Over the past ten years we have had a ton of amazing games come out, masterpieces that have redefined gaming as a whole. We have also had huge duds, games that will be legendary in how bad they are. But sometimes a great game comes along that nobody really talks about, a game that while not perfect, has something special. I believe that Mad Max is one of those games. For those who have not played the game there will be some minor spoilers.
In Mad Max you play Max (we knew that though). To try to summarize the story in a few short sentences, Your car was stolen by Immortan Joe’s war boys and are left to die in the middle of the desert. Thankfully you survive and spend the game trying to get your car back as well as get your revenge.
Mad Max is an open world game, Vehicles play a central part in the Mad Max lore and so they also play a central part in the game, as they act both as the main way of traversing the world and play an important part in combat.
The world itself is well designed and although not traditionally beautiful, it makes you feel rather isolated and stays true to the world of Mad Max. Outposts and small enemy camps litter the vast areas and you are often tasked with destroying these camps, or using your car to dismantle towers and other structures. These activities are usually short and enjoyable and don’t overstay their welcome. This makes exploration rewarding and necessary, as these camps are where you find scrap, which is the main resource needed for upgrading your vehicle.
On foot combat is fairly familiar, having drawn a lot of inspiration from the Batman: Arkham games. Although if I’m being honest, it doesn’t do it as well or as smoothly as the Arkham games do. I feel this is in part due to the fact that Max isn’t Batman. Max has to move slower and doesn’t have the agility that Batman does. Max does though have the ability to pick up some melee weapons, and sometimes has access to ammo for his shotgun. This does make combat more exciting, but ammo is scarce and melee weapons are not permanent. So most of your time with Max will be with his fists.
Vehicle combat though is where the game starts to shine. It is a central part of the game and plays very well. Over time as you upgrade your car, you get access to a host of things like a harpoon and giant ramming spikes. Which you will use plenty. Vehicle combat is fast paced and reminds me of those twisted metal games of the PS1 and 2 eras. Ramming becomes vital and the cars react to the damage done to them, becoming slower and harder to control if you take out a tire or crashing if you shoot the driver with your shotgun.
I would be doing a disservice to you the reader if I only talked about what made the game good and forgot to mention what really held the game back. To put it simply, the game is basic. I don’t mean drinking pumpkin latte and wearing uggs basic, I mean the sort of basic that makes the game lack real depth.
Even when writing this article, I had trouble finding things to really go in depth about. There is a large game world, but its vast desert is mostly similar and the side objectives are the same. The vehicle combat and the on foot combat is effective but simple. This isn’t really a bad thing per se, but if I went into this game with huge expectations, I would have left feeling disappointed.
There is also the issue of resource management. Over the course of the game you need to constantly find water and gas to fuel yourself and your car, this starts out easy enough, but when looting anything takes a few seconds of just holding the loot button and waiting, it can feel tedious and stale.
These issues though don’t really detract from my original statement though, it is a hidden gem. Upon release the game got middling reviews and was generally just thrown to the wayside as simply a tie-in with the movie.
I won’t say that Mad Max is one of the best games of the decade, but I do feel that it does not get nearly as much credit as it deserves for being a solid game that is enjoyable for the 20 or so hours the game lasts. That’s all I can really expect of it though.