I downloaded MAD MAX, a 2015 video game based on the movie franchise, free this month with my Playstation+ membership. Developed by Avalanche Studios and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, it’s also available for PC and Xbox One. Feral Interactive published OS X and Linux versions.
MAD MAX is a post-apocalyptic open-world action game where Max seeks revenge on a gang of raiders, led by Scabrous Scrotus. With the help of his own sort of wasteland Igor, Chumbucket, he seeks to build the ultimate car, the Magnum Opus.
There’s both car combat and hand-to-hand fighting, mostly punching and dodging, with limited gunplay. No stealth that I could see. Very little looting and enemies don’t drop much. Lots of car customization, which for me is an interesting variation on the idea of a “build” in open-world RPGs. Is there a car equivalent of tank, healer, mage, rogue, archer, sniper, etc?
I really enjoyed MAD MAX, but most especially the writing. Chumbucket’s automotive-based religion and a raider warlord named Scabrous Scrotus? Pure poetry. I even enjoyed reading the bits of lore and backstory in the character menu. Props to the writer(s) and to narrative director Odd Ahlgren.
Rated “M” for “Mature,” due to blood and gore, intense violence, strong language, and drug use.
~ J.L. Hilton
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