Mad Max – Conflicted Chaos
Mad Max is an exercise in conflict, both in the game world in a sense of lore, and mechanics. Set in a gorgeously realized wasteland with changing weather, visceral hand to hand combat, and some incredibly fun diversions like convoys, these pros are offset with cons of frames dropping, repetitive combat, and some general feeling that you’ve seen this all before in another game.
Disclosure: I wrote this here fancy review for another site that I do quite a bit of reviewing for, seeing the game not have any community reviews here on GB I thought I'd put in my thoughts and welcome any feedback on the review or discussion on the game.
"Those who survived, those are the truly broken"
Max is a character of tragedy, once a man of the law, the apocalypse does some crazy things to your sanity, as Max has become a wanderer of the wastes. Max is found in the standalone story of Mad Max from Just Cause studio Avalanche immediately getting kneed and pummeled by the games main protagonist, Scabrous Scrotus. Scrotus is a behemoth on screen, and evokes feelings of dread from his gargantuan size, and the heads dangling from mufflers on his back don’t hurt.
...letting kids die isn’t the preferred response to a situation, even in the end times.
In the opening moments Max is brutalized, but not before burying a chainsaw in Scrotus’ forehead, leading us to believe the war king of the land is dead and gone, but his war boys live on and terrorize the land. After taking control of Max we quickly meet Chumbucket, one of the many disfigured and interesting characters of the entirety of the Mad Max world through film. Chumbucket joins up with max to use his talents as a mechanic to build Max’s Magnum Opus, the replacement to the Interceptor that Scrotus’ war boys demolished, and the key to Max’s save travel across the plains.
Chumbucket is an entirely interesting, if odd fellow, riding in the back of the vehicle and repairing it when war boys wreak their havoc on it. Chum is also the guy to see about upgrades, which are the real star of Mad Max. The upgrade, customization, and driving in general shine as some examples of the true core of the game. Having the ability to completely change and upgrade everything from the body of your Magnum Opus through to the shocks, turbo, and weaponry is a huge motivation for the completionist.
Max also meets characters like Hope and Glory, numerous war chiefs around the map, and weary travelers around the area. The team at Avalanche has done a great job of keeping the idea of Max as the cold, lone wanderer, but the real draw of some of the other characters needs a bit more attention. Hope and Glory for instance are a mother and daughter who serve as a great motivation nearing the end of the main campaign. The problem is that neither character is fleshed out extremely well through the early game, save from a quick scene in a stronghold where max first interacts with Hope. There is a great and informative bio section of the menu, but if nothing else was learned from Destiny, stories benefit greatly from working in those details and relationships right into the experience, as opposed to another menu. Even in the bio menu, in Hope’s case for instance, it goes into great detail of her past, but doesn’t really break down why Max feels the need to help her beyond the fact that letting kids die isn’t the preferred response to a situation, even in the end times.
The overall arc of Max is interesting, but seems to dip hard in the middle, having trouble finding true meaning for things that happen to happen. The end however really builds up to some dire “last shot” moments, and the true Max character begins to show through much more. The crazy eyed, rage filled man we know shows up, but almost feels like the game was written from end to beginning, which isn’t always bad, unless it’s easily noticed.
"Paint my name in their blood across the lands"
Luckily for players and Max, the true focus of Mad Max and love comes from the construction of the Magnum Opus, and the progression of Max. Chumbucket is your sturdy mechanic whom repairs the Opus, and shoots weapons like the harpoon, which becomes integral to not only progression, but also aggression in the late game. Upgrading the harpoon allows max to rip down structures like gates, scarecrows, and other tower defenses, making the approach to camps and strongholds not just manageable but possible in the first place.
Needless to say there’s a lot to level up and put thought into the improvement of your experience, as it’ll be hard to say that any two players will follow the same path.
The Opus has numerous upgrades in a ton of categories; turbo, engine, shocks, tires, nitro, and much more affect the driving behavior of the car, while there are offensive and defensive capabilities to the car as well including the aforementioned harpoon, thunderpoon (basically a rocket launcher), rims for grinding, front bumpers for ramming, and more. The Opus becomes just that, your Magnum Opus of vehicular violence to unleash upon the wretched hordes. Apologies, but Chumbuckets screaming of allusion and metaphor from the back seat of the Opus stick with you for certain, as he is pretty entertaining just to listen to. Chumbucket also has access to some blueprints for specific and special vehicles called Archangels, with varying specialties going from speed to attack and more, these blueprints aren’t necessary for more than a few missions, but they’re all quite interesting on their own, and motivate the player to find the parts and scrap needed to build the monsters.
