The ending for Mad Max is very poor

[RedCelt]

Played the game for near 70 hours.

Cleared all the regions to 0 threat etc and very much enjoyed the journey.

However, the ending missions are just stupid.

I would say spoiler alert on the next piece, but the whole ending is so bad that you need to know.

First, i do not play a game for near 70 hours to see a girl and mother killed.
Especially after i had just fkg rescued them.

There was a dialogue about staying with them and I had no way of saying yes.
Instead i had to prioritise a car and went chasing after that.

If i did not care about woman and girl, why then would i go back to where they were staying?
I had the car, so it is a big contradiction

Also the dream. after the race with Scrotus.
Did that tell me to stay with the woman??

Seriously feel let down by this ending, to the point that I no longer care about Scrotus, the game has finished for me with the death of the woman and girl.

Now i know why rage 2 was not good.

Bad, bad way to end this game.

It therefore turns out that Mad Max is just a self obsessed jerk that enjoys wallowing in his own self pity and sense of being a victim.

Hire better writers...

[Kunovega]

Have you even watched the movies? The ending fits the character perfectly. It's never even clear what's real and what's all in his head from trauma.

[RedCelt]

Originally posted by RedCelt:

Played the game for near 70 hours.

Cleared all the regions to 0 threat etc and very much enjoyed the journey.

However, the ending missions are just stupid.

I would say spoiler alert on the next piece, but the whole ending is so bad that you need to know.

First, i do not play a game for near 70 hours to see a girl and mother killed.
Especially after i had just fkg rescued them.

There was a dialogue about staying with them and I had no way of saying yes.
Instead i had to prioritise a car and went chasing after that.

If i did not care about woman and girl, why then would i go back to where they were staying?
I had the car, so it is a big contradiction

Also the dream. after the race with Scrotus.
Did that tell me to stay with the woman??

Seriously feel let down by this ending, to the point that I no longer care about Scrotus, the game has finished for me with the death of the woman and girl.

Now i know why rage 2 was not good.

Bad, bad way to end this game.

It therefore turns out that Mad Max is just a self obsessed jerk that enjoys wallowing in his own self pity and sense of being a victim.

Hire better writers...

[BlackHillsHntr]

You need to watch the movies to get a better understanding, it's sad yes but you gotta put yourself in the character's mindset, his past, everyone that was close to him has died. Watch the movies first before judging the game.

[RCMidas]

You may recall the name of the game. Max is crazy - as in suffers from psychosis and has a monomaniacal obsession with reaching a place that does not, strictly speaking, exist. Even when he approaches the closest point to finding some kind of peace among the wastelanders he has been helping, his main focus is still to leave them before any more hurt happens to him - despite the fact that staying with them would be a way to settle his broken mind.

When Hope and Glory are killed, it reminds him of his own family being murdered. That sends him into one final act of bloody vengeance by proxy, during which we clearly see him experiencing auditory hallucinations (and even a couple of visual ones). After that, there is nothing left for him once again. So he puts it behind him as just another interruption of his lunatic goal, and drives off into eternity to find what cannot be found.

[Kunovega]

Originally posted by RCMidas:

You may recall the name of the game. Max is crazy - as in suffers from psychosis and has a monomaniacal obsession with reaching a place that does not, strictly speaking, exist. Even when he approaches the closest point to finding some kind of peace among the wastelanders he has been helping, his main focus is still to leave them before any more hurt happens to him - despite the fact that staying with them would be a way to settle his broken mind.

When Hope and Glory are killed, it reminds him of his own family being murdered. That sends him into one final act of bloody vengeance by proxy, during which we clearly see him experiencing auditory hallucinations (and even a couple of visual ones). After that, there is nothing left for him once again. So he puts it behind him as just another interruption of his lunatic goal, and drives off into eternity to find what cannot be found.

Even his memory/hallucinations aren't accurate, in-game he doesn't even remember that his real child was a boy, so his madness is altering both his perception of reality and his memories of the past.

