Mad Max

[h3]Not a bad open world game. Fights and races for survival.

I heard good things about this game, thus as an avid fan of the last (two at this point) movies of the franchise, I was eager to try it out.

I must say, the game didn't disappoint my expectations, it's a pretty good tie-in for the movies, even though it isn't directly connected with any of them. The grim atmosphere, the bright colors, the wasteland with its crazy characters, Gastown… it's all there and it's well executed. The story is fine, nothing too original but it's ok. Some sections, in particular those inside the airport and the metro, had a bit of a horror vibe, and reminded me somewhat of the Metro series. Mostly though the game is action focused, with vehicular and melee combat. The first one is a great simulation of the movie scenes, while the on foot part is more similar to the Batman Arkham series combat style, a bit too easy and repetitive even though serviceable.

Throughout the game we will gather resources in order to improve our character and most importantly our car, which is the centerpiece of the show. We’ll have all the fun gadgets we need to dominate the wasteland and bring destruction upon enemy vehicles and camps.

The main gameplay loop outside of the missions is fine, albeit it could get a bit grindy and repetitive after a while, at least while trying to max out the upgrades.

Locations are well designed, and various as much as they can be in a desert wasteland setting.

The car handling is good and it changes significantly with any setup change / upgrade.

On a side note, scattered around the huge game map there are some history relics, which are basically pictures of the past, usually with some captions. Some of those really got under my skin and managed to bring me a sense of dread while reading them because they're so topical to the present day and age, especially those describing the beginning of the end.

I also appreciated the faithfulness to the movie franchise and the reference to the first one (the car which is taken away from Max at the beginning is the one from Interceptor). Also the black finger guy Chum is probably a reference to the limping mechanic?

Aside from the overall “grindyness” of the gameplay loop, the other complaint I have is about the audio, lacking a bit of music (imo) and also suffering from audio compression artifacts when a lot was going on at the same time. Not sure if that was a problem caused by my system / OS (I played the whole game on a Linux Mint system) or it was a game issue, since I read online it had some audio issues at launch.

All in all then a good licensed video game tie-in, with some really cool set pieces and an overall enjoyable gameplay loop. Not a masterpiece, but definitely a game I'd recommend to anyone.

Didn't know this game existed until 9 years after release. Fun game, true to the source material. Id recomend it to anyone who likes open world games with rpg elements, road rage driving carnage, and some mindless beatem up. Went looking for a sequel as soon as i finished playing it, but sadly there doesn't appear to be one, otherwise i would be buying that as well. Picked it up on steam sale for $4 and i would have been easily happy had i paid $20 for it instead.

From developer, Avalanche Studios, best known for the Just Cause franchise. Mad Max is a third person open-world game that switches between two game modes. Hand to Hand combat heavily influenced by the Arkham games & vehicular combat. The game is sort of set in an odd place in terms of the timeline but the most collective conclusion is it serves as a prequel to Fury Road. Regardless of that the game is it's own original game in terms of story. While the game first started out as a linear experience the development was later changed for it to become an open world game.

Since Avalanche is best known for the nonsensical and over-the-top tone of it's Just Cause games, Mad Max is toned down to give the world and characters a more serious vibe and playing it completely straight. The open world isn't stupidly huge like Avalanche is known for creating. The main focus of the game or I should say the dopamine kick is upgrading your car and Max. There are a handful of car bodies to choose from and customize choices to create your own death chariot. Max himself can be customized by upgrading his outfit and giving him different beard and hair lengths. One detail I did like is when Max takes damage in hand to hand combat this can result in Max having a bruised & battered face which will show during cutscenes and stay exclusively on his face until the game is reset.

I know an odd thing for people is Max not sharing a likeness with his actor counterparts. Gibson or Hardy (though there is a mod to give him Gibson's likeness if you so wish to do that). Max does have voice acting but he rarely talks to others. You will mostly hear his inner thoughts and self dialogue. I do like how Max truly does feel like a man at his worse. He has nothing left to lose and it really brings out that more brutal side of him in combat. His cynicism and heavy reclusive attitude to help others unless it benefits him as well.

Max's quest is to get to the Plains of Silence to find eternal peace. The Plains of Silence being a metaphor for death. The Plains resemble something of a void that one enters and never returns from. I do like the attitude that Max wants to die on his own terms and refuses to let the Wasteland take that from him.

It'll provide you a good 30-40 hours of gameplay. I would heavily recommend it especially if you're a Mad Max fan. George Miller went on record saying this wasn't a good game. He is entitled to this opinion but sorry Georgie you're talking out your backside with that one.

