Introduction
RAGE 2 by Avalanche Studios is set in a post-apocalyptic future in which, unsurprisingly, things don't look good for humans. Evil mutants have taken over the world, and you're one of the last rangers out there who can stop the demise of humanity. On game start, your home base "Vineland" is under attack, so you're immediately thrown into action. The plot unfolds from there, starting with you picking up the armor of a fallen ranger. As it turns out, it will let you gain superhuman abilities if you can find the upgrade machines, which are scattered throughout the wastelands.
The open world is big, so your ability to use vehicles is useful, also because of mounted guns that tear through enemies quickly. As you drive around, you'll encounter various points of interest, including "Arks"—it is these that hide the important upgrades for your character.
While the original RAGE was developed by id Software, this version is created by Avalanche studios and uses the company's own Apex Engine (not id's id Tech 5 which powered the first RAGE game). The game uses Vulkan exclusively, which should bring in some performance improvements due to the low-level nature of the API.
We put the game through a selection of 18 graphics cards from both AMD and NVIDIA, at three resolutions, including 4K Ultra HD.