[^DreeMax^]

Originally posted by RedCelt:

Played the game for near 70 hours.

Cleared all the regions to 0 threat etc and very much enjoyed the journey.

However, the ending missions are just stupid.

I would say spoiler alert on the next piece, but the whole ending is so bad that you need to know.

First, i do not play a game for near 70 hours to see a girl and mother killed.
Especially after i had just fkg rescued them.

There was a dialogue about staying with them and I had no way of saying yes.
Instead i had to prioritise a car and went chasing after that.

If i did not care about woman and girl, why then would i go back to where they were staying?
I had the car, so it is a big contradiction

Also the dream. after the race with Scrotus.
Did that tell me to stay with the woman??

Seriously feel let down by this ending, to the point that I no longer care about Scrotus, the game has finished for me with the death of the woman and girl.

Now i know why rage 2 was not good.

Bad, bad way to end this game.

It therefore turns out that Mad Max is just a self obsessed jerk that enjoys wallowing in his own self pity and sense of being a victim.

Hire better writers...

Well this ending actually steps perfectly with Mad Max lore. And this is coming from a guy who also didn't like the ending in general, but at same time I saw something like this going to happen.
Anyway, after final game credits you can continue playing with all characters alive (except bad guys of course), so it's fair trade imho.

[Dualmeister]

I'm not gonna lie, I felt baited by the ending on my first playthrough. I know this will sound as edgy as a knife made our of razor blades, but:
¿Since when has Max cared about companionship? Hell, he even tries to get rid of the Blackfinger once the car is good enough, the whole "kiss" sequence he had with Glory (I believe this was her name) felt super forced.

And when he just rekts both The Magnum Opus & The Blackfinger for having a shred of common sense, I just wanted to throw Max off the cliff, especially when they force you, The Player, to push the accelerator at the end of it all.

Other than that, I loved the game, and though I dislike the ending, it does make sense when you consider Max's character, and the bittersweet endings that Mad Max movies had.

Tl:Dr, Ending sucks but makes sense.

[Incarnate]

It fits the tone of the original two films (the best ones): bleak and nihilistic. It's your fault for only being familiar with the mediocre Tom Hardy film. This franchise is over forty years old.

Basically Max is stuck in a paradox, he loses everything precisely for doing the right thing. And he doesn't get the girl. He's doomed to survive and blame himself. There was a pretty clear character arc of him trying to redeem himself and find meaning in life in the first two films. Thunderdome? Well, that's a rehash.

In Fury Road movie he is one-dimensional lunk stuck in a dumb Hollywood blockbuster. He's not even the real protagonist of his own movie.

[Kunovega]

Originally posted by Incarnate:

It fits the tone of the original two films (the best ones): bleak and nihilistic. It's your fault for only being familiar with the mediocre Tom Hardy film. This franchise is over forty years old.

Basically Max is stuck in a paradox, he loses everything precisely for doing the right thing. And he doesn't get the girl. He's doomed to survive and blame himself. There was a pretty clear character arc of him trying to redeem himself and find meaning in life in the first two films. Thunderdome? Well, that's a rehash.

In Fury Road movie he is one-dimensional lunk stuck in a dumb Hollywood blockbuster. He's not even the real protagonist of his own movie.

Not that it excuses anything, but if you treat this game as a prequel to Fury Road it almost explains his oblivious mental state in that movie.

By the end of the game Max has gone from his normal delusional state to an even more drugged up madman. Every time you level up with Griffa you take more of whatever chemicals he's pumping into max and by the end max can't even keep his own memories straight, the child he remembers while driving away at the end isn't even his son anymore, its a misplaced memory of a girl that never existed.

Any discrepancy beyond that are his delusions and the drugs.

[RCMidas]

And that's assuming Griffa even exists and Max isn't just hallucinating from the heat.

