- Joined
- Jun 20, 2023
I've been replaying Mad Max 2015 because it's a good game to just relax to. It's not very stressful, it's not too demanding on skill, and the on-foot combat is really satisfying dumb fun. My tagline for this game is "Playable Pulp Fiction" (comic books, not the Tarantino movie). I also have some opinions on the story that no one else seems to share.
Made the same year as Mad Max: Fury Road, but really has nothing to do with it other than the word "Fury" being used to describe both Max's "rage of the gods" type ability, and the "Crank everything to 11" audio setting. Fury kicking in mid-fight is one of the things I love most about the game.
Its an Avalanche Studios game, and like Just Cause 3 and Rage 2 and other games Avalanche made, that means it has a shitty undercooked story (see 2nd spoiler below) offset by a fun sandbox world to fuck around in.
Max almost dies in the opening cutscene, the Black-On-Black police cruiser is stolen and destroyed, and he's rescued by a deformed autistic cripple who fucks inanimate objects. Max begins his journey with nothing but his fists and the shirt on his back, with the cripple creating a new vehicle called the Magnum Opus for him. The rest of the game is Max's quest to find the "Plains of Silence" as he upgrades both himself and the Magnum Opus to become dominating forces scouring the Great White Wasteland.
If you want a big dusty violent sandbox world to explore, with some simple but cathartic combat on foot and in cars, try this game. If you enjoy the Mad Max franchise, you owe it to yourself to see if you like this game. It goes on sale often, and it no longer requires any online connection (which was totally vestigial in the first place).
If you want story, you'll have to dig a little, but it is there. The ending is controversial, chances are you'll either love it or hate it. Personally I think it's perfect for this game specifically, and for Max as a pulp fiction character -- Max is figuratively not a real person: He's an idea, a natural force, a Legend on four wheels. He exists to be The Road Warrior, and is incapable of anything else.
Made the same year as Mad Max: Fury Road, but really has nothing to do with it other than the word "Fury" being used to describe both Max's "rage of the gods" type ability, and the "Crank everything to 11" audio setting. Fury kicking in mid-fight is one of the things I love most about the game.
Its an Avalanche Studios game, and like Just Cause 3 and Rage 2 and other games Avalanche made, that means it has a shitty undercooked story (see 2nd spoiler below) offset by a fun sandbox world to fuck around in.
Max almost dies in the opening cutscene, the Black-On-Black police cruiser is stolen and destroyed, and he's rescued by a deformed autistic cripple who fucks inanimate objects. Max begins his journey with nothing but his fists and the shirt on his back, with the cripple creating a new vehicle called the Magnum Opus for him. The rest of the game is Max's quest to find the "Plains of Silence" as he upgrades both himself and the Magnum Opus to become dominating forces scouring the Great White Wasteland.
You drive around and loot small camps or bigger outposts for scrap and water. That's 90% of the game. Very Ubisoft "the map is a checklist" kinda thing, but the loop is at least chill and pretty satisfying. Like all Avalanche games, you can actually beat the whole thing in just a couple hours if you speed through the half-dozen story quests and totally ignore the sandbox.
Most encounters start with you approaching a base, whose defenses notice you and start to build aggro. Using a harpoon launcher, sniper rifle, and driving skills, you need to dismantle all the snipers, molotov towers, thunderpoon launchers, and flame spouts all around the base. If you take too long aggro will peak, and buff all defenses until you die or are victorious. Once you tear off or explode the gate, you get out of your car and head in on-foot to clear the base interior by hand.
On foot combat is Warner Brothers punch/parry stuff like you see in Batman and Middle Earth: Shadow of XYZ. You unlock special moves as you progress, which are all hard counters against enemy types, and adding more functions to Shivs (very flexible instant kill tool). You also get a shotgun that can be upgraded up to 4 barrels, which acts as a way to riskily delete enemies in a fight, and to shoot destructibles like barrels or War Criers. The vast majority of Max's personal upgrades are just Stat Increases to health, etc. You'll passively complete challenges and be rewarded with Griffa Tokens: these are cashed in with an abbo hermit and wandering spiritualist called Griffa, and they too boost things like fuel efficiency, Fury buildup, etc.
Fury is Max's rage mode, changing his attack animations and allowing him to ignore enemy defenses - whether that be literal scrapmetal shields or just them being evasive. It cuts the music, blows out the sound volume, and puts in a very psychotic and kinda overwhelming whooshing and throbbing sound, like Max is having a rage-headache and his brain is going to explode. It actually changes very little about combat gameplay, but entering the Fury state and suplexing people into the sand or crushing their skulls against shipping containers is an amazing feeling.
I would say the one issue I have with the sandbox world is that the first two "zones" are basically the same and don't progress game mechanics much -- then you hit the 3rd area, and the gameplay suddenly catches up, having more interestingly designed enemy camps to attack, and also much more dangerous vehicles on the road. It's NOT gradual, which makes for a very painful gearshift.
