I got this game not sure what to expect as it was a game based on a movie and those usually turn out rather poor. However, I have always wanted to play a video game where I was Mad Max so I decided to give it a shot. Seeing as how I would always try to recreate his character in other games like, Fallout 3, I figured why not play the game where you are him and that features vehicles. In Fallout 3, you can get the character close to looking like Max, but there are no cool cars. Well, I played through this game and have to say I rather enjoyed it, more than I was expecting considering all the harsh criticisms I had heard about it. Not perfect, by any means, but the game does what I wanted it to and that is place the gamer into Max's world of chaos and anarchy. It is also a very lengthy world as it took me a long time to get through this one, but if you're not trying to complete all the tasks as you are going and only do story objectives it can probably be done somewhat quickly. The game could use a few more things to do considering the size of the world, but still offers a good number of things to do. You can drive around, raid enemy fortresses and scavenge for scrap to create the ultimate car for the wasteland!
The story has Max, losing his car and his shotgun right from the get go and fighting a hulking man named Lord Scrotus. Max soon finds himself in the middle of nowhere with no car and no water, but soon finds a man named Chum who tells Max that Max is the man to drive a car that he wishes to craft...the Magnum Opus. So Max drives this man's buggy to his hideout and soon goes on the search for a body for this new vehicle; however, Chum can only get his hands on a V6 engine and Max needs a V8 to cross the plains of silence so Max must find his way through the wasteland controlled by Lord Scrotus and various other factions, befriend camps of people not quite as crazy as the wandering gangs or the war boys and make his way to Gastown to complete his vehicle all while making a name for himself in the wastelands.
The game play is rather fun as you have hand to hand combat which was fun and consisted of countering, using knives and blasting away with Max's shotgun. Then there is driving where you can simply try to outrun the enemy or ploy right through them! The driving was good for the most part, as through most of the game you are in the middle of the wasteland; however, the Gastown race which is near the end was a very frustrating affair as you are placed in a race with horrendous corners and turns and that section of the game is the only one that had me cursing up a storm! Other than that section the driving was not too bad. Another minor complaint is the fact they were a bit to generous with the water and gas. When you first take control of Max, finding water and shells was difficult and made it more interesting as you would hold back using your gun or try not to use to much water. Instead of this being the norm, once you build up the ally camps, you get all the water and shells you need and gas too! Just made the game a bit less challenging. Still, overall it was fun just driving through the wasteland and ramming enemies who were parked alongside the road!
So, yes, I found this game to be quite fun and entertaining. I thought the ending was a bit of a downer as Max usually rights wrongs before driving off alone and into the nothingness, but for the most part the game got the tones of the movie right. I would have liked to have heard the theme from Road Warrior play though as that would have been cool and maybe an enemy or ally from the films would have been cool too. Perhaps a base run by Lord Humongous? For a game based on a movie though they did a great job of crafting a huge world where you could explore and make the wasteland your playground of blood chaos and sorrow!
