Mad Max (2015) [XSX]

“How Much More Can They Take From Me? They Got My Blood, Now It’s My Car!”

– Max Rockatansky

Ah 1979, what a year! Five years before this particular writer was born to be fair, but my dad confirmed that this was a year to remember. Not that I need to remember it– we have the internet now to do that for us, and supply lovely websites like this one!

So, what made ‘79 such a cool year? Well, we got movies like Alien, Apocalypse Now and, of particular interest for this piece, an Australian movie filmed on a shoestring budget by now legendary director George Miller, Mad Max. This classic was set at the onset of the fall of civilization, as resources begin to run out in Australia and crime becomes rampant. 

Max Rockatansky, the titular character, is a police officer whose wife and child are killed by the evil Toecutter and his band of miscreants. Powered by rage, Max finally gets mad enough to boost the police force’s prototype V8 Police Pursuit Special and go after the gang in a high-octane mission of vengeance. 

Over the years we have had three sequels, with Mel Gibson reprising the role for two of them (the legendary Road Warrior and not so-legendary Beyond Thunderdome. Tom Hardy portrayed Max in 2015’s brilliant Fury Road, bringing the series back into the limelight after many years as critics and fans alike fell in love with it. With each story being only loosely connected and often contradicting itself with reckless abandon (a common theory is that each movie is a myth as told by the people Max helped, hence the contradicting chronology and existence of the V8 Interceptor after it was previously destroyed).

So, we have a well-respected action franchise back in the public consciousness, and it had enough flexibility in its storytelling to get away with adding some new characters and lore… so perfect for a video game adaptation then?

Enter Avalanche Studios, based in Stockholm, Sweden, who worked on just that, a Mad Max videogame, to release around the same time as Fury Road, with a loosely connected plot, tying the two together. Avalanche created an open-world adventure game for Mr. Rockatansky to drive and punch his way through, joined by a motley cast of post-apocalyptic survivors as he tries to secure a car capable of conveying him across the endless dunes, to the mythical Plains of Silence.

Mad Max was relatively well-received on release, but many critics had concerns about the amount of filler in the game that led to repetitive gameplay. But what will The Pixels’ stance be on this title? Will it be as powerful as the legendary Steve Irwin, or as weak as Fosters lager? Let us find out, let us… enter the Thunderdome!

(Sorry Australia!)

The 8-bit Review

Visuals: 7/10

First up, let’s talk visuals. I played this originally on the PlayStation 4 a couple of years ago, but am basing this critique on the Xbox version, which I played on my Series X with all of the fancy enhancements that come with it. While I remember the game running fine on Sony’s older hardware, it runs silky smooth on the Series X, apart from when Max is exploring underground environments, which seem to suffer from drops in framerate occasionally. This is a bit of a mystery to me, as these enclosed spaces would surely be less resource-hogging than the huge open-world above?

The game world itself looks great and does a good job of invoking the aesthetic of George Miller’s movies. Settlements are built among ruins, full of ragged masonry and rusted steel, and the camps belonging to the game’s big bad are sufficiently debauched looking, with lots of spikes and dead bodies everywhere. Extra care has also gone into designing the Buzzard faction (the spiky ones from Fury Road) camps, which are even spikier, bloodier and twisted than those of the regular baddies.

Character models are well done and have a nice weighty feel to them. Max looks different to the actors who portrayed him in the movies here, but that’s no bad thing and can be waved away by the Max is a Myth theory easily enough. Each upgrade for Max is visible on his character model, with things like bandanas, bulletproof vests and even knuckledusters made of spanners looking fantastic when added to Max’s arsenal. 

Unfortunately, not all of the other characters in Mad Max share this high standard. While some, such as Max’s tagalong ally Chumbucket and local warlord Deep Friah do look interesting and detailed, others look a little unremarkable. Friah’s fellow warlords Jeet and Gutgash don’t stick in one’s memory after the fact, and the game’s main villain, Scabborous Scrotus, is just a mashup of earlier, far more memorable franchise villains, looking like a cross between Fury Road’s Immortan Joe and The Road Warrior’s Humungus. Pushing the boat out beyond “industrial-BDSM chic” for the bad guy would probably have made him a little more memorable.

