Mad Max - 7/10: Mad Max is an open world brawler made by the devs behind the Just Cause series. If you've played any of the Batman games you'll be familiar with the combat system as it's very similar, and while it doesn't massively improve upon the formula it does implement it very well. You have your standard light attack, heavy attack, parry and dodge, but on top of that you also have brutal knife finishers which you can perform while carrying knives which are found throughout the game, there are many different kill animations depending on the angle you attack from and they're all very satisfying to pull off and watch. As well as knife finishers you also have Fury kills which are equally visceral and are performed on weak enemies while in Fury mode which is activated once you fill your Fury meter. The combat is definitely the best thing about the game, it's very fluid and just done well, as you upgrade Max you unlock more skills that allow you to pull off even more devastating moves.
As is the trend these days in open world games there are icons all over the map with optional content that add nothing to the game, and even hurts the overall experience I'd argue as tedium does start to set in after awhile, at least it did for me. I would like to see most, if not all of the pointless scrap locations removed if they ever make a sequel, and I would urge the devs to avoid reusing the territory system which is extremely boring, you are basically doing the exact same checklist of objectives over and over just in different zones, it got boring about half way through. Now in stark contrast the side quests and especially the main story are both fantastic and I thoroughly enjoyed them, had the game had more content like that instead of the filler fluff it would have gone from being merely good to great. Another area where the devs really shot themselves in the foot was the Top Dogs who acted as bosses throughout the game, after you kill the first one you're thinking wow, that was cool but later you come to realize every Top Dog is exactly the same, just with a different name and a palette swap. If Avalanche make a sequel I would like to see unique bosses instead of the same one recycled 20 times.
Other than the pointless fluff content, the biggest issue with the game is the car handling, it's really, really bad. I can't stress enough just how much the car handling hurt my overall experience. Even a fully upgraded Magnum Opus (your car) will spin out of control for seemingly no reason, and God forbid you clip a bucket or something equally insignificant while moving at speed, this will send you into an uncontrollable tailspin. And that's the Magnum Opus, other vehicles you're forced to drive for quests and races handle much worse.
Now the game does do a lot right as well, the cut-scenes are fantastic, helped massively by some top quality voice work. The game also looks stunning, and it runs almost perfectly on PC, I say almost because there is an issue where you will micro freeze for a split second infrequently, I have confirmed this with at least 20 other people who all have the same problem. Other than that blip the game runs at 60fps on max settings without issue, and you don't need a GTX 980 to pull it off, it's extremely well optimised for a wide range of configurations.
In closing I will say I enjoyed the game and I definitely recommend it, maybe not at full price but if it's ever on sale I would snap it up for sure. Just don't get sucked into the fluff content as it will fatigue you by the time you get to the end of the game.
