Mad Max (2015) - Review

Having a good time in the Mad Max world means you are going to sound like a right lunatic. So when I say things like "throwing a thunderpoon at a war boy to make them explode is so satisfying" and "aw nice, I found some maggots to eat", please don't think that it in any way represent my actual values outside the gaming world.

The world of Mad Max is not a nice place. I actually tried to compare it to some similar post-apocalyptic universes - you've got things like Fallout, The Witcher (not post-apocalyptic per se, but considering you can't set foot outside your bed without being beset by monsters, I still consider it a hell-hole) and Judge Dredd to mention a few off the top of my head. And compared to a lot of them, Mad Max is a pretty bad place. Everyone, and I mean everyone, is a piece of shit. No one tries to do nice things. There is barely any semblance of civilization going on and it's a dog eat dog world at every corner. Add to that, there is nothing but desert as far as the eye can see, so you can't even shack up in some nice meadow somewhere and try to live your life on your own. The Mad Max world just doesn't have nice things. 

The main character, Mad Max himself, is in fact also not a nice guy. The few times he ends up doing nice things, it is almost like he has to pull his own teeth how much he seems to dislike it. The game makes a good job at conveying that Max only ever does something for someone else if he also benefits from it. Altruism is something that is truly dead in this sandscape.

To replicate that in a game then, without making the player just behave like an absolute monster, is no small feat. To be fair, Max doesn't go out of his way to ruin the life of the people he meets, unlike a lot of the people he meets. So there is a starting point for an anti-hero, and we all love our anti-heroes.

To make things harder for themselves, the game developers also make you kill off the final bad guy in a cut scene right at the start of the game. Yeah, no need to warn for spoilers here I think, you are literally offing what should be the final boss in the first few minutes of the game. You as a player are just watching these things unfold, but they also set the stage really nicely for what is to come. They immediately explain what a bad guy Mad Max is and you will realize quickly that there is still much work left to do.

Making a game from an established universe definitely seems to be a double edged sword. On the one hand you have characters, lore and story lines all for free. On the other hand you have an army of loyal fans that are going to nitpick every choice you make. The universe has to feel right, and whatever feels right differs from person to person. But when you get it right it can work so much in your favor. Play your cards right, and part of the reason people will want to spend time in your game is because they can pretend to be part of that universe. 

I noticed the difference when I compared a game like Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and Mad Max. I like the Lord of the Rings movies (and books), but I am by no means a big fan and know little about the universe beyond the abovementioned movies and books. I enjoyed M-E:SoM because it was a well crafted game, not because I was thrilled to be running around in the same world as Frodo and Sauron (not that anyone would be thrilled to hang out with Sauron, but you get my meaning).

With Mad Max I suspect the opposite however. While I am not necessarily a huge Mad Max fan either, I am a huge fan of the Fury Road movie, which this game is clearly heavily inspired by. And while I find the game to have other qualities, which we will get in to hopefully, a huge draw for me is simply being able to run around and pretend to be a little part of the world in that movie.

Even if you don't like anything else about this game, you have got to hand it to them - they've really succeeded in building up the Mad Max atmosphere and just crazy stuff that goes on in those movies. People are suitably disgusting, both morally and literally, and the world is fifty shades of sand. But it works, it works so well that I absolutely love running around punching Scrotus' hordes in the face and setting things on fire in fifteen different ways.

Mechanically it works too. They've put focus on the two things that need to feel good - the melee and the driving. You'd think I'd steer clear of a game that takes place 90% inside a car, but ripping through sand dunes and throttling yourself off a cliff never gets dull. I am endlessly impressed that they've managed to build a world where a car can go completely mad and you never feel stuck or lost. There are of course loads of different vehicles to unlock, that all handle differently. Since I am no particular fan of driving I quickly opted to perfect the feel of one vehicle and stick with that. That worked well for me throughout the entire game, but there are many options if you prefer to tinker around. Now, I've never driven like a mad man through a desert with five other vehicles filled with maniacs on my rear hellbent on blowing me up, but I would dare to guess that Mad Max makes a pretty good simulation of how that would feel. 

