrand soda.

[@ChrisDelChris]

Rage 1 really was Id at their peak of “we made some cool tech, now let’s try to figure out a game around it.” Carmack talked at length about the whole megatexture thing which ultimately seemed to go nowhere with the tradeoffs not being worth the limitations but hey, at least Rage was a test bed for a fantastic animation system that carried over into Doom 2016.

[@TheWoozly]

Tim Willits's incredible quote about "...talk[ing] to the guys" (53:24) is the sort of thing you'd throw into a RoboCop or They Live kind of film to indicate to the viewer that the executive truly is capital-E Evil and/or an alien.

[@Skullkan6]

Tim Willits is sort of the best kept secret of scumbag leads in the games industry. There is a reason his projects have failed or not been as interesting as their predecessors and it is because Willits threw the careers of other people more talented than him in the dirt so he looked better.

[@audiosurfarchive]

*WILLITS SLANDER THREAD* _Wikipedia excerpt(s), where Willits claimed in 2017 that he came up with concept of multiplayer-only maps._ "According to Willits, he approached coworkers John Romero and John Carmack with the idea of maps which could only be played in multiplayer, which Willits claimed the two dismissed as 'the stupidest idea they'd ever heard.'"

[@audiosurfarchive]

"The following day, Romero refuted Willits' statement on his personal blog, claiming that Willits' alleged encounter between him and Carmack never happened. Carmack said that he does not recall the conversation between Tim Willits, John Romero, and himself, and he trusts Romero's recollection of events, in line with the account detailed on Romero's blog."

[@audiosurfarchive]

"Willits was interviewed by Warren Spector in 2007, giving the same account of creating the concept of multiplayer-only maps. Willits also claimed to have created all of Quake's shareware levels; this was disputed by John Romero."

[@audiosurfarchive]

"Romero also noted that Marathon and Rise of the Triad, first person shooters which predated Quake by over a year, both shipped with maps exclusive to multiplayer. Tom Hall, co-founder of id Software and director of Rise of the Triad, gave his support for Romero."

[@audiosurfarchive]

"In January 2020, Willits was on the Arcade Attack Podcast and clarifies that when he talked about multiplayer-only maps he was specifically talking about Quake, not FPS games in general."

[@NShomebase]

What a specific, unimportant detail to be proud of.

[@headcrabking9054]

Going all the way to the end of the video and hear Noah not read out every Patreon name out loud feels like I stepped into the wrong dimension. It's probably a good sign though that he has enough patrons supporting him to justify not reading all the names, I'm glad to see he's moving up in the youtube landscape!

[@amberdixon4200]

Tbh i will miss the 20 minutes of random names id randomly wake up to when i have his videography on repeat

[@headcrabking9054]

@@amberdixon4200 same here. R.I.P "Noah I know you're reading this out loud"

[@daevious_]

Rage as a series is about embodying John Carmack's old quote that "story in a game is like story in a porn movie". It is also about how taking that quote as gospel will create vacuous, hollow art.

[@timothymclean]

57:59-58:25: This is the only time a gamer has talked about not wanting politics in games and I've agreed with him. The more I dwell on Donald "Fucking" Trump and everything downstream of him, the more I want to lie down on railroad tracks and wait for a train, and that is obviously not a good headspace to be in. I want to wake up and find out that everything that happened after September 2014 was a horrible dream, even though that means going through 70% of college again.

[@EGadjo]

Agreed. It's kinda impossible to poke fun at him because it's so easy. It's so easy to see he's a barely competent con-man who can barely string two thoughts together, but he's popular *anyway* so it's not really funny to point those things out, it just makes his popularity more horrifying and frustrating.

[@HateSpeechMoreLikeBasedSpeech]

Huff that copium lmao. You could always live in San Fransisco!

[@parkerdixon-word6295]

Man, I thought the energy of watching Noah shatter a jar with a hammer in the opener was the peak, but 38:22 got me cackling like a madman. Noah's "Wrestling Announcer Energy" is so goddamned good, and he saves it for special occasions to make sure it really gets ya when he does.

[@monadomaster2182]

The funniest part about the trophy room, aside from the dated aspects, is that one of the voice lines for the woman when you talk to her is, “Do I look fat in this?”. She asks this to you while wearing a crop top and booty shorts. Why?

