It's a bit rough outside, on the streets of Rage. Civilisation hasn't really got itself together since the first game, set in the wake of a dirty great asteroid collision which rendered post-apocalyptic existence all very Mad Max-like.

Three decades on and The Authority (think cybernetic and/or mutant Nazis) is still trying to push people around, with General Cross (stopped short of calling him Captain Angry, then) now little more than a flesh head wedged into a whacking great mech.

With the last pocket of the resistance seemingly obliterated in the first scene, it's up to you to plough across the wasteland searching for allies and doo-dads to boost your own skills and bio-enhanced insides.

In keeping with its Mad Max influences, there's a whole heap of driving to do and an impressive collection of nasty outposts and roadworthy bandits to blast to hell.

Dotted around the place are arks which handily offer weapons and augment your abilities, enabling more imaginary ways to prevent enemies from living much longer.

There is a sense of repetition once a few hours have been logged. Find an outpost, kill the screaming inhabitants, raid its storage boxes and the like. Find a mutant-infested area, clear it, raid its storage boxes. Find an empty structure, raid its storage boxes. So many storage boxes...

Happily the gunplay is a treat and motoring about the sensationally detailed map is a blast, with a decent upgrade tree for both weapons and vehicles.

Just a smidge more variation and we'd have been well away.