Rage Preview: Another Day, Another FPS

{sidebar id=1}Rage is the first game in over a decade to come from id Software, creators of Doom and Quake. Rage has been toting its strong visual design and 60 frames-per-second framerate, but how does accessibility fare? Does Rage do anything to stand out as it tackles all of the issues that First Person Shooter (FPS) games constantly pose? Marco had a chance to talk to Matt Grandstaff at E3 to find out.

Rage takes place in a post-apocalyptic world and puts you in the shoes of someone who has a certain bit of information that the authority figures, aptly named "The Authority," want at any price. You begin in what's called an "Ark," but are soon rescued by Dan Hagar, who runs a small settlement. From there, you're taken across various wastelands and other areas throughout the game.

Marco had the chance to play the game at E3 and immediately noticed that the game requires the standard amount of precision that comes with the territory of a traditional FPS game. During Marco's interview, it was not stated whether or not there would be any sort of auto-aim feature included within the game. There are also many RPG elements in the game, like a crafting and inventory system, which may be more influential during gameplay and minimize the required amount of shooting. From the demo that Marco played at E3, though, this isn't looking to be the case. There's even driving mechanics in the game; sometimes you'll be navigating a small RC explosive car or going through the standard driving sections that we've come to expect from modern FPS games. Mr. Grandstaff also didn't make any mention of the ability to change the controls within the game, though it is coming to PC so it's expected to at least have remappable controls on that platform.

The game seems to be well labeled, according to Marco. Menu navigation seems to have a wealth of text on screen to tell you exactly what you're looking at, so hearing-impaired gamers shouldn't be at a loss on that issue. Mr. Grandstaff also assured Marco that everything was subtitled within the game. Whether that includes sound effects was not clear and will be something that we'll need to check for when the game comes out.

While the graphics system is creating a large buzz around the gaming community, everything does seem to have a distinct tint of brown to it. At the same time, however, the game does look very crisp and clean and it doesn't seem as if things will easily be lost in the background. It is still unknown just how much, if at all, Rage will depend on red and green to differentiate between friendly NPCs and enemies, but we can hope it is omitted from the game entirely.

As it stands now, Rage is looking like a typical FPS when it comes to the accessibility breakdown, or "The Accessibility Shuffle," as I like to call it. We won't be able to find out for sure if this game gets lost in the Shuffle until it comes out October 4th of this year, so be sure to check back later for the results.