Rage 2 is free on PC, which certainly helps one overlook its flaws

Who cares about the story when the shooting is this good?

Rage 2 is a pastiche of better shooters that have been released in the past decade, but that aspect of its design hides one huge secret for people looking for hidden gems: The combat and sense of power from the game’s guns and abilities is almost unmatched in gaming right now. It’s the perfect free video game, if you’re in the mood for a first-person shooter. Which is great news, because it’s currently free on the Epic Games Store.

Rage 2’s story is a jumbled mess that I won’t even try to describe; let’s just say you play as a chosen one with special powers and leave it at that. You explore a somewhat open world, finding new weapons, working your way up through the tech tree, and unlocking a series of preternatural abilities while fighting against The Authority. You just know they’re bad with a name like that. The game’s aesthetic suggests something like splatterpunk, evoking the violent nihilism of the Borderlands series.

The original Rage was a pretty mediocre shooter from id Software, and John Carmack himself later directly apologized for its PC performance. So there wasn’t a lot that Avalanche Studios and id Software could pull from it for the sequel. You don’t have to worry about knowing the story beats from the first game to enjoy this one; it’s easily forgotten, and nothing of value is lost.

Source: Polygon