Real Gud Reviews: Mad Max

4/10 Would not Recommend

Mad Max was one of those games that came out at the perfect time. Mad Max Fury Road had just been in theaters, and the game released not too long after it. The game received a lot of positive attention. People were doing let’s plays, making Mad Max memes, and there was even a Game Theory episode on it. The Game to this day has a “Very Positive” rating on Steam and has a 70 on Metacritic and 7.8 user score. Not a super high score, most people agree that Mad Max is no masterpiece but acknowledge it as a fun game. However, after experiencing it myself, I can’t help but call it a bad game. Is it that bad? No, most people will have a good experience with Mad Max. The Game isn’t buggy, the gameplay isn’t necessarily boring, and the characters are likeable, but it doesn’t deserve the praise it receives. The Game is a mostly empty world, with derivative combat, has a story that doesn’t mesh well with the gameplay, and though it tries to do something unique the experience is ultimately dissatisfying.

Mad Max is an open world game. For the most part, where you can see you can go, which is more than what you can say about other titles in the genre. Unfortunately, like most open world games, the world is empty. The counter argument would be that the game is set in the post-apocalypse, set in a dessert, and you travel by car which is why most of the world is empty. However, emptiness in these kinds of games isn’t defined by whether there’s stuff in between destinations, it’s defined by whether there is stuff to do in between destinations. There are few notable NPC’s you can interact with. There are only 4 areas where NPC’s aren’t hostile, but they’re not really interactable. You can talk to individuals on the overworld that give you info on the world, either strategic info or some lore, but they’re generic unnamed people. There are 7 activities you can engage in aside from the main story mission: pulling down “Scarecrows”, raiding convoys, defusing mines, “DeathRuns”, clearing enemy camps, and salvaging. There are also optional story missions, but it’s not the majority of the game and I will address them shortly. It sounds like a lot to do, but the quality of these activities is low. For the most part, traveling the world isn’t engaging as most of the world is sand, and engaging with these activities gets old quick.

Pulling down scarecrows is driving around the map and using your harpoon tool to pull down totems of the enemy faction. The first few times was cool but having to drive around pulling down every single one feels like busy work, and you can’t just do it as you pass by as some scarecrows require an upgraded harpoon, so you have to go out of your way to go back to the thing and pull it down. I could only see someone truly enjoying because of the driving, which is what attracted me to the game in the first place.

I’m about to go into a little detail regarding the side content, but it leads to something so bear with me.

Unfortunately, the driving is mostly garbage. Almost all the vehicles in the game handle horribly and are a terrible experience to drive. The Magnum Opus, the main vehicle of the game, is the only car that was pleasant to handle because it could be upgraded. There was one or two cars that drove fine, but you couldn’t upgrade them, and they lacked the defenses that the Magnum Opus had. All the cars were very swervy and difficult to handle. Even after upgrading there was still a degree of difficulty handling the Magnum Opus though it was a much better experience than the early game. In a game where driving is the main method of travel, it’s important to have had that nailed down and they did not. The driving bugged me all the way until the end of the game. This particularly made the "deathruns", essentially the racing content of the game, infuriating. The game makes you do one as part of the story, but I tried others, and it was painful because it required you to use a specific enemy vehicle, or a build of the Magnum Opus called an “Archangel” which sometimes meant downgrading your car. It’s easy enough to pass them, but to 100% them you need to complete it under a certain time which would get you a “Griffa token”, which is better gathered from leveling up. Completing these would unlock fast travel points and vehicles, but were not worth playing, I opted to just use the balloon fast travel points, Mad Max’s version of “Sync Points” from Assassins Creed, which are different from the fast travel points you unlock from the Deathruns. I understand that driving in sand and dirt isn’t meant to be perfect driving conditions, maybe that’s why they designed it the way they did, but when half of your game is about driving you need to make it a satisfying experience.

The other driving related activity were convoys. Convoys are fuel trucks and their escorts that you get to raid with the Opus. Despite the bad driving, this was the best out of all the side activities. They were difficult at first but became easier with an upgraded car. The goal is to destroy the fuel truck protected by a squad of enemy vehicle in order to reduce the “Threat Level” of the enemy faction in the area. The reason this was so satisfying is because it was a good gauge of your growth and, more importantly, it made me feel like I was in Mad Max! Vehicular combat in Mad Max included some really unique ideas, like using a harpoon to pull off armor, tires, and drag enemies out of their cars. You could also launch explosives at cars, ram and grind against cars, and the classic method, shooting at the cars. Additionally, the convoys stuck to the major roads that were wide and didn’t have too many sharp turns making the driving palatable. If you failed you see the convoy drive away, it stung, but felt fair and made me want to improve The Magnum Opus.

