Ironically, this game came to be more complex than I first imagined, as I wasn't ready I got even more impressed by it. Serves me right for some lasting preconceptions, and also for hearing gaming sites too much. Since the game has been good enough for my taste so far, I'm going to write a bible about it. Bad things first, which isn't that important anymore to be honest.
The Bad First
There are two kinds of Mad Max to pray for out there. One is the oldschool, crazy anti-hero that I came to know from the wastelands from a series of gonzo-like masterpieces, over the past years. Max Rockatansky got tormented by hate and revenge, after his wife and son got killed and his best friend had an agonizing death, Gibson just made it on the character because he was just looking mad enough for this. They used to work together as some kind of police road guards during the decay of society before it. Not just Max was born during that process but also The Lasty's V8, since it was a gift from his now deceased friend. Sounds too bad-ass to be real.
Since then, Max started wandering, leaving nothing behind but a trace of blood no matter what, so you could just assume that his mentality changed for the worst with the world. Not by, not for... but with it. From petty criminals to vicious gangs, the guy was not just mad but also really evil sometimes, hence his nickname.
It takes a lot more than just violence to be considered a crazy dude, so just violence is present for that factor, but which game of the genre doesn't has it?
The other Mad Max is the current "Mad" Max, which I can't really recognize anymore. Who is Max now? Just a generic Ubisoft-like hero with his long gone obligatory family (a wife and a daughter) with some old car now stolen and nowhere to go. Just passing by, "seeking some peace" as the game's cover states so precariously. Maybe this is what the industry thinks of us gamers, they think that we enjoy the same pattern of the hero's plot being repeated over and over. And in the old movies, the world wasn't just blown off from day to night, the world was actually getting through a very slow and painful process of decay (you were left assuming that, but without the specifics).
But the game made me think exactly the contrary of that, with the opening sequence. They tried to give it more reason now, and ended up being just another post-apocalyptic game while Miller's design and idea remains. Weird, I didn't liked it, no matter the excuse for it. I had this old feeling on the old movies that Max was just ignorant about the pre-war world as the planet was just trying to chew humanity pretty slowly and then trying to spill the survivors out of orbit, after decades of war and pollution - and with the nukes falling over time - which always made sense to me.
While watching the Beyond Thunderdome though, it actually seemed that the story was far away from the day zero, like some 5 centuries or something and maybe more. So it's just confusing sometimes. Okay, centuries of decay would do some damage but not tons and tons of dunes in certain areas, enough time to make some places looking like a dusty pile of nothing.
Curiously, this primitive and bizarre aspect from the past movies such as the gonzo nature of it, was perfectly tailored by the devs in the game and it remains perfectly there.
I blame Warner and George Miller who never came clear with a decent time-line when they had the chance. Maybe the story could have evolved if organized... And maybe they're trying to organize it all from now on hence his family photo and the ''aftermath'', like no movie after the first ever did - no spoiler so far - it's just a shame it is so cliché. Assuming that people care about it, because I honestly think that they don't. So I don't think that this is an important thing to care or to worry about.
Surprise
Bring the ancient aliens guys if you want, just a few minutes playing and look, big surprise already. Another game this year is carrying some kind of subliminal message about the Wild Hunt legend. This is the third game this year so far to make such references to it (or to use it as main theme) be it just on an small name or just on some texture there... it is. I wonder why? Now there is a car carcass named Wild Hunt in here, nothing to be worrying about. Mass Effect Andromeda was the second so far to use that legend as reference on its first trailer.
Do you remember about that canceled show on Adult Swim, Korgoth of Barbaria? Funny.
"Pray that he stills out there, somewhere."
