Mad Max PS4/Xbox One/PC by Avalanche Studios

Fight said:

Posting this from the Monthly Backlog Challenge Thread:

A year ago, ACG on Youtube posted a video reflecting on what a great and overlooked game Mad Max 2015 was. I bought a Xbox1 copy off of Amazon for like $10 because the backwards capability on Series X is fucking awesome. Right out of the gates, I found the game to be confusing and a bit overwhelming. I put about 5 hours into two play sessions and set it down for a year.

These past two weeks, I started a new game, blew past the initial few hours that I found so daunting the first time around and got hooked. The game is fucking amazing and might be one of the best games nobody ever talks about. 2015 was a wild year. Witcher 3, Fallout 4, Bloodborne, Metal Gear Solid V, Arkham Knight, Rocket League, and Halo 5 all came out that year and that is just the memorable AAA titles. I remember Mad Max coming out and it was swept to the side because of technical issues. Which is totally fair. I was really, really frustrated with Cyberpunk because it was a broken mess when I played it, but now two years later it is probably an incredible experience.

I'm so glad I returned, because Max Max is one of the best open world games I have ever played. Here are my thoughts on the individual elements in the game.

World Building, Setting, and Story
-This game lives, breathes, sweats, and bleeds Max Mad. They stayed so true to the world and the characters that you can almost feel the sand in your eyes, the dread of being all alone, always feeling grimy, and like a total fucking badass just playing it. The story draws inspiration from Fury Road, Thunder Dome, and Road Warrior but it is an original story that uses all of their best elements. After a badass opening movie where you lose your vehicle, you set out into the world to recover what you've lost. You meet some unique characters along the way, some will be friends and most of them foes. Nothing in this world is given for free or out of charity. You are going to need help from the power brokers and they are going to require tasks out of you. As you do them, you build up their influence in the region, unlocking new skills, upgrades, and abilities for yourself. The world is expertly, hand-crafted and it really opens up as you progress. The regions are all unique in their own way, but all still very much Mad Mad. Nothing ever feels copy/pasted, but rather the team who made this really cared and really tried. The story takes you on a satisfying and fulfilling mission of revenge and by the end, you felt like you've been on one of the best rollercoaster rides of your life.

Graphics and Sound
-Even though the game is 7 years old and it came out on the previous generation of consoles, it looks like it could come out this year. Maybe it was the Series X upscaling, but it looks really good and never dips below 60 FPS. It is the little details that really make you not just see, but feel this world. The cars roar with ferocity. Guns explode with devastating impact. The Harpoon whirls through the air and thuds with heavy collision. Vehicles hurl at each other and they explode into a million pieces when they get T-boned. The War Boys hurl insults and give rallying calls to one another. The Buzzard's clan are the shrieking zombies of the barren wasteland. The voice acting on all the character-roles is quite professional. They just nailed all of it to a degree that even games coming out now years later stumble and fall short on.

Progression & Advancement Systems
There are 4 ways to advance in the game. Each has a meaningful game system behind it and you can focus on those tasks to build in a certain phase of progression if you want to.

1. Max: You build up Max's offensive & defensive move-sets. These are purchased with Scrap currency and unlocked by doing quests.
2. Car: You build your car's speed, defense, offensive weapons. These are also purchased with Scrap currency and unlocked by doing quests.
3. Perks: Things like total health, how much ammo & items you gain when looting. These are gained through shamanistic tokens that you earn by completing challenges & achievements.
4. Base Building: These projects that you find throughout the world give you regional bonuses like filling your health, canteen, and ammo all to full when you enter your base. You find these projects throughout the world in points of interest or on missions. My favorite has to be the "Cleanup Crew" that automatically retrieves scrap for you when you destroy structures and vehicles without ever having to exit your vehicle to loot enemies after you blow them to bits.

Game Mechanics
-Racing and Car Combat: This is like the game within a game and it is good enough to be it's own standalone offering. They dialed in the car speed, traction, weight, and physics so well. It is so fun ripping tires, doors, or metal protective panels off of rigs to expose vulnerable fuel tanks, then to send a shotgun blast that blows them to bits. All the while War Boys are launching Boom Javelins at you and jumping from their rig onto yours. How will you overcome a convoy of 8 rigs? Well, you can ram them, or you can stick them with your harpoon and rip them up piece by piece, or you can roast them with your side panel flame throwers, or you can try to cut a tight angle and hit your nitrous booster at just the right time to send them flying to the next zip code. And, each time you get an upgrade for your car, you feel it. It changes the performance in a meaningful enough way to give you incremental edges that you will feel more and more powerful.

-'Batman-like' Combat: If you have ever played any of Rocksteady Studio's Batman games, then you will be very familiar with this combat. Quick punches, strong punches, Parry's, Counters, Executions. It gets pretty hectic when a crowd of 12 enemy's are surrounding you, but it is fun and fluid combat. It all has weight to it. The punches crack and smash. The animations are fluid and brutal. This type of combat works very well for this world, but it also feels very familiar and a bit unoriginal.

-Scavenger Hunt: All the areas of the game world have a set amount of loot that you can collect. When you enter a new enemy base and pick up a piece of scrap, the game tells you "You have collected 1/10..." So you know just exactly how on-track you are to clear out an area. No sense of feeling of, "Am I missing something here?" The game is clever where it hides stuff, but with this checklist system it makes it fun and manageable to work your way through and know you've completed an area. Do you like Collectables? There are over 32 unique Vehicles in the world to hunt for and find, hundreds of history relics that add to the world building, and 13 powerful hood ornaments that you have to tear off of their owners vehicles in their protective convoys to claim. They give your car new, powerful bonuses and look pretty badass.

-Economy: Scrap is the currency of the post apocalyptical world. You find it when you kill enemies and their machines, you collect it bases, and you are rewarded with it when you complete missions. Having one currency works extremely well. There are about 37 large enemy camps around the world. They are side missions, but very important to clear out because when you do, you install your own workers that will provide you a steady income of scrap on 15 minute intervals. The earlier on in the game you clear these, the more incremental income you build up. It is very rewarding to be going along on your way and to see "Friendly Camps Have Added 435 scrap to your Stronghold" right as you unlock a new ability that you need to pay for with scrap. The flow of this game from "Unlock --> Currency Gain --> Purchase --> Unlock --> Currency Gain --> Purchase..." is all balanced so well that you know the developers played and loved their own game.

Final Thoughts
Most movie license games are utter dogshit. They trick moronic kids and their parents to dropping another $60 on games that are outsourced to Malaysia and took 4 weeks to make. They are just there to capitalize on the marketing hype of their movies. This game is not that. It deserves to sit at the right hand of Fury Road in the pantheon of the best the Mad Max franchise has to offer.

The fact that this game was released and then largely forgotten in less than a month is a travesty. There is so much content here and all of it is so well crafted. It had to be so disheartening and disappointing to Avalanche studios for things to have played out like they did. This game deserves so much better than to be in the $10 bargain bins.

There isn't any aspect of this game that feels half-baked or filler. Every game mechanic serves a purpose and is fleshed out. They made a game that is fun, challenging, wild, and at times, creepy as fuck. All the game system mesh together to form such a cohesive product. I don't know if it is the Director, Producer, or Designer, but someone really deserves some accolades. Maybe it is all of them, because they showed some real genius here.

I Witness You Mad Max (2015), you are anything but Mediocre.

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