Then there’s the mine defusing and salvaging locations. The mine defusing was nothing special, and the salvaging loathsome. To defuse mines you drove a buggy with a dog in the back, extra points for the use of a dog, but otherwise underwhelming. But the salvaging, oh god, the salvaging. It was one of the most pointless, time-wasting, non-rewarding things I’ve ever experienced in a video game. Salvage is required to upgrade your car, the initial piles of scrap you get are helpful but after the early game it becomes pointless. Each small pile of scrap ranges from 10-20 depending on upgrades you have. There are larger piles of scrap, but here’s the kicker. To see a completed map you need to go various salvage sites across the maps, defeat a few enemies, and collect the 1-4 pieces of scrap there. If you want to complete the map you need to do this over and over again, it’s boring. Not to mention the scrap you earn isn’t much. You can find parts of stronghold projects while scavenging, which will improve the strongholds in the game, which unlock health restore, fuel restore, ammo restore, etc. It also changes the appearance of the stronghold to make the player feel like they’re progressing which was a nice touch. But you can track them and go to them immediately without having to go from site to site. You can also find historical relics which add some flavor to the lore of the Mad Max world. However, by the end game you will passively receive scrap from the camp’s you’ve cleared outpacing the amount of scrap you collect by hand. I gave up on trying to collect all the scrap, and the relics weren’t enough of a motivation to go searching them out.

The Camp clearing involves breaking into enemy camps, clearing them of enemies and the occasional boss, and sometimes destroying their infrastructure. Doing these camps mainly does two things: decreases the threat level of the region and adds to your passive scrap collection. You could also scavenge these camps for a small boon of scrap, find historical relics, and unlock car paint for the magnum opus if you clear a camp with a boss. As you can imagine, clearing these camps are highly beneficial. The benefits of passive scrap collecting is self-explanatory. Reducing “Threat Levels” in territories unlocks upgrades for the Magnum Opus and clearing camps reduce threat significantly. However, the camps get old quick. The most fun part is tearing down the camp defenses with your car, but afterwards it’s a repetitive slog. You have to clear each camp of its hostiles, so you have to engage in ground combat. There is one word to describe the ground combat of Mad Max, derivative. It’s not terrible, but it’s incredibly dated. You press button to attack, hold button to do a heavy attack, and press different button to counter. You also have a dodge roll, instakill moves for staggered enemies, and can use your shotgun. You also build a “fury meter” in combat which will make your attacks more effective and opens up room for finishers. This combat system may have been fine when Mad Max came out, but this kind of fighting is dated by now, and it does nothing to distinguish itself from other titles. It is cool seeing Max slam people and throw a couple dropkicks, but eventually the novelty wears off and you just want it to be over. The enemies you fight are mostly the same. It’s either guy, guy that grabs, guy with knife, guy with club, guy with shield, and Top Dogs, the bosses of game. These enemy types are the same across all factions and the way the devs make combat encounters harder is by adding a large amount of these guys. More enemies always make encounters challenging, but the game doesn’t give you many tools for dealing with multiple enemies, so you end up having to use the same strategies every time. Ultimately, combat in the mid-late game is more frustrating than anything else. Also, all the "Top Dogs", are the same. They have the same weapons, character models, windups, and attacks. You fight them in different arenas and they have different names but you deal with them all the exact same way. The only bosses that were different were from main story missions, but there’s only three of them and two were carbon copies of each other. All these things together made ground combat in Mad Max incredibly disappointing.

Why is all this important? Because this is the main gameplay loop of Mad Max. You go to various areas to scavenge for scrap and parts to make raiding these areas easier by upgrading Max, the Magnum Opus, and strongholds. You then get more scrap and unlock more stuff. There is also the satisfaction of a completed map. But if only one of the activities in the loop is somewhat fun, then that makes engaging with the game a chore. I’m sure most people that will play Mad Max will be completed satisfied with the gameplay loop. However, for me Mad Max is, at best, the peak of average and at worst a derivative, boring, and frustrating game.

My issues with Mad Max did not end there, boy did I have issues with the story. The Game is about Max being left for dead by Scabrous Scrotus, the main antagonist of the game, and trying to build a car that will take him across “The Plains of Silence”, to escape the hell he’s in (literal and metaphorical). It’s supposed to be a big surprise that Scrotus is still alive since you split his brain in two with a chainsaw, but you learn he’s alive through interactions with the nameless NPCs before his big re-reveal. In Max's attempt to build the Magnum Opus he comes across various NPCs, the first being the ever-endearing Chumbucket who is the mechanic helping you, motivated by fulfilling a spiritual quest to build the ultimate vehicle. Then you meet various NPCs that have the means to provide the material to upgrade the Magnum Opus: Jeet, Gutgash, Pinkeye, and Deep Friah. The ultimate goal is obtaining the legendary V8 Engine.

