Mad Max open world game coming in 2014, err, 2015

[celedhring]

All the reviews I've seen are poor, but people I know that have bought it seem to be enjoying it.

Definitely will give it a go after I buy it for 10€ during the 2017 steam sales 

[Syt]

The reviews I've seen seem to say that the game is competent nut not groundbreaking, and technically runs well.

Whether or not you like it will depend on whether you like the setting and its somewhat repetitive tasks. (I wanted to play it more but I'm still on Diablo 3 instead. )

[Queequeg]

Is it set after Fury Road?

[Syt]

Is it set after Fury Road?

It's independent of the movies, but is inspired by them. E.g. Scabrous Scrotus is a son of Immortan Joe and commands his own War Boys.

[Syt]

I haven't continued playing yet, because I'm not in the mood for playing fast paced action games at the moment. One thing I do notice, though, is that there's a disconnect between the opinions of game sites reviewing the game and the player base. The sites on the whole give this a low to high average score.

Meanwhile, on Steam 94% of over 5400 reviews are positive. On Metacritic it's 74 vs. 86.6 on PC, 70 vs 8.1 on PS4, and even the Xbone has a split of 73 vs. 8.3

Which is peculiar, because often you will see that players find review scores inflated (I actually ignore scores these days and rather go for video reviews/let's plays to get an idea about games), with players being vocal about how crappy a game actually is.

It even appears TB has released a video about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJANS0VTpbY ("I will now talk about negative Mad Max reviews for just over 40 minutes")

I will listen to that while setting up a new OOTP league.

[DontSayBanana]

Well, it's the team behind Just Cause 2.  It seems like if you liked JC2, you'll like Mad Max.  For me, I'll give it a miss (I found Just Cause 2 to be just a teeny bit too repetitive), but that sounds like there's a solid built-in fan base.

[Syt]

7 hours in. About an hour, perhaps one and a half were spent on story missions, so I feel I can give my first impressions.

I've spent the rest of the time in two regions near the first of three leader strongholds. This is NOT a game if you want tons of side quests and lots of intricate story. Actually, except for the occasional "encounter" which either give you intel or a short scripted encounter I don't think there's much of a quest system.

Other than that you have a map. It's filled with icons that you find through exploration, scout an area with a hot air balloon (= radio towers from Far Cry 3) or get intel from wanderers, encounters or story missions. You visit the icons and do what it requires - take out snipers, tear down hostile land markers (scarecrows), clear out scavenging sites, clear out enemy camps, destroy convoys, do a race, etc.

On the road you will come across hostile vehicles that will attack you (or flee from you).

Activities I've found so far:

- tear down scarecrows: the involves crashing through them or sticking them with a harpoon and tear them down
- take out snipers: similar to scarecrows, though you can also shoot them once you have the sniper rifle
- scavenging locations: get a little bit of scrap (not really worth it), water (needed for healing), collectibles, or parts for stronghold enhancements (so that the stronghold produces resources). Often there's some baddies guarding a location.
- enemy convoys: a convoy of a transport car, escorted by several other cars, driving around a circular route in a district - means you need to take out the escorts, then the main car
- enemy camps: often with defenses (snipers, molotov sluggers, gates, flame throwers ...) - you have to find a way in and get rid of perimeter defenses, then get inside and fight the enemies there on foot. Often you need to destroy certain target objectives. Captured camps produce a constant flow of scrap for you.
- balloons: uncover main locations in an area
- races: a death race with your not standard car against opponents and also against the clock (there's a time bomb under the car)
- minefields: use your dog to search for and clear mines (haven't done it yet)
- storms: if you're weak, run away; if your car can take it, hunt for motherloot crates with lots of scrap
- scrapulance: vans loaded with lots of scrap - get rid of the driver and drive it to a stronghold

Gameplay:

Your car (the Magnum Opus) is your most important possession. You upgrade it using scrap. Upgrades are unlocked by doing mission objectives or lowering threat (enemy activity) in certain areas. Car combat is surprising fun. A full frontal, nitro enhanced rush into a weak enemy that explodes on impact doesn't grow old. Alternatively, you can pull tires off cars, remove doors, pull out drivers with your harpoon, or use your shotgun to aim for fuel tanks. More abilities are unlocked later. The handling of your car changes depending on upgrades and whether you have, e.g., heavy armor installed. You can also hijack opponents' cars (and take them to a stronghold to be able to use them later ... the cars, not the drivers). There's different bodies for your Magnus Opum, too, so you could go for a corvette or hot rod look (in total 6 or 7 bodies?). You can also collect parts for "Archangels," special cars that are - like many things in game - collectible.

On foot the game is not quite as good. The controls sometimes feel a bit clumsy, and I sometimes struggle to position Max correctly in relation to an object he should use. Combat is Arkham style, but more like a dirty brawler, which is appropriate. It's not flashy (some wrestling moves from Max notwithstanding), and not spectacular, and it doesn't have much depth beyond using your shotgun or a shiv now and then, or picking up a makeshift weapon that breaks quickly. It's not horrible, but also not great. Max also has a brace on his leg, and when he drops more than a couple feet he will limp for a bit. Health is replenished only through water (which you can carry in your flask) or dog food that you eat on the fly.

You level up through "Griffa tokens" that you earn by doing stuff. Griffa is a mysterious wanderer who I'm suspecting might be a figment of Max' imagination. Leveling up traits means you get more health, find more scrap/water, or have makeshift weapons last longer. You can also upgrade Max' equipment - jacket, wrist wraps, gloves, ammo belt ... also hair and beard length (cosmetic effect only ).

