I walk right out of the camp, right into the Wasted clan’s lair and sneak through again. There are a few more of those guys on patrol again, they’ve replenished their numbers and I’m not going to get taken by surprise so I play a waiting game. I line up the monocular and let rip, they go down quick and easy. It upsets a guy in a nearby tunnel though and he opens up with his rifle, there’s a lot of lead and it catches me unawares as I come around the corner. I return the favour and soon he’s dead.

I loot all the bodies and just move on. These bandits are in my way, they have my stuff and I want it. I find the way in, kill the guard outside and soon I’m inside their HQ. It stinks in here, so many unwashed men and so much refuse. They’re living in squalor and filth, leaving their empty bottles lying around (I steal anything that’s not nailed down) and rob them blind. It’s kill or be killed out here, and well, I’m going to make sure I don’t end up dead. It’s not easy to sneak, so I open fire quickly, this starts one hell of a gun battle with more and more Wasted showing up. They toss in a few grenades to flush me out and I manage to avoid the worst, even pegging some guy’s hand as he tosses a grenade. The hit is solid enough to knock his aim off, the grenade lands at his feet and the room rocks with the explosion as it goes off. He dies, his two friends die and a third runs like hell for the back room.

I loot everything and move on, chasing him down, shooting him in the back and ripping the ammo from his corpse. I won’t bore you with the dirty details of every single fight in that lair; some of them were more interesting than the others. I got a good deal of loot out of those guys, some hidden places let me get some Feltrite crystals, which are worth quite a bit to the right person. The Wasted were pretty tricky opponents, they liked to throw grenades, and they weren’t dumb when it came to using cover and moving from place to place.

They threw down suppressive fire to keep me pinned as they tried to flank. The shotgun came in really handy a few times, especially when they got too close for comfort. Each one of them went down in a different way, no two deaths were the same and they were insulting me all the time even as they paid the price for pissing me off. I threw caution to the wind in the last big area, a huge mistake as I went around the corner and I was blinded by a sudden light. A crash, a bang and a massive buggy rolled in, on the top of it was a mounted chaingun.

That thing spoke volumes with lead, it shredded the air and I had to choose my moments carefully. I was now on the ropes, thinking on my feet, scrambling for cover and retreating around the corner. I grabbed ammo off the shelf and loaded the shotgun, more Wasted came around the corner and it was a fight to survive. I needed to take that buggy out, or at least the gunner. So I thinned the Wasted as they came around, watched the guy struggle with the chaingun for a moment. That was it!

Fatboys were my salvation, I loaded those into the chamber of the revolver and I let rip. They did the job, just enough. More Wasted came in, the chaingun spoke again and I pulled back. I shotgunned their legs to knock them off balance and conserve ammo...throwing my last few wingsticks to take them out in one hit. This was my last chance, three fatboys left and I couldn’t miss. I went back to the corner, peeked out and let the gunner have it as he fired, I was hit multiple times and almost downed but that last shot took him out.

I couldn’t rest though, as the buggy was no longer a threat, the final few Wasted showed up and I managed to get the upper hand. I was so glad for Rikter’s shotgun, seriously. When the smoke and dust settled I went around their garage like a dervish, stealing everything I could find and when I was satisfied that there was no more loot to be had, I just left. I knew I’d be back...because that’s the way things tended to work around here. Outside, two of the Wasted were checking over an ATV right near where my Ark had emerged from the ground. I didn’t waste any time with them, I blew both of them off their feet and the blood splattered their backs, they crumpled like tissue paper and I stole their ride. I high-tailed it back to the Outrigger’s settlement first; to get Dan’s ATV...I couldn’t leave that out there all alone.

Once I came back, the buggy was mine and even though it was a beaten up old piece of crap. I felt pride in that, it was like me, it was a relic of another time and it could rise again. I was certain that with some money, some time and some effort on my part this thing could kick some serious ass. So I took it for a spin, beat Durar’s time...because that’s what he said I couldn’t do. I earned a nice little reward for that, proving that even the most mundane thing you do in the Wasteland is worth it and it’s best to actually do everything you can for people.

Durar told me to see Dan again, so that’s where I went. Dan was worried about the Authority and what they would do if they found me there. I couldn’t blame him, sure I felt a little betrayed by my new friend but...I couldn’t blame him. He handed me his old sniper rifle and told me I needed to clear some bandits out and blow up their roadblock. I’d be free to traverse the Wasteland proper then.

How could I refuse, I wanted to see what was out there.

But that’s a story for another time...

There you have it, that’s my perspective when playing RAGE for the first time. It isn’t meant to be a review: if you want that, well, go check out the review that I wrote for it. This is a pure flavour piece that’s designed to encompass how I felt when I picked up RAGE and got deeper into it. I could have gone on for even longer, but then there wouldn’t have been anything else for part 2. That’s if part 1 is a success.