Despite the assistance he receives and gives throughout the game, Max maintains an emotional distance with everyone around him, a result of the trauma he’s experienced. However, Max multiple times decides to do the right thing. One can argue he’s doing it from his own selfishness, however, canonically, he really doesn’t have a reason to help. He has no reason to upgrade strongholds, to do the side missions, to clear camps and defuse mines. A truly selfish person would not go through that much trouble if he’s going to leave it all behind one day. Yes, Max is a conflicted individual, but for most of the game the player builds up strongholds, upgrades his car, makes territories safer, defends and assists NPCS. The whole player experience is building up your allies so you can build yourself up. Max is built up to be this person who is capable of making the right choice. One of the side missions is all about helping one of the NPCs make and prepare a sail car to help their youth escape the area. Max is rewarded, but he had no reason to risk his life for the small boons you receive. Max is built up, gameplay wise, as a person who decides to make the right decision in the end which makes the ending of the game so infuriating.

This was the most controversial part of this game, it doesn't appear to be a deal breaker for most. It was for me though. During the Game you meet Hope and her daughter Glory. Hope decides to put her trust in Max, and Max’s emotions gets stirred when he sees them. She gets more screen time than most other NPC’s but you don’t interact with her much throughout the game. She saves Max on two occasions, but aside from that and a few cutscenes she’s not seen in-game. Max might be reminded of his wife when he sees her, but the player does not have a significant relationship with this character. The most we get from this person is that she’s a survivor type, she’s a mom, and wants Max to protect her and her daughter, and either she likes Max or wants to use him to protect herself and her daughter. Near the end game, Hope asks him to find her missing daughter but she’s in the “Underdune”, a buried airport and home of the “Buzzards”, an enemy faction. Your buddy, Chumbucket, is hesitant to go into buzzard territory and has been fearing for the safety of the Magnum Opus and his place on it. Max let him know that he plans to put fuel tanks up there leaving no room for Chumbucket and refused to answer his questions about whether or not he will join him. Long story short, Max finds the kid in the Underdune, but Chumbucket abandons Max due to the encroaching Buzzards.

Max is able to find his way out but finds out that Chubucket did not return to the stronghold. He decided to go after him, but Hope pleads for Max to stay with her and Glory. He refuses and goes off to find Chumbucket. Once he finds him, one of the villains, Stankgum reveals that he tortured Chumbucket and he squealed about Max’s “family”. This really upset me, what about their relationship indicated that kind of closeness. Sure, Max went out to save Glory, but the doesn’t mean he’s that close to them. You can say that’s Chumbucket’s perspective, but he didn’t remark much on their relationship. If anything, Chumbucket should’ve squealed about how important the Magnum Opus was to Max since most of his dialogue is about getting things to upgrade the car. Stank Gum then reveals Scrotus went over to end them. You fight Stankgum and head over, Chumbucket profusely apologizing the whole way. Max finds Hope and Glory, but he was too late. Max then goes off to finish Scrotus off. The final battle was lackluster. You chase down Scrotus’s hauler and take it out, leaving it dangling over a cliff. Chumbucket gets onto the hood to start on some repairs, but Max begins to hear the voices of the slain egging him on to ram the car. Chumbucket sees his intent and sticks to the hood of the car, refusing to move for his love of the Magnum Opus. The player has no choice in the matter. You must slam that accelerator and crash into the hauler. This kills Chumbucket, then Scrotus flies out of the hauler in Max’s old car. Then the final battle is throwing explosive tipped spears at him and finishing him off for good. Max gets into his old car, puts a photo of his family on the dash and drives away.

I don’t care if a developer wants a game to have a specific ending for their game. I don’t mind a dark and depressing ending. That’s not the issue here. The issue here is that the ending does not blend well with the player experience and makes the game feel like a waste of time. The whole game Max is building up. He upgrades his car, his gear, and the strongholds. The whole game Max is helping his allies, reducing the influence of Scrotus, and making the areas safer for the people. The people of the wasteland start knowing of his legendary status after all that Max has done to help people. And the game ends with Max abandoning the people he’s saved and killing his one friend for revenge. The deaths of Hope and Glory drove him crazy, a little on the nose but the game doesn’t even give the player a choice. Max is a conflicted character, but the gameplay is mostly helping people. Where in the middle does it indicate this is the end for Max. If the game had a morality meter, near the end it would be on the good spectrum. Sure a player can choose not to engage in the side content that shows Max helping people, but the game reinforces you for doing that. Why wouldn’t somebody not do these missions. See what I’m getting at, the whole game is built around the engagement of the side activities and by the end its all meaningless which makes it feel like you wasted your time. If the player had at least a choice in whether to kill Chumbucket, it would be a little forgivable, but the devs didn't in favor of having a dark and edgy ending. I sat for 5 minutes to see if the game would react to me not touching my controller, it didn’t. It made me kill him. What a bunch of bullshit.

Is it worth playing Mad Max? Maybe back when it released to join the conversation and make memes. Today? Maybe to try the car combat, I haven’t experienced anything like it, I’ll give the game credit for that. However, I consider this game a waste of time and ultimately a dissatisfying experience.

4/10 Would not Recommend