A post-apocalyptic desert with endless gangs of psychopaths in crazy aggressive cars. The roar of engines, sand and rust on the remains of the old world. The lonely and absurdly cool warrior of these dead roads has long been a household name. As with James Bond, the style is ingrained in the culture and feels great without the original. However, we love to find the roots of stereotypes on these digital pages!
The new film in the franchise will be released in May 2024. It’s time to take a look at interactive wastelands. In previous video games, the incarnations of wastelands are certainly present: for example, two of the most famous games developed by Targem Games from Yekaterinburg: Ex Machina and Crossout. I also remember the game Bandits: Phoenix Rising from the early noughties: a great arcade game, remembered most of all for its amazing localization of the name: Bandits: Mad Marx (sic!).
The game directly about Max Rockatansky, which I will tell you about today, was released back in 2015, in parallel with the movie Mad Max Fury Road. I often noticed her in various collections of noteworthy films from the past decade, with comments along the lines of “For Mad Max fans.” All this inspired a lot of doubts, but I decided to take a chance and found one of my favorite games to date.
The colors in Mad Max are very nice
The same story (Road Warrior)
The plot here is in the best traditions of films about the road warrior. Or in the best traditions of Carmack, which is more accurate. In the beginning, the wandering Max is overtaken by the warriors of varbos Chlem Ostrus (sic!), his car, supplies, jacket and a piece of chainsaw are squeezed out (it was left in Chlem’s head, which did not really hurt him). Thus, the disarmed hero begins his campaign of revenge for the car and jacket. Immediately, we meet the Tinker, a mad quasi–modo–retort who mistakes Max for the Holy Prophet of Internal Combustion. Behind the wheel of his masterpiece custom Magnum Opus, we have to conquer the entire seabed, which has become a desert, and get into his gasoline citadel – Gaztown. Because you can’t just squeeze a jacket and a car out of a serious person!
To complete this non-trivial task, we will have to clear the wasteland of their henchmen: ravage raider camps, rob caravans and form alliances with other, more adequate bandits-survivalists. It doesn’t sound like much fun, but every hour the game brings more and more surprises. There are three main aspects that will make you stay here.
The God of the Machine
The first one is a wheelbarrow. It’s an incredibly enjoyable ride here. Everything related to the car is commendable. The masterpiece is handled here just perfectly. The weight, the maneuverability, the feeling of speed and collisions – everything is alive and present. Arcade, of course, because realism is completely out of place in the movie world. Everything is cool here. That’s what you need for road battles.
Dog food is a real delicacy of this universe. Because the alternative to it is maggots.
Speaking of them. At first, everything looks pretty bleak. In the first three hours of the game, the best tactic is to pull out the driver with a harpoon, and then board the opponent’s empty car until it explodes to pick up spare parts.
But it’s all about customizing the Masterpiece: at the next level, the harpoon will be able to tear off wheels and doors, which is useful when attacking convoys. Also, over time, many other weapons will appear: a folding sniper rifle, explosive spears, gasoline burners.
Gradually, the gameplay gets deeper. For example, before purchasing side flamethrowers, we use very little gasoline and it is very difficult to find ourselves in a situation of shortage. But if they are used, the spare canister in the back no longer seems decorative.
If there is no desire to arrange a carmageddon or the car requires urgent repairs, you can dismount and play bullfighter with a sawn-off shotgun, dodging ramming cars, forcing the enemy to dismount for a fist fight.
Oh, May mo shinderyu!
Second: the combat system. This is a two-button hand-to-hand combat game. Attack is a block with accumulation of ulta. Most often, you break into a crowd of enemies of up to ten people, arranging a fist fight. It looks adrenaline-pumping, impressive and a lot of fun, if you remember that in essence it’s a pretentious fight with homeless people for scrap metal. It is better to save the firearm for special occasions: there are not enough cartridges for everyone, and Max on foot has nothing but a sawn-off shotgun.
The drop is metamodern
Melee weapons do not play a special role here either: Max is not able to carry all kinds of reinforcing batons with him. Only to disarm the opponents, which is not always convenient. Even homemade knives can only be used in certain situations. Apparently a code of honor.
And of course, all these melee techniques can and should be upgraded, also for scrap metal. Thus, the pedestrian part of the game with the narrative is more reminiscent of the Fist of the North Star franchise with the archetype of a wandering martial artist. However, I don’t see any dissonance in this, and I don’t feel any anger.
The essence of Wastelands
The third aspect is the atmosphere, the spirit of exploration and adventure that is being created. In many ways, it reminds me of the Bethesda games: the events themselves add up to their own story. The dried-up sea here is reminiscent of the first parts of Fallout: there are enough empty spaces to feel the post-apocalyptic longing. These aspects of the game are very exciting and pleasant to the touch. They are the ones who will keep you coming back to the game until the plot is over and the map is explored in its entirety.
A sandstorm is one of the random events on the map. And yes, a first-person view is available behind the wheel, and all the cars here are canon right-handed
As for the audio-visual, it’s the best desert I’ve ever seen. The concept of the dried seabed itself is reminiscent of such pleasant images as the film “Igla” with Choi and Half Life 2. Abandoned shipwrecks in the sands, cargo containers inhabited by rare survivors, a destroyed cable-stayed bridge, a lighthouse, wind turbines that have stopped forever. An aching longing under the endless blue sky, waiting for a dust storm.
Relics of the past add a touch of tragedy to the testosterone-rich, high-octane world: photographs and notes of long-dead people caught in the midst of the end of the world. The apocalypse in this franchise has never had specifics. We don’t know exactly how the old world ended, but we can try to feel how the last people felt in their futile attempts to escape.
V8 is for everyone
If I were asked which video game to recommend to a fan of everything in this magazine, Mad Max would definitely be in the top three. Including for those who have not touched interactive entertainment for a long time. Excellent optimization with a good appearance, arbitrary session duration and intuitive mechanics – all this distinguishes Mad Max favorably. A hidden diamond in its own way, this ten-year-old game will brighten up a lot of evenings. If you are not a fierce opponent of repeatability and grinda, the wasteland is waiting for you!