[@spase667]

Because that’s just the sort of thing women say! I saw a woman in a movie once, so you can trust me on this.

[@langleymneely]

THE epitome of 2000s gaming right there! Lol

[@langleymneely]

@@spase667Exactly! Sounds completely accurate to the female experience to me, and I should know because I have a penis AND terrible opinions!😜 lol

[@skbproject5589]

I think it's awesome. We need more booty shorts girl. Don't be a drag, and allow yourself to have fun.

[@user-jn7jf3kv6k]

Because it's funny , and there is nothing wrong with it.

[@jaggidfire]

This makes me realize that I would love to see Mr. Caldwell-Gervais thoughts on the Borderlands series.

[@eglspl425]

Ah, I see Noah has posted another video about a game series I do not care about in the slightest that I will watch several times in a row. Very good.

[@LatwPIAT]

That infamous Carmack quote about story in video games kept echoing ironically in my head throughout most of this video.

[@BearsinGamesNeo-qt5ww]

I had actively searched for a rage retrospective by you last month when I was playing Rage 1. "What did Noah think about this?" was a thought I actively entertained.

[@tahjmcqueen5418]

NEW GERVAIS VIDEO LETS GOOOOOO. also just noticed you narrated for a Folding Ideas piece which made me smile. Top 2 KZbin channels.

[@RenegadePronoun]

Wait really? Which one? I'm just starting to get into Folding Ideas

[@tahjmcqueen5418]

@@RenegadePronoun The Future is a Dead Mall video

[@AdrianArmbruster]

24:00 -- now that I think of it, I'd kind of love it if there was a Borderlands-like where The Resistance is the name of an evil empire of jackboot stormtroopers, and The Authority are a loose band of too-punk-to-even-agree-on-a-slogan rebels, with no explanation for why either of them is named Like That.

[@SimonBuchanNz]

Or heck, just have The Authority be the good guys in any sense, and The Resistance the bad guys. Surely it's not *that* hard.

[@MailmanTheShopKeep]

I remember me and a friend always jokingly referred to the first game as "Ragu" (the jarred pasta sauce), just stupid inside joke. Since no one ever talks about the game, you are the first person I have heard call it 'Rage' in more than a decade now, it was quite jarring.

[@ImplicitlyPretentious]

Looks like I'm not sleeping tonight 😀 (UK time zone)

[@TheMightySilverback_]

it's 10pm dude lol

[@icravedeath.1200]

​@@TheMightySilverback_yeah, some people have good and healthy bedtimes😂😂

[@0uttaS1TE]

@@TheMightySilverback_ That's a good time to go to bed, especially if you have work in the morning

[@ImplicitlyPretentious]

@@TheMightySilverback_ it's like Monday tomorrow 🤣

[@dantec3975]

Looks like I'm sleeping tonight (I use Noah's videos to help me fall asleep)

[@langleymneely]

Is it weird that I look forward to videos about games that aren’t beloved by people? I’ve only recently gotten back into gaming after a 20 year hiatus (last console was an N64 before getting a ps4 in the pandemic) so Gamepass & PSPlus are my go to source for catching up on & trying out old games, bad & good. I wind up downloading stuff that is on Gamepass that so many people call bad or at least mediocre just to see for myself. Channels like this are a wonderful resource for a Rip Van Winkle gamer like me! Thank you! (downloading Rage & Rage 2 now…)

[@crossmarian773]

I actually have really fond memories of Rage, playing it alongside my father. Yeah it might be a bit rough and generic, but I still love it.

[@amirmohamad2270]

I buy "the game was unfinished" excuse on a million different occasions. Rage series is not one of them. In an unfinished game you can still see the artistic direction, the vision that the developers were aiming for. You can kinda see what the game was supposed to look like if it was left in the oven more. Rage games just feel incredibly, viciously empty. Like a bunch of people gathered one day and said "hey let's make something that can be technically called a game", and it never evolved into anything more after that. Funny thing is, I finished both games. I even finished Rage 2 twice. Because at the point when I played them, my only aim was to sit in front of a TV and engage in the act of playing a game. Nothing more. And they did deliver on that front. I certainly played something that can be called a game.

[@zoid_on_youtube]

being bad and being unfinished arent mutually exclusive. I buy that Rage might have been unfinished, I just doubt that it would have been much better even if it was.

