T w e n t y S i d e d

We need to become champions in two different “sports” so we can gain access to the Winner’s Club so we can get in to see Klegg Clayton so we can bug his computer so we can recover the tank we need for Project Dagger so we can you get the idea. In the last entry we covered the car race. This time we need to get through the arena fight game show, which is called…

Mutant Bash TV

The total non-bandit population of the wasteland is less than 200 people, and as far as we can see roughly zero percent of them own televisions. Who watches television in this world? Why does anyone bother? How can anyone sell televised advertising in a world with no companies, no brands, and no audience? Mutant Bash TV is a massive complex set with moving walls, traps, and elevators. How does anyone pay for such extravagance in a world where people wear rags and eat vermin? Given that mutants are a serious problem that threatens this tiny population, it must require a ridiculous portion of their GDP just to keep the lights on and the set stocked with live mutants.

I’m not bringing this up because I want the writer to fill in all of these supposed plot holes. It’s fine. This world is silly, and that’s okay. My problem is that all of the above questions are a natural setup for jokes, but the game never tries to tell any. This looks like another instance of The Missing Joke I talked about in the previous entry. It’s not wrong, it’s just a missed opportunity to have some fun. Again, all we need is some lampshading.

Promoter: Good show, kid. Makes me wish people owned televisions.

Old janitor that greets you in passing as you exit the arena: Don’t get too cocky kid. Killin’ those mutants isn’t half as hard as catching them and getting them dressed up for the show.

Guy who sells you stuff for the tokens you win in the arena: I wonder what people in the Old World killed on their TV shows. They didn’t have mutants. Musta been boring.

It doesn’t need to be laugh-out-loud funny. You just need to have the characters in on the joke so the world feels playful and intentionally silly rather than lazy and nonsensical. Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Rage 2 Part 7: Mutant Bash TV”

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

The next person we meet on our Wasteland tour is one Loosum Hagar, Mayor of Wellspring. She’s one of the few returning characters from the original Rage in 2011. You might know her as the teenager with the wingsticks from the original:

It’s been 30 years, and she’s now mayor of the town her father founded. She’s added a bit of gunslinging to her arsenal and the wasteland has made her cynical and hard-edged. She wants to help us with Project Dagger, but this is a video game so of course there’s a catch.

Klegg Clayton is some sort of wasteland douche lord. He’s rich, creepy, self-aggrandizing, vain, insecure, and ambitious. He’s trying to oust Loosum so he can run the city himself. Also, he’s somehow managed to get his hands on the super-secret Authority super-tank required for Project Dagger. So you need to deal with him.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Rage 2 Part 6: Win Some, Loosum”

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.