Mad Max

Concise Review:

A relatively simple and repetitive open world experience that is enjoyable due to its excellent sense of style, and its effective upgrade system. There is constant progression for Max and the Magnum Opus that feels impactful. It’s relaxing and enjoyable to mess around in the wasteland clearing the various tasks. A lot of good experiences in this game, not a lot of great or bad ones. Strong ending.

Journal Style Review:

Years ago I started this game and probably played 2-3 hours and then stopped. It didn’t capture my interest. I think I might have been worn out with open world games at the time. I am giving it another go now.

Solid opening cutscene. That chainsaw was a nice touch. First tutorial sections are alright. I like the idea of upgrading my vehicle. This seems like it may be pretty cookie cutter for open world games of this time, but I like the mad max world so far. I like the style to it. The sand storm was cool. Nice touch.

I wish it wasn’t so slow to pick stuff up and open doors etc. The hold A for everything isn’t great. There’s a lot of collecting and looting as well. I find myself getting lost looking for scrap sometimes and I think I’ll enjoy this game more if I just move on. That being said I’m enjoying it and like the style to the world. I think the combat feels good even though it’s simple. It has a good weight to it. I like the amount of upgrades and customization this game has also. There’s a lot.

I don’t love searching for things to blow up in camps. I hope I get better at finding them. This game is a bit too slow to begin. I want to be driving and fighting people more, not walking around in camps looking for things. 

The world looks really cool at times. They have made a nice wasteland. This game has something pretty cool going on that I can’t quite describe. It’s somehow very generic and familiar while also feeling unique and special. I don’t know why. But I’m liking it.

This game feels like it’s best scenario should be at night when stoned. I haven’t played it stoned yet but it feels like a stoned game. 

I love the car races/combat. I need more of it. The death race was very fun. The combat and action is so cinimatic. Shooting the tanks and blowing up the cars or smashing them and the slow mo looks so awesome.

This game is epic. It’s picked up the pace, or maybe I’ve just accepted the pace, either way, I’ve been really enjoying it. It feels like an epic movie. The world is actually so awesome. I thought it was going to look boring because it’s so dead everywhere but they nailed the atmosphere and look of the world. So far at least. I hope it continues to look amazing.

Quality of life complaint. I don’t like that you need to drive chum’s buggy for the dog to clear minefields. My custom car is so fucking cool and super fun to drive so I don’t like it when I’m forced to go back to garage, change my car specifically for mines, and then go clear a bunch out. It’s my least favourite of the  activities.

Seriously though, I love Max’s car. It is decked out and it’s the type of car I really like. Super cool. I had a few sessions where I was driving around a lot (while stoned) and it was a great time. This game is currently a high B+ but it’s been steadily rising.

Still get lost looking for transfer tanks sometimes.

This game is pretty easy for the most part. At least with my overleveled max it is. It suits the game though. This is a low stress casual game for me. The hardest part are the different death races, but that might be partly because I haven't unlocked some of the other vehicles. 

I’d say I enjoy about 80% of the tasks. Occasionally I’m frustrated because I get lost and I don’t like the decision to force max to use chums buggy for the mines. I don’t like driving that rust bucket when I have this dope muscle car that’s better in every way. It makes the minefields a chore. I want to do them because I want to fully lower the threat level to 0 for unlocks but it becomes a chore. Most of the other tasks are enjoyable.

The game is fairly simple overall and there isn’t a ton of variety. Because of the lack of challenge and the lack of variety I’m usually good to play something else after 1 or 2 hours. At this point I don’t think this game makes the jump to A-. It will be close probably.

Driving through the lightening sandstorms is so cool. I’ve had a good streak of fun sessions.

Overall story is very bare bones and I ignored most of it. The vibes of the world and the characters are where I’m getting my “story” beats from. I’m a wanderer building up a sick car. I don’t need anymore than that.

I actually really liked the story ending. I did not expect the child and mother to get killed. That was intense and nicely transitioned into full crazy max. Which I loved. Then the final scrotus death was pretty great too.

I cleared every camp, scarecrow, sniper, and death race, so I clearly enjoyed the game. It ends a high B+. It was so close an A-.

Final Score: B+

Avalanche will always contain a special place within my heart. Just Cause 3 is one of my favorite games of all time with over 100 hours and three 100% playthroughs logged on Steam, and Mad Max was my first introduction to their magnificent, gorgeous, sandbox worlds. This was one of the earliest games I played on my PS4, and I played it some small amount of time after playing Arkham Knight for the first time. It's certainly reminiscent of that signature Arkham-style combat--it feels a lot more brutal and grounds Max in a more realized world. Getting surrounded by enemies can become terrifying as you're overwhelmed by grunts with hefty weapons. Tools like the shivs and shotgun allow for slick, vicious takedowns without over-complicating the combat with numerous gadgets and moves as in Arkham. I felt like blocking or countering was pretty stuttery and unforgiving, however, this encouraged me to play a lot more aggressively--instead of countering or blocking, I would simply beat-down an enemy before they could strike me.

