Developer: Warner Bros
Game: Mad Max
Price: £34.99 RRP on Steam (at time of review)
Introduction:
From what I’d heard about the Mad Max game I had some hesitations about reviewing this it, for one everything in the main story quest is optional; you can just head straight to the end mission while barely playing any of the story. This made it seem like the story was pointless and not worth playing, also it being a game based on a film made me a little wary of how good it would be, luckily I was mistaken in this view.
Gameplay:
You play as Max, main character in all the films, old world survivor and typically troubled, gruff looking protagonist. Having said that he is a great character with an interesting back story and engaging dialogue and voice acting meant that I, a steadfast supporter of games where you create your own protagonist, enjoyed playing with a character that was set in stone. In fact the whole in-game world was filled with mysterious and fascinating characters. All of the named characters are interesting to talk to, however the unnamed characters seem a little lacking, they’re just these people who stand around doing the same thing and yell set sentences at you.
Your vehicle is almost like your companion in this game with how important it is, you use it to get everywhere, which is definitely a good thing as the map is huge and would take forever to walk across. The car also serves as a mode of combat, where you enter combat with enemy vehicles or by using the car to infiltrate or destroy enemy strongholds or structures. The vehicular combat is very satisfying and fun. When aiming the game goes into slow motion, which can be awkward and clunky in some games however Mad Max does this well and it really adds to the experience while making the combat easier, without the slow motion I’m pretty sure it would almost be impossible. The only issue I had with the vehicle was that driving was a little more difficult with a keyboard but that is true of most PC games that have driving elements.
One of the main features in the game is the ability to upgrade Max’s abilities, equipment and vehicle. These upgrades are very extensive and are a really great feature for this game and feel like an integral part of the story as you need to get upgrades in order to stand a better chance of completing the final mission. However after a while of playing the game does get a little repetitive with grinding for parts to do upgrades and just systematically going through each territory destroying enemy structures and vehicles.
The hand-to-hand combat in the game is also extremely satisfying, it is mostly punching and even though you do have a gun, ammo is scarce so you cannot rely on this, instead you spend most of the game punching and kicking your way through enemies, chaining attacks until you reach “fury mode”. Fury mode is a mode of combat where you do extra damage and have different animations for attacking, so instead of just punching Max will jump and kick your enemy right in the face. Occasionally you can find a melee weapon to beat your opponents with but it breaks after a while and you go back to punching and even though the combat is smooth and is fun after a while it can get samey and a little boring.
Audio and Graphics:
The environment of Mad Max is incredible, the landscape is interesting and the map is absolutely massive. The highest resolution I was able to use was 1680×1050 though it has numerous options to further tweak the graphics to your personal taste, the game ran brilliantly at max settings on my GTX 760 with 16Gb RAM at this size though. I had no issues with the animations and the detail was great, my favourite feature of the environment was that it was destructible, if you drove into a rock formation at speed you wouldn’t just stop, in fact sometimes you could drive right through it and smash it to pieces.
The audio was also very impressive, the sound effects during combat enhanced the experience and made it even more satisfying. The music was also great, it changed to fit the feel and the atmosphere which is something I always love the music in games to do. Voice acting was also good, it helped that the characters had interesting dialogue and it really made you feel for the characters in parts.
Conclusion:
Usually games based on films are terrible, however I’m glad to say that this is an exception, it helped that they didn’t stick with the same storyline as the film, it really set it apart. The combat is very fun and I liked that it revolved around the vehicle in a non-typical way, combat not racing. The price of the game is acceptable in my opinion, you get a huge environment to play around with and while it may get a little samey it is still very fun and has some great features which make this game stand out.
