Id: Player freedom is "not the point" of Rage

Id Software CEO Todd Hollenshead has said Rage's linearity isn't a flaw, as the game isn't supposed to be an open world sandbox.

"It's not like, 'just wander around,' and that's on purpose," Hollenshead told Gamasutra.

"I mean, the point of the game isn't to [wander around]."

Hollenshead said the wastelands betwene missions and town hubs aren't there for exploring, but for surviving.

"We try to make the wastelands more like some of the experiences like running a gauntlet to get through from point A to point B, as opposed to just going where you want," he said.

Nevertheless, the CEO said game does enable player choices as they pertain to gameplay.

"It's open, there are meaningful choices that you can make, in terms of what you want to do," he explained.

"There's not necessarily a predetermined order of, 'this is number one, this is number two, this is number three. You may have multiple missions that you can do at the same time, and the order in which you choose them is up to you.

"Now, it may be more or less challenging based on the way it was intended, but it's not necessarily dictated."

Having said that, Hollenshead admitted that players sometimes won't be able to backtrack once they make enough progress, and that choices may sometimes boiled down to do or don't.

"The choice on that stuff is something like, 'Pardon me. Is this something you want to do at this point, or do you want to come back to it later?' Or is it necessary?

"Some of this stuff has to be accomplished to be able to open up the game; for example, you're never going to get your car if you don't go get the buggy parts. So it's just, 'Okay, you don't have to do it,' but then you're not going to get any parts, and you're going to be stuck."

Rage releases this week on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.