The user plays as a survivor of the 2029 Apophis meteorite impact who has just awoken from an Ark (a world-wide movement which took scientists and other significant people, and froze them underground in cryo-pods so they could rebuild Earth). Soon, the player comes to realize that his Ark has malfunctioned and that he is the only survivor. Apparently this environment is perfectly suited to the rough-and-tumble dune buggy racing seen in games like MotorStorm, as that sort of gameplay will be an important feature of Rage. Players will have the ability to augment their cars with various items and upgrades they can gain by completing races, but the game is not specifically a racing title, trailers have shown a mix of mainly first person shooter elements as well as driving elements.

Rage will also feature some role-playing game (RPG) elements—an inventory system and the capabilities of weapons will be based around types of ammo. Players will also have the option to customize their weapons.[9] There will also be side missions. More on the RPG elements have not been detailed. At E3, Tim Willits stated that at the game's core is a first person shooter with car-combat added in and without the racing being the sole and central focal point. The game will be set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland created by an asteroid impact. The world will be populated by the human survivors of the impact who were preserved from the asteroid by being buried in the Arks. The world will also be populated by mutants who will serve as the player's main enemies at least for the first half of the game, as id is currently talking of a major change taking place at the midway point of the game.

Multiplayer
Rage has two multiplayer modes: Combat Rally and Legends of the Wasteland. In Combat Rally, up to six players compete in a free-for-all match that takes place in an arena designed to make use of the vehicles. The objective is to collect rally points that appear around the arena while killing your opponents and stealing their points. Legends of the Wasteland is a series of two-player bonus co-op missions based on stories that you hear about as you play the single player campaign.

Synopsis
In Rage's story, the asteroid strikes on August 23, 2038, and the few pockets of survivors are forced to begin a new civilization.

The world is populated by human survivors of the impact, who have come together to form settlements around oases and other practical or habitable locations, including racetracks. These fragile homes are diligently defended by the inhabitants against bandits and mutants, which are divided into various gangs and organizations of their own. Bandits and mutants serve as the player's main enemies for much of the game, and later races, although id Software has hinted at some sort of significant change around the halfway point in the storyline, where races become relevant.

The player emerges into this setting after being preserved inside an underground shelter called an Ark. The Arks are the direct result of the Eden Project, a massive international undertaking in which hundreds of Arks (cryogenic pods) were sealed under the surface of the Earth with twelve people inside each. Each passenger possessed a special ability or trait that, combined with those of the other members, would help them rebuild society. The Eden Project, however, was far less successful than hoped. The player's Ark in particular is in sorry shape upon the start of the game - all of the other residents of the player's Ark are dead (presumably because of the impact), and the equipment of the Ark is destroyed as well, and so the player wakes up alone and uninformed. With no memory of his identity or objective, the player is forced to head for the surface to find sustenance and allies.

Hostile Factions
The Authority: Very little is known about the Authority. While their motives are unclear, they offer rewards to anybody who turns in an Ark Survivor. Obviously, avoiding them is in the player's best interest. It is also hinted that the Authority has been experimenting on the mutants, resulting in such beasts as the giant mutants.

Mutants: While not necessarily organized enough to be a distinct faction, mutants are nonetheless a common presence in the wasteland. Although a few have been wrangled for use in entertainment on Mutant Bash TV, plenty remain loose in the wasteland. Few details have been released, although one trailer depicts a mutant over two stories tall tearing apart a billboard, indicating that many victims of mutations have been altered dramatically. It has been evidenced that the Authority has conducted experiments on the mutants, resulting in the giant mutants.

The Wasted Clan: A dim-witted bunch that enjoys mechanics, home-brewed alcohol and fighting. The Wasted are most commonly found in (what used to be) industrial areas, where more scrap and parts are on hand for their automotive projects. In fighting, they'll sacrifice any semblance of tactics for the sheer effectiveness of blunt objects to the face, and prefer to reach for the nearest club and come at the player from any direction they can (although they will use guns on occasion).

The Ghost Clan: Sinister and stealthy, fearsome and fearless. The Ghost Clan is arguably the most id-like of Rage's enemies, dealing in the occult and staging gruesome sacrifices in order to gain a seat in the afterlife. Feared even by the other clans, Ghosts use the environment to their advantage while fighting - climbing around walls, leaps of faith, and hanging from beams are some of the many ways they evade the player, while their boomerangs provide both melee and ranged opportunities for them to cut intruders to ribbons.

The Scorcher Clan: The asteroid Apophis was the steed of a demigod - so says the Scorcher Clan, who believes that tapping the energy of the asteroid (and thus its supposed supernatural owner) will make them invincible. As their name suggests, the Scorchers like fire - lots of it - and they make this abundantly clear with the amount of it they paint onto their bodies and cars. Their leader, a brutal fellow named Reaver, absolutely despises the Shrouded Clan, and displays his leadership with a picture of the asteroid itself, emblazoned on his car. He likes fire, a lot of fire.

The Shrouded Clan: Behind the gas masks and orange scarves, they are deserters - the Shrouded Clan is made up of those who abandoned their own clans in disillusionment, and banded together to disguise their identity and motives. They are skilled engineers, and use their cunning to booby-trap their lairs, as well as craft RC bomb cars and automatic turrets (like those the player can make).

The Jackal Clan: aka "The Jackie Clan", howls in the night signal the coming of the Jackal Clan. Part animal and part human, they are a savage group of hunters and combatants. The Jackals act more like a pack of wolves on a hunt than a well-trained military force. They adorn their bodies with bones, furs and animal scalps that give them an appearance more beast than man. They are savage in nature and vicious in combat.

The Gearheads: The Gearheads are the most intelligent of the wasteland's factions. Not relying solely on brute force for survival, these bandits have built advanced machinery and weaponry that make them a force to reckon with. These bandits look to technology for their salvation and vow to never let “mother nature” destroy them again. Some believe that founding members of this group may well have been Ark survivors that gave up on society and went their separate ways.