Zero Punctuation: Mad Max - The Sandiest Sand Box
- Thread starter Yahtzee Croshaw
- Start date
I actually do, and it still manages to look really boring. I'm not too keen on post-apocalyptic settings so that might be it.Zydrate said:
USP of Mad Max is that it is the first sandbox game in years that isnt broken on launch and is actually well designed. It may not innovate much, but at least it does everything it does WELL, rather than become a joke of gaming community like Unity or watch doge.
The base loot count for those containers are 300. that is before all your bonuses are applied.Zydrate said:
To counterbalance the slew of negative reviews which are limited by their requirement of having to review each and every triple A release, therefor jading them to the heavily applied sandbox setup. Whereas the average joe gamer will have not the same contracts to slog through the unwanted titles, they would often be not so averse to a specific genre done in a certain way;
Basically what i'm trying to say is Mad max is the best post-apocalyptic vehicle mayhem game out there yet. It is precisely how it should be, lots of dust, black smoke, explosions and heavy industrial noises for driving pleasure. Every object and environment is detailed enough to feel it has been built from a decaying land, every character insane enough while the lore is written in a simplistic manner as if the modern human intelligence has had long enough to have been bred out of use while mankind's last scraps fight for what's left, knowing entropy is imminent. The landscape is alien, yet familiar at times and haunting too. I did worry that the post apocalyptic setting would be a boring, endless plain of desert, but this game has some wonderful views. Probably my favourite example of the scenery so far. It is destructive enough to feel like a fully interactive world and the loot is rare and valuable enough to make you push for it. The driving is weighty yet fiesty and responsive. The dunes and rocks are fun to drive over. It feels like DIRT mixed with Vigilante 8 in a vast literal sandbox. Your car is your survival machine, your rusty ship wading through unkown waters. Every part of it is designed to keep you alive and others off you while you explore as far you can, I guess like a sea-captain/pirate; you build a bond with your vehicle through that partnership. This would benefit greatly from survival mods I believe, perhaps adding thirst, hunger and sleep requirements, along with a HUDless option and permadeath. The look and feel of the whole game is authentic through and through. It feels grounded enough in reality while allowing human insanity to drive the action. Even the subtle grain adds to the experience. The story isn't much and Max is the original embodiment of "grizzled-white-anti-hero" so don't look there for your thrills. It is the free roaming vehicle combat that is worth it. I do not believe we are going to get many (if at all) car combat games in the near future, so this is a welcome blessing in disguise. It hits all the right notes for both vehicle and human combat (which was another design I assumed would get bland quickly yet it proved me wrong), visceral but slow, precise and heavy. It's still always fun to slingshot harpoon enemy drivers back into their own spiked car and Australian accents are criminally underused in gaming, more would be nice please!
Tl:dr...There are so many ways here they could have messed up a Mad Max video-game tie in, but they didn't. They have put a lot of effort into what made the setting so appealing, added beautiful smoke, fire, explosions and diesel covered war machines. No pretense. Just a heavy industrial level, gritty dried sea or two to play in. Turn off brain, turn on harpoon mounted death car and enjoy! Could have done with a handbrake button and a method of attaching melee weapons to your car, but this is still good. It is scratching an itch that no other post-apoc setting can manage as of yet. Can't wait for Just Cause 3 if this is anything to go by.
Basically what i'm trying to say is Mad max is the best post-apocalyptic vehicle mayhem game out there yet. It is precisely how it should be, lots of dust, black smoke, explosions and heavy industrial noises for driving pleasure. Every object and environment is detailed enough to feel it has been built from a decaying land, every character insane enough while the lore is written in a simplistic manner as if the modern human intelligence has had long enough to have been bred out of use while mankind's last scraps fight for what's left, knowing entropy is imminent. The landscape is alien, yet familiar at times and haunting too. I did worry that the post apocalyptic setting would be a boring, endless plain of desert, but this game has some wonderful views. Probably my favourite example of the scenery so far. It is destructive enough to feel like a fully interactive world and the loot is rare and valuable enough to make you push for it. The driving is weighty yet fiesty and responsive. The dunes and rocks are fun to drive over. It feels like DIRT mixed with Vigilante 8 in a vast literal sandbox. Your car is your survival machine, your rusty ship wading through unkown waters. Every part of it is designed to keep you alive and others off you while you explore as far you can, I guess like a sea-captain/pirate; you build a bond with your vehicle through that partnership. This would benefit greatly from survival mods I believe, perhaps adding thirst, hunger and sleep requirements, along with a HUDless option and permadeath. The look and feel of the whole game is authentic through and through. It feels grounded enough in reality while allowing human insanity to drive the action. Even the subtle grain adds to the experience. The story isn't much and Max is the original embodiment of "grizzled-white-anti-hero" so don't look there for your thrills. It is the free roaming vehicle combat that is worth it. I do not believe we are going to get many (if at all) car combat games in the near future, so this is a welcome blessing in disguise. It hits all the right notes for both vehicle and human combat (which was another design I assumed would get bland quickly yet it proved me wrong), visceral but slow, precise and heavy. It's still always fun to slingshot harpoon enemy drivers back into their own spiked car and Australian accents are criminally underused in gaming, more would be nice please!
Tl:dr...There are so many ways here they could have messed up a Mad Max video-game tie in, but they didn't. They have put a lot of effort into what made the setting so appealing, added beautiful smoke, fire, explosions and diesel covered war machines. No pretense. Just a heavy industrial level, gritty dried sea or two to play in. Turn off brain, turn on harpoon mounted death car and enjoy! Could have done with a handbrake button and a method of attaching melee weapons to your car, but this is still good. It is scratching an itch that no other post-apoc setting can manage as of yet. Can't wait for Just Cause 3 if this is anything to go by.