at its best, when sparks are flying and the audio fills with sounds of crashing metal and fiery explosions, mad max is, for a moment, the perfect snapshot of any of Fury Road's breathtaking action scenes.
that memed "this licensed game really makes you feel like that licensed character" critique is sincerely relevant here because this does make you feel like you're inside a mad max action scene. i feel like the game even goes to great lengths to paint each equally barren but distinct desert biome with a colour grading fitting each and any of the four mad max movies (there are areas where the desert looks more desaturated and akin to the early mad max movies, to areas that are as proudly and vibrantly orange as fury road). it's a beautiful and very unique game world where with the addition of random brutal car combat encounters creates a thrilling tension of disorganised chaos. any simple trip from point a to point b in mad max can turn into a spectacle potentially worthy of its own scene in fury road.
where the game really falls flat on its arse is in how tied all this natural freedom and chaos is to such a banal and ubiquitous modern open world game formula. the actual game is never truly as untethered and unbounded as it appears. it locks a lot of story progression behind level systems and upgrade paths that are like concrete to breakthrough. the map is littered with junk (literal junk, that you collect as currency). i can see a argument for how this is reinforcing theme, e.g. this is a game set in a harsh, cruel, unapologetically post-apocalyptic environment where survival is not a given, it's something each and every occupant of mad max world is fighting for 24/7. but at a certain point the game where you crash a car fitted with flamethrowers and spikes into other cars, trucks and through gates and steel structures at high speeds should feel like more than work, and after only just a few hours they really manage to turn a mad max game into work. and it's not like this is an RPG that's demanding you think your place in these environment, the whole game is designed to be a simulated mad max playground. it just kinda sucks it isn't more fun to actually progress. i ended up putting this down for two years for this reason.
and maybe i don't rewatch the early mad max films as much as fury road, but i also think it's disappointing that for a game released seemingly in unison with 2015's fury road - a movie famously celebrated for the feminist themes underpinning its entire narrative - that this is would be game seemingly written in a room with "women?" circled around it on a whiteboard. forgetting how rote and tiresome "save this damsel in distress" is as a plot device, where it ultimately goes with it (and it's only major female character) is so lazy and thoughtless it's like a cold slap in the face. the ending of this game is only somewhat redeemable to my eyes because for how ultimately committed it is to Max's nihilistic surrender to living in the past and how dreamlike the whole game is.
enough colour and personality in the world and gameplay here shines through for it to be a nicer alternative to any number of similarly boring modern games, imo.
that memed "this licensed game really makes you feel like that licensed character" critique is sincerely relevant here because this does make you feel like you're inside a mad max action scene. i feel like the game even goes to great lengths to paint each equally barren but distinct desert biome with a colour grading fitting each and any of the four mad max movies (there are areas where the desert looks more desaturated and akin to the early mad max movies, to areas that are as proudly and vibrantly orange as fury road). it's a beautiful and very unique game world where with the addition of random brutal car combat encounters creates a thrilling tension of disorganised chaos. any simple trip from point a to point b in mad max can turn into a spectacle potentially worthy of its own scene in fury road.
where the game really falls flat on its arse is in how tied all this natural freedom and chaos is to such a banal and ubiquitous modern open world game formula. the actual game is never truly as untethered and unbounded as it appears. it locks a lot of story progression behind level systems and upgrade paths that are like concrete to breakthrough. the map is littered with junk (literal junk, that you collect as currency). i can see a argument for how this is reinforcing theme, e.g. this is a game set in a harsh, cruel, unapologetically post-apocalyptic environment where survival is not a given, it's something each and every occupant of mad max world is fighting for 24/7. but at a certain point the game where you crash a car fitted with flamethrowers and spikes into other cars, trucks and through gates and steel structures at high speeds should feel like more than work, and after only just a few hours they really manage to turn a mad max game into work. and it's not like this is an RPG that's demanding you think your place in these environment, the whole game is designed to be a simulated mad max playground. it just kinda sucks it isn't more fun to actually progress. i ended up putting this down for two years for this reason.
and maybe i don't rewatch the early mad max films as much as fury road, but i also think it's disappointing that for a game released seemingly in unison with 2015's fury road - a movie famously celebrated for the feminist themes underpinning its entire narrative - that this is would be game seemingly written in a room with "women?" circled around it on a whiteboard. forgetting how rote and tiresome "save this damsel in distress" is as a plot device, where it ultimately goes with it (and it's only major female character) is so lazy and thoughtless it's like a cold slap in the face. the ending of this game is only somewhat redeemable to my eyes because for how ultimately committed it is to Max's nihilistic surrender to living in the past and how dreamlike the whole game is.
enough colour and personality in the world and gameplay here shines through for it to be a nicer alternative to any number of similarly boring modern games, imo.
2 Comments
haha, thank you for saying so.
S_Murphy
2 years ago