RAGE 2 designer Magnus Nedfors has recently confirmed that Avalanche, id and Bethesda's game won't be coming with a multiplayer component. Apparently, the development team feels strongly about making RAGE 2 a fantastic singleplayer game.
Even though I tend to be a sucker for a proper singleplayer experience, I must say I'd love for Avalanche, id Software, Bethesda and/or whoever else was involved with this decision, to reconsider. RAGE 2's gunplay seems quite inviting and tossing in Nanotrites just screams multiplayer potential.
Seeing as how the original RAGE's multiplayer relied heavily on vehicles, especially Road Rage mode, the new and overhauled vehicles would probably add a host of options for mutual aggression. Unfortunately, it's highly unlikely we'll see them change their minds, not least for technical reasons.
It would probably incur more development time, derailing RAGE 2 from its intended Q1/Q2 2019 launch time frame. There's also the issue of console performance, a notion that every PC master racist dreads.
Namely, Avalanche have helped themselves to id Software's tuning and spitshining expertise, ensuring that RAGE 2's Apex engine runs at 60 frames per second on Xbox One X and PlayStation 4 Pro consoles. This is the first time Avalanche have managed to do so with Apex, squeezing the PS4's Pro variant for every bit of juice it packs.
Implementing multiplayer would be sure to disrupt the balance, seeing as how base versions of PlayStation 4 and Xbox One are already stuck at 30 frames per second. Nevertheless, a man can dream, can he not?
RAGE 2's story follows ranger Walker, 30 years after the original game. You'll still be seeing some familiar faces, although most are brand new. The development engine switch is obvious though, with RAGE 2 sporting much livelier colours and generally being more inviting into the game's post-apocalyptic world.
Bethesda
Of course, all that's left to see is how it all ties in together. You may recall that the original game boasted pretty impressive individual components as well, but they didn't really play nice and ultimatelly fell flat. Let's see if Avalanche can shake Bethesda and id Software's recipe up somewhat.
