If you look at the hype behind games like Mortal Kombat, Injustice, the Arkham series, and many more wonderful titles from Warner Bros Games, there's one game you might overlook. Mad Max is that game, and it stands out to me as an incredibly underrated title that never got the recognition it deserved during the last console generation.
I hadn’t seen a Mad Max movie till 2015 when I saw Mad Max Fury Road, and I needed more. Come September, later that year, I was treated to a joy equal to what I got from the film. Upon the opening cinematics, I knew Mad Max the video game was something special.
I had just moved away from my family and friends, whom I’d relied on heavily for mental health support because I didn’t have a therapist at the time. The thought of being so isolated was terrifying! I didn’t drive because a few years earlier I was in a bad car accident. But behind the wheel of the Magnum Opus, it felt like my life was less chaotic because I was channeling and steering my way around the chaos from my own life into the chaotic world I was playing through.
Mad Max and its over-the-top craziness made me feel grounded. It was a type of passion I didn’t know I needed in my life! Even though Mad Max isn’t directly connected to any of the films, it takes some strong influences from each of them. The graphics were great, save for some occasional framerate issues, and the setting was perfect. The health mechanics are immersive, as is keeping your Guzzolene tank full.
The heavy combat is what you really stay for though; you can practically feel the impact of each punch and finisher. There’s a shotgun, but I loved how rarely you’d use it because Max’s fists hit like they were driving down Fury Road themselves. As you might expect, this dry, unforgiving, open-world wasteland has crazy vehicle combat, as well!
The vehicle combat was so satisfying because I was taking my anger out about not being able to drive and being so far away from my friends while getting myself from point A to point B. A thing I couldn’t do in real life and it was killing me to not even be able to get to the store to get my medications by myself. Yet everything about the combat, vehicle or not, was healing! The punches thrown by Max were a giant slug in the face to every one of my metaphorical aggressors. A therapeutic feeling I had not had from a game before.
Playing this game was a revelation to me! It not only got some anger out with each heavy swing and face pile-driven to the dirt but there was humor in conversations and actions in a dark way. Every can of Dinki-Di dog food I ate was followed by a belly laugh and a bit of sadness because I didn’t know when my next meal would be.
Chum Bucket was so eager to repair my chariot that keeping it pristine didn’t seem like an option. I felt emotion in the losses, I felt the weight of the apocalypse on my shoulders. I was in need of a friend and felt obligated to help whoever I could. I would give water to any wanderer I could, even if my canteen only had a few drops. I was living in this nightmare. I WAS Mad Max!
I’ve played video games all my life and still do now as a 36-year-old man. For a long time, single-player story-driven games were the only option. In the years leading up to playing Mad Max, I had primarily played multiplayer games. Because of what this game symbolized to me and the catharsis it provided, Mad Max single-handedly got me back to craving and enjoying pretty much only story-driven single-player games since then, with the occasional slip back to multiplayer games which ultimately had me thinking about what my great grandmother would always say: “I’m missing my stories.”
The main point is there had never been a game that gave me so much catharsis. It wasn’t just fun, it was relieving. If you haven’t played this game, you’re missing out on over-the-top, open-world, ultra-violent, post-apocalyptic fun! This game made me a full-blown fan of the entire franchise, and I’m confident it’ll make you one, too.
Mad Max is available now on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam.