But then who comes to a Mad Max product to look at the characters? This franchise has always been about motors! Trucks, buggies and, of course, monstrous muscle cars fill this world, and each variant looks fantastic. Each of the three factions has its armada and each is made up of different death machines. While a little more variation between the factions would have been nice (each type is based on either a buggy, car or truck) they are all tooled with different traps, weapons and spiky bits, and therefore different enough to know who’s coming after you.

Mad Max is a visually capable game and, despite some lacklustre character models and the odd samey-looking vehicle, sticks the landing in this category. Max especially looks and moves well, really evoking the feel of the character from the movies.

Audio: 6/10

Sound in Mad Max is a bit of a mixed bag.  Bren Foster does a decent job voicing the titular hero as the Australian actor brings the necessary grit to the role and sells that “defeated, moody asshole” vibe that tends to accompany Max on adventures. Foster can, however, come across as a bit too moody at times, making Max sound like a grunting Neanderthal. 

Jason Spisak also does a good job as Chumbucket, giving a spirited performance as the fearful but passionate hunchbacked mechanic, just barely clinging on to his sanity. It is, however,  a bit of a pain that Chum repeats himself constantly, like a parrot. The number of times he shouted, “Here it comes, the mighty duster” with no apparent reason… bloody hell mate.

And don’t get me started on the support characters. Mad Max, a franchise as quintessentially Australian as kangaroos, shoeys, and Chris Hemsworth, should surely be a world populated with said Antipodean folk? Not so in this game, my friend. Most of the cast are distractingly American sounding and, while I have no beef with our eagle-loving friends across the pond, it’s a bit jarring to the old immersion to hear US accents aplenty among the outback dunes!

Cars, however, have far more consistent voices. V8s roar, flames roar from exhausts and horns blare as Scrotus’ hordes try to run Max down out on the plains. Most vehicles sound satisfyingly powerful and throaty (the Interceptor sounds amazing) and this is thankfully matched by decent sound effects throughout. But there are more bangs and snaps than what is created inside a mighty V8. Explosions are punchy, Max’s shotgun is a nice full stop to a fight and the grinding of metal on metal is always a treat.

All this is let down, sadly, by the game’s soundtrack, which is best described as forgettable. I’m by no means a critic of the musical arts, but I feel it lacks any real hook, it’s all very by-the-numbers dynamic background sound, using heavier rock for action scenes, plenty of heavy clanging sounds and little to nothing when the pace lets up. However, this does seem to positively highlight the cars’ engines more when roaming the open world.

A weak soundtrack, some questionable voice casting and repeated lines do some damage to this score, though the car sounds and general effects go a long way to redeem this.

Narrative: 5/10

Mad Max follows the same pattern as the movies: Max runs into trouble, reluctantly joins forces with a community to further his agenda, and moves on once the problem is resolved. Not the most original premise, perhaps, but a solid one. The game’s story begins after the events of Fury Road, when one of Immortan Joe’s hitherto unmentioned generals, Scrotus, runs Max off the road, steals all his stuff and leaves him for dead in the desert. He even steals the Interceptor, Max’s legendary “Police Pursuit Special” V8 whip from the movies, which I guess is alive again, because of the “Max is a Myth” theory. Anyway, Poor Max was trying to leave the Immortan’s lands and travel across the Plains of Silence, a mythical place in which he can supposedly escape the memories of his past.

Max wakes up and, after exploring the wastes, saves one of Scrotus’ cast-off war dogs from Chumbucket, a talkative hunchback who may have been about to eat the poor beast. Far from being offended by this, Chumbucket takes Max and the dog back to his secret home in the ruins of a ship where he introduces Max to his Magnum Opus, the skeletal frame of what will, one day, become the ultimate four-wheeled war machine. Seeing an opportunity to build up the Magnum Opus to his ends, Max goes along with Chumbucket’s plan, the mechanic seeing him as a saint of sorts and the Opus his holy chariot.

So what’s the problem? Sounds like a really solid opener, and it indeed is. However, the rest of the game puts a dent in the narrative’s bodywork. To have the Opus at full strength Max will need to locate a good V8 engine to replace the existing V6. This is fine, except said engine, is located in Scrotus’ citadel, Gastown, and Max will have to win a race to earn it. As straightforward as slapping a shrimp on the barbie, right? Well, not so much. See, first Max has to get to Gastown and get the Opus strong enough to win the race, as well as filling in a few other requisite errands and this takes ages to achieve. There is a huge detriment in storytelling for the majority of the game while Max and Chum muck about performing side quests, and only a few of these feature anything like a story. It’s a real missed opportunity to flesh out George Miller’s world, which is just sad.

