Rage 2: All we know about the game

Stevivor headed to Avalanche Studios’ Stockholm headquarters for a deep dive on Rage 2, just one of the many titles currently in development.

Here’s all we know from our trip.

Avalanche Studios is leading development

Rage 2 is being developed by Avalanche Studios in collaboration with id Software. But the primary development for Rage 2 is being done at Avalanche Studios in Stockholm.

“We collaborated early on for the design of what Rage 2 should be,” Chief Production Officer John Fuller told Stevivor.

“The primary development for Rage 2 is in Stockholm and always has been. We’ve collaborated really closely on all aspects of the game and we’ve had people from id flying here and helping out on a bunch of different things. We’ve been in sync with them throughout the entire development.”

We explore the relationship between id, Bethesda and Avalanche here.

Goodbye id Tech, hello Apex

While the original Rage was powered by the id Tech engine, Rage 2 will use Avalanche’s Apex engine.

The Apex engine has been used in previous Avalanche like Mad Max, theHunter and Just Cause.

Rage 2 is aiming for 60FPS

Rage 2 is targeting 60 frames per second on Windows PC, Xbox One X and PlayStation 4 Pro.

Over on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, you can expect 30 frames per second.

Dan Goodman won’t be returning

Dan Hagar, a character in the original Rage, was voiced by John Goodman. The Studio Director at id Software, Tim Willits, confirmed that he would not be returning for Rage 2.

Your character will be fully voiced (and you may get to select his/her gender)

The main player character in Rage 2 is named Walker, and this time they are fully voiced. When Stevivor asked Avalanche if you would be able to select the gender of the main character we were told, “we’ll talk about that a little bit more in the future.” So you can decide for yourself exactly what that means.

Expect a colourful wasteland

The original Rage had colour palette of brown, and browner. The pretty vibrant colours in the trailers aren’t just there for show. Those pinks and yellows that you see have a meaning that is relevant in the game.

“We wanted to try and explore what these people of this world would do if they survived an apocalypse and are suddenly trying to find their feet, how would they express themselves,” Chief Production Officer, John Fuller, told Stevivor.

“As you explore the world you’ll find out what some of the actual things are that are leading to the pink sunset, or different factions in the world that have chosen to express themselves in certain ways.”

The crafting system returns

The basic crafting system from Rage will be returning. You’ll find materials out in the world which will allow you to build items to assist along your journey.

“It’s very much similar to the first Rage where you can find crafting components out in the world, Game Director Magnus Nedfors explained to Stevivor.

“The primary things that you will craft are what we call support items. The Wingstick for example, different types of grenades, stuff like that. It’s not a super elaborate system, it’s very in the vein of the first game. You find materials in the world and you find methods of creating better support items.”

Rage 2 is focused on single-player

While Rage had a very basic multiplayer mode it sounds like Rage 2 will be focused primarily on a single player experience.

“Avalanche believes that single player games can be as good as multiplayer games,” Game Director Magnus Nedfors told Stevivor.

“But you have to choose, ‘Is it a multiplayer game? Well then you have to build a multiplayer game, or is it a co-op game,’ you have to focus around that. This time we have chosen to focus around a single player experience. I think open world games in general are very good single player experiences because there are so many different types of content to engage with. It gives the player freedom and that’s what makes you come back, we’re trying to talk to as many player types as possible to have them keep playing. We want interesting content, that’s what we are trying to do.”

Rage 2’s world is small than that in Just Cause 3

In terms of the size of the world in Rage 2 it is probably smaller than Just Cause 3 – well that’s because Just Cause 3 has a jet… and Chief Production Officer John Fuller told Stevivor that there’s no jet in Rage 2.

“We never measure in terms of square kilometres,” Fuller explained. “Our worlds during development expand and contract, but it’s something that we adjust and tune all of the time. We like to think of it in terms of how to best realise this world, which are governed by things like our traversal mechanisms.”

“I think that confidently I could say that this world is smaller than Just Cause 3, because Just Cause 3 has a jet in it – there isn’t a jet in this game. But again I’m not sure because we don’t measure it in those sorts of terms. What I know is that in all of the worlds that we present to you as a player you should experience them as huge, as bigger than the worlds in most of the games that you play. You should experience it as a massive but very enjoyable investment to explore, and we will reward you for going to the far corners of the world.”

Rage 2 heads to Windows PC, Xbox One and PS4 in 2019.

Luke Lawrie traveled to Stockholm, Sweden as a guest of Bethesda.