This paragraph will resume it all, if my review is too long for you so I can contribute and help you. So, the game is really good. Simply put, the idea of car to car combat works just fine, that feature is the star here on my opinion and again it just works very, very well, just because it is fun. The smoke and the fire are threatening and awful all in a good way for they were beautifully rendered, because this is all what will be left after combat. I can go even further, car combat it is as fun to play as Red Dead's horse to horse combat is, and the methodical things you're systematically prone to do never gets boring as well because of its precision. Avalanche Studios have managed to keep a good balance between how far they could go with graphics/voice/animations and they resources (assuming that they're expanding) and honestly, it's just feels right. Maybe not always fantastic but sure not bad, hell no. Don't worry if you don't like Just Cause games, just rest easy, the only thing that reminds this game on Max's game was the harpoon cable weapon. There is no lunar gravity in here, not as bad as Just Cause and Max feels pretty heavier when you're pushing him up front, as the game tries to keep up with reality most of the time, specially with those nicely made animations not just on the bodies but also on everything around you. Apart from the usual action-gamey stuff, it behaves pretty well. It lacks some implementations and finalizations too, there is too much empty rooms on the level design and this made the game look like a waste of opportunity for several things which I can talk about later. And when I was thinking that the game was way too short with action and too boring with unbalanced tutorials, one hour later I was just being bombarded with crazy brawls, fast paced fights and crude firing (guns never really blazes there but still) and things started to get really serious. If you remain patient I can tell you the good side of it, which is in contrast, very immersible. You can leave anytime now knowing that those guys truly deserves the cash, everything considered. At first Mad Max will just look like some sort of spin-off from the last movie, and you will feel that this is nothing but another movie-to-game thing, but given the game a chance... it is surprisingly beyond that. Well, for me it was anyway.
So Fallout has been on this very theme business for years, but who the hell told us that nobody else could get it done by their own ways and means too? Gamespot did? Don't listen to them so often, they're not always right.
Gameplay
And I have my own theories on why some games are beaten down on some reviews, specially when other games are orbiting around. Phantom Pain and Fallout 4 are too close for some people attention I think?
Some random thoughts about the rest. Water, food, ammo, it is all scarce. And no game has done it so interestingly and at the same time so silly. It would have been much more interesting if the resources could just disappear after usage for a brief period but some of those scarcities are just re-spawned here and there instantly. So what's the purpose of it, the feeling of scarcity is constantly broken, but remains as an cool idea.
Anyway, your health will be hitting the bottom constantly. So you need to be careful, no regeneration is possible and this is great, but until you make use of a checkpoint - they shouldn't have done it like that. Re-spawn after death and voilá, health goes back up. Another challenge killer for me. You never really run out of fuel for example, at the point to be walking on foot but if you really mess it up, this is exactly what will happen. Happened to me 2 times, so I wasn't really caring at first. So think straight all the time, sometimes the game feels empty but sometimes it does not, that's the best part. You never know. Still, they could have done it much more harder than that.
The controls are a bit confusing at first. It will take a while to have it all in it's full capacity it as the game progresses regularly. I made the mistake to underestimate its difficulty due the ridiculously easy tutorial... I got beaten badly. Few fights later I was okay, combat feels brutal until you get used to it. Could have been even more brutal you think? Then you learn some new moves and the brutality starts to look fresh again, and again, they did a very wise work. Holding the progression down and releasing it slowly to the player from boring to cool helps you to keep playing. Damn, it works flawlessly. Parry system is very responsive, as hand to hand is more present than any other while on foot, for obvious post-apocalyptic reasons.
While some games are growing in oversizes activities to keep you playing forcefully, some others as Mad Max are managing to keep you around by wondering what will be next, which is very healthy for gaming and much more acceptable. It's risky though, you could think that the game is boring at first and stop playing.
Looting bodies aren't always satisfactory as an RPG would be, or even as on some survival game - because this game is definitely engaged on the survivalist theme. Still, Gamespot is absurdly wrong on it's review, I have seen more logical incoherences on Fallout's inventory than I will ever see on any other game, just ignore that. The inventory is just as crazy as any other game is, and it is just as impossible as Fallout is. I better speak of incoherences on some other things, like you can't stole your enemies car. Now that's pretty foolish, but what can we do?
Vehicle handling can get to be pretty complex. Put too much extra pieces on your vehicle and he will be moving and turning like a pregnant rhino. Spice it up and maybe he moves like an starving jaguar. The possibilities are quite endless for what you can mix in between those two extremes, from good to balanced, to bad and poorly designed, the car evolution and building progress factor are just right too. The fuel depletion is an great idea (not implemented on the building though). Car fighting reminds about any movie, it can get to be pretty cinematic specially with the boarding and all.
Unfortunately, Max can get to be overpowered pretty soon on his abilities perks. I didn't liked the idea to give him extra ''powers'' that powerful, in less than 2 hours I was already filled with overwhelmed advantages over some enemies. Somehow this is becoming a mantra for open world games, I bet they would make you fly like Superman if possible, just no. There are limits there, why they some don't respect that?