[@fullmontis]

1:08:40 "Throw out both the baby and the bathwater, but keep the tub" is now one of my all time favorite quotes!

[@misterscienceguy]

It's a cold Monday morning and Noah's warm voice is all I need before work.

[@lazylazymule]

It's Sunday, dude.

[@josukemcjoestar9856]

​@@lazylazymulep-people living on the other side of the world than me? Impossible!!

[@theamazingbatboy]

@@lazylazymule The Earth is round mate-incredible but true.

[@PinHeadThePopeOfHell]

Anime weeb incels

[@GlazeonthewickeR]

@@PinHeadThePopeOfHellFind a friend or a hobby

[@evanhariadi3241]

Noah, I just want to say you have some of the most intelligent and thought provoking video game ((I guess?) analysis I've seen. The way you speak about games I've played have fundamentally changed how I view your games and I always refer or quote your videos whenever I discuss or think about those games. Keep up the work dude.

[@GeneratorFrajdy]

Surprised you never played Just Cause 2. I think that series would make for a fun retrospective, nothing quite like it.

[@Astral_Armadillo]

I would love a NCG just cause retrospective!

[@youmukonpaku3168]

agreed, seeing him cover the forgettable start, the amazing followup, the questionable third game and the fall off of the fourth would be fascinating, along with the games' evolving commentary on US foreign policy while delighting in blowing up civilian infrastructure.

[@Ozziw162]

The one thing I remember about Rage is the animation quality. And it still sticks out to this very day! How the mutants leap over small obstacles how they interact with the environment and how they convey weight and sense of place, how they tumble and react to every shot, it's still seriously impressive.

[@jasonbuchanan7042]

I hope, as he was writing this essay, Noah could turn to people and say "I have no time for this as I must RAGE" or "I am sorry my mind is so full of RAGE." There are only so few times in life we can be dramatic, ya gotta grab em

[@Twy87]

My experience of Rage 1 and 2 consists of watching Yahtzee's ZP reviews and being confused by the second game's box art, which could easily be mistaken for Borderlands.

[@jamesabernethy7896]

Your videos are always awesome and your intros have so much character. I'm just about to go to bed but will check this out in the morning. Great having you back.

[@MatthewCampbell765]

3:12 I will say that I think a futuristic post-apocalyptic world that was doing well before the apocalypse hit is actually something I believe could be interesting. A lot of apocalypses assume it's the old world's fault in some way, so having them be benevolent could be interesting. So, it's a bit of a shame they didn't try to say anything with it. For example, in a tabletop campaign I'm running, there's a lot of blame being thrown around for who's at fault for the apocalypse, with the main villains using the idea of "learning from the mistakes of the old world" to justify oppressive policies and atrocities against the descendants of the people they hold responsible. In truth, the reality is that the apocalypse was a natural event that was basically unavoidable-it's nobody's fault in particular.

[@AbstractTraitorHero]

I just think that idea does not hit as hard because in real life? We are facing down an apocalypse, a climate catastrophe & their are real villains & real people who we can somewhat concretely point at.

[@andrexorz555]

Listening through this was kind of a surreal experience for me because I played through Rage 2 and really quite enjoyed it and got through pretty much all the side content except for the DLCs. Looking at it though, it makes sense, because within the first hour, I noticed what caliber of game it was, turned the dialogue volume down to the minimum, and listened to podcasts and youtube videos the whole way through. The mixture of solid action and exploratory down-time was a perfect rhythm of engagement to keep me focused in while the external media kept my brain working and thinking. The level of obnoxiousness in the game just slid past me given the dialogue was almost muted, and I was only getting the barest level of context from the subtitles. In a weird way, I wish for more games like Rage 2, because all the stuff I've been playing lately has been too worthy of my attention to disrespect them by playing shit over top of them, and I've started to build up a serious backlog.

[@l0rf]

Rage2 is like AI art, surprisingly pretty to look at but without any of the understanding, passion and emotion that goes into creative pursuits.

[@chexfan2000]

yes. well put. i’ve spent many hours dicking around in Rage 2, and I tended to enjoy it, I think, but it left absolutely no impression whatsoever other than “colors!”

[@thinkstoomuch4445]

RAGE was the first video I analyzed thanks to you! I never got back to analyzing the second game. I look forward to hearing this!

