An open world game in a wasteland which is covered with sand and even more sand! Some madmen take majority control of the wasteland just because they have access to oil rigs and can produce fuel. A hero who has only one goal in mind: to construct the ultimate battle car! This is exactly what ‘Mad Max’s video game is about. This isn’t the first time we have seen a developer use a desert-like environment. Mad Max is one of the biggest releases of 2015, but received extremely low scores from most video game journalists and critics.
An open world game in a wasteland which is covered with sand and even more sand! Some madmen take majority control of the wasteland just because they have access to oil rigs and can produce fuel. A hero who has only one goal in mind: to construct the ultimate battle car!
This is exactly what ‘Mad Max’s video game is about. This isn’t the first time we have seen a developer use a desert-like environment. Mad Max is one of the biggest releases of 2015, but received extremely low scores from most video game journalists and critics. Now the question is, is Mad Max really worth buying, or is it a poor game?
On Steam, the game has an extremely high user rating. This is mainly because most gamers play games for fun, and they don’t necessarily pin down its flaws critically. Mad Max is a fun game, and its current price tag on Steam is $59.99. It has been released for Xbox One and PS4 for about the same price, although you can find a good deal on Amazon.com. The question is, should you buy it at this price?
Mad Max build-up review
Forget boring tutorials and slow-paced sections! You are immediately put in the middle of the battle at the start. Yes, you engage a few cars in the battle even before you have time to learn the controls. Needless to say, this game is not meant for people who are new to playing video games. The sad part is that you do not learn about Max as a character, which means you just follow objective waypoints without really understanding the reason.
You will be in awe when you see the wasteland after the battle sequence. The sand and wind effects are one of the best ever seen in a video game. Max’s character model isn’t bad either, and the graphics are done pretty well by the developers, Avalanche Studios. The hand-to-hand combat is something that will captivate you the most. Mad Max uses the same strike and counter mechanics as The Batman Arkham series. You can get through hand-to-hand combat sections by simple button mashing and carefully timed counters. You can’t go into the combat blazing guns, as ammo is pretty scarce in the harsh environment.
Mad Max story review
This is where I think many people will see a problem. Just like Dying Light and Far Cry 4, you get the sense that the story wasn’t the focus of the developers. This is disappointing because the game is basically a movie adaption and should have a solid story.
Max loses his car at the beginning of the game. The entire game centres around building a new and better car than the one you lost, and ‘Magnum Opus’ is the name of your car. So, you are not helping the various leaders and rebels in the wasteland because you are the hero. You are mainly helping them do get your work done! For example, early in the game you will go to a certain clan leader to make a deal with him. However, he will ask you to do certain tasks in exchange for his help in building the ‘Magnum Opus’. This tells that in the harsh wasteland, it is ‘the survival of the fittest’. I get it that this fits with the game, but it also means that Max is a selfish human being as he shows little to no compassion to other wasteland dwellers.
Mad Max gameplay review
Mad Max shines as far as gameplay is concerned. The car combat in the game is challenging and requires you to use your head extremely hard. You will be constantly thinking, “Should I blow the fuel tank of that car with my shotgun, or should I preserve the ammo and use my harpoon to pull the driver out of it?” Decisions like these in the car combat can make even small fights very interesting. You have to manoeuvre your car out of an enemy’s ramming range and get to its side to pull the enemy out with your harpoon. When you level your weapons up, you can do more creative kills and neutralizations like pulling the tires out or taking the armour off.
On foot, the game has a number of issues. Some of the objectives get repetitive and the hand-to-hand combat can get boring for those who are looking for a really tough challenge. The good thing is that there is a wide variety of enemies, which means that you can’t just button mash and hope to win against stronger enemies as they are sometimes wielding shields or wearing body armour. Some thinking is required here.
Before taking the stronghold, it is advised to do some scouting to find out what you will be facing when you get inside. Water and food is required to restore the lost health.
Almost all the cars are good, but the upgrading system is far too complex for a game that does not offer much room for creativity. If a person has Witcher 3 or Metal Gear Solid V The Phantom Pain, he will find it really hard to invest time into this game as some missions are not interesting enough. I wish there were more elements that would keep a player engrossed.
There is also a very strange rule set in this game. Some fires do not harm you, whereas others do. You cannot store food in your car. You can carry a limited amount of ammo, and yet, carry tons of scrap metal with you. Scrap metal is the currency of this game. Also, if you get run over by a car at full speed, you don’t die. Instead, four punches to the face from a strong enemy will kill you. I understand that some of these rules are not too bad as they had to balance the difficulty of the game somehow, but they were worth pointing out. The worst part is probably the climbing limitation. You cannot climb on anything which does not have ‘button prompt’ in the wasteland. I think they did this to make sure that the players do not climb over the hills, forcing them to use the car to do it.
Mad Max graphics and performance
Rendering an open world desert isn’t hard, but the options menu for the PC version is fantastic. You get a solid list of options and a huge variety of different resolutions. This means that you will be able to run this game on most mediums end systems at 60 FPS without a problem. It even has support for 640X480 resolution. All I can say is this is a fantastic job by Avalanche Studios! The game looks great and is not taxing!
Mad Max review summary
The only reason why this game received a low score was because the game did not have a solid story and good set of rules, was repetitive and had a shallow hand-to-hand combat system. The game is MASSIVELY FUN to play. High user reviews made that point perfectly clear. One point to note is that the mechanics of this game are very similar to Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry and Dying Light. It is worth buying at full price if you want the violent survival game.
Mad Max review score: 8/10