Textures looks nice, really nice. The sky at day and at night are the only thing around you that doesn't look sick, disgruntled, polluted or threatening. In other words, heaven has nothing to do with the hell beneath it.
It is the only rest you're going to have on such precarious wasteland. The Milky Way nebula is pretty rendered, and the moon shines glorious too, of course they are, the big cities are all dead it seems. The sky isn't contaminated by its lights anymore. Actually, the lack of nature on the first background is exactly what you see (or don't) on every movie. I liked how the spiritual thing was inserted in the game, can't get to be materialistic over such theme as humanity grows weaker on insane men.
And if you get beaten too much you will notice how detailed Max can get to be, in contrast with the ridiculous holes made up on your body on GTA V. Walk on the dust and the sand will react accordingly to each terrain which are mostly combined with particles and debris and some other weird burnt oils, blood, fuel and some other hazardous pollutants. Run them over with a car or on foot and they will just react beautifully, it can look like nothing but those are exactly the things who makes a game big, the attention to every small detail is important for a game like that, for the old movies were trying to give you just that.
Sometimes I can even smell the putrid air on what is left of the sewer system or underground caves, and why not, the dust on my face during an storm. They really did it nice, the fire and the smoke are simply sinister, threatening and awful, all in a good way. Just as the old movie tried so hard to tell us back there. When lightning strucks, you feel like you're in the deepest levels of some Erebus.
Physics, they are pretty decent except for the Harpoon weapon, but they're gorgeous while driving clunky cars and blowing objects. The harpoon kills it though, for every time I cut the cable on somebody I end up laughing. Music sometimes disappears without fading and this leaves the game sounding like a combined mashup sometimes, not a big deal though, it was cleverly randomized, it never gets boring.
Artistic
The motion capture stills not very popular amongst gamers, not everyone knows who are the actors behind it, even on bigger games who really made it to the top by using them they don't say a thing. The motion capture is rich and cool, whoever is behind that.
The voice acting from every character is decent except for Max, specially at the beginning. I made jokes and laughed the first time I've heard Max speaking on the game, he was just short on everything like an young Arnold Schwarzenegger on his earlier career. "- Where to go? - Who are you. - C'mon buddy. - Hold tight. - I'll be back."
When the story started for real, Max finally broke free from his Terminator mood as he started to act more human like but don't expect to see anything Mad on him as I said up there. He's just a boring ass dude, but he is voiced by Bren Foster, which saves his poor dialog.
The music flows between Cthullian ambiance and desolate moody to hard epic and tense, if this makes any sense. I totally approve it because it helps you to get in the wastelands, the situation there is beyond misery and disdain. Seriously, if there is hell somewhere, Avalanche just guessed it as George Miller did. Sometimes I wonder why we enjoy those kind of experiences while wishing to be away from there at the same time.
The story flows pretty quickly and it will be revolving amongst some sort of revenge and retake almost the entire game. Unfortunately the plot will repeatedly flow in the usual gamey form most of the time, so click here, go to that mark, press this button, that is how story evolves. Sometimes the flow is realistic, and the animations can make you feel that by smoothly pressing you to it's completion. I don't like the in-game menu, made me feel like I was playing some Tony Hawnk game on N64. They could have done a better system for that, more aesthetically I mean but that's not a big deal.
Final opinion
By the well known lack of a decent time-line on Max's universe by George Miller, I can only assume you're in after the oldschool movie when Max was just a road guard on a yellow car during the society's decay, and between the first entry in the classical trilogy, long after his family death and then with an rusty Lasty and...
Pretty confusing, but I'm judging the time line by the time he finds his dog.
Play the game, it is good, but don't expect any explanation inside the universe of the real story (assuming that you do know the real story) since this is just a game, the devs are leaving it at that. Shame on them, this makes Max feeling empty and the game, so gamey, like some old adaptations from movies to a Snes or to a Genesis. It was common to do that on the 90s.
I didn't watched Fury Road yet and I'm not planning to do so. I don't want to brake my immersion any further than I already have. As The Sergeant Murtaugh would say, I'm too old for this sh*t.
What I do remember from the old movies though, is that he actually had a wife during the decay - not just before it and obviously not after it. And a son, not a daughter.
Let us hope that an next installment on the series keeps with that unique appeal, but always evolving. Anyways, for a surprisingly good game, and for a unfair review on this very site, I couldn't make a review without thousands of words to express how cool this game is. Don't fear it, you're going to like it if you're interested on the theme.