id is known for the quality of the shooting experience and for the overall production value of their games. To expect much more than that is fairly pointless.It can look average without playing it. Do you really expect something more than average in the game play dept from iD at this point?
The position id is in at this point is that there are basically two groups of hardcore gamers: those who essentially just want Doom and Quake with amazing graphics and those who want engaging gameplay mechanics and deep, engrossing storylines. id's in a position where they need to go beyond the simplistic gameplay of Doom but not stray too far from the formula they established early on. So, group A ends up hating the games because they're different from Doom/Quake while group B ends up hating the games because they're too much like Doom/Quake and they find the games too generic. It's kind of a lose-lose deal for them at this point, as both groups tend to be pretty vocal about their expectations, so they can't grossly upset either, but in trying to find a middle ground, both groups end up being moderately disappointed.
In any case, Willits is no Spectre, so it's anyone's guess as to where Rage ends up. The premise does seem like fun though, so it's just a matter of the details panning out right and Rage should end up being a solid game. I have a feeling, though, that group A is going to hate it more than they hated Doom 3 while group B is going to be much more receptive to it.