Anger 2 is a pastiche of better shooters released in the last decade, but the design aspect hides a big secret for people looking for hidden gems: the combat and the sense of power of the game’s guns and abilities is almost unmatched in the game right now. This is the perfect free video game if you fancy a first-person shooter. This is good news, because it’s currently free in the Epic Games Store.
Anger 2‘s story is a mess that I will not even try to describe; let’s just say you play as a chosen one with special powers and leave it at that. Explore a somewhat open world, find new weapons, work your way through the technology tree, and unlock a range of natural abilities as you battle The Authority. You just know that they are bad with such a name. The game’s aesthetics point to something like splatterpunk, evoking the violent nihilism of the Borderlands series.
The original Anger was a fairly mediocre shooter from id Software, and John Carmack himself later directly apologized for his PC performance. So there was not much that Avalanche Studios and id Software could draw from it for the sequel. You do not have to worry about the fact that the story of the first game beats to enjoy this one; it is easily forgotten and nothing valuable is lost.
It will never matter to you why you do something Anger 2, or who exactly you are going to, but the battle itself shines like a beacon. Or at least, if you collect some of the better guns and abilities and are beautiful and equal. The interface does not always make it easy, but it is worth it.
“I can use one ability to throw back enemies and hit them in walls or each other,” I wrote in our original review. ‘I can use another ability to force enemies to float in the air and pull other objects at them as if by the gravity of a very small black hole. I can turn myself into a human grenade and slam into the ground and reduce everyone around me to a bloody smear. I can upgrade my ability to jump high in the air until I can basically climb on the face of bare cliffs by turning the jump button. ‘
This combination of abilities, as well as weapons that all sound and feel brutally powerful in action, make Anger 2 in a creative playground of violence. How you kill people depends on you, and you can spend a lot of time on the menus to create a fun outfit to get out there and to fix the wreckage.
Anger 2 was a hard sell when it launched at $ 59.99, but for the cost of zero dollars, you absolutely have to grab it. This is a game that exists within a generic shell of attitude and faux edginess, and it can be annoying. But it can also be fun to giggle about the common game tropes and stupid narrative excuses for how your player character became the most powerful fighter on the battlefield.
Regardless, hidden in this OK game is one of the best examples of weapon design and choice I’ve seen in a while. I’m always interested in just seeing my arsenal grow and interact with the world while killing everyone I see to do … to do whatever I try. There has never been a better time to vent all your frustrations about virtual bad guys who are lucky to die thousands.