Search the Community

Name:Mad Max Genre:Shooter,Action Theme:Sci-fi Relase Data:Sep-01-2015 Platforms:PC,360,One,PS4,PS3 developer and publisher:Warner Brothers ineractive enternnammen DESCRIPTION A new open world, third-person action game where players become Mad Max, a lone warrior in a savage post-apocalyptic world where cars are the key to survival.Mad Max places gamers directly into the driver’s seat of their ultimate customized vehicle to battle it out in the action-packed, open world of The Wasteland Coasting along the apocalyptic horizon, Mad Max is late. Max is late not just for the movies - which have by now seeped out of the public consciousness - but also late to the open-world party. Just Cause developer Avalanche Studios has been working on Mad Max for a significant chunk of time now, but to look at the Warner Bros-published titled you’d be forgiven for thinking it was cracked out in the 12 intervening months since Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor. REVIEW Mad Max owes more than a bit to its Uruk brethren, which in turn owes plenty to the likes of Batman and Assassin’s Creed. What we’ve ended up with then is open-world by numbers, arriving a few months late to ride the coat tails the absolutely stellar movie. Mad Max was always going to struggle with matching the creative vision of George Miller’s blockbuster, despite not being directly linked. It instead opts to crowbar in a greatest hits package of open-world tropes that is at least better in the sum of its parts than the finer details. In Mad Max players step into the hefty boots of the titular Max Rockatansky, a man eking out an existence in the apocalyptic wasteland that surrounds him, by hook or by crook. If you’re new to the Mad Max universe then it should be said civilization has collapsed following a global war. Survivors group together in gangs and scour the land for useful tools and precious materials. It’s a dog eat dog world, but Max finds companionship in hunched mechanic Chumbucket, who’s a dab hand with a wrench. There’s nothing inherently good left on Earth following the collapse of society, so Max and Chumbucket’s tale is one of survival, of scavenging supplies and water, of searching for the Plains of Silence. Getting around the barren desert stretches and sprawling canyons needs a motor, in which you’ll experience the bulk of Mad Max’s gameplay. Early on in the game you’ll start building a combat car in the shape of the Magnum Opus. Throughout Mad Max you’ll be getting scrap for upgrades to bolt on to make your car stronger and faster, as well as imbuing it with additional abilities. Some of these, like the hood ornaments, are purely cosmetic, while others grant significant combat boosts. For instance you can coat your car in spikes to impale wastelanders who try to jump, or load yourself with a thunderpoon to hurl at and detonate enemy vehicles. Your car upgrades come with pros and cons however, and it’s totally up to you whether you go a speed-demon or a hulking great armoured tank. What’s also quite neat is you can switch the parts out any time, so you’re not limited to your first choices. Like any open world game worth its salt, Mad Max is filled with things to do. This mainly comprises collecting scrap, which in turn can then be spent on equipment, ugprades and fighting moves for Max. Out in the wasteland you’ll also be taking over outposts, destroying towers, clearing minefields, heading up in hot air balloons, racing death runs, collecting relics, looting scavenging locations, completing side quests, and taking on challenges. If that seems like an overwhelming amount of side content, that’s because it is. Mad Max is absolutely loaded with things to do, just to fill up your time. That would be more acceptable if you could bypass them and get on with the main story, but at times you progress is gated behind completing side content which hammers the pacing. The moment you’re asked to track down six items it’s a total mental roadblock, and each time it seems like the perfect time to put Mad Max down for good. It’s difficult to make an argument for Avalanche gating the story behind side content, particularly when none of it’s particularly good. In my instance I enjoyed trotting around for the first few hours and competing objectives while gathering items, but it really doesn’t take long to realise you’ve seen everything it has to offer on this front. Picking up scrap will never be fun, nor will pulling down the 100th scarecrow tower. When you break it down, most of these tasks just aren’t fun. There isn’t much complexity or variation to how they are achieved each time. What is fun is in existing in this atmospheric, gorgeous world that’s been stitched together by the folks at Avalanche. It’s just a shame they felt the need to fill a barren world with so much crap, making it hard to shake the feeling Mad Max would have been so much better as a trimmed down 15-20 hour jaunt rather than a 50-hour slog. Mad Max is open world totally by numbers. Nothing will ever surprise you, and it’s almost as if Avalanche took the time to analyse and distil exactly what an open world gameplay loop should entail. There’s nothing particularly wrong with it, but nearly everything in here has been done better by another game which has chosen to specialise somewhat. Combat is Arkham-style - light and heavy attacks with timed counters, but it has none of the variety, stealth and gadgets. Traversal is clunky and getting into the hot air balloons becomes a chore, outdone by Assassin’s Creed. What gunplay exists is stilted and predictable, overshadowed totally by Metal Gear Solid V. Where Mad Max does excel is in the open-world car combat. Games seldom actually seem to tackle this. Borderlands tried and failed off the top of my head. Mad Max though can be genuinely thrilling when the chase is on. Rattling around in the desert with your death machine, smashing rival cars up and whipping your shotgun out for an explosive burst. You can almost catch the whiff of petrol in the air. The feel of driving combined with the booming audio creates an intense experience, and it’s the nearest Mad Max comes to replicating the maniacal outbursts of its silver screen forefathers. Visually it’s an absolute spectacle. Shunting into enemy vehicles send sparks flying and plumes of smoke into the sky. Dust is thrown up by the churning of wheels, frame by stunning vistas, blinding sunsets and emptiness as far as the eye can see. Explosions are absolutely glorious; some of the best we’ve seen. In this department it’s a clear precursor to Just Cause 3’s astonishing pyrotechnics. The views as well are just stunning. Rarely has a game captured the vastness and emptiness of a desert like this, but it’s amazing what Avalanche has achieved with such a tiny colour palette and a literal wasteland for inspiration. Much of this comes down to clever use of lighting, with flames licking the night sky and blinding sunlight bouncing off the scorched sand. There’s nothing inherently wrong with Mad Max, it just doesn’t excel in enough areas to really stand out from the crowd. The cost-per-hour brigade will find plenty to love I’m sure; Avalanche have created a game where there’s tons to do, but Mad Max is open-world by numbers, following the Ubisoft template too rigidly for comfort. Shadow of Mordor has already filled the hole Mad Max is trying to occupy, and for Mad Max to really succeed it had to bring something new to the table, which it emphatically hasn’t. If you’re still not tired of the collect-em-all open-world formula then you’ll definitely get a kick out of Mad Max, but for the rest of us it feels like an opportunity wasted beyond the first few, sweet, hours. TRAILER IMAGES