Rage Against The Limitations Of The Game

It feels like video games try to give players more options these days - or at least the illusion of having more options - but they just can't help putting the player on rails at the worst times.

Case in point: Rage. I don't know why, exactly, I decided this should be one of the first games I bought last month for my new XBox 360. The Saboteur, sure, I know why I bought that. It sounded atmospheric and fun. Rage? Temporary insanity perhaps?

Anyway, having bought it, I might as well play it, and so I've reached the delightful burg of Subway Town. To be able to live there mostly peacefully, I have to get on the mayor's good side. Problem being, Redstone is the same sort of asshole employer as Kenji from GTA III was, or the Keepers from Thief: Deadly Shadows. This is never good.

He tells me to clear out a Mutant infestation that's prohibiting the town's expansion. I take care of this like a boss, he blows it off. No big deal, he says. That's not what all those corpses of people who tried before I looted for ammo say, but fine. Now he wants me to sneak into a vault held by the Gearheads and steal their new power source, so he can stop being at their mercy when it comes to Subway Town's power supply. I go, I kill a bunch of people, I get the thing, I kill some more people, I bring it back. It's a dud. He takes this to mean either he was fed bad info, or I'm trying to pull a fast one. Because that makes perfect sense. I decided to kill a bunch of people belonging to a huge gang, and steal from them, all as part of an elaborate prank on him.

So now he's told me to head to the Gearhead power plant, route the controls to him, and kill all the Gearheads. I've yet to try it. At this point, I'm starting to think he's coming up with excuses not to give me the OK, so he can use me as free labor.

Besides that, it rather quickly occurred to me, why not just kill Redstone? Rage is a first-person shooter. I have solved every problem I've been confronted with by shooting it. What makes more sense: To get in another big fight -requiring hundreds, if not thousands of bullets - with a powerful gang to solve Redstone's problem so he won't be a problem for me. Or I could use a few bullets to solve my problem by killing Redstone, and avoid having problems with the Gearheads entirely. Once we get the whole "broke into their vault and killed a bunch of guys" issue sorted out. And honestly, if I have to kill them then because they've sworn revenge, at least I'd be dealing with a problem of my own, rather than somebody else's.

It'd be so much simpler to kill him and take over. The only reason I can't is because the game won't let me. Sure, it might run the risk of raising my profile, but any chance of keeping a low profile got blown out of the water when I joined the Resistance (which I didn't want to do, either). They don't have any problem sending me out there to fight the people I should be avoiding for their benefit, so why can't I act boldly to suit myself for once?