Mad Max: a rather lengthy review / impression piece on the game by XenoRad

[XenoRad]

Hello.

This is my first post in this forum. I'd thought I break the ice with a review of the game I wanted to write after playing it.

I didn't even think I'd be interested in playing the Mad Max game. I heard about it and I even saw a few pre-release videos but I always thought I'd be like most video games made with a movie license: shallow, barely playable, its existence only justified to make more money for the publisher and not as a game that's good on its own.
Currently Steam says I've played 48 hours. During this time, I finished the story missions and most of the side-missions and activities. I've had fun during this time, more than I'd have thought. I've also read the opinions of others about this game, professional critics and gamers alike.

My initial idea was to to write a few paragraphs explaining what I like, what I dislike and how this game could be improved. However a few paragraphs turned into a few pages and I still feel that I could detail certain aspects some more. I will stop though before I discourage even those of you still willing to give this a read. I’ve split the text into three parts and I will make each part a separate post for easier reading (I hope moderators will be ok with this - having one giant post seems not so practical).

Part I – Game World

Right off the bat my biggest like in this game is the game world and the aesthetics of all things inhabiting it. I like the vast areas, how each is somewhat different from the rest, how the camps and the cars look, down to even some of the smaller objects like the random bits of stuff that litter the areas. The visuals have a certain warmness which I like and it's all pleasing to the eye. There's never a moment in this game where there's not something interesting or nice to look at. When I'm not looking at the vast horizon under the detailed sky with soft colored clouds, I'm probably looking at a settlement thinking how it's similar to the rest but also different. Mad Max doesn't look good only when charging with the Magnum Opus at full speed chasing or running away from enemies. No, I find that it looks equally good when I stop to investigate an area that could hold some valuable items.

Sadly here is one of my dislikes as well. The camps and the areas are different to each other and yet they're also very similar. No wonder since most objects that populate them are the same, only arranged differently. I was hoping for some more interesting locations, enemy bases or perhaps some intact buildings of old that still hold pre-apocalypse valuable loot. As well constructed as they are, after a while the locations start to blend in. They have consistent design and build quality but they begin lacking that 'aha' moment that explorers wish to find after a while.

Still, most locations are not straightforward to navigate. They have a level of verticality with some areas harder to reach than others, requiring the use of zip-lines and ladders and such. I could tell that each location took some time and care to build and I like that.
The old airport is one of the coolest locations in the game but sadly it's pretty much the only one of such a size and importance to both the story missions and side-missions as well. There are a few other cool and unexpected locations but not as grand, detailed or meaningful.

The 4 friendly strongholds Max can visit can be upgraded with certain projects and each project will bring a reward. Upgrading a stronghold will change its visual appearance as well with more people and constructions populating it. The people also become less hostile or indifferent to Max and start to thank him for helping the base grow and eliminating the outside threat. They also mention events that happened during the game which is a nice touch of immersion.

I'm a bit torn on how the game balances these base rewards with the idea that it's all a hostile place where survival is difficult. Leveling up the bases takes time and effort to find all the parts for all the projects or completing side missions for this. So on the one hand this hard work needs rewarding, but on the other receiving free water, health, ammo and oil with every visit takes away from the feeling of survival. The player is never too far away from a safe base and with fast travel the outside world becomes less dangerous since it will always be easy to retreat and replenish.

Speaking of dangers of the outside world, I do like the random storms. They are well made visually and the first time I saw one I dreaded to see the wall of dust creeping closer at speed. After some time however I learned that storms aren't that scary and instead are a good opportunity to gain a lot of scrap. With some health and armor upgrades for Max and the Magnum Opus storms are actually welcome after a while. I was hoping to see something truly scary done here: perhaps a terrifying tornado like in the Fury Road movie that can sweep up the Magnum Opus whole and violently throw it against a rock or cliff. There are some 'mighty dusters' as Chumbucket calls them, they are rather frequent and can jolt the Magnum Opus a bit but it's nothing that significant though. Max himself won't be very happy if he goes into one on foot, but again - it's nothing that significant though.

[XenoRad]

Part II – Enemies, Vehicles and Combat

The three enemy factions are rather well defined visually though fighting them is the same affair. They have unique cars, and the most radical are the ones belonging to the Buzzards. I like how the night is their domain and how they sometimes lay in ambush. One dislike to mention here is that while the game at least suggests that these factions don't like each other and are at war I hardly ever see them fighting. They don't usually spawn in the same area and even if I do manage to get a faction to chase me and then another appears they usually ignore each other and gang up trying to take me down.

Vehicle combat is always fun. The enemies use different tactics and do retreat if they lose numeric superiority.
I like that the Magnum Opus has so many options for customizations and how they do matter. I find that even with a strong engine adding a lot of heavy armor slows the car down making escapes or chases difficult. So while adding better parts is generally better, sometimes it's best to mix the parts in such a way that would give a tactical advantage in certain scenarios.