The game world has been designed to be somewhat diverse with distinct landmarks. The huge map covers a former coastline and a fair amount of former sea. So you will see plenty shipwrecks, but also lighthouses, a former harbor, bridges ... I've cleaned out 5 or 6 camps, and while they all share familiar elements (repurposed cargo containers or ship parts, oil tanks or pumps, similar decorative clutter in the form of furniture, bodies and body parts, car parts and so on) each camp has so far been different and unique in its own way. Admittedly I've spent my time on a small part of the map, but I've not really seen any cookie cutter environments. (Though you keep seeing plenty of cargo containers in various arrangements )

The game is looking great and has very good performance on my 770GTX at max details.

Some complaints:
- scrap is scarce - if you want to collect yourself: loot locations and opponents often only have small amounts (5 to 10, when upgrades cost in the hundreds); but then there's easier ways of collecting scrap - Scrapulances, taking over camps, having cleanup crews (stronghold upgrade), hunt during a storm ... I guess income from camps will be the biggest source, unless there's a cap at some point
- scrap is weird - if you kill a car's driver, the car can't be looted. It will drop a small amount of scrap if you destroy it. If you take an enemy car to a stronghold, it will not give you any scrap (unless it's a Scrapulance)
- sometimes the game is not good at giving you prompts - one balloon required me to refuel it. There's an apparatus with a funnel next to it. That's NOT where the fuel goes, but into a device *under* the balloon basket, and only from a certain angle

Do I like the game? So far yes, though it may appeal to some OCD part of my gaming psyche. This camp has 3 Scrotus insignia to destroy and 11 pieces of scrap (a total of maybe 150 scrap)? I will first find them all and *then* fulfill the camp objective! There's a scarecrow in that out of the way place? Matters not, it has to go. The car combat is great fun, ground combat ... ok, and the game world captures the Mad Max vibe very well.

I would not recommend the game if you look for a strong narrative with many side quests (though it might pick up later?). I would not recommend the game if doing similar stuff again and again bores you. If you look for a sandbox with lots of (same-ish) things to do set in the post-apocalypse with great car on car action (and a fair amount of slow, repetitive ground combat), then you may want to take a look.

[The Brain]

Is there a Hardcore mode?

[Syt]

I don't think so.

[The Brain]

 

[Syt]

Still puttering through the wasteland. I was wondering why some stuff was locked off - like the buggy/dog to clear mines, or stronghold upgrades. Turns out I was a bit behind on story missions, so the mechanics weren't unlocked yet.

Clearing out one map icon at a time. It's not the most complex game ever, but it's fun enough, and it's a great game to play for an hour or two and then come back later, chipping away slowly at the big block.

The flow of scrap improves once you take over camps which provide a steady income. The combat is still fun. Got attacked by two cars. I rammed the first one, not realizing it's a bomb car (basically a kamikaze attacker) and my car is nearly destroyed (when car HP drop to 0 it tells you to get out of your car - Chumbucket will then repair it while any potential enemies will keep coming for you). Second car raced at me. I dodge out of the way just in time, then blow him up with a shot to the fuel tank. Unfortunately the AI can be a bit stupid. Once my car was nearly destroyed and two enemy cars were trying to run me over. They tried to run me over, but I managed to dodge all the time. Eventually they got out and I brawled them to death. They often get out of the car to fight you when you're on foot.

I like the screenshot tool. You can pause the game, and then open an interface that lets you position the camera, play with filters and overlays, depth of field, field of view, gamma, etc. More games need this. Though it always looks like the tires aren't moving.




Edited to remove broken image links.

[Syt]

I like sightseeing in games. And this is a good one for that. All locations are handcrafted, and though they often use similar assets there's an effort to make everything unique. The map is at what used to be an ocean. I'm currently still in what used to be the sea. There's lots of shipwrecks, cargo containers, a light house, a submarine, caves have corals and shells in them, there's old pipelines and an old oil rig.

The next major obstacle is "The Jaw," a well guarded old harbor entrance - the territory behind it is dry land - I'm wondering how it'll change the scenery when I get there.

The story is almost awesomely simple. Max wants to get somewhere where he can find his peace. He has his V8 Interceptor stolen by Scabrous Scrotus. He embarks on a quest for revenge and hopefully to get his car back.

To do so he must build a new awesome car. To do so he must get the help from overlords. To do so he must remove Scrotus's influence on their lands. That's it.

[Syt]

Cleaned up the first region (Jeet's territory) - though I haven't done all the races there yet, or done all his side quests (which require me to go to the next territory, anyways). Jeet's realm was pretty serene in the end with most of the threat removed.

Gutgash's area is a different story - enemies are aplenty, and they're tougher. So I should focus on bringing threat down first the easy way (getting rid of scarecrows, snipers) so that I don't get jumped by patrols when I try to scout a camp or try to snipe its defenses. Steam says I've played 22 hours, and I've cleaned out maybe 20% of the map? But then again I play slowly, go sightseeing etc. I understand if you focus on the story it can be finished in under 20 hours according to http://howlongtobeat.com/game.php?id=17610

[Scipio]

I like it better than Shadows of Mordor.

[Syt]

I'm still at 26 hours, and haven't played in a while. I mean to go back and finish it, though.