Mad Max was, without a doubt one of the games I was most anxious to play. Why wouldn’t I be? After all it was in the hands of Avalanche studios, the acclaimed creators who were responsible for the zany and over the top Just Cause series. I was quite interested to see what kind of flavor they would add to the mad world of Mad Max.
Thematically, Mad Max the videogame takes place before the events of the movie, but I won’t be delving into that connection in this review as I have yet to watch the motion picture. For that reason everything read here will be completely based on my impression of the game, free of any influence from any popular media.
From the first few minutes of the game, players are clearly informed that this is an action game with heavy emphasis on car combat, as Max is seen frantically evading the enemy vehicles. It is a very well done cinematic with all the popular chase angles used, but it is just that, a cinematic. One of the key criticisms I have with this game is that at times it needlessly takes away the control from the players, forcing them onto an action heavy cutscene. Of course, these are crucial to the development of plot in story-based games but that element could turn into frustration really quick when you want to be a part of something exciting you see on screen.
An example of this is at an early point in the game, the raiders blow apart your companions safe house, which happens to be the destroyed hull of a ship, and Max frantically drives through the falling debris and shoots out from one end of the vessel. At this point, I thought they could have done quite a lot with the gameplay, and it could have been an exciting little section where you yourself have to evade the obstacles in a nicely designed set piece. Similar to what was done in Arkham Knight with Riddler’s races.
Still, even though the review has started in quite the negative manner, it doesn’t speak for the entire game as for the majority of it, the game is quite nicely designed. Furthermore, you are given control of an open-ended world where there are a few things to do here and there excluding the story based missions. The way you progress through your skillset is either by gathering as much wasteland scrap as you can for your car or points to improve Max’s abilities. There are some really interesting abilities and upgrades that you can unlock.
As for the combat the game is divided into two types. One on foot, and the other in car. The on foot sections are unsurprisingly similar to Batman’s freeflow combat where you press one button to attack, and the other to counter. Unfortunately, it isn’t as polished as that and there are times where the system has technical hiccups – especially when the game goes into slow-motion. I might be the problem here to be honest with you, but my counter button never registered during the slow-motion prompts. Still the overall mechanic is quite sound, and I especially like how Max pins his enemies to the wall when you are fighting enemies near different surfaces to give an extra level of grittiness.
Then, there are the satisfying finishers that you can perform on dazed enemies, granted you have a lethal melee weapon. Throughout the game, you will also be given Max’s iconic double barreled shotgun that you can freely use to fight your enemies. The game also allows you to carry gas canisters to either fill up your car or just to generally blow stuff up.
The car combat on the other hand is a unique mix of different mechanics that each play a vital role. During combat, the player can control Chumbucket’s harpoon which can be used in many interesting ways, ranging from yanking a driver out of their car to pulling out their tires, and even dismantling heavy doors in your way. It is perhaps one of the best innovations that this game has to offer.
To ram your enemies, you have to hold down the ram action button and yank the movement analogue button to the desired direction. If I was to compare it to another game, it would be quite similar to either The Wheelman or Sleeping Dogs’ ram mechanic. However, what really makes the games car combat satisfying are the explosive effects that come with it. You can see sparks as you grind with someones car, and ground shaking explosions when you blow something up. It truly adds an oomph to the car combat. I do have one quirk with the car handling though, as the car seems to be magnetised to never flip over making the car physics seem wonky at times.
Overtime your car will take a lot of beating, prompting you to repair it. The way you repair it is quite interesting as, like when firing the harpoon, your pall Chumbucket is required to help you out. When you idle your car, you can use one of the direction buttons to select the repair prompt, getting your companion to climb onto the front and start tinkering. There are other mechanics you can take control of over the course of the game as well, such as the sniper rifle, or the call car command. These varied mechanics grant the players enough freedom to play how they want.
Another thing I quite like in this game is its set of animations which have been masterfully crafted to give everything in the game a lifelike feel. Not only that, but when mixed with the powerful voice overs and the solid dialogue writing, everything truly comes to life. I especially admire that they gave Max an Australian accent as that is what made the movie’s titular character so iconic.
Overall the game has been getting very mixed reviews, with half the community disliking it, and the other absolutely loving it. People who love action heavy games with multiple means of completing your objectives will definitely not want to skip this, especially if they are Mad Max fans, no matter how jarring some problems are with this game.