Some more words about the punching then. Maybe it's telling that it took me about 15 hours of gameplay before I realized I could upgrade Max's melee abilities. Up to that point I still had had all the fun in the world. And yes, that probably also means that the game is a bit on the easy side - especially since it doesn't take long to figure out how to outsmart most creatures you come across, though that still feels suitable to the lore of the universe.

Max's punching has weight to it and you will swing yourself through hordes with some easy button presses. It takes some timing to get it right, but I rarely felt like I took a punch to the face unfairly. Upgrading Max means you can add some tricks to the mix which requires you to keep out for other cues. Yeah it's basically QTE, but it feels chunky and satisfying. It's straight forward, there is no sneaking about here. Max can attack from different vantage points, but there is definitely going to be battle. The shotgun and knives at his belt do a good job too, everything feels deliberate and useful. 

Some things took some getting used to for me, though I'll say they are actually good design decisions. To interact with most things you need to press and hold your interact-key (E on PC), which took me hours to get right. But it makes sense, this way Max won't accidentally interact with things because I accidentally press E. Also, I actually had to search the internet how to get through certain sections because it turns out Max has a jump button, it's just a weird one - Left Ctrl. Max will roll on Space, and it makes a lot more sense in the game because jumping is almost never used whereas rolling is used a lot.

If you don't want to follow the main story you get a whole world to explore or more importantly, purify from the hordes of Scrotus. The world is littered with enemy camps to destroy, races to win, mine fields to clear out and scrap to collect. The scrap allows you to improve your own vehicle but also the main hub friendly camps that you come across. Upgrade the friendly camps enough and they will also allow you to regain water, health, ammo and fuel. I use the word "friendly" in the loosest of ways here. The camps are lead by people who only decide not to shoot Max in the face immediately, because they recognize that he can be useful to them. People like Jeet, Pink Eye and Gutgash are definitely not nice people. They are just slightly less horrible than the terrible bottom-feeders that inhabit most of the wasteland.

You'll come across a lot of interesting characters, for sure. But none as interesting and easy to love as Chumbucket. Chumbucket sets you on your path from the start of the game and comes with you on every mission in the car. He won't fight, but he will fix the car and the car will need a lot of fixing. Chumbucket is a great character and the MVP of this game besides Max himself. Max tolerates him, but Chumbucket basically reveres Max as a prophet at the altar of the gasoline and even calls him "Saint". He will comment on things that happen around you and I never got tired of him hanging around. Chumbucket wants you to help complete his lives work of building the Angel - the best car the wasteland has ever seen. Honestly I had so much fun driving around doing all sorts of things besides the main story, I sort of didn't pay attention to what that was all about. The main story gives you a reason to explore more areas of the game, but playing around in the world felt like the main draw.

The villains will have lovely names like Stank Gum, Gut Noose and Stump Grinder. Encountering them is overall quite forgettable affairs, a lot of them are even re-skins of each other. A bit of a lost opportunity there, but a minor gripe in a game otherwise filled with both character and characters.

There is plenty more to mention, like Griffa, a mysterious stranger who will blow dust in your face and allow you to improve certain skills while musing about your future and your past. Or that the map is great and I never got lost even though pretty much everything looks the same. Or that there are sandstorms that are terrifying and last literal minutes unless you take cover? Or that the soundtrack uses a mouth harp, one of the most underrated instruments ever?

All in all, there is a lot to see and do in Mad Max. I've spent over 44 hours on it, and I am not done yet. I was a bit surprised and sad to read that it wasn't all too well received though it seems to have since gained more recognition. Maybe your mileage will vary, I am sure an interest in the world of Mad Max will increase your enjoyment. There are repetitive parts, for sure. But mostly the game oozes respect for the source material and an eye for detail. In the end, there is a very competent and fun game underneath all that sand and oil.