We need to talk about Rage 2's keyboard controls

Rage 2 is very almost here on PC, but for a game half-developed by Doom maestros id Software, there is something really quite rotten about the state of Rage 2’s default keyboard controls. For as well as having an arsenal of mildly ridiculous guns at your disposal, you also have various special abilities to help you in the heat of battle, such as the sonic boom-emitting Shatter Strike punch. The only problem is that the default control for Shatter Strike is Ctrl+F.

Now I don’t know about you, but when I’ve got three fingers on WAD and my little finger almost always stuck on Shift so I can move around without getting riddled with bullets, Ctrl+F is, quite literally, a bit of a stretch. Infuriatingly, the rest of Rage 2’s special abilities are all tied to Ctrl as well. Fancy a Slam? That’s Ctrl+Space. Throw up a barrier? Ctrl+C. It goes on. Fortunately, help is at hand inside Rage 2’s key mapping menu. Here’s how to remap those terrible default keyboard controls so you can carry on playing Rage 2 like a true mohawked champion.

(more…)