And then there’s the ending. While I won’t spoil it, I was left asking, “What the bloody hell was that all about?” Max was surly and unlikeable for enough of the runtime as it was, his actions at the very end made him straight-up despicable. Neither Mel Gibson nor Tom Hardy would ever do anything like that!

Mad Max has an initially promising story that quickly falls to pieces once you drive out into the open world due to a lack of any narrative drive. That, and the fact that Max is kind of an arsehole.

Gameplay: 5/10

When I look back on the many hours I spent with this game the main thing I remember is not the story or the cars or even the combat… no, it’s the bloody side quests! Avalanche has set its sights on the likes of the Assassin’s Creed franchise when it comes to content, as the dunes of the outback are so full of identikit things to do that it initially seems a little overwhelming. Totems to pull down, snipers to kill, camps and outposts to punch and shotgun your way through, convoys to harass and big bosses and minefields to sort out, it’s all to do in Mad Max.

Over and over and over again, as it happens. If you want upgrades for anything in this game, you’re going to need to hammer these side quests. Scrap, the game’s currency, can be earned this way and Max earns experience to increase his reputation in this fashion as well. Completing side quests also lowers a threat rating in each region, thereby unlocking components for the Magnum Opus such as grippier tires, armoured panels and upgrades for the car’s weaponry. Progression in Mad Max, which involves improving skills and gear, is dictated by how many of these cookie-cutter sidequests you do before hitting the main story missions. The repetition of it all slows the game right down and will no doubt put off a lot of players who (justifiably) prefer a little more variety in their games.

Story missions fare better for the most part, with battles on foot or behind the wheel having a little more variety and the locales being a tad more interesting. One of the best missions sees Max delve into the buried ruins of an airport to find somebody, providing some moody, tense horror for the player before the buzzards spring their inevitable ambush, eventually chasing the Magnum Opus down the airport concourse in a rather high octane chase. It’s a really fun section of the game that stands out even more considering the huge, barren stretches of side questing in between. Some other standout story missions involve races, arena battles and a desperate pursuit through the underbelly of Gastown, Max on the defensive against a horde of Scrotus’s warriors and, eventually, taking on the big man himself.

In terms of actually interacting with the game world, you will be mainly driving, with stretches of on-foot exploration and combat in between. Fisticuffs works similarly to something like Arkham City, making combat look satisfyingly fluid while you whale on bad guys and time dodges and counter-attacks to stay one step ahead. If things get a little hairy then Max can fall back on his trusty shotgun, provided he has the shells of course, and this will pretty much instantly put an enemy down, though there is the drawback that it takes being out of combat to reload it (though this can be somewhat mitigated by upgrading the shotgun to chamber more shells). Completing tasks and levelling up allows Max to learn new moves too, allowing him to break guards, use melee weapons for longer before they break and one-shot stunned enemies, among other things. It’s hardly a new system anymore, but the old Arkham technique is still a strong and weighty feeling in this game.

Driving is, unsurprisingly for a Mad Max product, overall quite a strong experience. Vehicles feel weighty and correctly bound to the laws of physics, for the most part, you can almost feel the collisions as you ram and sideswipe your way through a convoy or T-bone an unsuspecting warboy scout off the road and into the dirt. The Magnum Opus, the car which Max spends the most time with by far, feels fantastic to control, heavy and easy to drift around the corners just like his Interceptor from the movies (said Interceptor, an unlockable for completing the game, also handles like a dream)! The one issue with the car portion of Mad Max is that there is very little incentive to ever drive anything other than the Opus, as it’s self-repairing thanks to Chumbucket’s efforts, bristling with weaponry by the end and heavily customisable. Even the Interceptor needs scrap spending on it to be repaired, and what’s the fun in just shotgunning everything when you can blow them to pieces with an explosive harpoon instead?

Replayability: 4/10

Mad Max is a long, drawn-out game. Over the hours you’ll spend with Mr. Rockatansky you’ll see him go from a down-on-his-luck raggedy man to a full-fat road warrior, upgrading all of his gear and spending many, many hours completing largely inane tasks to get his car from a grim buggy looking jalopy to a mighty death machine roaming the dusty roads of post-apocalyptic Australia. To make things a little more palatable Avalanche included a lot of customisation options, for both Aussie ex-policeman and his wheels.

