Last week, Walmart Canada inadvertently spilled the beans on what appeared to be a number of high profile (and mostly still unconfirmed) E3 announcements. Among them was Rage 2, a sequel to id Software’s oddball post-apocalyptic shooter from 2010. Rather than go dark until E3, Bethesda spent a few days teasing an announcement and then revealed overnight that the Rage 2 leak was indeed legit.
Not much is known about Rage 2 just yet, though the announce trailer does have a few surprises — most notably the reveal that the game is being made by Bethesda in conjunction with Avalanche Studios, the developer behind the Just Cause series. Avalanche are no strangers to working with larger publishers on established IP, having made 2015’s Mad Max with WB Games.
Avalanche are based in Sweden so its no surprise that the trailer feels like a big sugary blast of nordic humour. The use of Andrew WK‘s murder/party anthem Ready to Die is a stroke of genius if you ask me. This tilt toward Sunset Overdrive-esque bounce may not be the trailer you’re expecting given the original Rage‘s pretty gloomy setting, so fair warning.
The official Rage twitter account took the leak in stride, poking fun at the marketing department for letting the word get out early and offering a few helpful graphic design notes.
CONFIRMED: @idsoftware and @AvalancheSweden are working together on #RAGE2!
Hey marketing, here are a few notes. Can’t blame Canada this time. pic.twitter.com/E38PjUD8Jd
— RAGE (@RAGEgame) May 14, 2018
Bethesda is promising a gameplay reveal tomorrow, and I’m sure they’ll have more to show off at E3 next month. Personally, I’m excited to see what they’ve got. Welcome back, Rage.
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