Mad Max review

As one of this year’s leading action movies Mad Max: Fury Road set the bar high for Avalanche Studios’ Mad Max. Although after stating the two are not related numerous times one can’t quite help but expect the same level of visual prowess and petrol fueled mayhem from Mad Max nonetheless. Thankfully the chrome orientated and desolate wastelands draw perfectly from their post-apocalyptic movies of the same name.

Swedish developers Avalanche Studios are no slouch when it comes to open world games, having worked on the Just Cause series, bringing years of experience to Mad Max. Much like Max Rockatansky, Avalanche studios have pieced together Mad Max’s troubled video game development from scavenged ideas dating as far back as 2008 and built the game from the ground up following its original appearance back in 2013 when Mad Max first appeared at E3. Proving that they are true Black Fingers, Avalanche have created a massive wasteland for you to traverse and fight the countless legions of War Boys.

Mad Max’s story starts with Max Rockatansky scavenging for fuel while travelling to the Plains of Silence when he is ambushed by Scabrous Scrotus, Immortan Joe’s son. Scrotus goes on to steal Max’s jacket and beloved interceptor. The story continues to teach the valuable lesson of not agitating a man whose namesake derives from just how mad he is. Along the way Max befriends Chumbucket, a deformed mechanic reminiscent of Ephialtes from 300, who requests Max’s aid to create his Magnum Opus. After Max and Ephialtes bond over some War Boy bashing they set out to exact revenge on those who wrong Max in the beginning and create the most formidable vehicle in all of the wastelands. From there on out Max seeks to gain the help of fellow wastelanders to retrieve his interceptor and to continue on his journey. The storytelling isn’t great but it does have its moments and the dialogue feels natural to what we have grown to expect from War Boys, right down to the psychotic ramblings of Chumbucket.

Mad Max will feel extremely familiar if you are a fan of the action-adventure genre. The map is expansive and strewn with shipwrecks, death races, camps, and caves to investigate in search of salvage to upgrade Max, the Magnum Opus, and to help recreate areas of the wasteland. Although Mad Max’s approach to traversing these plains is on a completely different level. With the Magnum Opus as his mode of transportation Max can tweak and upgrade the vehicle with salvage to make it an unkillable behemoth with unparalleled speed, all these tweaks can be switched in and out to create a car to your liking given that you have enough salvage to build it. This includes a range of weapons ranging from harpoons, to snipers, and Max’s shotgun which can be used out of battle, but ammo is scarce and it is best to conserve it for extreme circumstances and try not to waste a sniper bullet on a grunt that could just as easily be run over.

Mad Max truly shines is in the combat. The free flow combat system is something many players will be familiar with through its inclusion in Rocksteady’s Batman games, but where Mad Max differs is in the execution. Max is an unhinged brawler and his fighting style reflects that. Unlike Batman, Max’s moves are unrefined and a blend of whatever feels good and the fastest way to inflict as much damage as possible. This includes clotheslines, Spartan kicks, agonising slams in to the ground that all feel unbelievably satisfying as you see dazed enemies lie before you. There are even extremely brutal shiv finishers Max can utilise when he has a knife, although instead of retrieving it he leaves it in the body, which is rather frustrating in a game in which resources are extremely scarce.

While roaming the wastelands there are countless side missions to keep you occupied like any open world game. There are races, wastelanders to talk to for tips, enemy camps to raid, and areas to scavenge. Ultimately a lot of these additional missions are filler for the game and can prove quite monotonous for those not mad about foraging in the sand for smashed up rotor fans and rusted tat. After a while I grew fairly tired of chasing convoys and using my dog to sniff out mines, you really need to be of a certain disposition to roam the wastelands for that amount of time. It is enough to change any veteran Road Warrior in to a War Boy.

Visually Mad Max looks brilliant, the level of detail and design for all the factions looks equally amazing and intriguing. All the separate factions have a diverse colour palette and design for their War Boys and vehicles which set them apart, which is extremely impressive when you consider they are all topless dudes in white paint running around the desert. Unfortunately Mad Max’s visual prowess is let down by some truly terrible frame rates, dipping to a slow crawl in areas that are extremely busy or have a lot going on. This leads to mistiming parries during fights and just general frustration when trying to play a game and the Xbox One’s gears grind slowly to a halt as Mad Max tries to keep up.

Ultimately Mad Max isn’t the worst game in the world, but it isn’t the best either. Released at the beginning of the busy gaming season means that Mad Max may fly under a lot of players’ radar as it shared a release date with Metal Gear Solid but will provide countless hours of entertainment for those who are massive fans of the series. Personally I enjoyed what I did play of Mad Max but became exhausted by the massive map and monotonous tasks. Avalanche Studios have created a brilliant wasteland to play around in, but it is just that. A wasteland, devoid of any scenic wonderment and any really diverse areas, it’s all just sand with the odd car wreck tossed in for decoration.