Most encounters start with you approaching a base, whose defenses notice you and start to build aggro. Using a harpoon launcher, sniper rifle, and driving skills, you need to dismantle all the snipers, molotov towers, thunderpoon launchers, and flame spouts all around the base. If you take too long aggro will peak, and buff all defenses until you die or are victorious. Once you tear off or explode the gate, you get out of your car and head in on-foot to clear the base interior by hand.
On foot combat is Warner Brothers punch/parry stuff like you see in Batman and Middle Earth: Shadow of XYZ. You unlock special moves as you progress, which are all hard counters against enemy types, and adding more functions to Shivs (very flexible instant kill tool). You also get a shotgun that can be upgraded up to 4 barrels, which acts as a way to riskily delete enemies in a fight, and to shoot destructibles like barrels or War Criers. The vast majority of Max's personal upgrades are just Stat Increases to health, etc. You'll passively complete challenges and be rewarded with Griffa Tokens: these are cashed in with an abbo hermit and wandering spiritualist called Griffa, and they too boost things like fuel efficiency, Fury buildup, etc.
Fury is Max's rage mode, changing his attack animations and allowing him to ignore enemy defenses - whether that be literal scrapmetal shields or just them being evasive. It cuts the music, blows out the sound volume, and puts in a very psychotic and kinda overwhelming whooshing and throbbing sound, like Max is having a rage-headache and his brain is going to explode. It actually changes very little about combat gameplay, but entering the Fury state and suplexing people into the sand or crushing their skulls against shipping containers is an amazing feeling.
I would say the one issue I have with the sandbox world is that the first two "zones" are basically the same and don't progress game mechanics much -- then you hit the 3rd area, and the gameplay suddenly catches up, having more interestingly designed enemy camps to attack, and also much more dangerous vehicles on the road. It's NOT gradual, which makes for a very painful gearshift.
If you want a big dusty violent sandbox world to explore, with some simple but cathartic combat on foot and in cars, try this game. If you enjoy the Mad Max franchise, you owe it to yourself to see if you like this game. It goes on sale often, and it no longer requires any online connection (which was totally vestigial in the first place).
Mad Max is a bit different in this aspect to most Avalanche games. Yes, the story is still quite minimal, with very few 'story quests' and almost everything interesting in the setting being conveyed through 'History Relic' collectibles, easily missable things characters say in their strange australian foot-mouth vernacular, and one of those "codex entry" menus which I don't count because if I wanna read a book I will read a book.
Many people absolutely fucking hate the ending of the game, complaining it "makes the entire game feel pointless", but in my opinion, someone can only come to that conclusion if they literally did not pay attention to anything Max said through the entire game.
Max tells everyone to fuck off. He is openly hostile to everyone unless he needs something from them, and even then he often explicitly tells people he is not on their side, not part of their movement, not invested in them being alive, he will disappear as soon as he has what he needs. He shows no one any ounce of respect, short of not murdering them where they stand for the hell of it. Griffa, the abbo spiritualist who wants to mold Max into his best self, is repeatedly chided by Max, who sees all of this "the real Plains of Silence were the friends you made along the way" stuff as platitudinous bullshit from a desert hermit with an agenda that Max isn't on-board with.
The game ends with something of a reset: Max did not change or develop as a person, like he said he wouldn't. He goes back to being an inhuman force of death, fleeing from a painful past, driven by a terrifying Fury.
Believe people when they tell you who they are. Especially Max.
Many people absolutely fucking hate the ending of the game, complaining it "makes the entire game feel pointless", but in my opinion, someone can only come to that conclusion if they literally did not pay attention to anything Max said through the entire game.
Max tells everyone to fuck off. He is openly hostile to everyone unless he needs something from them, and even then he often explicitly tells people he is not on their side, not part of their movement, not invested in them being alive, he will disappear as soon as he has what he needs. He shows no one any ounce of respect, short of not murdering them where they stand for the hell of it. Griffa, the abbo spiritualist who wants to mold Max into his best self, is repeatedly chided by Max, who sees all of this "the real Plains of Silence were the friends you made along the way" stuff as platitudinous bullshit from a desert hermit with an agenda that Max isn't on-board with.
The game ends with something of a reset: Max did not change or develop as a person, like he said he wouldn't. He goes back to being an inhuman force of death, fleeing from a painful past, driven by a terrifying Fury.
Believe people when they tell you who they are. Especially Max.
If you want story, you'll have to dig a little, but it is there. The ending is controversial, chances are you'll either love it or hate it. Personally I think it's perfect for this game specifically, and for Max as a pulp fiction character -- Max is figuratively not a real person: He's an idea, a natural force, a Legend on four wheels. He exists to be The Road Warrior, and is incapable of anything else.
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