For achievement hunters it isn't too hard to 100%. It is a long road though. The achievement you'll spend the most time unlocking is completing all the in-game challenges.

Open world in the post-apocalyptic wasteland of Mad Max. It still boasts good graphics for 2024, solid vehicular and hand-to-hand combat mechanics, a simple storyline (but fitting for the series' premise). They've crafted a desert setting that truly captures the feel of recent films like Fury Road and Furiosa.

You know the game is good when the most repetitive things to do actually satisfying and fun.
Sad they drop the ball by releasing this game the same year as Metal Gear Solid 5.
And the fact that they got Balls to put a Downloadble Content option but Not having any DLC at all is kinda funny and depressing at the same time.
This game is Amazing, you should try it.

Wow! What a surprising game. I had heard it was good but I would place this in my all time top 10 (and I started gaming in the 80s ;p).

You play as Max (naturally!) the Road Warrior after a particularly nasty encounter with the warlord who runs Gastown. After aerating his brain with a chain saw, his minions make off with the Interceptor and thus the game begins.

There is so much to do, I've sunk 14 hours and have only managed to clear one sub-region. The car combat is great and the on foot action is adapted from the Arkham Knight series of games and in some respects improves on them.

BUY IT!! Even at full price I think this is very much worth it!

I don't have much more to add than what others are saying here. In short Its a really good game and an immediate grab on sale. What got me into this game was its bone shattering, jaw breaking combat especially when Max fights in rage, if your a fan of batman games combat this feels right at home. A personal gripe i had was that i never understood why Max needed scraps to upgrade his fighting skills it could easily be under the skill tree system from the Griffa guy. Other than some repetitive open world stuff that gets a little boring after a while, i felt like the story and the main quest is really great. And yeah the vehicle engine sounds are orgasm level good too.

Slightly boring after 10 hour of gameplay, but for me that's even better attention span than Assassin's Creed stuff. And I'm absolutely in love with Mad Max, so if you're too don't miss out!
Don't forget to get this game on sale though lol

Great open world game at an amazing price when on sale. It has your average open world activities like racing, outpost takeovers, and resource gathering with an upgrade system. Didn't have any crashes and only encountered minor inconveniences. Only annoying thing is you cant 100% the achievements for the game unless you mod it due to game servers no longer being up and two challenges are locked to that.

The game has batman arkham combat and pretty good vehicle combat as well , the progression is pretty good .
The story isnt the best but enjoyable ,the open world really captures the typpical "Post-apocalyptic"world and has pretty good attention to detail.
The game can go down to 2 euros wich for that price you cant really go wrong with it.
I highly recommend

Nice blend of open world and linearity. There's no stealth shoehorned in, and there's a satisfying departure from the "lock on" combat of Dark Souls. Think post-apocalyptic Batman Arkham brawling, in many respects. Driving the car is fun, and the scavenging stuff is enjoyable.

I tried to like the game but honestly it get real repetitive real fast. It has interesting car combat with interesting upgrades but other than that it quickly devolves into a collect-the-things slog and I found myself playing it because it was installed rather than because I wanted to actually play the game.

It's not bad, I just didn't find it engaging compared to other options out there.

The game has batman arkham combat and pretty good vehicle combat as well , the progression is pretty good .
The story isnt the best but enjoyable ,the open world really captures the typpical "Post-apocalyptic"world and has pretty good attention to detail.
The game can go down to 2 euros wich for that price you cant really go wrong with it.
I highly recommend

This game has the potential to be good, the combat feels great. Unfortunately it has a major problem which is you cannot get that far into the story. The mission 'Wasteland Classic cannot be completed, the mission requires you install 'Baby Bars' on your first Archangel, but the game does not unlock them until 'Wasteland Classic' is completed.

There are better open world games, but Max Mad is very solid and has some of the best driving combat in video games.

very fun, lots of playing experience, very large map and very challenging

its been my style, my vibe, and my inspiration, this game perfectly demonstrates the character of old cars, they sound amazing, and the atmosphere is jaw-dropping, this game also represents the harsh reality of war torn ares, one of the best skyboxes i have ever seen, and it would be a dream come true to have this game updated with new features or even vehicles, or even DLC's would be amazing, this is one of the best games out there absolute 100/10 rating on my end.