Upgrades are attained through scrap, sprinkled throughout the world for collection by finding it, tearing down structures, or building up the strongholds to send crews out for you in different ways. Scrap is found fairly sparingly early on, and ramps up as the game goes on and more work goes into the strongholds and such. Scrap is also used to upgrade Max and his abilities, gaining more iconic looks like his jacket, some wrist and knuckle protection, and upgrades to the shotgun, for which the ammo is extremely light but power is astronomical. Needless to say there’s a lot to level up and put thought into the improvement of your experience, as it’ll be hard to say that any two players will follow the same path.
Max also earns levels to earn Griffa coins, cashed in at the mysterious merchant in one location at a given time throughout the map. Griffa upgrades Max’s general abilities by upping things like his ability to hold a melee weapon longer, the amount of health gained from eating, and the amount of water received from filling the canteen, which restores health (there is no regeneration in Mad Max).
The question might come up, “well what exactly do you do” and the answer is about tenfold, but a large aim of the game is to decrease the influence Scrotus and his war boys around the map. Each zone led by a Stronghold leader with names like Pink Eye and Jeet will start at a level 5, with actions taken throughout the zone like eliminating scarecrow effigies, sniper towers, and taking out camps will decrease the overall influence in that zone. Decreasing this influence comes into play in unlocking upgrades for certain parts for the Opus, or upgrades for Max.
The real issue with Mad Max is that it does a few things very well, but more often they feel like we’ve seen and used them before. The combat for instance is a genuinely visceral experience, but it is used so often that the moves become recycled and there isn’t a true feeling of Max either becoming a better fighter, or like anything is really progressing or adding challenge. New enemies are introduced, and while their looks are interesting, it’s the same fight you likely encountered an hour ago. Dodge rolling and hitting triangle to parry, while cool for the first few hours, become routine and reflex in the later game. The fighting does indeed get brutal, as the Fury meter builds, Max hits harder, and can do finishers that are just on the border of insane. Unfortunately once the Fury meter is built, it still doesn’t vary enough to really make players journey into the experimentation mode of fighting, it’s an affair of using the same combo you’ve been using the past few hours.
Also of note is the buggy nature of the game. We played a PlayStation 4 copy provided courtesy of Avalanche and Warner Brothers, and found the framerate inexplicably drops at points that are mind boggling, but fairly constant. Typically a drop here or there is fine, and can be brushed off, but the fact that the game does so often enough to illicit a sigh is troubling. Also notable was an interaction where a truck of war boys pulled up and started wanting to fight before blinking out of existence all together. These experiences, while not game breaking or disk-snap inducing, are just questionable.
The End isn’t all bad
Problems aside, Mad Max serves up one of the most beautifully realized worlds from a recognized property in a very long time. Even in games like Shadow of Mordor and Batman: Arkham Knight the settings are familiar because we’re told so, but in Mad Max the sand and dust filled wastes contrasted with blue skies and clouds that react to the dynamic lighting is refreshing. True world building was done, and for fans of the older movies as well as this year’s Mad Max Fury Road will recognize the scenery. There’s some incredible set pieces as well, one of memory is a section leading to and underneath an airport, where the game goes from an action beat-em-up to a tense and eerie trek through a darkened airport covered in the dunes of the wastes.
Some of the most memorable experiences in Mad Max are the giant and somewhat terrifying storms, varying between sand and wind, they both have some vicious lightning that if striking pretty much anything it’ll demolish. The lightning sounds, looks, and feels incredible, inspiring players to take the nearest cover the quickest.
Players appreciative of sound design will be pleased to hear just about every aspect of Mad Max, as Avalanche has a penchant for incredible auditory experiences. The pumping and orchestral music is noticeable during and outside of altercations with those nasty war boys, with plucking strings, booming drums, and much more that really drive home the epic feel that the world builds.
The Bottom Line
Mad Max delivers a fun experience that almost feels too big for its own good. While there is indeed a lot to, and the world is absolutely gorgeous to just explore, the game feels like borrowed ideas from great games that were not necessarily introduced flawlessly. The combat suffers from the same bugs that plague the world of frame drops or total input failure, resulting in Max taking a fist to the head, enemies blink out of the world, the frames crash to single digits. If there weren’t balances to these rather significant downers, the game would suffer greatly, but with the story picking up near the end, the driving being fun and the drive to customize both Max and the Magnum Opus being truly motivating, the game ends up being a fun, but not great experience.
Disclosure: I was provided a digital code of Mad Max for Playstation 4
