Above anything else, Rage 2 is about having fun. Sure, pretty much all games are in one way or another, but this one is fundamentally built around empowering you to enjoy yourself. Its creative weaponry, the carnage of its combo system, and the freedom of its open world give you loads of options and then get out of your way. And while the extent of that world and the quality of the story in it remain to be seen, boy was it sure fun to be in.

I had the pleasure of running around Rage 2’s wasteland for a couple of hours last week, and I’m happy to say that a massive part of what actually made it so enjoyable was is its guns. While Avalanche Studios of Just Cause fame is the main developer behind it and that influence comes through loud and clear, the gunplay also feels punchy and fast in the way you’d hope from a modern id Software game, with slick movements abilities like an omnidirectional dash to play with.

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Each weapon is distinct and satisfying to fire. While more straightforward staples like an assault rifle are here, there are also weirder options that feel genuinely unique. Things like the Firestorm Revolver, which shoots flares that you can then ignite and explode with a snap of your fingers, or the Grav-Dart Launcher, which is essentially Just Cause’s hilarious physics-based tethers crammed into an SMG. Even more-familiar weapons like the shotgun, an id staple, have been tweaked a little to be more unexpected. Zooming in lets you shoot a longer-range slug to more accurately send enemies flying, giving it a flexibility that made me rarely want to switch off it.

The combat has also taken clear lessons from Doom 2016’s Arcade mode, and the combo-driven Overdrive system is a thrill. If you cause enough carnage while minimizing the hits you take yourself, you can activate this temporary upgrade to boost your damage, reload speed, movement, and pretty much everything else that helps you turn enemies into clouds of red mist.

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When I started out, I was using Overdrive far too conservatively because I expected it to behave something like an Overwatch ultimate: a big finisher you want to save for just the right moment. But in Rage 2, as long as I was playing smart, I was constantly getting Overdrive. When id loaded up a save file with an upgraded character it was even faster, and I had one extended firefight where I must have used Overdrive at least eight times. It’s an awesome and powerful buff, and I love that Rage 2 isn’t stingy with it.

The freedom Rage 2 offers across the board is unexpectedly liberating for a game with such distinctly id combat. Once you get out of the tutorial, you can pretty much go anywhere and do anything. Weapons and abilities are mostly unlocked through finding sealed Arks scattered around the Wasteland. And while some missions will push you toward finding them as you help any of the three main friendly factions, you can unlock Arks in pretty much any order you want. That means you could find the Firestorm Revolver extremely early on, while someone else may not find it until much later. But no matter which direction you choose to go, you’re likely going to find something cool to make you stronger.

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You won’t just be wandering around aimlessly between Arks the whole time, either. Larger outposts and danger-filled underground lairs provide some linear combat encounters that feel more like a traditional id shooter. They offer story-driven sections during main quests, and break up the longer moments of driving – which also feels as good as you’d expect from a game by the studio that made the 2015 Mad Max game.

The biggest question I’m left with is whether or not there’s enough variety in what Rage 2 gives you to do in its open world to keep me engaged for the long haul – something you can’t really get a clear picture of after just a couple hours of playing what seems like a fairly large game. But so far it feels like a marriage of id’s polished combat and Avalanche's openness that has resulted in the best of both worlds, and I’m genuinely excited to play more.

We'll be covering Rage 2 all month long as part of April's IGN First, you can keep up with all our exclusive Rage 2 coverage so far here.

Tom Marks is IGN's Deputy Reviews Editor and resident pie maker, and he likes blowing stuff up. You can follow him on Twitter