This game goes hard. Vehicle combat is fun, the on foot combat is great because its similar to the batman games. Combat of that style is my preferred for action/adventure games.

most recommended post apocalyptic game ever, 10/10 experience gameplay, quilty is very amazing and this will be may most favorite game ever. thank you game developers for making this game exist

One of my all time favorite games. Loved the movie and bought the game when it came out. Have since played it 3 times through. Once on Xbox, once on PlayStation, and now on Steam Deck. Never gets old and always a fun game to go back to. The combat system is great (similar to the Batman Arkham games). The upgrade system to both Max and his car is rewarding and fun. I always recommend this to anyone when they are looking for a new game to try out. Worth it at full price, so absolutely worth getting it when on sale.

Really good open world game with nice combat

One of the best games I have ever played. You should buy this game and experience it. The driving combat and exploration are incredible. I didn't want to stop playing the game so I was doing everything I could to put off the last mission as you can see with the hours I put into this.

This is very fun at the start... Then the story takes away every ability to use the stuff you bothered to upgrade to use. No point. I didn't even bother to finish it. Immortal enemies and ones that can DODGE GUNFIRE at 5 feet are really, really, REALLY stupid. Srsy?
Da fuq? Don't bother.

This game got slept on when it was released, likely because it was released the same time as a few other great hits, but would definitely recommend! Great story, visuals, action in the world of Mad Max.

Honestly this game is still worth at least 20 bucks. I have it on XBox, PlayStation and PC. Just a really good all around action adventure with a fun cast and great game play. Still better than 80% of the games that have come out since. This should be in your collection.

Wildly fun and intersting. If you get it on sale for less than $10 it is a steal.

I had a ton of fun playing this game. Great balance between missions, and even though some of them feel similar, I was never bored.

GIVE US A SEQUEL!!!
Such an underrated game, yes it can be repetitive with all the camps and scrap locations, but the car gameplay and combat is brutally good. All recommendation, go support and play this game.
Still hoping one day we'll get a sequel that will expand the lore and be even more awesome. Fingers crossed!

Flawed game, almost great. Devs put in cheap artificial difficulty in the racing sections that make some of them really painful to complete. Great game to finish, dont bother for full completion.

The first 30 minutes are agonizing. It's tutorial after tutorial after tutorial after cut scene after cut scene after cut scene. Whole time I'm thinking, "Wow... you're explaining sh^t as though this game was made for people who have never played video games before." Combat is pretty boring as well not gonna lie so just don't come in expecting anything as difficult as even the easiest enemy of Dark Souls, BUT it's still pretty fun. Basically, X attack, hold X heavy attack, Right bumper to roll/dodge, Y to parry. The sniper rifle is infuriating. I tried to snipe a car as it drove by with like 4 other cars and the aim just kept spazing out trying to auto lock on everything and I couldn't find anything to turn off auto aim/aim assist.

This'll sound strange but it's like a really good 4/10 for simple game play mechanics and worth the asking price. 7, maybe 8/10 for the story; 5-6/10 for the repetitive nature of conquering outposts and 1/10 for not letting the player just use their own intuition. It's like a really nice old lady treating a full grown man like a toddler and the whole time you're going, "yes grandma... of course grandma... aren't you overdue for a death date grandma?" Freaking explains everything and I absolutely hate it.

buuuuut gotta hand it to em. Still a good time. There are some really awesome car battles where you get into tight spaces and then launch off a ridge and if you hit some object before the jump just right (if there is an object) you can totally do these awesome barrel rolls mid air, harpoon a dude ripping him out of his driver seat. 9/10 for the car battles.

all in all I'd give it a 7/10 (rounding up from 6.5 :P).

I haven't beaten it yet but that's my impression 13 hrs in. HONESTLY THOUGH THE FIRST 30-45 MIN SUUUCK!!!! You're probably going, "Alright dude I get it, you said that for the 100th time" no... YOU DON'T GET IT!!! YOU DON'T!!!! AND YOU NEVER WILL UNTIL IT HAPPENS TO YOU!!!! (PTSD just thinkin about it...)

I was painfully struggling not to ask for a refund that whole time, but once I got out of tutorial + cut scene hell, it started to get good. Keep that in mind ;). It's like they want you to become mad.... Max.... am I Max? Who am I?

Who was I talking to?

Was there anyone even there....? {={0>

Open world, upgrading your car to run people off the road, big post apocalyptic world. What more could you ask for?! I wondered how I missed this one when it came out then I remembered that The Witcher 3 came out a few months before this. Recommended game from me.

Great game and once you start playing it opening up. You find yourself wanting to play more to unlock new abilities.

