Because 2019 is the year of the roadmap in gaming, RAGE 2 publisher Bethesda has put out a post-launch release schedule detailing what's to come in the post-apocalyptic shooter this year. Though it may seem a little strange that even a single-player game like RAGE 2 is getting the roadmap treatment, the list of things that developers Avalanche Studios and id Software have planned refreshingly point to the game being a finished product with a normal mix of free and paid DLC in the works.
Looking and playing like the lovechild of Mad Max and Doom, RAGE 2 is inexorably speeding toward its May 14 release date, and promises to outdo its middling predecessor in every regard. Moving to a more fitting open world setting, and entirely doing away with the original's much-hated loading screens, this series revival looks as visually impressive as it does spectacularly violent. RAGE 2 will also reprise the first game's explosive mix of first-person shooter and vehicular combat, and players will fight their way through the game's unforgiving wasteland in their journey through its bombastic single-player campaign.
Players who burn through everything RAGE 2 offers will evidently be plied with plenty of content to keep them playing through autumn, according to Bethesda's newly released 2019 roadmap for the game. Most notably, the game has two major paid expansions planned for this year. The first, called Rise of the Ghosts, will bring "a brand-new storyline and region to explore, as well as new weapons, abilities and vehicles" in August, while the second, unnamed expansion is slated to roll out sometime this fall.
Each month of 2019 will bring lots of free content to RAGE 2, with the only things that may have originally been scheduled to be playable upon release being a couple of vehicles, a pilotable mech and a bizarre-sounding "one-wheeler." There will also be major world events, with one such event featuring massive worms reminiscent of Tremors, as well as new general updates, cheats, and community-wide challenges that will net all active players unique skins and other unlockables upon completion.
Though many justifiably get a bit apprehensive when they start seeing the "roadmap" thrown around after recent live-service failures like Anthem and Fallout 76, Bethesda seems to be using the term with a much more genuine slant this time around. Though prospective players may change their minds upon release, RAGE 2 seems to be the kind of complete standalone package of story and action that gamers have been calling for lately. If the publisher can keep it up with traditional single-player experiences like this and the summer's Wolfenstein: Youngblood, Bethesda just might be able to turn its public image around before the year's end.
Source: Bethesda