I do have some issues with the seemingly arbitrary restrictions for certain parts, like eliminating all threats in a specific region (why this region in particular and not another?) or completing an optional mission to unlock. Since it's an open world game where players may not all choose to do things in a certain order this makes it easy to have a certain part like a medium strength front bumper locked, while having the better parts unlocked and already installed.

The car progression is still a bit better done that character progression though. Since the latter parts are tied to fully reducing threat in whole regions the car will end up fully upgraded roughly very late in the game. This is good because it provides an incentive to keep playing even after finishing the main missions.

That being said the car combat isn't perfectly balanced. More often than not the early game with a weak Magnum Opus possesses most challenge (outside of some missions where Max is vastly outnumbered by enemy vehicles) whereas late game the thunderpoons take care of most threats quickly.

The convoys present the biggest challenge and the first few times I attempted to take one out I either failed or took plenty of time with careful pauses to let Chumbucked repair the car while also not losing track of the main vehicle in the Convoy which would have reset the entire engagement.

Car handling plays a big part in how easy of hard it is to maneuver around the environment. It's definitely arcade with the car sometimes hopping about and scrambling to gain traction on some of the more slippery surfaces like sand. All in all I like the handling. It takes care to keep the car on track, especially with heavy armor and hitting boost which makes the car jolt forwards. At worst the Magnum Opus will quickly switch between being in control and out of control, but at best it will maneuver like a dangerous machine, outrunning and circling back on its pursuers.

I like that hitting an obstacle hard will also reduce from Max's health and that not being careful will mean Max will have to do as a pedestrian while Chumbucket brings it back in running order.

What I find curiously lacking regarding the vehicles is that the in car steering wheels don't turn which is very obvious early on when the Magnum Opus doesn't have a body to hide this omission. There is also no animation of Max touching the shifter when going from forward into reverse, and none of the superchargers are animated in game though at least the Interceptor's one is during cut scenes. What gives? The superchargers are a main part of the game so surely more care could have been given.

Speaking of the Interceptor (minor spoilers follow) - you get it after finishing the story. Again, disappointing that the supercharger is static but also that you can't turn it on or off. Some players have suggested that this on-off mechanic could have easily replaced the nitrous boost, but alas the car has nitrous boost and not a switchable supercharger.
The Interceptor could have also used a little bit more work. I don't like that the front tires sometimes clip through the fenders, that its textures are mirrored from the left side of the car to the right, that there's only one texture used for both gas tanks in the back and that the front light housings are shattered. The Interceptor is rather fast and maneuverable otherwise, but I feel it doesn't hold a candle to a fully upgraded Magnum Opus in terms of durability, usability and attack strength.
Nitpicky remarks perhaps, but this is an iconic vehicle and this is the first chance any of us had to drive it.

Let's move on to the on-foot aspects of the game. The character progression suffers depending on how many optional activities are done. Too little and Max won’t reach full status by the end of the game. Too many and he’ll reach full status way before the end. The character levels up and each time he gets a new 'legend' level which unlocks certain wearable items and a token that can be used to upgrade a perk, be it able to find more scrap, or use melee weapons for longer or something else.

Only the first 100 levels (and thus tokens) are used by the game to gain character progression. Anything after this (and I think I'm currently at level 150+) doesn't offer game bonuses. Sure, it's an open world game with plenty of optional stuff; you don't want to force players to do a lot of optional stuff to get all the upgrades, but you also don't want to stop rewarding the players for continuing to play the game after a certain point.

I'm not sure though why new fighting moves require scrap to unlock. I figure it would be much more logical to also use tokens for this.
With or without these upgrades hand to hand fighting is enjoyable though not very varied. The animations are of high quality, every hit has a certain weight and impact to it and overall there are a good number of elements involved to keep combat easy to learn but not so easy to master.

[XenoRad]

Part III – The story and the ending

Now it's time to write about my biggest gripe with the game and that is its ending. Spoilers will follow, be warned if you haven't finished the game.

In summary the story goes that Max is ambushed by Scrotus, has his V8 Interceptor stolen and then scrapped for parts and he now has to build a new and a better car, the Magnum Opus, with the help of trusty mechanic Chumbucket in order to escape the wastes and go to 'The Plains of Silence'.
It's hinted in the game that this location is actually only in Max's mind and in fact represents him trying to escape the mental baggage of past sufferings. Alas it’s never fully revealed what is the truth.

Max gets close to finishing the Magnum Opus, but gives Chumbucket reasons for worry when he mentions that he needs a couple of big gas tanks to be mounted in the back. Since this is where Chum sits, the mechanic begins to wonder if Max plans to take the Magnum Opus away from him. Max is also seemingly conflicted by the fact that he met a mother and daughter, Hope and Glory, who let him now that he could have a new beginning with them as a family.

I like that Max seems to ponder this while also trying to stick to his original plan of finishing the Magnum Opus and continuing his journey.
In any case any dream of starting over with a new family is crushed after Chumbucket runs away scared with the car for fear of losing it and is then found, beaten up and interrogated by Scrotus and his main man, Stank Gum. Max kills Stank Gum and rescue Chum, but finds out he spoke about Hope and Glory and that they became new targets for Scrotus.