Mad Max doesn't try to be something its not. It's a pretty easy game and it's satisfying all the same. The game runs very smoothly with hardly to no bugs (played on linux). Holds up well in 2024 in my opinion.

great story mode

Scratched an itch for 5$ on sale. I had a fun time driving around and blowing stuff up, so it was worth it. Finished in about 30 hours and didn't feel a need to keep playing after I beat the game, kinda like with Days Gone (which is another game with a better story I would recommend where you're driving a lot of the time).

There's plenty of things to work towards to unlock achievements, and I spent a good chunk of time clearing out the first zone to 0 threat just to get... nothing. That's probably why I don't want to continue honestly. I heard about bugs, but nothing was wrong with my run. What I thought was a bug was actually a setting to prevent your car from rolling lol. I had it on all the way until the end and a particularly funny drive off a cliff made me look into it.

Chumbucket is probably the most well rounded character, and I wish the dog would be more involved in the game than it is. Decent game, but the characters aren't much. Max is one directional at all times, with most of his development/backstory showing up when leveling up. Completely ignored pretty much everywhere else.

One thing to keep in mind is that the online services are gone, which is no problem. However, I just wish I had more passive scrap and knew it wouldn't work by the time I found all the pieces for the project in the first stronghold. Other than that, it's no problem.

I feel like I'm nitpicking a bit, but the game was great overall. Final "point of no return" mission felt like Mad Max, which is a win in my book.

In short, grab it on sale for some decent fun or want to slave away at being a completionist.

This game feels like "fast food"—enjoyable in parts but ultimately unremarkable. While it’s not bad, the pacing leaves much to be desired. The first 14 hours are spent mostly on side quests and camp activities, with main story elements blending into side missions. Only in the last 3-4 hours does the story are somewhat interesting

Not trying to say that i didn't enjoyed the first 14 hours, but some things really and really bothered me while playing:

1-st - 100% camps

2-nd - Scrap and "Magnus Opus" Upgrades

3-d - Forts and their Upgrades

Fun combat both on foot and in the car. A good simple progression system. Great story.

Good story, good character and cool customization. Game itself is very underrated. I recommend this game :D

Very fun and polished take on the ubisoft open world game. The loop of building up your car's abilities so you can do more is very satisfying. It also looks really good on modern hardware and plays at high frame rates easily. Driving across the wasteland is very pretty look at and every bandit camp has it's own layout.

Not too many open world games with driving and car combat this exciting. Wish this did well enough to get a sequel.

I normally enjoy a wonderful game and can't bring myself to finish it, because of real life time constraints and waning interest. I just couldn't stop playing this one. Simple to learn, wonderful graphics, good story. It's severely underrated.

Very well game even though it's old. Playing on Steam Deck and it runs smoothly and looks stunning on it. Also one of the best fighting mechanics on pc game to this day.

If you are a fan of the franchise, this game is top-gear. The story, world, and characters are immersive and true to the terrible, grimy existence they've all been thrust into. There's no pandering, soft-handed approach here. It's the raw, brutal, rusted apocalypse at its finest.

Runs smooth on Steam Deck. Under rated game for sure. Even I ignored it when it released. Playing it years later I can say it is truly a fun open world game. Would recommend to anyone who enjoys this sort of genre. Story is pretty meh but gameplay is fun.

Really fun gameplay, but I could never bring myself to see it to the finish, maybe that says something about the story.

while the core mechanic is fun, the game is VERY repetetive. after the first zone you have seen it all and the story is not very original,. For hardcore mad max fans it's probably worth the time, but that's about it.

Honestly, it's a really fun but mediocre game. Get it on a discount.

Multiple bugs in scripting, confusing progression, terrible tutorials, imprecise controls (and yet, there's a lot of combat dependent on precise control), constant grind (especially now that online services are offline), boilerplate plot so bare-bones that it might as well not been there at all, horrible races (thankfully mostly optional) and even more horrible level design for those races and some car-based levels (it's too easy to get stuck on a wall during car combat).
Also in a game set in a universe known for car combat, there's remarkably little of it.

Despite all this, the game is really fun and dynamic, locations are varied and the grind doesn't get tedious too quickly. I've also got to commend voice acting and characters, the car combat system (simple, yet enjoyable) and the atmosphere and worldbuilding - these are worldclass and are a strong expansion on the universe of Mad Max

Underrated. The story is kinda boring but the combat is sick.

if you like a game where the ending makes the entirety of what you did in game meaningless then its just the game for you

Fun game with a good story, easy combat and great fun in the cars.