id’s RAGE feels smoother than any FPS I’ve played on a home console. Full disclosure: I can’t confirm that I was actually playing on a console, but RAGE has been confirmed to run at a steady sixty frames per second on both the PC and the Xbox 360. While only experiencing a limited slice of the big pie, I’m confident that RAGE’s shooting mechanics feature top-tier levels of smooth and tight.
The “Authority Prison” stage that I played was distinctly different than my previous notions of the game. Instead of the mindless mutant mob rush that I expected, I was charged with breaking out of (or into?) a prison operated by the elusive Authority. The Authority seems to have a significant technological edge over the other factions in the RAGE universe. My experience with the demo told me only one thing: the Authority is comprised smart dudes that sported energy shields, heavy armor, and a security system that required a mildly-strategic use of EMP grenades to bypass. A barren, Fallout-esque world has certainly been done before, but the variation in the factions at least attempts to spice things up via the seemingly rich backstory.
The AI appears to operate intuitively enough to act like it should. At one point, I was facing an authority solider with a shield that was backed up by a few machinegun-toting cronies. After taking out the soldiers on the side, the baddie with the shield retreated to an adjacent room and took a position which gave him a better angle against me. While minor in scope, this simple reaction essentially told me what RAGE can be: a unique and varied shooter that exists in a space that is typically crowded and often saturated. Impressive AI, impressive framerate, and an impressive array of weapons and gadgets (including RC Pro AM cars that blow up, spider bots, and turrets) embellish an otherwise typical Mad Maxian game world. It’s been done before, but this is id we’re talking about.