[@colinmiller513]

Happy video release day Noah! Thank you for the gift!

[@BaronVonMilk]

Less than 2 hours? Outrageous.

[@boonoftyrants]

I would like to believe I'm not the only person who forgot this franchise even existed. But Noah didn't. Noah never forgets.

[@clvr51]

The sad thing about Rage 2 is that the combat fundamentals are absolutely awesome (and the shotgun is top 3 of all time), but literally everything else is bad to mediocre at best.

[@Szokynyovics]

I had fun times with it, for what it was, but I can only agree with Noah's criticism.

[@bajscast]

I thought the art design and graphics were good, and I liked the vehicle combat well enough. It was also the first piece of media I can think of to shit on elon musk, he was still in vogue at the time

[@clvr51]

@@bajscast agreed on both the graphics and Elon Musk, those are good points. The vehicular combat, though, eeeehhh...I found it very basic and repetitive personally.

[@Knight1029]

I do think Rage wanting to be just a action shooter is okay. I just think the game needed to decide to be that and okay with that. Even though I think it should have been more.

[@B-019]

4 minutes, 50 comments. Pop off, NCG, you've earned it. Can't wait to watch/listen to this video a dozen times.

[@B-019]

Also holy shit that interview about the character designs and actors is so on the nose it hurts. Dudes were so unapologetically horny on main.

[@MatthewCampbell765]

56:53 With Trump specifically, the problem I think is that he's not a villain like Raphael from BGIII. He's rather obnoxious, and in fact I'd argue part of his appeal to his voterbase is catharsis from him being annoying to people they don't like. If you want a villain modelled after Trump, I would personally point to Frank Fontaine from Bioshock as what you might want to go for. A sort of crude, thuggishness mixed with sinister manipulation, and unironically kind of intimidating. Throw in some Biff Tannen in there. A cynical businessman with mafia-esque tactics. In theory, this would result in a villain that is adequately like Trump but still scary or compelling. To be fair, with Trump, part of the lesson to learn is that you shouldn't vote for a troll, and even absurd people can cause serious danger.

[@electricmiragemedia]

Rage deserves credit for being the final argument-winner for "graphics don't make the game". Thanks, Rage!

[@leoschue8071]

I sincerely recommend you play Just Cause 3 if you have the time, it's one of those works of art where I'm continually amazed that it actually exists as it does and accomplishes everything it sets out to do

[@ChrisSmout]

I really feel that Rage had such a lot of potential and I completely agree in NCG's assessment that it is worse than the sum of its parts. The combat is heavy and fun, the enemies jump off wals and barrel their way toward you, the set pieces are grand...but it does suffer from feeling like a "tech demo". What this review also doesnt cover is the lackluster launch it had, where the lauded megatextures didnt seem to be as high definition as they were meant to be and at times crashed for little to no reason. I recall having to use a community patch in the config files to get it to work reliably. Time and updates helped but it all diminished the impact of Rage's debut.

[@BIadelores]

This game's gunplay is still one of the best I have experienced. The reactivity, the sound design, the general feeling of it is extremely memorable and stuck well in my memory even 13 years later. Everything else about the game just completely flushed out of my memory.

[@SeekSeekLest]

I swear to god. Almost every long form video essayist I follow uploaded this month. Thanks for that.

[@theamazingbatboy]

Jenny Nicholson was the boulder that started the avalanche, with that 4-hour opus on Disney's slow motion car crash.

[@GlazeonthewickeR]

@@theamazingbatboyNot really.

[@skbproject5589]

Remember, Jesse from breaking bad played a rail shooter variant of Rage that never actually existed. Complete with plastic zapper.

[@ArchaeologyTube]

Oh HELL yeah! Never played a game in this series and I'm still stoked.

[@colinanthony2011]

I love the videos on subjects Noah is truly passionate about, those are probably the best types of videos, but there’s something almost equally as interesting about ones like these. Examining games that didn’t quite come together and why.

[@jacekadamczewski6236]

It's always good day to listen to some Noah

[@bodnerd]

Finally, my dad buying me a copy of Rage for Xbox 360 for Christmas because he saw Jesse Pinkman playing it in Breaking Bad has paid off

[@audiosurfarchive]

I've been having a rough go at it, and I can't say that I'm so damn cheered up to see you have a new piece for us. You're always at the top of my list for writers; not just for vidya-essays or long form content, just fullstop. Take care, Noah.

