Mad Max Review

Publisher: Warner Bros
Developer: Avalanche Studios
Availability: Out now on PC, PS4 and Xbox One
Reviewed on Xbox One
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For anyone familiar with the Mad Max films then I probably don’t need to tell you much about them but for those of you that aren’t so familiar then here we go. Mad Max is set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland that used to be Australia, the wasteland is a harsh place where food, water and fuel are scarce commodities and roaming gangs fight everyone. While the game isn't directly linked to any film in particular it’s supposed to fit sometime between the third film “Beyond Thunderdome” and the New film “Fury Road”.





The game starts with you under attack from a gang of War-Boys and after being Left for Dead by Scabrous Scrotus (son of Fury Road's villain Immortan Joe) you're left with nothing even your legendary Police Pursuit Special Interceptor The Black on Black has been taken. So begins Max’ journey to build a new and better car with the help of a new acquaintance Chumbucket a Hunchback, slightly deranged mechanic.

Now the game itself is set in a huge world with lots to do and hundreds of locations to visit. The main locations are the Strongholds and here you can get missions that will help find what you need to build up your new car the “Magnum Opus”. The game has a strong emphasis on collecting resources such as scrap for buying upgrades and managing fuel for your car and water for max though as you progress all of these seem fairly easy to come across so don’t require too much time or effort to keep in check.





The game itself feels like a bit of a fusion of some great classic games and actually seems to benefit from this. The vehicle combat and driving mechanics feel a lot like a cross between Burnout Paradise and Carmageddon which actually work really well and keeps the time behind the wheel (which is quite a lot) fun and enjoyable. The ground combat mechanism will be very familiar to anyone who has played Assassin’s Creed or any of the Batman Arkham games. Again this works very well and is enjoyable too even though it may have been over simplified with just one attack button and one parry button it still works as well if not better than most other brawlers.

The Wasteland Max speeds through is beautifully crafted and captures a real sense of the Brutality and hardship that define the world Max lives in and nothing shows this better than when a storm blows in carrying shards of deadly metal to damage your car and tear Max to shreds if he’s not in cover. Or lightning storms that will cause massive damage if you get hit. However there are reasons to be out in a storm as a lot of scrap can be collected as it blows about in the ferocious winds.





At the point of writing this I’m at about 30ish hours of gameplay and to tell the truth haven’t got too far with the story as I have gotten lost in the fun of running around the Max’s big open world completing side quests or just generally having fun destroying things. I will however say that what I have experience of the story so far does feel very much like a Mad Max experience. The story is definitely there to guide you along but it’s not a complex or overly involved one. This to me feels about right and matches the feel of the earlier films perfectly so while max has a big part to play he is ultimately a passenger to the events that go on around him and even though he will help others out it’s usually only to get something he wants or needs.

The game does have a few faults though. There are very occasional frame rate issues. But they are rare I have only experienced 2 in the whole time I have played the game. Also while the world is well crafted and there is plenty to do I can’t help but feel that there is a risk of getting bored completing every location going round collecting scrap etc. and you will have to if you want to get every Achievement/Trophy.





Overall the game itself is well made and very enjoyable bringing a cinematic world to life possibly better than I have seen in any other game so I can highly recommend it to anyone that has enjoyed any of the other games I have mentioned or if you are just a Mad Max fan then it’s definitely worth a go.

The Score: 8.5

A good read Riled. Nice one. Many people seem to be enjoying this game more than Phantom Pain. Praise in itself I guess.

Nice review Riled.

Well written review mate makes me wanna play it

Nice review - great middle of the night read! The concept of Mad Max should lend itself to a videogame very well, which is why it's kinda surprising that it's taken til now to get a decent game out for it. Also it's really nice to see that this is decent - this could have easily been a sub-par movie tie-in game!

Great review chap

Could this be the best movie tie-in ever??

Good review of a good game mate.

Great review matey, and sounds like a good fun game. Might look at picking it up in the future. But with my current backlog and Star Wars Battlefront on the horizon, I'm not buying much at the moment.

Excellent review Riled.Absolutely spot on.

376 views for this review already!

I tweeted it to the developers and they all retweeted it! The power of twitter has given us TRIPLE the normal view count.

I will be getting this, not looking forward to much before the end of the year but this has piqued my interest.

This has so far been my favourite game of the year. One I couldn't put down until I got the full 1k.Great review