[HEADING=1]Mad Max[/HEADING]
Mad Max the video game acts as, at least I think anyway, a prequel to the very popular movie, Mad Max: Fury Road. Introducing a new cast of characters and a plot to the world. Developed by Avalanche Studios, best known for their Just Cause series, and published by WB games. You've got the basic info, let's get started. This game was played on the PS4 version.
Story
Our story starts with Max driving down a road in his iconic interceptor, being chased by two other cars. After a short car fight, the biggest baddie in the land comes rolling up in his land rover... Scabrous Scrotus[footnote]Yes this is the main antagonist's name. Why they named him Scrotus I'll never understand. Sounds like we're talking about his dick every time he comes up in a conversation.[/footnote]. Scrotus and his warband easily manage to take down Max and strip him of all of his iconic look in about six seconds. Next we know, Max wakes up in the desert with no cloths, weapons, or armor. Luckily he is saved by a creature named Chumbucket, who is a famous mechanic around the land. He views Max as some sort of savior and promises to replace his famous interceptor with a new car that is even better, the Magnum Opus. So begins Max's journey to
The story so far has been kinda bland. The characters aren't noteworthy other than their appearances. I'm honestly not immersed at all nor feel any will to slay Scrotus. Who knows, it may get better as I move on, but right now I'm not impressed.
Gameplay
There is a lot to cover here, so I'll split it up into parts. Vehicle combat, melee combat, scavenging, and wasteland capturing are the order.
First up is vehicle combat. When you first start, you've got nothing but the ability to side-swipe, ram, and shoot them with your shotgun. First you get a harpoon, that as you upgrade it allows you to pull drivers out of cars, ram into them at full speed by grabbing their bumper, or even taking off a wheel or two. You also get spikes on your rims that let you grind up against other cars, spikes on your car to impale those who attempt to jump on, and even a flamethrowers on the sides. The Magnum Opus starts off as a pile of junk, but once you sink a little bit of scrap into it. You can get yourself a real killing machine. The combat itself is fun, when you actually get to do it. Most enemies I've encountered while driving around flee at the very sight of me, which isn't very much fun when you're trying to fight them. The only times enemies even put up a challenge is doing convoyd and story missions. A nice benefit of this game is car repair is free, as all you have to do is tap the up directional pad button on consoles and Chumbucket, who is always with you in the Magnum Opus, jumps onto the engine and starts fixin'. It's actually really hard to die in the car because the game gives you five seconds to leap out after reaching zero help. After that, Chumbucket just starts fixing it right away. You mostly upgrade your Magnum Opus with scrap found in the wasteland, but you can also improve basic car skills, such as fuel consumption, with Griffa coins. A currency that is earned by completing challenges. Last thing, if you've wondered who that mutant guy in the back of your car is in the trailers, that is Chumbucket. He helps a lot in combat, firing the harpoon and fixing your car whenever needed. Only downside to him is that he feels the need to comment on everything. You get out of the car for literally anything and he comments on it. Stop moving for thirty seconds, that's a comment. It gets really annoying really fast.
The melee combat is nearly identical to the Batman games and Shadow of Mordor. Only difference is that counters now have a timer. The closer you land to the last second, the stronger your counter will be. You can buy upgrades that turn perfect parries into bone breakers and various other things. The combat is the most challenging of these games so far, as enemies are not afraid to attack very quickly after one another and Max isn't like Batman or Talion. His reflexes are no where near their levels. To aid Max in a fight, he has his trusty shotgun. Which is always a one-hit kill on normal enemies. He also can pick up various weapons to help him. Shivs can be used to kill a stunned enemy, blunt weapons add a little more power to Max's attacks, and exploding spears do exactly what you think they would. I'll tell you one thing about the combat, it is brutal. Bones crunching can be heard with every punch, limbs get snapped, and brutal beat downs occur. Max also has a Fury mode, which triggers after he beats the shit out enough people. His speed, damage, and damage resistance is buffed and he also gains WWE style moves to beat people down some more. You can buy two types of upgrades for Max, the "Max" upgrades. Which upgrade his physical gear with scrap. Giving him new gloves, armor, and appearance. You also have the Griffa tokens again, which can upgrade his max health and damage with melee weapons. Health is regained by drinking water, which you can hold a certain amount with you in your un-up-gradable canteen. Or by eating various foods, including dog food, rats, lizards, and maggots, across the wasteland.
Scavenging is a key part to Mad Max. It's how you find water, scrap, relics, fuel, and stronghold upgrades. All scrap locations become marked on your map as you drive close enough to them. Each will tell you what you can look forward to finding before you even go in. Water, as mentioned above, is used to heal yourself. Scrap is used to upgrade various things. History Relics tell tales of how the world came to be the way it is, with Max commenting on every piece you find. Fuel just keeps your car going and can also be used to make things go boom. Lastly, you have stronghold upgrades... which sound exactly like they are. You find these across the waste and can upgrade the strongholds you encounter around the wasteland, of which they're four I think. They can be various things like instant water and fuel filling upon entering a base. Or even giving you scrap when you're not playing, only with a internet connection of course.[footnote]Yeah, fucking stupid, huh?[/footnote] Scavenging seems to be how I've spent most of my time playing and it can get pretty boring, pretty fast. I'm sure once I get more bases taken over, which give you scrap every so often, this will become a non-issue. A let-down for me personally is that you can't kick the gas cans to see how much is in them, as shown in the trailer. You do it the first time you find a gas can, but after that nada. Fuel cans have a random amount of fuel in them and you can only keep one of them with you in your car. It would be nice to know I have the one with the most fuel.
A key part of the game is taking over the various regions from Scrotus and his legions, by way of destroying his sniper towers, convoys, minefields, and totems called Scarecrows. The most efficient method is by capturing his bases. You do so in one of three ways. By blowing up an oil drill, blowing up several oil transfer tanks, or just by beating the shit out his soldiers. Thee base have several things of collectible value inside, such as scrap, history relics, stronghold upgrades, and things called Scrotus symbols. For every base you capture, you also get a about 20 scrap every so often. As you clear the region of enemies, Scrotus's war parties become fewer and fewer and eventually his presence will be gone. Of all of these, minefields are the most tedious. As you have to drive in a very large area with the single slow ass car that can carry the dog that helps you find the landmines. Then you have to spent five minutes slowly driving around a minefield, following the dogs barks and whines. It gets old after the first time.
Graphics
There is really nothing to write home about here, at least on the PS4 version. Graphics are rather poor for the latest gen port I choose. They have a total of like five friendly NPC designs beside special characters, which are done poorly and can't even sync their mouths up to what they're saying. Max's fingers look really fat and poorly done. The only nice thing I can say about the graphics is that the explosions look good. Not game-changing for me, but something I know others worry about.
Should I buy it?
This game's combat is practically identical to Batman and Shadow of Mordor, you also spend a large amount of time fighting in your car and driving around. If that sounds terrible to you, then stay far away. You'll hate everything about this game. Even if you like those aspects, I'd suggest waiting to purchase this game. The tedious task quickly become... well tedious and just start to suck the fun out of the game. I bought it day one and I've played it maybe ten hours or so and right now don't feel any need to pick it up and keep going. This game I'd say is a buy, but wait until the price drops. Cause you ain't missing much.