[@alessandra-m]

Yes! Excited to see your takes on Rage 2

[@baransevim3969]

Ahhh Rage. What a strange, anomaly of a game. So ahead of its time in being a mess of ambitious technology and head-scratching design choices, culminating in a game that barely lasts long enough to constitute a footnote of playtime? What was iD cooking lmao Rage 2 though, love that game, faults and all. I think its gunplay is truly exceptional. I hope we get Rage 3.

[@EmoScreamoForever]

Always a wild ride down a forgotten highway with you, thanks as always Noah ❤

[@DinoConV]

Always makes me so happy to see a new upload from you!

[@Wizuu0274]

A new Noah Gervais video on my birthday of all days? Dreams do come true!

[@BladesPrincess]

Happy birthday!!!

[@PlotistLOL]

The new Noah's video is literally like a bliss

[@Depressbian]

I choose to believe there's a place in the world where all the props from Noah's intros get tossed in an un-organized pile that grows taller each pasing year.

[@Elijah668]

dang noah, you been puttin these out like a champ!

[@whiteyaksha7232]

Genuinely loved the first Rage, glad to see a noah video on it. Thanks man your vids help me sleep and kill time.

[@burgerpocalypse5310]

Rage 2's intro has you pick between a male or female protagonist, who are shown to be separate people. when i picked my character, the other one was immediately and unceremoniously splattered by an exploding door. i dont know about anyone else but it made me very uncomfortable. that feeling never went away and im sure contributed to me dropping the game within a few hours

[@youmukonpaku3168]

hey, Fallout 4 copied that one, except they're splattered about 20 minutes later by a villain who they forgot to actually give any importance or personality to.

[@DangerPixie]

@@youmukonpaku3168 Fallout 4 came out in 2015. Rage 2 came out in 2019.

[@youmukonpaku3168]

@@DangerPixie shit, you've got a point on that one.

[@axelory7676]

That's just grand storytelling, baby. In Mass Effect you have to wait hours before deciding who lives and who dies, here at Rage 2 you get that same high in seconds. That's efficient fucking scriptwritng. Have you seen our in-game cash store, by the way?

[@CaptainArthanos]

Noah your essays always make me so happy to see. Genuinely ecstatic every time a new video drops.

[@Bedlam83]

I actually liked Rage 1 a whole lot. The rpg-light mechanics, coupled with the picturesque art-style and fun gunplay was just what I needed at the time. My only real gripes were with the simplistic indoor dungeons.

[@thatvillainjay]

Idk man I feel you bought some burger King and wrote and essay about how it's not fine cuisine Was it ever supposed to be deep or complex? It's video game junk food I think

[@ryanburke1656]

I can see where a lot of these critiques come from, but I think it's wild to, on one hand, give flowers to Borderlands while in the same breath call Rage 2 a constantly bombarding annoyance. Like, have you PLAYED the borderlands games? They are some of the most in-your-face, never shutting the fuck up-ass games I've ever played. I literally had to shut it off. Rage 2 just has like, spray-painted lairs. IDK man, I think you mischarachterized Rage 2 pretty hard, imo.

[@youmukonpaku3168]

Borderlands 1 was fun enough and mostly aware of itself enough that it was actually funny. Borderlands 2 couldn't keep me for more than an hour, because it felt like every other second the game had to shout DO YOU REMEMBER , FELLOW TEEN? I have not played 3 and when my Vita came with a digital copy of the pre-sequel I sold the code for a donut.

[@johnconnorpliskin7184]

I've never understood the comparisons to Far Cry or Borderlands. Gunplay, movement, driving, enemy AI, sound design; all of it sounds infinitely better than any of those games. I don't think the other post-apocalyptic shooters are bad and even throwing Fallout 4 into the mix Rage 2 (And 1 to some extent) feels better to play in many regards. Avalanche's driving model from the Just Cause series and Mad Max game mixed with id's awesome feeling combat was a total match made in Heaven with regard to Rage 2. I like Noah's analysis but his critiques are always on the literary level and when it comes to discussing game mechanics, he treats it like there's a bible out there somewhere for how games ought to be. We're so many years removed from either of those games that spending some time blasting away in either of them and spending like $10 or less is so inoffensive to me. Personally, I loathe games that go all into the graphics and the limited gameplay is painfully uninteresting. Like I'll never play Last of Us 1 or 2 again, but I'd stomp around both Rage games for another 10 hours because the shooting is so mechanically satisfying.

