Mad Max (2015)

Oh, another observation that has nothing to do with game-play.

The story is basically non-existent, which is fine and actually captures the feel of the movie. Max wants to go o some play for some reason, but who cares, really? However, how the game handles the relationship between Max and Chumbucket is most interesting. At a first glance it looks like Chumbucket is merely Max's sidekick, following him around, but I actually feel that in some sense, it's the other way around. While Max drives the car, Chumbucket drives the narrative. He tells Max where to go and who to meet, and sometimes he is the one doing the talking. He even tells Max to get on with the main mission when he spends too much time fooling around doing side-tasks.

In those moments, Max is Chumbucket's personal driver and I don't know if I'm reading too much into it but I find that whole dynamic fascinating.

It's amazing how I keep finding small little details and smart design choices. Today's two tidbits are:

1. The sound design is off the charts. There's a myriad of quick sounds that gives the player feedback of what's happening around them, but also a lot of sounds that makes everything so immersive. When Chumbucket or Max shout, sometimes, depending on the geography, their words will echo in the surrounding cliffs. chef's kiss

2. The fast travel system is very good! Instead of just automatically activating new fast-travel areas when discovering it, there's this whole rigmarole that forces you to access a balloon, going up into the air and surveying the field with your binoculars. Not only it adds variety and immersion to the world, but it also servers as a much-needed respite from the frenetic driving and killing. Up there in the balloon the wasteland seems almost peaceful. The sound design here is also paramount. Up in the sky everything sounds muted, the sounds of the wasteland feel distant. And you can stand there for as long as you want, relaxing, taking it all in.

I read a few reviews of this game and was sceptical that what felt essentially a movie tie-in was any good. But, boy, was I mistaken. I'm a few hours in and is surprisingly good. The wasteland feels a bit empty, but that is intentional to serve the main mechanic of racing and driving.

Some small details that felt polished:

1. your deformed friend (Chumbucket) can fix your car only when standing still, but he automatically starts fixing stuff when you get out of the car to loot for stuff. This saves a lot of annoyance and I could easily imagine a game that forces you to manually give the "repair" order every time.

2. you have a flare with which to signal Chumbucket to bring your car. But if he's not far away, instead of using a flare, Max just shouts. Again, this is a rather neat attention to detail. I could easily imagine a game that mindlessly shoots a flare every time regardless of your distance to the car.

Beat during free trial of xbox game pass. I went for a very tanky car with heavy armor and spikes, often skipping upgrades to save up for the best in slot when the game allowed. At first, I methodically cleared every area and location 100% but this became tedious quite quickly. At that point I started evaluating the cost benefit ratios of doing an activity based on how much scrap I would get and whether I needed it to unlock something I wanted. I still ended up doing most things in the game, only skipping some towers and scrap locations. I enjoyed the story missions, enemy bases and anything relating to the buzzards. The buzzards were fascinating and the airport mission was masterful; I would have liked to be able to find out more about them. The entire setting is fascinating.

Most of the gameplay was good though I felt there was not really a sense of scarcity and danger with respect to fuel and water. I would not want to play the game through again because of the nature of the open world grind and it is unlikely that I will buy the game just to finish the little bit that I did not complete.

7.5/10