No classic deathmatch in RAGE

By Tom Bramwell Published 18 April, 2011

Combat Rally and co-op episodes instead.

RAGE developer id Software has announced that the game's multiplayer modes are called Combat Rally and Legends of the Wasteland.

Neither is a traditional deathmatch, team deathmatch or capture the flag mode, marking the first time the studio has released a first-person shooter without classic on-foot deathmatch.

Creative director Tim Willits told journalists in Salt Lake City last week that the studio wanted the game's multiplayer modes to be derived from its new gameplay ideas and not simply reheated concepts from its past.

Combat Rally pits six players against one another in something akin to a cross between Quake 3 Arena and Smuggler's Run.

Players drive around trying to shoot one another while simultaneously gunning to reach checkpoint markers. Checkpoints confer score multipliers but are not activated in a linear circuit-based order, so the action flows all over the map.

Legends of the Wasteland, meanwhile, is a series of two-player co-operative missions based on stories you hear told in the single-player campaign.

For example, a character may tell you about the time bandits took over the town of Wellspring and planted bombs on its water supply, only for a couple of guys to ride in and save the day. In one LOTW episode you get to play those two chaps.

Another LOTW episode will be based on the Mutant Bash TV aspect of the main game, where you're forced to gun a gauntlet of mutant waves in Smash TV-style circumstances.

There are eight planned LOTW episodes at the moment, but id may release more with the game, and did not rule out the possibility of others appearing as downloadable content.

All of this is on top of a campaign that id has said will clock in at between 15 and 20 hours long.

Look out for an extensive RAGE hands-on preview soon.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000. Follow him on Twitter.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (26) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • menage #1 1 year ago

    Mmm, I usually like DM, so a bit of a shame.

  • StolenGlory #2 1 year ago

    Okay, all together now:

    WTF!

  • DefendoCroc #3 1 year ago

    Im getting a 'Daikatana' tingle about this game.

  • CaptainQuint #4 1 year ago

    I'm all for trying new things and gametype originality, but Deathmatch is the bread and butter of the online fps genre and it is folly to overlook that fact.

    This has just gone from a potential purchase to a rental.

  • TheLittlestHobo #5 1 year ago

    Never been a fan of Car Wars combat as I find trying to steer your car at speed while attempting to target and shoot enemies results in me being able to do neither. Like the sound of the co-op bit though.

  • mashk #6 1 year ago

    Shame. I hope they reconsider. It's got a fantastic engine which runs at 720p at a 60fps framerate, and the guns shown look like fun. It's a travesty that we won't be allowed to shoot the crap out of each other in this kind of environment.

  • Bigmac1910 #7 1 year ago

    I only play team death match usually, so this is kind of disappointing. Still interested in the single player, but the multiplayer doesn't seem to be for me. Hope they will reconsider.

    Edit: Unfortunately my hype meter went from must buy to wait and see.
    Edited by Bigmac1910 at 18/04/11 @ 15:51

  • evild_edd #8 1 year ago

    I can imagine the fallout there'll be when they announce a deathmatch mode as DLC.....

    /is only half joking.

  • Shikasama #9 1 year ago

    A couple of complaints in here from people who in other threads, have bemoaned the lack of individuality in games and death of originality in the industry as a whole.

    Can't have it both ways.

  • altitude2k #10 1 year ago

    EVA, is that you?

  • Quixz #11 1 year ago

    This is a good thing IMO, we already have too many that offer DM.

  • FiZiE #12 1 year ago

    No point anyway, they cant compete with CoD.

  • spongebob #13 1 year ago

    That co-op mode sounds like good fun.

  • Vanmunt #14 1 year ago

    looking forward tothis, got a great preview in TM last issue...

    DM sucks balls as well.

  • rojjer #15 1 year ago

    hmmm. My guess is deathmatch will be shoehorned into the final code when the forums get hit with all the ranters wanting deathmatch (it is an FPS after all). Or at the very least offered as free dlc. Bad move imo.

  • Stymphalius #16 1 year ago

    WTF!

    I wonder if this has anything to do with them having issues balancing weapons... I'd have thought a traditional deathmatch mode (you know, the kind ID Software invented in the first place?!) would have been the easiest mode to implement... co-op mode sounds pretty awesome but no DM is a huge disappoint. Then again, I'll be buying BF3 for multiplayer so as long as the campaign is polished, I'll be happy.

  • metallicorphan #17 1 year ago

    well i will play the single player,then i will play the co-op missions and no doubt that will be just in time for the DLC for DM,TDM and CTF ;)

  • Cyclone #18 1 year ago

    I can't fault them for wanting to try new ideas, but I'd prefer they didn't do it at the expense of the normal multi-player modes that people have come to expect as standard. At least on the pc the classic modes can be modded back in; console owners won't be quite so lucky.

  • dwalker109 #19 1 year ago

    I'm one of those people who much prefers co-op, so this doesn't bother me. Don't get me wrong, I've played and enjoyed a few hours of GoW3 team deathmatch this very evening, but even CoD gets a weekend of compulsive multiplayer and then I quickly tire of it. The car wars thingy sounds kinda lame though, to be honest...

  • Nephirion #20 1 year ago

    Will this be another bulletstorm?

  • DRUNK3N-_-DRAGON #21 1 year ago

    was looking forward to this for fick sake

  • DRUNK3N-_-DRAGON #22 1 year ago

    was looking forward to this for fick sake

  • JammyC #23 1 year ago

    Combat Rally sounds like Rocket Race in Halo MP. Gets very boring very quickly.

  • L0cky #24 1 year ago

    @TheLittlestHobo

    Driving and not looking where you're going is a bit of a problem :/

  • Tinrib72 #25 1 year ago

    Sheesh, you can play deathmatch on a million other games! Glad to see something different for a change.

    Surely the main selling point of this particular game anyway is the single player story mode...or am i wrong?

  • homerbert #26 1 year ago

    To the people saying it's something different: How does reducing our options make it different? The shooting mechanics and network code are there, why not let people play deathmatch? You can still have the other games as the primary multiplayer modes?

    If the new modes are great, people will play those and the people who want to play deathmatch will play deathmatch.