Every now and again, the good people at PlayStation will actually add a really good game to the subscription collection, and this definitely is a awesome game. Mad Max is based on the original movie franchise, but I would say more so on the 2015 reboot Mad Max: Fury Road with Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron. I vaguely remember watching Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome when I was much younger, back when you still rented VHS movies from the video store.
I think the movie might have had a psychological effect on me, because if there are two things I don't care much for, it's the desert and the post apocalyptic world. Regardless of my distaste for the setting and theme of the game, I'm surprisingly enjoying the vast desert wasteland, probably for the first time in my life.
Now I should give fair warning, Mad Max is probably not best for the younger gamers, it's more on the violent side. When water and oil is the most sort after resource, people will go to any lengths to get their hands on these.
Things take a turn for the worse when Max is run off the road by a group of War Boys led by a real bad looking kind of guy called Scrotus. They take his car, his clothes and everything he owns, then leave him to die in the desert. Luckily Max makes a daring attempt to get his stolen possessions back by jumping on the Land Mover as the War Boys leave and coming face to face with Scrotus wielding a chainsaw. Max manages to get the upper hand by stabbing him in the head with a chainsaw, this does nothing to this brick house, who then kicks Max off the Land Mover. You have to be pretty hardcore to survive a chainsaw to the head, it was a rather intense scene.
Left with nothing but a weapon and the clothes of a dead Wastelander, oh yes and Scrotus's dog, he starts walking in hopes of finding water and a better means of transport. After a few hours of walking he runs into a hunchbacked mechanic named Chumbucket, who promises to lead him to Scrotus, but must first help complete the car he is building called the Magnum Opus.
There is a strange beauty to this vast wasteland filled with death and destruction, which really instills the feeling of lost hope as you explore. Mad Max is a balanced mix between role playing and driving, and your car or as it is called in the game, the Magnum Opus, is almost an extension of the character. One of the core objectives is to upgrade your Magnum Opus to a tank like state, which you will need to do to survive this savage wasteland.
As with most post apocalyptic games, it is all about survival, and the three key elements you will need is water, gas and salvage. Water is basically to keep your health up and on occasion you will find a can of dog food, which constitutes a pretty decent meal in these parts. Then there is gas, which is needed to keep the car going, luckily this is not hard to come by and most buildings or structures usually has some gas cans lying around. Salvage is what you are going to need to build up up your car, from better weapons to tougher armor, and don't forget what's under the hood. You will need to get your hands on a V8 engine to take on what's out there.
"My name is Max. My world is fire and blood. Once, I was a cop. A road warrior searching for a righteous cause. As the world fell, each of us in our own way was broken. It was hard to know who was more crazy... me... or everyone else." - Max Rockatansky
There is definitely a mood of despair, everyone is out to kill you, just to rob you of your water and your car. The main focus is for you to get the Magnum Opus as fully upgraded as possible, and the friendly hunchback mechanic will make sure to let you know what you need to upgrade next. I found the relationship between Chumbucket and the car he worships hilarious, this brings a nice bit of laughter.
Vehicle combat also plays an essential role in this game, if you notice a car approaching from the distance, chances are that they are looking for a fight. Make sure you destroy your opponents vehicle before you attempt to approach it on foot, I've been killed a few times like that, I know - rookie move. The oil camps that are found everywhere are fortresses with many enemies and will require you to abandon your car and take on enemies with only your fists. Ammunition in the game is pretty hard to come by, so when you find it, make sure you save it for the right occasion.
The game is developed by Avalanche Studios, whom I'm not very familiar with but they also created The Hunter series as well as all three Just Cause games, which I have played none of. I have seen some great looking trailers for Just Cause 3 so I should probably give it a go. Published by Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment obviously, they own the rights to everything these days that comes from the big screen. As always it is available on all the popular platforms; Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. This is one of the few games out there that you will find on OS X and Linux, thanks to Feral Interactive.
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