Mad Max

A solid sandbox adventure, lacking in the chaos and madness that the title and license would suggest.

Even if lacking a plot capable of sparking the player's interest, Mad Max managed to keep us entertained for tens of hours thanks to its vast world rich of opportunities. A solid game, worth a try for all fans of the movie series.

Mad Max isn't a perfect game, and it probably won't win over anyone tired of the open-world formula, but this is an instance where we feel pure fun trumps any minor disappointments.

While overall Mad Max borrows from past titles like Batman when it comes to combat, or Far Cry when it comes to the design of its open world and its activities, it still manages to stand out through its car combat. The story is also pretty compelling and manages to keep you invested even if some of the missions get repetitive after a while.

For me, the monotonous grind is satisfying because each small measure of success reaps a tangible reward in the form of a personal or vehicular upgrade.

If you focus on the main and the wasteland missions you’ll discover a tight and gripping story with characters that George Miller will certainly approve of – as well as the intense and explosive action. But if you stray from the path you’ll only find generic collecting in an open world that doesn’t offer too much variety.

Not nearly as magnificent as the movie, and not as brilliant as Shadow of Mordor was when it came out, but Mad Max is still a fun (if somewhat repetitive) adventure in a post apocalyptic world filled with sand, blood and gasoline. There's nothing really innovative in the mix, but in the end it's way better than most movie based tie ins. More than enough for fans of Mad Max and videogames all over the world.

Mad Max could have been epic; it looks great and it can be so much fun at times, but it falls short of greatness due to an unimaginative structure.

Mad Max is a solid, if slightly unremarkable open-world game that does a good job in replicating the atmosphere and tone of the movies, and the character's essence, but fails to provide any real excitement beyond its vehicle-based combat.

At the end of the day, Max overtook some bases, ran a couple hundred cars off the road, met some forgettable characters, and buried his fist into the sunburnt skin of the villainous locals. Was it worth the effort? That ultimately depends on how much fun you had in performing these basic, repetitious open-world activities.

The beautiful wasteland is incredible to drive around, but leave the Magnum Opus and the excitement dips. This is nearly excellent, but instead is frustrating.

Mad Max is obviously a license close to my heart, and The Road Warrior is my favourite tale in the franchise, so it could be considered unfair to have judged the game how I have, but there are definitely some glaring issues here that make the product schizophrenic in its license representation. When applying played-out tropes, however, it actually works through the game’s size and goals, and is easy to enjoy -- just as long as you forget the past and embrace the present.

Mad Max, despite his propensity for violence and vengeance, represents a flicker of hope that humanity’s best will always work to endure and survive its worst. And that, I think I finally understand, is what has kept me returning the Avalanche’s wasteland night after night.

What this post-apocalyptic drive lacks in originality, it makes up for in execution and the ability to shoot harpoons into people. What a lovely game.

Mad Max is like an old car with high mileage. It’s got some faults, but if you can ignore them, you can enjoy the ride.

A spectacle to behold, but Mad Max's barren landscape is lacking the toys to stand up as a proper sandbox. [Nov 2015, p.68]