A Game A Day (For A Year)—Part IX

Steam has been enormously helpful in my efforts to play a game every day. I haven't picked up many new games from Steam, but I have been much more motivated to install games that I had purchased at some point, but never played. And I have a lot of them, because Steam has a lot of sales. Even if I know I don't have time for a game right now, I know that, at some point, I will, so there's no better time to pick it up than when it's on sale.

Rage, by id Software, has been sitting on my "not installed" list for some time. I'd originally heard about it at PAX, just before it came out. I stood staring at the trailer playing out on a giant television screen, and it looked like my kind of game, so I decided I wanted a demo. But PAX being PAX, the line was huge, so I made a mental note to look for it later. In time, a demo came to Xbox Live, and I downloaded it as soon as I could.

And boy, was I disappointed. The action started somewhere mid-story, with some vague hints that you're something special, in a Fallout 3 kind of way. I had a mission to deliver a message, but no clear way of finding my destination, other than wandering around a post-apocalyptic town, talking to NPCs—many of whom had side missions for me to tackle before they would unlock the next step of my main quest. My quest log started to fill up before I made any real progress on my main quest, and I don't know about you, but I always find that overwhelming. It's not so much "you never run out of things to do" as it is "you've got too many things to do."

Add to that a clunky driving interface, tied to a race track quest, and I just didn't feel much like finishing the demo. I uninstalled it a short while later—but I was still intrigued by the

parts of the game that I had liked: mobs that tried to dodge, ammunition variants, the setting, and so on. Every time I saw it on the shelf at the local game store, I picked it up ... but always put it back down before I reached the counter. I promised myself that if the price dropped below $10 I would pick it up and give it another try. And that's how I got it, during one of those Steam sales, when everything is nice and cheap for a few days.

This week, I finally played it—and to be honest, I was prepared not to like it. I was expecting to play through the content that was in the demo, and maybe a little further: it was likely going to be an endurance test of my patience. But then something odd happened. I didn't actually recognize the game.

It wasn't quite so bad as to make me double-check that I had clicked the correct icon on my menu. Rather, I got the backstory of the game. I found out why my character was so unfamiliar with the setting. I saw why my character was so special. In short, I got to see the game in context, and that made a tremendous difference. Now I find that I'm looking forward to playing. On top of that, the side quests come in at a reasonable pace, I'm learning the game systems in a more organic way, and even the driving mechanic isn't thrust upon me with repercussions for driving too slowly.

So what's with that demo?

I know that the Rage demo was critically well-received, so maybe I'm in the minority. But a demo, to me, should not just showcase the game's features and whet the player's appetite, it should guide the player through them, in a way that leaves no element to chance. The player should be getting his feet wet—not getting thrown into the deep end.

There are demos out there that I have played multiple times because I was so delighted with the gameplay that I wanted more, right now. I Am Alive, for example, made me want to buy the game on the spot. (I waited for a sale, though.) Freelancer. Deus Ex. I used to pick up computer gaming magazines so I could try the demos on the included CDs.

But it wasn't until I got to Wellspring, the town hub from the Rage demo, that I finally realized what it was about the demo that turned me off. As soon as I got into the town, the UI went away. No weapons, no health bar, and worst of all, no map. In fact, for several seconds after I spawned into the zone, I thought I was still looking at the loading screen. It wasn't until I tried moving the mouse that it dawned on me that I had arrived.

While I can certainly understand why I wouldn't need the combat interface. (It always strikes me as odd when I'm talking to an NPC, and my gun is pointed at them the whole time—like they're only being friendly because I'm armed, and they're not. It actually happens in the earlier parts of Rage, when you're talking to Dan Hagar, the guy who saved your life when you first emerged, unarmed, from the Ark. He gives you the tools and advice you need to survive—and you repay his kindness by pointing the gun he just gave you right back at him.)

What I really don't understand is the decision to take away your mini-map. The town of Wellspring is a maze of alleys and tunnels, and the signage you encounter—identifying the mayor's offices, the sheriff's office, and so on—are often hard to spot amid the riot of color. At first, I thought this might be designed to force you to explore the town (and therefore discover quests), but then, as I was leaving town, I got a system message, of all things, telling me that an NPC I hadn't met yet had a job for me, and I should talk to her before I left. And it was kind of an important message, which would affect how I carried out subsequent missions—but couldn't it have been delivered some other way? In character, at the very least?

I started to remember why I found the Rage demo so frustrating. I was literally wandering through town, talking to every NPC I encountered, on the off chance that they would offer me something I could use, if only I would go fetch them an apple or whatever. But that created another challenge: how do I get there? Without a map, I had to rely on directions from NPCs, who would often say "helpful" things like "It's at the back of town" or "His office is just across the square." My heart really goes out to whoever had to write that dialogue (and the animators who had to add in a "thumb-jerk" sequence to help get you going in the right direction), because someone made the decision that the mini-map and waypoint system shouldn't clutter up the gorgeous view of the lovingly run-down town.

If you've noticed my switch in tone from "I kind of like this game" to "high-octane vitriol," then you have begun to grasp my problem with Rage's demo. Rage is an intriguing game, although so far it offers very little in the way of innovations over other FPSes. But the demo focused on an area that provided virtually none of the interesting backstory, and that crippled several features that would've made the game easier for first-time players. Remember the driving interface I mentioned, and the town's race-track quest (which it turns out you need to complete before you can finish part of the main quest)? I was right about how prior experience driving radically improves your skill: It took me only two tries to beat the clock this time around; when I played the demo, I gave up after five tries.

I'm fairly confident that there's a good FPS lurking in Rage—but I almost didn't give it a chance, and the blame for that falls squarely on the limitations in the demo. It's hardly surprising that, when the game loads on Steam, the first thing it asks is if I want to play the game with mods. Clearly, the fan base agrees with me that the game could be better, if only the designers had put just a little more work into it.

3/2/14: * Marvel Avengers Alliance (Playdom)

* Batman: Arkham Origins (Warner Bros. interactive)

3/3/14: * Rage (id Software)

* Badland (Frogmind) - iOS

3/4/14: * Fallout 3 (Bethesda)

3/5/14: * Marvel Avengers Alliance (Playdom)

3/6/14: * State of Decay (Undead Labs)

* Fallout 3 (Bethesda)

3/7/14: * SpellTower (STFJ) - iOS

* Lords of Waterdeep (Wizards of the Coast/Playdek - iOS)

3/8/14: * Scrabble (EA) - iOS