The upcoming ‘Mad Max’ video game is exciting in a lot of ways. If nothing else, the ‘Mad Max’ movies have pretty much the perfect setting for a video game, and indeed, there several very popular games out there that take more than a little inspiration from them. (The ‘Fallout‘ and ‘Borderlands‘ series being the most prominent.) But settings alone do not a great game make. So if you’re looking forward to the game, but aren’t sure what kind of game it will be you’re in luck. Recently we’ve had the release of a new trailer for the game, which you can watch below.
Now that looks all well and good of course, but the real question is how does the game play? Well, fortunately the fine folks at IGN released a video showing twenty minutes of gameplay with commentary from John Fuller, one of the game’s producers at Avalance Studios. Needless to say that there are some minor spoilers in the following video, so if you’re worried about any spoilers at all, ignore it and read my thoughts about it below. If you don’t mind spoilers, watch away.
My takeaway is that I’m honestly impressed. While it is just a slice of gameplay and we shouldn’t judge the entire game by it, I like what I see so far. It looks the way I would want a ‘Mad Max’ game to look and it’s got some great ideas. Sure, the open world and the brutal freeflow combat aren’t original, but done properly they’re a ton of fun. And I also like that you’ll be able to take the upgrades and modifications of your car in different directions depending on what kind of vehicle combat experience you want. Again, not necessarily the most original idea, but there aren’t enough games out there that allow you to personalize your mode of transportation as if it were a party member. From what little I can glean about the story, it seems like a good Mad Max-ey kind of story. Fuller said that while there was some collaboration between Avalanche and Warner Bros on the game, it was mostly to keep the game’s visuals and background in line with those of the movie, not to make the game a mere tie-in to ‘Fury Road.’ There are some direct connections between the game and ‘Fury Road’ (such as the main villain being a son of Immortan Joe) but it is for the most part its own story, separate from the recent film.
So what do you think? Are you looking forward to the ‘Mad Max’ game? Let us know what you thought about the videos in the comments below.
‘Mad Max’ will be released on September 1st in North America on PC, PS4, and XBox One. Australia and the EU will have to wait until the 2nd and 4th, respectively, to play the game.
