Game - Mad Max

Release Date - September 1, 2015

Platform - Xbox One, PS4 and PC

Developer/Publisher - Warner Bros and Avalanche Studios

Genre - Action/Adventure

 

Mad Max is the best action/adventure game we've played to date. I guess we could probably stop the review there, but that wouldn't really do the game justice now would it? 

The game, like the movie, is all about finding the will to survive when there is no real reason to survive. It's a vast, beautiful non-sand boxy sandbox game that let's you drive into the endless abyss for literally as long as you want. The game changes up some character names from the original movies, of course. With Max on the verge of death after losing his car and almost killed by the bad guy who's name is, wait for it, Scabrous Scrotus (Giggity?), he all of a sudden is appointed to take down this very same guy by the man Chumbucket. If you had visuals of Spongebob when hearing that, you're not alone. 

The best part of Mad Max is how every single thing is tied into the game. There is no bogus sidequest or dumb card game (I'm looking at you Witcher 3) and every person you meet or items you earn directy correlate to how Max levels up himself or his vehicle. As an example, you earn experience, called legend, for completing side quests and all of the game's what seems like unlimited number of challenges. In order to level up, you'll need to take all of your legend to the game's merchant/banker Griffa. This is only to level up Max's personal stats like endurance, etc. If you want to ramp up your bad ass level even more you are going to need to get your inner drug addict on and hunt for scrap in order to earn extra smack.

The scrap metal comes in any part, shape or size you can imagine. You'll utilize it to add spikes, rocket launcher type weapons, cannons and of course...nitrous. Because why WOULDN'T there be nitrous. The best part of the upgrade system we found was the harpoon weapon. This is by far the sickest in game weapon we've ever used. In any game. Ever. When we say you can harpoon whatever you want, you can really harpoon whatever you want. During these car battles, you can use the harpoon to destroy your enemy's vehicle armor by ripping it off, knock off another weapon or even rip the freakin' driver right out of the car. And I mean right through the driver's side window man and the he flops all over the ground with a harpoon up his a**. Sickest. Weapon. Ever.

Just how good the car battles are doesn't take away from the hand to hand and melee combat either. There are a number of options while fighting in Mad Max. There is a high similarity to the Arkham series as far as the combat goes. Just as Batman has chain combos, so does Mad Max. The integral devastating single attacks are only augmented by the addition of the insane number of weapons Max can use as well. Of course, unlike Batman, Max isn't inhibited by a "no killing" rule and the game makes brilliant use of this. The executions in Mad Max are incredibly brutal  and even more so when there is a weapon involved. Also, playing off of the recently released movie's title, Max has the ability to make use of a Fury mode. Once you level up enough during a fight with a high enough counter, you enter a state of rage that Master Blaster himself would be envious of. And yes, I know he lost to Max in the original movie but that's not the point, is it?

As far as story campaign missions go, you will need to take down the game's four groups of enemies. Each one uses their own story arc that is tied into Max and allows him to upgrade both himself and vehicles accordingly depending on which enemy he is facing. All four groups; Scrotus (LMAO), Roadkill, War Boy and Buzzard also have their own main boss you will need to take down. Think of Far Cry 4 as each base and checkpoint wasn't complete until you took the leader down. It is similar to this in Mad Max but has literally endless opportunities. I'm aware most people use literally when it's not really literal, but Mad Max it's really the case. If you choose, you can decide to drive (or run if you're brave enough) as long as you want into the desert and just keep going. You won't hit any invisible wall, no GTA V like turnaround in the ocean where you can see further but can't go anywhere. It's literally endless. We drove for an hour straight just to see if there was some hidden easter egg somewhere. Really an hour. We didn't find any easter eggs that we are aware of, but we kept going. The environment continued to grow, the enemies continued to come. It's endless.

Like most action/adventure titles as Shadow of Mordor, Witcher 3, etc the game doesn't end after the main story is over. You can still go back and upgrade your Magnus Opus as well as find and create additional vehicles/upgrades. There are challenges to complete, relics to collect and races both online and offline. Admittedly, we did not get to test out the online but we're not worried about it. The single player experience alone with its countless upgrades, insanely sick kick ass melee and vehicle battles and most importantly the way the game integrates everything into the story progression with  no "lame duck" mission quests makes it a must purchase by itself. 

The only downfall we found with the game itself was in the many hours of gameplay the story has, some of the story missions' purpose got slightly repetitive. Go here, kill this guy, make it look cool, mission complete. Yeah, it was fun and the world is open for exploraion while you are on a mission which was awesome as we said, but there is only so much a game can do. This is in no way a fault of the game by itself, but more of a limit to the imagination and just how many ways you can come up with snapping a dude's neck.

Mad Max is a must purchase title in every sense of the word and is available now on PS4 and Xbox One.