Quick Look: Mad Max

This needs a post-apocalyptic Rocket League multiplayer mode.

This looks like something I'll play next year when there are way less new games to play.

This looks like something I'll play next year when there are way less new games to play.

This looks pretty alright. Not something I'd rush out and pay $60 for perhaps, but I could see playing this at some point. I don't require every game to knock it out of the park; it's fine to play a game that's just fun and accomplishes what it sets out to do, and this seems to do that.

I only played maybe 2 hours ... the only thing I don't like yet is that you can't pick up scrap by driving over it or something. I know that would be game-y but much more convinient.

WITNESS ME!

Man, as someone who has come to hate open world games so much that I can't even be interested in Witcher 3 or MGSV this looks like my personal hell. Just mediocre, boilerplate open world to the goddamn core. *shiver*

You know, these scrap towns in the desert just remind me of the Marauders from Red Faction: Guerilla.

Which really makes me want to play some Red Faction: Guerilla.

So, there are aspects of this game that look really nice. I'm a sucker for sky boxes and nice video game sunsets, Witcher 3 for example. And this game seems to deliver that. That fire looks realll nice. Also, there's a certain mystique to the desolate wasteland. But then there's the part where it's a by the numbers open world game with all the towers and collectibles that feel rote at this point.

Like, I would buy the screen saver version of this game.

Well this ql is already of to a great start.

This doesn't even really look like a Mad Max game. You could say this is a third person RAGE sequel and I'd believe you.

I'm glad someone else said it. As cliche as it is to say, I honestly thought I was the only one who thought that game was really derivative and just not all that. I was especially surprised Jeff of all people would praise it.

It's one of those weird games where damn near everyone I've see who has played it is super positive, but the critical response is really grim.

I've no idea what is going on in these kinds of situations. Are the reviewers just jaded from too many Assassin Creed's and Batmen?

Thunderpoon sounds like the name to an all girl punk band from the 80's or 90's. I bet they have a great zine.

This is probably the most nitpicky I've seen Giant Bomb. Game looks rad!

Name the voice actor: Liam O'Brien (War in Darksiders and Asura in Asura's Wrath). Probably the easiest voice to recognize in gaming. His timbre is so distinct.

Just as a I thought. This is a game I'd get cheap at gamestop.

I'm willing to bet that using the terms 'ample zing coils' or 'thunderpoon' won't fetch you many dates even in the post apocalypse.

But you can't deny the giggle factor. :D

Just played the about three hours of this in between huge MGSV sessions and I'm fucking LOVING it. It nails the Mad Max atmosphere as far as the open world and emergent encounters go, the car combat looks and feels absolutely great and the game just looks straight up gorgeous.

The hand to hand combat is pretty much Batman as you all know, but it isn't offensive as the press makes it out to be. The animations and executions are pretty good, and while it really is something we've seen a million times before it gets the job done.

The story is engaging enough as far as a driving force to the game goes, but it isn't really something to write home about. It's not what I'm here for, but it's more entertaining than I thought it would be; with Chumbucket being a highlight.

All in all I think this is a huge surprise. Even as a huge Mad Max fan I wasn't expecting much after reading the reviews and playing a lot of MGSV (which is absolutely incredible), but so far this has exceeded my expectations in nearly every respect.

I'm not going to take credit away from the negative reviews just because I disagree with them, but I honestly feel like the game is being judged by the wrong standards. This didn't have to be revolutionary, and the familiar open world structure they went with works well within the mechanics and systems of the game.

If you're curious about this at all, I would strongly recommend you give it a shot. I guarantee this is going to end up being one of this year's biggest hidden gems.

I pity this game for launching on the same day as TPP (which definitely took the marketing spend that this title didn't) and I hope the devs keep their gigs. This would have been pretty great had it come in time for the film and also been clearly marked as being separate from it :<

I would argue that Nemesis alone would've still raised Mordor above most games regardless of the year. While I do agree with the faults you mentioned, I believe it was an Assassin's Creed 1 type situation. Even though the system didn't work for everyone, you could still see how much promise it had. And for those it did work, there was/is nothing else like it. From my short play-time with Mad Max, it seems like Mordor minus the one thing that raised Morder from average to interesting.

Scrotus Scaborous sounds like a Gwar character.

I have no idea where the hate, or should I say indifference, is coming from. It's getting average reviews, and admittedly the gameplay is average (even if the car combat is fresh), but the characters are pretty excellent. Chumbucket is a weird religious automobile zealot (saying shit like, "our Angel Combustion"), Griffa is a dope cryptic dude that probably will never be explained but that's alright, and the first Warlord is a pipsqueak wannabe that has a fucked up face and shoulders. Max himself doesn't have much going for him except a gruff personality but I think that's enough for his role. I don't know much about Mad Max "lore", but I completely accept the mythology of Mad Max as a concept or as a post-apocalyptic archetype, that in this world there are many, one might say infinite, Mad Max's.

