After droughts, disease, and war leave the world a hostile wasteland filled with murderous and insane bandits vying for control and territory, a former police officer who lost his entire family after the world fell into chaos, Max Rockatansky, lives as a wandering nomad. Max drives from place to place looking for somewhere he can escape the nightmares of his past, until he runs into the warlord who controls the area he is in, and is left to die with no weapons, no supplies, and most importantly to Max, no car. After stumbling upon a rusty shell of a car and a skilled mechanic who could turn that rustbucket into a fast and powerful vehicle, Max must fight back against the warlord and bandits that control the area in order to get the materials to create a car that can get him back on his quest to find solace.

 
The story of “Mad Max” is fairly straightforward and basic, but in a game where the main goals are to drive fast cars, explode enemy vehicles, and take down an entire army with your car and your bare hands, a deep story isn’t necessary. The pacing of the plot and the quality of the story missions are good up until the final quarter of the game, at which point you’re sent on several fetch quests until you reach the ending, which consists of two disappointing boss fights that can both be beaten in under five minutes total.

 
A major part of the game is upgrading Max’s car, the Magnum Opus, and Max himself. At the beginning, the Magnum Opus is nothing a rusty car with no modifications, but as the player progresses through the game, upgrades are unlocked. These upgrades cover everything from the basic aspects like improving the suspension and tires of the car, defensive aspects like outfitting the car with armor and better repair equipment, to offensive aspects like equipping the car with flamethrowers on each side and a cannon that shoots explosive spears. The sheer range of what you can change and add to the Magnum Opus is amazing, and it is one of the best features of the game. A great feature of the game is that the Magnum Opus can be modified and upgraded at any time, so the player can equip their car with all the upgrades that make it fast and easily maneuverable to dodge an enemy camp’s defense weapons, then pause the game and equip the Magnum Opus with a ramming grill and heavy armor to destroy the camp without taking a scratch.

 
There is an extremely large amount of side missions, activities, and explorable locations scattered around the Australian wasteland. All of these optional objectives have a purpose to them; they reward the player with large amounts of materials, get rid of enemy patrols, or unlock new upgrades to the Magnum Opus. While all of these activities do add dozens of hours of playtime and reward the player handsomely, they become repetitive quickly, and having to do the same exact activity multiple times to unlock an upgrade is frustrating. In addition, the Australian wasteland is very bland, dotted with identical wrecked ships and makeshift camps that seem to have been simply copy-pasted at random spots around the world.

 
There are two systems of combat to the game: ground and vehicular combat. Ground combat is an exact copy of the combat from the “Batman: Arkham” games, so you punch and kick enemies while countering any enemy attacks, and use variety of weapons, such as a shotgun, melee weapons, and explosives to make quick work of groups or particularly strong elite enemies. The ground combat is nothing that hasn’t been seen before, or an upgrade to an existing system, but it gets the job done. Vehicular combat, as the name implies, is available while the player drives. The Magnum Opus comes equipped with various weapons, a shotgun for destroying specific parts of a car, a harpoon to tear off armor or tires, a sniper rifle to pick off individual enemies, and a cannon that shoots explosive spears to completely destroy an enemy car. The combat is very fluid, you can shoot the gas tank of an approaching truck with your shotgun, switch to a harpoon and tear off another car’s tire to immobilize them, and fire your cannon at an enemy sniper tower in under five seconds flat. There’s a large variety of enemy cars, and there are often different strategies needed to take them down, which helps the vehicular combat avoid being repetitive, a very good thing considering nearly half the game is spent inside a vehicle.

 
Overall, “Mad Max” is an above average action-adventure game. The driving aspects of the game are extremely well done, and there is a large amount of content to the game that will keep the player invested for many hours, but “Mad Max” still has many issues. The content available is the size of an ocean with the depth of a puddle, with repetive side activities that are nothing but a chore to complete and a bland, uninteresting world that fails to impress, and the game ends with a poor, rushed conclusion.