I hope it isn't doomed, haha. I'm about 9% of the way through it and I've been having fun so far. It's certainly an Avalanche Studios game, for better or ill. The combat feels weighty and does the Batman: Arkham franchise fighting system justice, and the vehicular combat is suitably psychotic and bizarre. The graphics are pretty nice, the framerate is fairly consistent, and I really like Chumbucket and Dinki-Di. They're like a little warped family for ol' Max. Avalanche Studios still has the chops for making open-world games.
However, they also still like to make overly large open worlds and then fill them with repetitive side-missions, collectible rubbish, and other standard genre-fluff to the point of madness. Of the five zones in the game, the three largest are subdivided into six different sub-zones that seemingly each have 6ish scarecrows, 2 sniper towers, 3 camps, a convoy, and 2 minefields. Each camp I've done so far involved blowing up tanks of fuel to screw over Scrotus while fighting some goons along the way (at least they become ally-owned when you're done, like in Far Cry 3. Much appreciated). Once you do enough of these, you can lower the threat level for the overall zone. So, you start at 5 and grind your way down 0 by repeating activities.
Oh, and there are numerous scavenger camps that all include bits of scrap and collectibles. Each zone has a fortress with very nice amenities (free fuel, free water, free food, unlimited ammo, scrap accrual while you aren't playing, etc)... but you have to unlock these perks by finding still more collectibles strewn across the myriad afore-mentioned locations. Oh, and there are "towers" just like Far Cry (only now they're air balloons), a vast number of character and vehicle upgrades all tied to scrap (which you have to grind up), MORE character upgrades tied to completing a large list of challenges, and yeah... it's a bit much.
I kind of wish they'd made a world half the size with more varied content and less grinding / filler, but having just completed the "Draenor Pathfinder" achievement in World of Warcraft for flying in Draenor... eh, this is tolerable by comparison. :-P Frankly, I've found it quite enjoyable so long as I build a virtual to-do list. Kill the scarecrows and snipers on my way to a camp, conquer the camp, rinse and repeat until the zone has no more camps to do, and then move on while buying whatever upgrades I can afford. I just got knuckle-dusters, wrist bracers, spike wheel rims, a shoulder charge, and a gutshot finisher... so I've made progress that's more satisfying that watching three reputation bars slowly crawl up while running the same raid over and over each week in the hopes of literally getting a new pair of pants. *shrug*
At least the bases don't endlessly spawn waves of goons like Just Cause 2 did, and at least the number of collectibles is lower than Just Cause 2... I guess. We're heading in the right direction, bit by bit. Forward momentum! :-D
By the way, credit where credit is due: the checkpoint system in this game is a welcome friend after the heck that Bloodborne put me through. Yeah, the lack of regenerating health can get a bit tedious when you get whittled down on your way to a camp and die from a flubbed parry. However, your death penalty is only a slightly long loading screen before you re-appear inside such said camp with full health and any ammo you had used prior to death in such said camp. I went from being flustered (WHAT? Now I have to drive all the way back here and hope no one gets a cheap pot shot on me along the way?) to relieved and smiling. This game wants me to kick $%$ and conquer, and I certainly appreciate that sentiment. It encourages me to go feral and high-octane crazy, while being just inconvenient enough with the loading screen to make me think before I destroy. Good balance, hehe.
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