Rage won't be an RPG, Sorry guys. But it will have some RPG elements and adventure stuff too.
Feel free to read an interview with Tim Willits on Rage.
Preview:
I think you brought up something last year about the economy system, just before Christmas. Could you…
Tim Willits: Go into that more?
Yeah.
Tim Willits: This presentation, we wanted to focus a lot on the core aspects of the game, show you the different bandits. But there are other aspects to the game that are important, and one of them is the economy. Now, we made it simple enough or really complex; you can buy this stuff and sell this stuff, but as you adventure around the wasteland, or the bandit hideouts and mutant caves, keep your eyes open for stuff. You may pick up rare things, like feltrites. They're part of the meteors, minerals in the meteors and they're very valuable. There's also usable goods you can make stuff with, or just random stuff that's valuable that you can go back and sell.
One thing we found out is that you spend a lot repairing your vehicle, so it's important to make some money. Another thing that's neat about Rage, that I didn't mention here in this presentation, is that we have some very-easy-to-get-into mini-games, so if you're in town and you're out of cash, you can always go make some. There are side missions to earn cash as well.