melmer

Mad Max

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I've been having a ton of fun with this. I'm sure it helps that I skipped Shadows of Mordor, got it on a sale, that it runs really well on my PC, and that I love this wasteland. But still, I don't find the icons littering my map as a chore because (unlike with the most recent Ubi games) all of the activities are fun and lead back into the progression of Max or his car. I think the lack of a difficulty option helps here too because they've been able to tune that stuff so that it's always a challenge and requires better gear and equipment. And I really like driving around now that the car is improving. I'm a bit disconcerted at the disparity between the word of mouth and metacritic though. MGSV + low expectations have caused people to dismiss it I think and that's a shame. There's a lot to like here if you give it a chance.  

 

I would really recommend this, especially on PC where the performance and price shine. Think it's still 40% off at GMG. 

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Yay! I'm not alone. I'm close to done with upgrading everything. It's getting a bit easier now, but I don't mind so much, it makes sense because the story is also about upgrading the car. I just did the worst part (all of the mine fields) first and now that's out of the way, I'll focus on the story missions and remaining random stuff. I gotta say yes I'm having fun doing all the side thingies, because each time there's something different (well, ok, not with the mine fields and the statues). In Assassin's Creed I would get bored way sooner.

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I've played for 50 hours now. The game is actually more and more reminding me of Far Cry 2 as well as Far Cry 3 (which mostly has similar base conquering). It touches on the madness of war similarly, the respawning in some enemy locations is similar (but better done here), though you have better means to deal with the interruptions (car combat). The layout is kind of similar, with each area having a central hub where you get missions and which is basically your base in that area (ok, in FC2 the arms dealers were more important than the story hubs). Very similar to the diamonds and tapes that encouraged you to explore, this one has scrap and "history relics", which tell the tale of the world going mad. Mad Max also has this permanent threat reduction that FC2 didn't have (taking down snipers and scarecrow statues) and what is required for upgrading the car. FC2 also had convoys that you could take down! Overall, I'd say the exploration feels rather similar in ways -- going after the bleep of the diamonds, then just exploring without any clear purpose, finding a bunch of bad guys and loot. Gradually getting more and more badass with the help of weapon upgrades. And the ballons are not exactly the same as the Far Cry 3 radio towers -- they actually don't show you things automatically, you have to look for them yourself and the binoculars are not that great for actually finding the hidden things. They mostly just give you a general overview of the area.

 

Of course tonally they are very different and this game also makes quite horrible use of tropes vs women.

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And now I finished it (at leas the main story). I'm not sure how I feel about the ending. As you can imagine there's a car battle at the end, but by that time I had upgraded my Thunderpoons to the max and I had 15 of them so it was easy to take down all the escort cars. I think generally the thunderpoons are a bit overpowered -- all the convoy takedowns become easy when you have them. As for how the story ends:

 

Well, obviously you take down Scrotus, but also willingly sacrifice Chumbucket in the process because he is unwilling to give up the magnup opus. I think that kind of worked, but then Scrotus comes at you in your interceptor, that looked like it was destroyed at the beginning (I guess it wasn't really clear evidence that it was though). Well, you get it back and drive into the sunset, like nothing happened. And then, after the credits, Chumbucket is alive again and you have the magnum opus, as if the ending was a dream. I wish they would have come up with a better explanation for letting the player continue playing. I'm sure it would be much harder with the interceptor instead of the magnum opus with Chumbucket on it, but I would have accepted that.

 

I'm now probably going to watch Mad Max 1.

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I guess mainly a Fury Road spoiler, but continues on from that spoiler above

 

I couldn't believe that they didn't have the interceptor in Fury Road or the game. To me, it always seemed like it was Max's car that made him so bad ass. In the movie, he talks a few times about wanting to get his car back, but he never does.

 

Have you ever seen Max Max 1 before? It's pretty rough, I'd recommend Road Warrior first, then going back to Mad Max 1 if you're really into it.

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I'm a big fan of the movies, even have a Blu-Ray set of the three. I didn't like Mad Max 1 as a kid, but adored Road Warrior and Beyond Thunderdome. When I saw Mad Max 1 again this winter, I appreciated it more. I think the music in that film is a bit annoying, though, which makes it harder for me to enjoy.

 

I really liked the moment in the game when you finally get a V8, it feels like now your car is getting really bad ass.

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I know this is replying to a months and months old series of posts, but Erkki, your steadily shifting opinion on Mad Max might get me to stick with it.  I started it up this week, and it was fine, but really after getting to my first fortress and seeing what the structure of the rest of the game was going to be, I was thinking about quitting.  Not because it's bad, but just because it doesn't feel entertaining enough for what I like to keep playing for another 40 hours or whatever it will take to finish.  But I might give it another night or two, since your opening post is almost exactly how I was feeling about it.

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Since it's already bumped

The more I play it, the more baffled I am by the negative reviews that give it 5/10 (e.g. Polygon - and the same guy gave Far Cry 3 9/10).

For what it's worth, Polygon's reviewers don't score the games. Some editor who reads their review does it for them (pretty strange if you ask me).

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