He rushes to try and save them but arrives too late. At this point killing Scrotus becomes pretty much the only thing in Max's mind.

The end battle requires Max to take on Scrotus' convoy, disable his giant vehicle, and then ram it down a cliff with the Magnum Opus by destroying it while also killing Chumbucket who will simply not let go of the car.

This is my main issue with the game's story. As mad as Max might seem at this point, it's very, very unlikely and a very poor bit of storytelling to have him sacrifice both the Magnum Opus and Chum in order to try and kill Scrotus. It's even more bitter when in fact it doesn't even work. Scrotus manages to escape his falling vehicle (the land mover) with Max's old Interceptor which was also aboard. Max then disables his Interceptor with explosives, kills Scrotus, gets back in his Interceptor (which now magically works again) and rides out into the wastes.

Very poor ending in my opinion. There was no need to ram Scrotus' vehicle with the Magnum Opus and kill Chumbucket. Max had plenty of alternatives to take down this enemy. It's even more useless when Scrotus escapes his tumbling vehicle with the Interceptor.

At first I'd say that this ending was rushed and that's why it came out like this. Still, without knowing much about game development the ending needed custom animations, voice acting and such so it's more likely it wasn't rushed but was simply chosen to be like this to make some sort of statement about Max being mad and suffering from loss and so on.

Regardless it would have been much better if the Magnum Open wasn't destroyed after ramming Scrotus' vehicle, but rather disabled with Chum being thrown out and lying unconscious next to it. It wouldn't have changed the end battle al all since Max would still be a pedestrian at this point needing to fight Scrotus and his old Interceptor. But it would have been a much better ending with Scrotus dead, Max back in possession of his old car and Chum still alive. Max would now no longer need to take away the Magnum Opus which would be badly damaged but still salvageable.

Something along the lines of:

Chum: Saint... What happened, where's Scrotus?
Max: Dead...
Chum: I see ... and you have your old car back.
Max: Yes, the Magnum Opus...
Chum (looking at the car): Badly damaged, but I can fix her. Does this mean you won't need to take her away from me?
Max: No, it's yours. I'll go my own way.
Chum: Do you have to go right now?
Max: Perhaps not right now...

After this dialogue there'd be a perfectly fine transition back to being able to drive the Magnum Opus with Chum in his rightful place.
Instead the game killed Chum and destroyed the Magnum Opus in the story, but then brought them back along with other dead characters so that the players could continue to play and finish the rest of the side missions and activities.
I mean first the game ends badly slapping players in the face with destroying what they worked so hard to achieve and then doubles back and makes that ending pointless by continuing as if nothing had happened.

I like Chum. He is a good character, sometimes annoying yes, but otherwise loyal to Max and only chooses to betray him (if you can call it that) after he himself feels betrayed. In any case Chum's actions throughout the game are logical, whereas Max loses touch with reality at the end. Mad as he is there's no way he would have acted the way he did at the end. No way. It leaves a very bad impression and I hope by some sort of miracle the developers change the ending to what was suggested or something similar.

Please, this game deserves more.

I'll end by saying that this game was more fun that I was expecting, was more consistent that I was expecting, but sadly it does suffer somewhat due to bad choices: the ending, the repetitive nature of activities and locations and certain balancing and pacing issues and visual omissions such as animated superchargers, steering wheels and gear shifters.

All in all Mad Max is a very good platform for an open world game with plenty of good ideas but sadly some bad ones and mishaps as well. It has tremendous potential and I think it deserves to carry on.

It would be great if the publishers and developers would bring themselves to fix what's wrong with the game and also add content to it, but otherwise they should definitely consider making a sequel. Bigger, meaner, madder - Mad Max is a very good start, but it should continue.

It's not a great game (yet), but it's a good one that may lead to a lot more in the future. So far it’s sitting on a mountain of unexplored potential. It’d be a pity to let it go to waste.

[ramyland_maelstrom]

why have you not posted this as a review in the reviews section ?

[Razor]

The ending is perfect. It's supposed to slap you in the face. And Max isn't supposed to be a good guy who's just a little neurotic. He's hearing the disembodied voices of dead people chanting for blood at the end of it. He -does- lose touch with reality at the end. That's the point. He goes completely insane. The story begins with the narrator, Griffa, telling you quite bluntly: this guy is trying to run away from his own madness. And then that's exactly what Max tries to do throughout the whole story.

He spends the whole story avoiding attachment to others, repeatedly saying how bad it is. Do people not see how numb and distant he is to everyone throughout the whole thing? The multiple times he was ready to walk away and let people die, but only helped out because a close ally was begging and pleading? And then only helping reluctantly, at that? The story repeatedly shows Max's priorities. It repeatedly shows the other characters reaching out to him, and again repeatedly, him pushing them away.

The ending isn't rushed. The whole story builds up to it. And I'm honestly glad the writers stuck to their guns and gave the story the powerful ending it deserved, rather than the last second pull-back people have gotten so used to.