A post apocalyptic era where gas is gold and cars are king. Throw in an Igor like sidekick and a sawed off shot gun, then get ready because Mad Max is about to take you back to thunder dome.
Mad Max is a standalone story set in the Mad Max universe but has no tie in to the original stories or the recently released Mad Max: Fury Road, which hit cinemas back in May. You play as Max right after he’s been ambushed by the War Boys, an army of lunatics run by warlord Scabrous Scrotus, the psychotic son of Immortan Joe.
After having your car, supplies, clothes and guns taken from you, you run into your soon to be sidekick Chumbucket. Now Chumbucket is your mechanic and ally and rides in the flat bed of the car, making adjustments and fixing damage as you go. He’s an extremely odd little guy who worships the car gods and talks you into letting him build you the Magnum Opus – the greatest vehicle ever driven.
Now, building the Magnum Opus is the whole point of the game. Through a series of mini missions you get parts to slowly upgrade the car and your gear in order to get revenge on those who took your beloved car away and left you for dead.
If you like car games that involve a lot of vehicular mayhem and battle from within the car, then this is the game for you. This game is the bastard child of Need for Speed and Twisted Metal, with a little bit of an actual story (not strong though) to keep things interesting.
The best part of the game, aside from demolition derby fight sequences, is how you customize your ride. You get to initially pick from a few different shells and basically build a death machine. You can do anything from adding spikes to deter people from jumping on, mounting a flamethrower, to using a harpoon gun to impair enemy cars. The type of carnage you inflict is only limited by your imagination.
The one place where this game fell short for me was in the story mode – while set in the Mad Max universe, it has no direct ties to the original movies or the new one. Unfortunately the game becomes quit dry and boring as far as the story goes, but luckily you’ll still be able tear some metal apart, so that helps you forget about it.
If you’re looking for a different, more customizable, version of Twisted metal, then this is your game. Don’t buy it for the story, just enjoy flying pieces of metal and body parts from crashes and running people over.