Rage Effect

Editorial Update April 2023

After our initial review of Rage Effect, the game underwent significant development changes and made substantial progress. As a result, we felt it necessary to revisit the game and accurately evaluate its current state compared to our first experience. We were fortunate enough to access a private build of the game to determine if the developers had addressed the concerns we previously identified.

In our previous review, we highlighted several key issues with Rage Effect. The graphics and maps appeared grainy and lacked life, detracting from the game's immersiveness. Additionally, the gun mechanics felt clunky and unsuitable for an FPS game. The most significant issue, however, was the lackluster hit registration. Bullets often seemed not to hit targets, passing through them seamlessly. These major drawbacks made the game underwhelming compared to other FPS titles.

That being said, the updated build of Rage Effect has done an outstanding job addressing these concerns. The graphics have received a significant boost, and the game now appears polished and clean. The night city and destroyed construction site are more vivid than before. The gun mechanics have also improved, although there is still some clunkiness. The smoother reload and aim-down-sight animations contribute to a better experience compared to the previous state of the game. Most importantly, the hit registration has improved significantly, with few noticeable issues, if any.

As with any game, there are still areas for improvement. The AI has become less challenging than before, losing the difficulty that was present in the previous build. This could be an issue with the build's porting to the launcher we used, so it might be an easy fix for the developers. A bot difficulty addition is coming soon, which should address this concern in the next build. Another lingering issue is the recoil for guns, which could still use fine-tuning. Recoil control is slightly better than in the previous build but remains inconsistent compared to other FPS games like Valorant, Call of Duty, CS:GO, or Apex Legends.

Despite these issues, the difference between Rage Effect's previous build and the current one is like night and day. The game has transformed from one we did not enjoy playing to one where we spent hours experimenting with bots and attempting to hit clips, similar to the experience in Call of Duty.

Introduction

Rage effect is a first-person shooter game that is available to play on Elixir and runs on the Solana blockchain. It offers a variety of game modes including Team Deathmatch, Free-for-All, and Gun Game. Each lobby allows for a maximum of 14 players in a single game. While the game aims to be a realistic shooter, it falls short in terms of its mechanics and features.

Gameplay

One of the main issues with Rage Effect is its gun mechanics, which are clunky and have incredibly inconsistent recoil. This makes it difficult for players to aim accurately and effectively, which can negatively impact gameplay and is understandably a core element of any first-person shooter. The maps in the game, which include The Rig, The Dread Basin, Himalayas, Adonin City, among others, suffer from grainy graphics and a lack of visual appeal. Fans of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 will rejoice and instantly feel nostalgic with The Rig as it offers the most similarity to the famous map Rust.

These low-quality graphics contribute to the overall lack of polish in the game. In addition to this problem, Rage Effect is prone to glitches with some killstreaks, such as the UAV chopper and Mortar Strike, sometimes glitching out after being acquired once. This can disrupt gameplay and frustrate you when looking to go for high-kill games requiring the streaks to achieve the goal.

The classes in Rage Effect, which include assault, recon, support, and engineer, do not offer any unique abilities or perks. In fact, it would be nice to see more options for classes such as medical items, a torch, or a revive gun for example. While it has an expansive weapon loadout, Rage Effect suffers from hit registration issues and input lag when pressing certain buttons. For example, pressing “R” to reload would be pressed 3 to 4 times before actually reloading. Despite these issues, Rage Effect does have some redeeming features.

Rage Effect features a workshop feature that allows players to customize their weapons, including a Scar, AWP, shotguns, missile launchers, a katana, AR15, and an LMG called “cracked”. Compared to other first-person shooters within web3 gaming, the AI does a good job of keeping players on their toes. With the solid aim and weapon handling, bots will be a real challenge to face, which is quite refreshing to see. 

Review

Rage Effect faces many challenges to make the game as enjoyable as possible. It is quite easy to lose a good amount of time playing the game with nothing in return, neither enjoyment nor any meaningful progression. Having said that, loading into a game is easy and fast, and once you are in, if you don't face any of the prior mentioned issues, you can actually quite enjoy what it has to offer. The game's core loop and gameplay offers a fast-paced action-packed experience to fans of FPS games that some other blockchain first-person shooters cannot do.

Unfortunately, Rage effect currently has a low player count, which may be due to its overall lack of polish and frustrating gameplay. To improve the game and attract more players it would be beneficial to address the issues with its fun mechanics low quality graphics and glitches. Additionally adding more unique abilities and support options for the different classes as well as creating more visually appealing maps could help to make the game more engaging and enjoyable for players.