Also, the first mission Chumbucket says it used to be a seabed, and it doesn't get any lower than where they are, so are they literally in the Mariana Trench, or at least the Pacific Ocean? 'Cause if so, that's way more fucked up than what I thought originally (just a dryer Australia).

Note to @vinny - "dinky di" (pronounced dinky die) is an Australian phrase for something genuine.

@ch3burashka: The area where you start is a seabed for sure, hence all the ruined ships. But if you look at the geography the "Jaws" gate is actually an industrial pier, with cranes and everything, also it is situated on a ridge that divides the lower zones you start in from the rest. So you are kind of in a coastal area.

As a person who has played videogames before, after watching the QL I feel like I've played the game for 100 hours. Why put so much effort and talent into such an unremarkable shell?

Go crazy with the design, remove the gps and make me think about navigation, make survival more than press A to watch dog food cutscene at every stronghold, make repairing the vehicle a skill based activity so I drive smart, make me drag the actual part I need to a workshop so I pay attention to the environment and what I choose to blow up. I'm not a game designer and these are probably terrible, simple minded ideas but give me anything to make me pay attention to the game.

My brain has done all this, from minute 1 I go into auto pilot, its fun but 100% forgettable and its frustrating because it feels like they (similar to a lot of AAA devs) did all the hard work but were just too conservative, too reliant on amazing execution.

this doesn't seem very interesting

User reviews of this game seem to be vastly more positive than media reviews. Interesting, you don't see a split like this very often.

This game fits into buy when on sale on steam category for me. But it seems actually half decent.

I'm in a state of fury also.

This is giving me a really big Red Faction Guerrilla vibe.

@haze said:

I think you often see positive reviews from consumers. People usually don't play as many games as critics, or they just want to justify their $60 purchase.

Mad Max: Meter Road? All them meters.

This game is incredibly fun. It's also an open world game with towers and upgrades and LOTS of repetitive side activities. I, for one, haven't soured on this type of open world game, so I'm loving it, but I can see how some might not. If nothing else I love the feel of the world.

Looks a lot cooler then Shadow of Mordor at least.

I'm so glad that East is quick looking this.

The War Crier thing is absolutely fantastic. Whoever had that idea deserves a raise.

This game seems fine, but it could have been so much more. I'll probably check it out at some point when I'm looking for a goofy open world romp.

I am having a great time with this game.

Most combatants are just onlookers and cheerleaders until you take someone down. Still a terrible AI, I see.

I don't know about that. There are number of reviews echoing Alex's 'rote' and 'repetitive' complaints. That's not exactly nitpicky - seems more of a structural issue with the game's underpinnings.

This looks like my type of jam.

Seems like it would've been a perfect fit for another round of the ol' Nemesis System tho'.

Chumbucket for best Video Game sidekick 2015

I feel like for a game that so heavily based on cars and vehicles and movement, having to stop your car to fix it goes against momentum and good game design. I know some commenters have said you dont have to stop the car to fix it, and that Alex had just missed a prompt somewhere, but if you can get ChumBucket to fix the car while you're in it but you just have to stop the car, that's silly.

Even in Fury Road it seemed like they always kept moving. Engine is on fire? Put up a cow catcher to kick sand onto your engine to put the fire out. Something's broken? Keep driving, have someone crawl on the hood to go fix it.

I don't understand all the massive hype around this game. Sure, it looks competent, but I've heard nothing but good buzz about this game and watching the QL... why? I guess there are just a lot of post apocalyptic gearheads out there.

The cars at the beginning were confusing with their green health bars as i always associate those with friendlies. For a second i thought it was alex's dumbass posse trying to get in the stronghold.

Agreed! Hopefully he doesn't get robbed like Shitbot did for GB GOTY 2014.

Mad Max Fury Rote

"WATER IS INSIDE THEM ALEX!"

The dialogue and characters seem pretty generic, 1-dimensional, and boring from what Alex showed.

I know this is silly thinking, but mechanics aside, and given that the flexible creative nature the Mad Max license inherently provides, I really wished they would have taken at least a few writing tips from a game like LISA in how they treated the characters this world - namely a mix of horrific perverted REALLY dark more believable behavior like there actually was in the movie (as opposed to what I would refer to as Hollywood's mostly PG-13 style of "dark behavior") and mix it in with a good dose of strange WTF-level humor... but I guess that's too much to expect from a mainstream designed-by-mass-committee licensed film property title.

Oh well. I suppose it doesn't really matter anyway. I'll be playing MGSV mostly like everyone else anyhow.

The guys seemed like they had fun with it. Perhaps the novelty does wear off after a few hours like Alex said. Merge this game with Rage and looks like you have a winner though.

@theshrubber:

Where we're going, we don't need roads