We’ve been waiting a long time to get our Rage on, and with the game shipping in early October, the wait — deep breath, id fans — is almost over. Thankfully, a recently hands-on demo let us sate our curiosity ahead of time, giving us unhindered access to the first two-and-a-half hours of the game. Here’s an account of our experience in the Wasteland.

THE FUTURE’S A MESS

No surprises here — the game looked every bit as gorgeous as it did in previous demos, and more than worthy of a developer whose last big retail game, Doom 3, was a graphics powerhouse. After awaking aboard an Ark — one of the underground shelters that protected a carefully chosen few from the asteroids that struck Earth in 2029 — you stumble outside and find yourself overlooking a giant dam…and one of Rage’s many stunning vistas, with water below, a sandy expanse in the distance, and twisted-metal wreckage all around.

Moments later, you’re attacked by two Ghosts — one of the many factions inhabiting this futuristic wasteland — and you soon realize how good the people look, too. Not so much from this pair: they’re gunned down almost immediately, just before they can kill you (or capture you, as Ark survivors are worth a load of money, you’re told). This info comes from your savior: Dan Hagar, the benevolent leader of a small camp located nearby. Once he drives you there in his buggy, you meet folks like Halek, who’ll sell you weapons and supplies; Durar, who’ll fix you up with a vehicle; and Loosum, who shows you how to use a Wingstick, a lethal half-boomerang/half-shuriken that’s tons of fun to throw.

Like the rest of the people in the early game, the Hagars feel convincingly real (especially Dan, who’s voiced with grim determination by John Goodman). Think Fallout characters, but with more visual detail — and as in Fallout 3 and New Vegas, it seems your hero is a silent protagonist, destined to listen but not speak.

WE LIKE TO LOOT

And rest assured, you’ll do plenty of listening. Though it’s an id game, Rage isn’t the studio’s typical first-person shooter: it’s also filled with RPG elements. Most of the 10-odd missions we played were set up as action-filled fetch quests, where a character asks you to kill someone or find something, and in return, you gain equipment, a shotgun, a buggy, or another important item.

In our first mission, Dan sent us to kill a group of bandits — more Ghosts, it turned out, who were based in the remnants of an old hotel. After crossing a rope bridge, we made our way inside and used our pistol and Wingstick to pick them off one by one. The pace picked up considerably as we ascended to the top of the cylindrical building, and before long, we were flinging grenades (which splatter enemies in clouds of red) and firing from behind cover to finish the remaining hordes. Though the Wingstick’s not very effective in tight hallways, where it can lodge in walls, it’s a terrific weapon in open areas: we never got sick of using it to decapitate charging baddies or slow them down with a strike to the legs. Likewise, the other weapons we tried — pistol, shotgun, assault rifle — all felt good and pack serious punch, just as you’d expect in an id game.

In return for eliminating this pack of Ghosts, Dan gave us armor (which, conveniently, covers up your attention-nabbing Ark suit). Other missions — one to get parts for an old buggy Dan gives you; one to activate a radio antenna for the Outrigger camp — put us in conflict with another clan, the Wasted. Whereas the agile, parkour-ish Ghosts move acrobatically, the Wasted are more like drunken thugs, all of whom sport a goofy British accent. While combing their hideout for the needed parts, dodging their machinegun fire and grenades, we found a hidden cache of Feltrite — a rare substance contained in the asteroids that struck Earth oh-so-long-ago. Halek had tipped us off to its enormous value, so we pocketed it to sell or use another day.

While on the mission to activate a radio antenna, we also resolved another mission: find Juno, the missing son of a woman in the Outrigger encampment. When we stumbled upon a Mutant feasting on the boy’s remains, the vicious creature leapt right at us, earning it a faceful of BOOM! from our shotgun. We were sorry to bring his mother, Janus, the bad news, but she kept her side of the bargain, giving us the recipe for healing bandages. They’re one of many items you can craft — or “engineer,” as the game dubs it — if you have the right ingredients in your inventory; others include lock cutters (for accessing hidden rooms in enemy hideouts) and an ability-enhancing Adrenaline Overdrive.

Even without engineered goodies, you still have a nifty secret weapon at your disposal: the ability to defibrillate yourself back to life should you take too much damage. You do so via a quick minigame where the more accurate you are, the more health you have when you revive — but if you completely choke, you will die and have to respawn. Entertainment-wise, this minigame’s only so-so, but we did appreciate being able to cheat death and avoid the ensuing (fairly quick) load time.

WIDE WORLD AHEAD

In between meeting (and shooting, and destroying) Mutants, Wasted, Ghosts, and bandits, we also did a fair share of driving around within Rage’s open world. Vehicles, we’re pleased to say, are fun to drive — at least, the ATV and buggy we tried were — due to tight handling, a speed boost that regenerates quickly, and a stop-on-a-dime emergency brake that’s good for negotiating sharp curves. You’ll definitely want to hone your racing skills: once you reach the city of Wellspring, you’ll enter various races to earn guns for your buggy and other bonuses.

We finished our hands-on time in Wellspring, having just performed several errands for the town’s mayor (including buying less-conspicuous clothes and a garage for our buggy) and stopping before our first Wellspring races. Apparently, the next half-hour or so includes these intriguing scenarios:

• Delivering supplies (once you’ve used race money to arm your buggy with guns) from Wellspring’s sheriff to the Hagar camp

• A mission to check out a Feltrite deposit

• Trying to locate a hard drive in the desolate Dead City, where you’ll face Mutants galore, including a colossal, heavily armed Super Mutant vaguely reminiscent of (but not as large as) a Super Mutant Behemoth from Fallout 3

Judging from our meaty hands-on, Rage certainly offers loads to do, see, fight, and explore. We could’ve easily kept playing, and after our couple-hour sampler, we’re psyched for more time in the Wasteland.