Road Rage Review - Different missions each with its own problems

Riding a motorcycle and racing for the first spot while you can pound the other racers of their bikes. Sounds simple, does not it? It is not a new concept, because on the PS One for example you had the legendary game called 'Road Rash'. Nowadays there are only a few games that appear in the brawler-racing genre and that is a shame. Especially when it comes to the use of engines. Developer Team 6 tries to revive that genre with the open world brawler racing game Road Rage. But is it just as successful and wonderful to play as Road Rash back then?

Revolution in the city of Ashen

The story of Road Rage is quite simple. When you start playing the game, you will be explained on the image by means of a number of texts what happened beforehand. It takes place in the city of Ashen, which is somewhat reminiscent of an American metropolis. The inhabitants of this town were fed up with the oppression and greed of the congregation and decided to protest. These protests led from bad to worse and soon followed riots and all kinds of other worrying actions. The government then decided to build a high wall around the city with barbed wire on top. There are also many checkpoints that monitor the districts and the city is destroyed from the inside. And how can you better fight the government? Indeed, by starting motor gangs.

In terms of story it is very poor and in general, very vague. The story missions feel so strange that after a few missions you have completely lost the thread. Everything is made known through a phone that comes into view as a pop-up. Then this whole conversation is shown on screen and the voice actors tell it, but they should have done their best to do something better. Because the game does not have cut scenes, you are likely to skip the typed conversations, because this just does not work. The result is that you get less of the story and you do not really know why you are doing something. Not that it matters much, because the missions themselves do not make sense.

Different missions each with its own problems

In Road Rage you have eight different types of missions / races. The two self-evident racing games are of course the races based on time and speed. In Road Rage, these two do not deviate from other titles. Unfortunately, there are other races that are quite strange and boring to mention and are also pushed through your throat. You have so-called stuntraces - although you can not really call it stunt traces - where you have to take out stunts to complete it. Unfortunately, you are limited to only two stunts, namely doing wheelies and driving close to cars, giving you the 'near-miss' bonus. Stunt is a big word for a type of race like this. Furthermore, you still have: escape from the police, find the shortest route, and so on. So there are eight different categories and one is the most frustrating of all.

These are the 'Assassination' races. Find your target on the mini-map and as soon as you find it, you have to chase it. If you're close enough, you'll knock him off your motorcycle with your weapon and complete the mission. Ironically, you are longer engaged in the missions than you initially expected. The targets can in fact be anything but motorcycling, with the result that every ten seconds they crash into something or explode in a fireball. They then spawn again, but it is very frustrating when you are just within arm reach of your target and you then hit a wall. Then you immediately have to drive back a bit and then kill them 'real'. Because walls are apparently not deadly enough in Road Rage.

Racing and fighting feels very sloppy worked out

The most important element in games like Road Rage is that you obviously have to be able to drive and steer a bit decently. Let that be the biggest problem of the game. You accelerate with R2 and reduce gas / inhibit with L2. That is fine. Taking curves on the other hand is far from fine. Since you can not drift in this game, you have to think creatively. The only option left is to use the parking brake with X, but this feels incredibly random. Sometimes you slip in all directions and every other time everything is perfect. You've also seen fighting fast, because it feels too static and messy.

Combos are not present and hitting your opponents is almost based on luck. And that problem is in the physics and level design of the game. The way you make contact with the environment is a drama. For example, you can drive on a car in a straight line and simply slide away from it. On the other hand, you can suddenly explode because you are riding a deadly blade of grass or something similar. These random crashes and explosions are somewhat hilarious, but not that you sometimes lose your races. And that while the difficulty of the game is actually very low. You can also go straight through streetlights to check your bucket list, because that is also possible in Road Rage.

Engines and weapons

During the completion of the missions you will be rewarded with money, with which you can buy new engines and weapons. You have three types of engines that should all feel unique. They also feel that, but that is hampered by the fact that you can not drive and steer for a meter in this game. Unfortunately, you are obliged to play some missions with other engines, so you have to get used to the type of engine again and again, which is complicated by the controls. However, you can upgrade your own engines and adapt with all kinds of accessories and that is pretty nice, because almost every aspect is customizable. We can be very brief about the weapons. You have different weapons that vary considerably, but are all equal in damage. Traditional weapons such as baseball bats are present, but also medieval chop axes and katanas.

Graphically, the game is totally uninteresting and it actually has nothing to look for on the PlayStation 4. The game is more like a half-finished PS2 title and that's a shame. It lacks finesse, details and all sorts of other graphic aspects that certainly should have been (and can) be worked out better. The developer and the budget behind this game are not huge, but this is simply disappointing. The soundtrack is also very disappointing. It all feels like '90s rock and metal, but the songs are quite similar. In fact, the entire soundtrack consists of just a handful of songs and so you've been looking forward to it.

Conclusion

Road Rage is a mess in every way. Core elements such as steering and fighting feel far from finished and immediately take all the fun out of the game. If that is not enough, then you can also be annoyed by the vague and meaningless story and accompanying side missions. Chasing targets that then hit walls and spawn again, provide a helping hand of frustration you say to yourself. The physics just provide that extra bit of frustration so that you are tempted to stop the game and remove it from your PS4. An attempt to revive the genre is fine, but Road Rage almost makes you want the whole genre not even existed.

The plus and the drawbacks

✔ Customization with engines is quite extensive
✖ Uninteresting story
✖ Missions are frustrating and boring
✖ Driving and combat miss finishing
✖ Graphically obsolete
✖ Soundtrack is bored too fast

Thanks for reading, I hope you liked it!

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