[@youmukonpaku3168]

@@johnconnorpliskin7184 I played Rage on a buddy's Xbox 360 back in college, and literally the first thing I thought, having never seen any marketing material for it at all, was "wait, is this knockoff Borderlands?" Fallout never even came up, I saw no comparison there. I did not enjoy my time with Rage, probably because I played it on a console and like all id shooters it's best experienced with KB+M. I can see how you could enjoy it; I'm guilty of being a fan of Command & Conquer Renegade, which is legendarily a collection of poor choices in shooter design. I also, as elaborated above, only enjoyed some of my time with Borderlands 1 and none of it with 2. i fully agree with you on games that focus their effort on graphics, but the effort Rage put into gameplay was, like many id tech demo games of this time period, just Quake 2 again, and I actually like Quake 2 so I'd rather just go play that instead of a clumsy version of it that wants to pretend it has a story, without being good at it.

[@ryanburke1656]

@@johnconnorpliskin7184 I agree with you 1000% People always try to sell me on games like that by describing how cool the destinations are, but in reality my complaints are that the tires are all flat and the engine doesn;t reliably start. My problem isn't that the writing of Fallout New Vegas isn't compelling - it's that you walk slower than you would if you were strolling through a museum and bullets don't reliably hit the target even if I do. Your writing can be neat but if it feels bad, the game part of your game is bad, and THAT's the part I'm here for, not the writing. I didn't click play on Netflix, I clicked on a game because I want to DO something, not watch a movie. Cinematics and good writing can be fine, but they're not a replacement for bad gameplay. That's the whole point.

[@ryanburke1656]

@@youmukonpaku3168 the other thing about Borderlands is that they make it impossible to avoid damage. Death is cheap, frustrating, and unavoidable in a way that the solution seems to just be higher leveled, and that's lame.

[@workinprogress9710]

I opened youtube with the express purpose of finding an old Noah video to rewatch and instead there’s a new episode I get to watch now and rewatch many times in future. Thank you Noah!

[@epicjesse4865]

Great video as always Noah keep up the awesome work!!!

[@budgethornet7498]

I recently replayed RAGE. For the time and particularly now, it feels like a reluctant open world game. Pretty sure I watched John Carmack say the game failed because of its timing, and he's correct. It came out when a lot of its bases had been covered by other games and a month before Skyrim. Dead on Arrival.

[@ethan6287]

My favorite part of a new Noah video is seeing the game and thinking "did not expect that one at all, this should be good!"

[@blu3m3ani3]

Thx for the vid Noah as always 😎

[@stebsys3865]

Hell yeah wasnt expecting a new video already! Keep it up mate!

[@oJamesAB]

Super excited to watch this You know what'd be interesting to see Noah cover, S.T.A.L.K.E.R Navigation of that eurojank would give anyone the inspiration to write a book about it if they get into it lmao

[@deigning]

I need to take a shower after that dev quote. Never understood why this game was called Rage, now I do.

[@youmukonpaku3168]

finding out Tim Willits is at least as greasy as Randy Pitchford was a surprise. He Tallaricos a lot about inventing multiplayer maps, too, which is weird.

[@TheGreatBerserker]

Always a great day to see you Noah

[@strikeforce1500]

In retrospective, Rage 2 reminds me of the first Suicide Squad movie's intro on the design and art style departments. It stinks of 'hello fellow youth'. And funnily enough,it's now Ubisoft known for doing that nowadays, with all the 'tacticool, yet super corporate safe' writing

[@SubBrief]

This is Game Journalism. Well done, sir.

[@DrZaius3141]

That interview about using "deformities" for the bad guys could have been so much worse. So many people would have doubled down or called the interviewer a snowflake, etc. It's still not great for the reasons mentioned, but there is a smidgen of hope that someone might become better in the future.

[@alan2here]

Moby D is kind of fun, and ends with a completely weird "ok I've had it with writing this hyper-repetitive book, and they all died the end, thank goodness for that" kind of ending.

[@euchrideucr0w]

Always a pleasure to see an upload from my fave