Car combat is a beast within and of itself. The dogfights, convoy chases, and cacophonous arena fights illuminate the game's pacing by providing some of the most exciting fights in any game I've played. You are *always* given the opportunity and viability to take on multiple vehicles. The Magnum Opus is fitted with its own suite of weaponry and the ability to completely customize the car to allow for your specific type of gameplay is amazing. I personally outfitted mine with a really fast engine and slimmed down on accessories to make it faster, and equipped a powerful ram at the front that allowed me to demolish smaller cars with a single nitrous boost. This customization is the heart of the game and completely enables the player to play the way THEY want to play. Max's customization leaves less to be desired, but this isn't really an RPG, so the individual player skill trees aren't really important to my experience.

I think what's so amazing about this game is that it's one of the rare few games where having an empty, sparse, wasteland of an open world excels the gameplay forward to an amazing level. There's moments of calm fortitude where you drive through the ravaged, buried wasteland of an Australia forgotten long ago. These moments are perfectly juxtaposed with the adrenaline-pumping car fights and base takedowns that are frequently scattered throughout the world. Many open-world sandbox games develop this atmosphere of the player being somewhat of a god--Avalanche is no stranger to this, as Rico Rodriguez takes on the role of some immortal, Jesus-like figurehead that swings from exploding vehicle to exploding vehicle, gunning down dozens of fascists as he liberates foreign countries from the hands of dictators. Mad is the complete opposite of this--he's one man against a dangerous world. While the world is trapped inside with Rico, Max is trapped inside with the wasteland. Everything in the game forms some sort of threat, and the minimal resources you have to survive and replenish your health, such as food and water, are not frequently found. Ultimately the game feels quite distanced from many other modern open world games despite following the same formula.

It's no Fury Road in terms of scale, cinematic story, or narrative, but Mad Max still allots the player a ton of freedom in their approach to how they choose to play the game. My main gripe in which the game fails is its lack of an interesting narrative. Pacing is stuttery across the five acts that range from being anywhere from 10 hours to 1 hour. I found myself consistently more intrigued in doing side content or "flattening" the world by checking off markers across the map than I did in continuing the story. The lack of mission diversity is a huge problem here, and the game often requires you to complete a certain amount of open-world activities before continuing the story. It's that lack in freedom for story progression that hurts the game, as the freedom within gameplay is so counterintuitive to it that you encounter these weird progression locks that prevent you from moving forward. 

I did, admittedly, love the idea of having different strongholds across the world that you could upgrade. This provided more motivation for doing side activities, as I could collect scrap or materials that I could then use to build permanent upgrades such as canteen or gas refills. I felt like the game was always rewarding me for doing extra content instead of just checking things off a list. Ultimately, this is a very interesting and fresh open world game that manages to make the constantly retreaded Far Cry-esque formula more enjoyable to play. If you're looking for a liberating open world sandbox, or a game with truly MAGNIFICENT vehicular gameplay, or simply another game to scratch that Arkham/Shadow of Mordor itch, then I'd recommend Mad Max for you.

I'm feeling a strong, decent 7.5-7.7 on this game.

HI Review Friends, 40 std Playing Time, I have used to play through including all Side tasks, Hostile Stock, Magnum Opus Maximum Upgrades (Max new Car) etc. Typical Open World Formula, Take Stock, Cover the Card etc. Pro------------------+ PC Port Super! 760 GTX ~ 60 FPS! + A Man and his Car + Post-apocalyptic atmosphere Simplified By a brilliant Skybox + Great Debris Effects and Explosions + Batman, Assassins Creed, Sleeping Dogs similar Combat System, But very simplified. + Mad Max upgradable new Vehicle, very motivating + Good Vehicle Fights negative--------------------No Replay Value! No NEW GAME +!! -Once the Main Story is complete, the World is still open to us. However, If we have already solved all The side tasks before, some of which we have to make mandatory in order to unlock new Upgrades for Max and his Car, there are no more Tasks after playing through. -Collect scrap metal borders on Madness! Little Memorable Vehicle combinations-in some cases very trashy Story-The Engine Sound of the first Engine can be very annoying over the duration! It is a pity that we upgrade Max and the Car to the Maximum, which is only possible very late. Then at the End we unfortunately spend very little Time in Max and the Magnum Opus (Max Vehicle) Maximum shape. Since we finally become Mad Max and then no longer have any Tasks, very Bad. There is also no Option, as in Far Cry, to simply reset all the Bearings. Please Improve! NEW GAME + Thumbs up