Video games: All the 'Rage'

The name Id Software rings of nostalgia. Franchises such as "Wolfenstein," "Doom" and "Quake" laid the groundwork for the first-person shooter genre, and their designs still influence many of today's new releases.

Despite the studio's pedigree, it hasn't developed a first-person shooter since 2004's "Doom 3." The genre has changed significantly in the years that followed. Franchises such as "Half-Life" and "Call of Duty" are the genre's trendsetters.

Now, Id Software has made its long-awaited return to the genre with "Rage."

Can the father of first-person shooters re-emerge as the powerhouse it once was, or will it be playing catch-up? The answer is a little of both.

The game's lengthy gestation, nearly six years, has produced one of the most technically sound shooters to date. "Rage" offers sophisticated gunplay and lights up the screen with an incredible level of graphical detail. The game continually impresses with its technology and small touches, such as all onscreen characters having unique animations scripted to each word they utter and an enemy being smart enough to recognize that the quickest path to the player sometimes involves jumping over fences.

The lengthy development cycle also could be responsible for the game's most disappointing component: the story. After a gorgeous introductory scene showing an enormous asteroid crashing to Earth in 2029, producing a post-apocalyptic wasteland, players are introduced to their avatar, a silent protagonist who ends up being the whipping boy of every person with a problem that needs fixing.

He's the perfect accomplice to an uneventful narrative that slogs along with all the excitement of a dehydrated person slowly shuffling his feet in the wasteland's sands. Just when it seems the story might produce a meaty plot thread, the game ends unexpectedly with no major confrontation or sense of victory leading up to it.

There's a nice selection of close- and long- range weapons, but the most trusted killer is oddly a boomerang called the wingstick -- one of the most satisfying weapons in any first-person shooter. The wingstick is designed with the specific goal of lopping off heads. Watching a mutant in a full-on sprint lose his noggin and collapse to the ground just as the wingstick flies back into your hand is a supremely satisfying spectacle.

"Rage" isn't a standard level-to-level shooter. At any point in the game, players have the opportunity to freely explore a moderately sized open world. The means of travel is a vehicle tricked out with weapons galore. Bandits in vehicles of their own will try to derail your quest, but even on the highest difficulty setting they pose little challenge. As much fun as it is to blow these adversaries away with rockets, the vehicular component, which includes races, is an entertaining distraction and nothing more.

A slew of other diversionary minigames, such as an awesome collectible card game, are included in hub cities. But the most satisfying side activity is looting, which makes the lack of content in the overworld -- the area that connects all of the main game-play locations -- more disappointing. Every item that flashes in the environment, be it gas cans or bandages, can be picked up and stored in a limitless inventory. At first, these items might seem completely random, but as the game progresses and new weapon and item blueprints are obtained, they can be combined for on-the-go crafting. Turrets, remote control cars, healing items, grenades and other handy devices can be created from anywhere, even in the heat of battle.