Each gear upgrade Max gets visibly shows on his character model and you can also give him various lengths of beard, a bandana and goggles if you wish as well (though I’m all for the classic Mel Gibson/Road Warrior look). Apart from Max’s original movie threads which are given as a reward for completing the game, there is naff all else you can tweak about the character himself, because of course you’ll always get the best gear and therefore look the same every time.

The Opus fares better, as you can install different shells to make it look radically different each time. Would you like to drive a hot rod? Sorted! What about a truck thing? Yep! Or you could do what I did and pick the shell that looks the most like Max’s Interceptor because come on, it’s a Mad Max game and I can’t bomb about in the iconic car until after the game is completed?

All said and done, a few cosmetic differences are not going to lure most people in for a second go at this one, no matter how diehard a fan they may be. I think I’d rather drive into the endless desert myself than go through this one again any time soon.

Uniqueness: 4/10

Mad Max has some uniqueness in setting. After all, how many games have you played set in the ruins of Australia (which is weirdly populated by Americans) where you embody a PTSD-riddled, borderline psychotic ex-cop who is on a quest to simply leave everyone and everything behind, including the memories of his former life and lost family? Not many, I bet! The Mad Max universe has a lot of character to it that not many other post-apocalyptic IPs can hold a candle to, and this game largely manages to capture that flavour. Weird characters, a strong anti-hero protagonist and enough pseudo-mysticism around cars and technology to fill a multi-storey car park, it’s all here to be witnessed.

Mechanically, however, this game is shot through with a fair amount of “done to death”. Big open map, repetitive side quests, Arkham-style fighting, treasure hunts – the list goes on of things that other games have already overdone way before this one even came out. Mad Max is, mechanically, a Frankenstein’s monster constructed of the worst bits of better games, and this is such a shame, imagine what Avalanche could have done with a Mad Max title, had they decided to do something a little different!

Challenge: 10/10

Like any game with a strong difficulty curve, Mad Max starts you off slowly. Explore a camp, smack up a few scrap rats, pop one with a shotgun made of pipes and take a gentle drive across the dunes in a rusty buggy with a hunchback and an injured dog. As you do.

From here Max and Chumbucket get the basics for the Magnum Opus bolted together and get control of the immediate area, which acts as an overall tutorial for the cookie-cutter gameplay that is to come. Provided you take the time to hit each every side quest and point of interest (can you call knocking a totem tower over a side quest?), Max will have plenty of scrap and upgrades to spend it on as you go. The more work you put in, the easier time you will have of it. Scrap hunting also provides parts for each warlord’s camp, which allow things like fuel refills, ammunition restocks and a lovely full canteen of water each time you visit. 

This works because you are rewarded for your efforts, nothing is given to Max for free and the game can be a real pain in the arse if you don’t beef things up a bit. My first attempt to play this through back on the PS4 saw me cutting corners in a desperate attempt to reach the endgame and it resulted in me getting pulverised in fights! Poor Max was getting spread into the dirt like Vegemite by the hordes of Warboys and, yes, it made me stop playing back then. This time around I absolutely smashed them all and drove them before me like little lambs, all because I put in the maximum effort!

Personal: 6/10

Oh Mad Max, what an infuriating, frustrating thing you turned out to be. It was always going to be tough to impress me with a video game entry of one of my favourite movie franchises but this game came so very, very close to achieving it!

I don’t hate Avalanche for this game. I believe it was approached with genuine passion,  but the attempt to bulk things out with constant side quest filler goes against it and shows how bare-bones the actual story is. Apart from one or two highlights, there isn’t much to say about that either – even Beyond Thunderdome had a more enjoyable plot than this one sadly.

On the flip side, the action both on foot and behind the wheel is mostly solid and enjoyable, it looks and sounds decent and the world itself is, while a bit empty, immersive and authentic enough. 

It’s just a shame Max is such an arsehole! That ending! Why!?

Aggregate Score: 5.8

Some call him Winst0lf, others the Bizzaro Mage, and some people just call him Craig. Whatever you wish to call him, he’s a writer, reviewer and podcaster, all while somehow maintaining a day job. Maybe one day he won’t have to… one day…