Rage 2

Rage 2's moment-to-moment combat is outstanding, making it shine among open-world first-person shooters.

The wild, exceptional combat of Rage 2 contends with some of the genre's greats, but it's disappointing that the game's world squanders its potential.

So much of this promising collaboration between id and Avalanche is unremarkable - but it's salvaged by bloody, brilliant combat.

Some of the best first-person shooting on PC, but the rest of the game struggles to keep up with it.

It's like being handed a gigantic box of tools of all shapes and sizes before being asked to replace a lightbulb. Sure, I can always build a step stool by hand before knocking the lightbulb out of the socket with a hammer, use a potato to remove the now-broken pieces of glass from the light fixture, knit a glove to keep my hand safe while I install the new lightbulb, and screw that bulb in using a custom attachment on a power drill so it goes in with a single pump of the trigger … but why wouldn't I just stand on my tiptoes, unscrew the old bulb, and put the new one in?

Rage 2 has a fun core gameplay loop, but everything around it falls flat on its face

Rage 2 fails to deliver any interesting characters, environments, or activities. Solid shooting and cool weapons lift up the other elements of this title

With weapons including a firestorm revolver, the shooting is thrilling and stupendously violent – but the vast post-apocalyptic setting is a letdown

Bringing Avalanche on board seems like it has been a masterstroke, as id Software’s peerless shooter library gets another superb entry.

The parts I like far outweigh the parts I don’t. I’ve got my weirdo NPCs, my Ark hunting, my Whoopinkoffs and Dimbledicks. I’ve found every Ark, now, but I still plan on gambolling between side activities. I still want to explore, even though I wish I was exploring a world that had been less generically destroyed.