(3 / 4)
Also on: Linux, Macintosh, Windows, Xbox One
FIGHTING FOR SOME PEACE OF MIND
In my experience, good open world games aren't supposed to work like this. They shouldn't start off uninspiring and poorly written, only to slowly and gradually let you in on its secret - that it has some rather awesome gameplay elements in store. Usually, in an open world experience, I begin curious and entranced by the early promises of exploration, lore and story, only to end up disappointed due to repetitive gameplay mechanics.
With Mad Max, however, things turned out quite the opposite. First impressions were poor. I began playing, instantly underwhelmed by a lack of direction. The game seemingly wanted me to go nowhere and everywhere, like I was sent out on the road to discover that there's nothing to see and no people to interact with in any meaningful way. The map pointed everything out, and gave me no reason to ponder about the mysteries of the world. What story there was lacked all semblence of real life and authentic human psychology.
"Mad Max 2 is a film of pure action, of kinetic energy organised around the barest possible bones of a plot. It has a vision of a violent future world, but it doesn't develop that vision with characters and dialogue. It would rather plunge headlong into one of the most relentlessly aggressive movies ever made."
The secret to enjoying Avalanche Studios' Mad Max exists in the fact that the longer you play, the more distracted you get from the main plot. Instead, the game constantly sidetracks you, steering you towards the good parts, where the real action awaits. The implications are: "We had to write a story, and it's no good. Instead, we have great mechanics. Please, explore them. Use them to write your own story." It's like a good old game hidden within the superfluous framework of a modern one.
THE WASTELAND
I'm impressed by the way Avalanche managed to put together a believable, cohesive world with next to nothing to go on. We get a huge sandbox, a fast car, hostiles aplenty, and an empty shell of a hero who cares little about himself or his surroundings. We also get lots of progressional systems to suck us in -- Max's attributes, equipment, his car, and a few strongholds are all upgradeable.
As a game set in an open world, it works astonishingly well. As a story, it doesn't, giving us no particular reason to care about the time we spend there. It is a no holds barred macho fantasy about a desert wasteland. It's inhabited by ravenous, war-painted beasts in men's clothings, or is it the other way around? Their dwellings are a sight to see. They are veritable mazes built out of old shipwrecks, oil rigs, caves -- any old ruins they could find -- and furnished with scrap bunched together to form some depraved quality of life.
Lore- and storywise, the game is a companion piece to the Mad Max: Fury Road movie of the same year (2015). It uses the same terminology, characters and vehicles. It takes place in a part of Australia that once belonged to the ocean floor. Now the ocean is somehow gone, replaced by a vast desert called the Great White. People have to resort to collecting dew for water. Staying alive means having to scavenge the rubble of the old world. Mostly scrap remains, which works as currency. An especially lucky soul could stumble upon an unopened can of Dinky-D dog food, which will fill the stomach of a grown man.
MAX VS SCROTUS
In the opening cinematic, we witness Max being chased by a bunch of wasteland raiders lead by Scabrous Scrotus, son of Immortan Joe, the main antagonist of Fury Road. After a short fight, the raiders overpower Max, beat him up, steal all his stuff and take his ride, the Interceptor we know from the movies. They drive away and leave him to die, but not before Max manages to mortally wound Scrotus in a way that has to be seen to be believed. Max watches his vehicle disappear in a cloud of dust on the horizon. He limps away, his only company a beaten dog left by the Scrotus gang. And so the game begins...
This continues the established pattern of the movies, where the lonesome Max has to lose everything to get a reason to involve himself with other people. Here's where this game's story starts deteriorating. You see, the problem isn't that it is underwritten; if anything it is overwritten, too convoluted and the quality is at best lacklustre. It brings you back and forth on a chain of fool's errands, and lacks the simplistic appeal of the movies.
I'll not bore you with the details of what happens next. Suffice to say that Scrotus, whom apparently Max left for dead on his Land Mover, turns out to be alive and well. He rules the entire region from his base of operations in Gastown, and now he's got a bone to pick with Max.
NEW CAR, NEW ALLIES
Gastown is a hellscape you can see on the horizon almost right from the start, as it pollutes the skies with its flames and black smoke. Even when you don't see it, you can constantly hear metal clanging from its forges and the indistinct chatter from its loudspeakers. It's an ominous end goal, as is the unavoidable second confrontation with Scrotus. However, you won't get there in quite a while.
You quickly find a new car, a work-in-progress called the Magnum Opus. Its constructed by your new useful ally, the hunchbacked mechanic Chumbucket, who tags along, repairs your car, upgrades it and aims the harpoon gun from its rear. The pair of you drive across the lands, finding allies with their own agendas and tasks for you to solve, and piece by piece you dismantle Scrotus' oil operations in the region. I asked myself why you can't just overtake the operation instead of blowing it up, but Max remarks, in passing, that he needs to "make sure that Scrotus has no reason to return."
FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE
Combat, whether on foot or in a car, is among the best I've seen in an open world game. Clearly inspired by Arkham Asylum, another game published by Warner Bros, the fisticuffs are an especially raw mix of reflexes and spatial awareness. The satisfaction of landing a fully charged punch to your opponent's mouth is only hampered a little by the horrific sound of a dozen teeth breaking within.
By upgrading Max's equipment, you get to withstand more hits, deal more damage and learn new moves. But it doesn't stop at that. I rather quickly maxed (no pun intended) out on Max's personal leveling. It helped a lot, but the challenge kept mounting even after I hit that cap. Thereafter I could only keep up by improving my own skills as a player.
Every Scrotus camp has a difficulty rating, and some end in a menacing boss fight. Going through them all from easiest to hardest feels like the essence of the Mad Max experience, whereas the story is just some tacked-on legend with little emotional truth to it. This reminded me of Shadows of Mordor, yet another licensed game published by Warner Bros that has poor storytelling but great combat mechanics. Warner obviously knows how to put up a good fight.
As for vehicular combat, it's just about as fun. You get to test your mettle against convoys transporting oil along certain routes. These roads are usually darker, as a result of being heavily trafficked. This is where the game most resembles the movies, as you single-handedly try to take on a cluster of about four to seven armed cars and an oil transport. Initially, you have your harpoon, shotgun, ramming grill and your own driving skills at your disposal, but you'll expand on that as the game progresses.
THE ESSENCE OF MAD MAX
Guerrilla tactics and survival - this wasteland is basically a war zone. This is what this game is about, because it is what Avalanche does best. They know their third person controls and the elaborate physics of vehicles. As I roam the wasteland without much of a grand scheme, the game transforms into the familiar Mad Max. The sense of speed starts getting to me. Max is going nowhere fast. I could certainly believe that this is his empty life between the grand adventures chronicled by the movies.
There's a weight to everything, even in the way Max moves. When he tries to run he hardly accelerates. His combat moves don't always match the speed and grace of his opponents. If you flunk the vehicular combat you'll have a really hard time catching up to your fleeing prey. All this communicates a mental hardship, like a state of constant depression, and the sound design adds to that. The oppression only mounts as you get nearer Gastown and its horrible noises grow louder. It's the Mordor of the wasteland. The sole consolation is the sound of a healthy V8 under your hood. It can get you to safety in a heartbeat.
Do you need extra explanation to that? Max ruminating about the end times and the machinations of a mad man's mind? Well, then you get the fluff of the main story and the history relics you find among the rubble. Just leave me out of whatever insight you might find. I'm sure nothing good will come of it.
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