[Incarnate]

Originally posted by Kunovega:

Originally posted by Incarnate:

It fits the tone of the original two films (the best ones): bleak and nihilistic. It's your fault for only being familiar with the mediocre Tom Hardy film. This franchise is over forty years old.

Basically Max is stuck in a paradox, he loses everything precisely for doing the right thing. And he doesn't get the girl. He's doomed to survive and blame himself. There was a pretty clear character arc of him trying to redeem himself and find meaning in life in the first two films. Thunderdome? Well, that's a rehash.

In Fury Road movie he is one-dimensional lunk stuck in a dumb Hollywood blockbuster. He's not even the real protagonist of his own movie.

Not that it excuses anything, but if you treat this game as a prequel to Fury Road it almost explains his oblivious mental state in that movie.

By the end of the game Max has gone from his normal delusional state to an even more drugged up madman. Every time you level up with Griffa you take more of whatever chemicals he's pumping into max and by the end max can't even keep his own memories straight, the child he remembers while driving away at the end isn't even his son anymore, its a misplaced memory of a girl that never existed.

Any discrepancy beyond that are his delusions and the drugs.

Interesting interpretation.

It's odd that this game has a deeper plot and more engaging character motivation for Max than the film it was licensed to profit off of.

I kind of like the delusional junkie angle. Maybe George Miller should have let Werner Herzog write the script to the movie.

[Agent Orange #MAGA_2024]

I can only underline the comments above.
I understand that from a game perspective it feels like you did everything right and we usually get rewarded in games.
However this is not an RPG, you don't play yourself, you play Max. Character that has history of let's say the 3 original films. And for that if fits perfectly.
First time I played the game I couldn't believe the balls the writers had to pull off an ending like that, which resonates with the ending of the first film / beggining if the second film.
Cudos to them for not doing basic hollywood BS and actually sticking to their guns and having an Ending that fits the world they created, fits the character, and fits the narrative.

But from the gamers perspective who only knows the game or the Mad Max 4 movie...I understand; cure for that is more LORE.
cheers

[Kunovega]

Originally posted by NighTom:

I can only underline the comments above.
I understand that from a game perspective it feels like you did everything right and we usually get rewarded in games.
However this is not an RPG, you don't play yourself, you play Max. Character that has history of let's say the 3 original films. And for that if fits perfectly.
First time I played the game I couldn't believe the balls the writers had to pull off an ending like that, which resonates with the ending of the first film / beggining if the second film.
Cudos to them for not doing basic hollywood BS and actually sticking to their guns and having an Ending that fits the world they created, fits the character, and fits the narrative.

But from the gamers perspective who only knows the game or the Mad Max 4 movie...I understand; cure for that is more LORE.
cheers

Even the post-ending open world is bizarre. You suddenly have the magnum opus back, chum is alive and you can keep playing in the sandbox and doing any other side missions and events you didn't already do. It mocks itself with madness by not even confirming if the ending was real since it dumps you right back into the world and now with both your new and old vehicles available.

And you could say: but after the ending nothing is real, to which I'd counter: Was anything after the opening cinematic real either? I mean, the main enemy is so over the top surviving what you did to him, the game itself is madness, let alone the story at any given point during or after.

My only complaint isn't the ending story, it's the fact they didn't let you reset the world and keep going without losing the car and max's upgrades. An NG+ type of cycle which would basically be Max trapped in an endless loop of madness.

That would give a whole new playstyle, you could start a new game and try to beat it as quickly as possible but doing new things each time without feeling compelled to try and 100% the game in a single session, still having a sense of progress and not ending up at a dead-end with a fully upgraded car/character and nothing to do

[Sleeper]

I finished Act 2 recently, found many side quests tedious mmo style. Pity the VO and cinematics are excellent. Developers nailed the atmosphere but side contents let down.

[Dualmeister]

The worldbuilding itself is just so immersive too, ngl

Originally posted by Sleeper:

I finished Act 2 recently, found many side quests tedious mmo style. Pity the VO and cinematics are excellent. Developers nailed the atmosphere but side contents let down.