Thanks to my PSplus subscription I got Mad
Max for free. When it was released I was moderately interested in the game
since it´s based on a movie IP I mostly enjoyed, but not so much as to buy it. But
if it doesn´t cost a penny then what the hell
The game enjoyed good reviews but not
superb. It was criticized for being repetitive, but it does have enough
gameplay findings to make it enjoyable. I think both points are accurate:
On the plus side, I appreciated how the
world and gameplay fit the IP core elements. You do feel into the Mad Max
world, and even though the character model is a bit generic you feel like
playing the leading role of one of the movies
Car fights are fairly good implemented, and
some of them are challenging. The game characters are also very consistent with
the IP: Post-apocalyptic punk enemies, crazy visionaries, desperates of all
sorts, lone survivors, helpless kids, people who lost everything and expect
very little from life... The story itself is not particularly punchy, it´s just
a kick prior to let you free-roaming, not unlike most other open world games
And to be honest, the game is a
completionist paradise. There are all sort of collectibles and you´re properly
informed where to find them and when you have completed a location. It is much
appreciated and probably the reason I decided to finish the game
On the minus side well, it can be indeed
repetitive mostly on optional goals. Main missions have some variety or enough
eye-candy scripted events to make them stand out. But anything else (camps,
scavenging, races, etc) feels like a copy-pasted template dragged around all
game areas to fill up content as cheap as possible
The combat system is a decent clone of the
Batman´s series melee fights, and thanks to not being over-used it does serve
its purpose better than it did in Ryse (works better when it´s supposed to fill
up 30-40% of the total gameplay time, but if you try to stretch it longer than
that it starts to feel repetitive). Still I´m not too hot about combat because:
- It didn´t feel completely responsive,
some UI prompts were actually not usable until animations had finished
- The camera often left enemies
outside from my view
- The “Fury” subsystem – a damage
buff you get after doing certain combat actions – often triggers too late in
the fight, and not because of the player´s direct decision
- After you´ve obtained all upgrades, combat prowess is irrelevant since you don´t get any more rewards. I don´t think the progression design had the end-game in mind-
I can´t be sure about it but I suspect the
game loops were originally conceived to be more punishing but the final balance
lowered the difficulty: The game does contain one of the distinctive elements
of the IP - Food/Water/Gasoline are scarced – and the player is supposed to
manage them. However in the shipped gameplay you practically don´t have to
worry about them at all. I think the designer who conceived them was left
heart-broken to favor a more “casual” approach
I can´t help to think the game world could
have had some more visual variety. Don´t get me wrong, the wastelands look
awesome and very detailed… but after 100 hours of playtime you get bored of the
same dune/rocky mountain stravaganza. I know, the movies don´t go much beyond
that, but I think they should have pushed the boundaries a bit more with
abandoned cities, huge scrapyards, etc
Other than that, the game plays well, it´s
fairly enjoyable and if you like open worlds or the Mad Max series you should
consider it. And if you like both then it´s a must
