Do You Need To Have Played Rage 1 To Play Rage 2?

A sequel that nobody was screaming out for, Rage 2 is the follow-up to a 2011 open world shooter that not enough people played, and those who did play it were left annoyed by its terrible ending anyway. With Rage 2 out now, do you need to have played the original to get what’s going on?

In a word, no. There’s no need to brush up on your Rage lore to figure out what’s going down in Rage 2, just because it’s not really that kind of game. As the trailer and all its marketing material suggests, Rage 2 is something you come to for the spectacle more than a deep narrative.

For those not in the know, Rage 2 is a post-apocalyptic open world shooter that takes place three decades after the first game. In that one, following the destruction of most of civilisation after an asteroid crash, humanity retreats to safe havens in the wasteland as mutants and bandits run amok. The player awakens from an Ark, basically a fancy lifepod underground, which was part of the Eden Project to preserve human life. The rest of the game sees them fighting off The Authority — the generic bad eggs — and reuniting with other Ark inhabitants.

Just in case you need a refresher, here’s the plot to Rage 1 in full.

Beyond that, there’s really nothing else you need to know about Rage 1 — we played it almost a decade ago and have retained none of its story, so it couldn’t have been that important, or great. There are returning characters that will be welcomed by the five people who do remember the original’s plot, but beyond that, you don’t need to have played Rage 1 to enjoy Rage 2. You get to leap up in the air and pound the ground like a more metal Mario, for crying out loud.

Rage 2 is out now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

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