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Mad Max
Madmax game cover
Developer
Avalanche Studios
Feral Interactive (macOS, Linux)
Publisher
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Feral Interactive (macOS, Linux)
Release Date(s)
September 1, 2015
Genre
Open world Action-Adventure
Third-person vehicular combat
Mode
Single-player
Platforms
PS4, Xbox One, PC, macOS, Linux
Distribution
Optical disc, digital download


Mad Max is a non canonical 2015 single-player third-person open-world adventure video game developed by Avalanche Studios.

Plot[]

In search of fuel, highway patrol officer-turned-survivalist Max Rockatansky journeys to the Plains of Silence. His voyage takes an unexpected turn when he runs into a group of War Boys led by Scabrous Scrotus (Travis Willingham), the psychotic son of Immortan Joe and ruler of Gastown. Scrotus and his War Boys run Max off the road and steal his clothes, supplies, weapons and car, leaving him to die in the desert. Max chases them and challenges Scrotus to a duel on the Land Mover, Scrotus' personal vehicle. Scrotus sics his dog on Max, though he quickly tosses it from the Land Mover. Max stabs Scrotus in the head with Scrotus' chainsaw but is no match for Scrotus' superior size and strength, who kicks Max off of the Land Mover before collapsing.

Max and the dog follow the tracks of the Land Mover. Max obtains a makeshift shotgun and clothes from a dead Wastelander. Wandering around the desert, Max finds an overzealous, hunchbacked mechanic named Chumbucket (Jason Spisak) who calls him the Driver. Chumbucket leads Max to Scrotus and the War Boys' camp, where Max spots the Interceptor and says that he is going to get the car back. Chumbucket tells him that it is pointless, that it will be scrapped by the time he gets down there. He tells Max that with his help, he can build a car faster and tougher than the Interceptor. Max agrees and they return to Chumbucket's hideout. His hideout is a overturned tanker ship.

Along the way, he meets a mysterious wanderer, named Griffa who seems to know of Max. Max periodically meets with Griffa throughout the story.

Chumbucket shows him the car, which he has dubbed the Magnum Opus. Initially, Max is dismissive, as it is nothing more than a frame. However, he changes his mind upon seeing the specs Chumbucket has drawn on a blackboard, insisting that the car be fitted with a V8 engine. Chumbucket agrees, but states that first they must claim a body. They go to a car graveyard in the middle of Buzzard territory to claim a body, barely managing to escape. Chumbucket fashions a harpoon and installs nitrous, and they clear out the area of Scrotus' War Boys. Max is angered when he checks the engine and realizes that it's only a V6. Chumbucket states that they can get a V8 in Gastown. But they will need to be prepared before they go there. He tells Max that the car needs better modifications to reach Gas Town.

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Suddenly they are attacked, by scavengers, who set the hideout ablaze. Max and Chumbucket escape the blaze, spotting Stank Gum (Yuri Lowenthal), one of Scrotus' lieutenants, attacking the ship. Max asks if Chumbucket knows anywhere they can take refuge, and Chumbucket suggests that they seek the help of Jeet (Josh Keaton), whose stronghold is in an old lighthouse. Chumbucket bargains with Jeet that in return for somewhere to work, he will offer his skills. Jeet though is unconvinced and talks with Max. Max tells Jeet that in return for use of the space, he will weaken the grip of Scrotus' men in the area. Jeet accepts the deal. Further side missions with Jeet gives Max access to ammunition for his shotgun. Jeet's territory is made of the remains of a massive array of cargo hubs and piers.

Traveling further into the wasteland, Max assists the stronghold, belonging to Gutgash (Liam O'Brien), whose followers believe that they will be protected from a flood in their ship stronghold. Their stronghold is the remains of a heavily rusted oil tanker laying on top of a rock with the bow broken off. At first Gutgash doesn't trust any outsider such as Max due to the mass presence of Scrotus' War Boys. He tells Max that if he weakens the grip on his territory he'll give Max free access to his stronghold. It is here that he meets the concubine, Hope.

Max and Chumbucket need to break "The Jaw", a massive gate which separates the northern and southern territories, in order to get closer to Gastown. Once through, they head to the stronghold of Pink Eye (Adrienne Barbeau), a woman whose mechanical skill rivals Chumbucket's, in order to make a similar deal to the one they made with Jeet and Gutgash. They arrive, to find the stronghold under attack from an invasion led by Stank Gum. Max helps to fight off the attackers after fending off Stank Gum's men, and as he retreats, Max notices that Hope is with him, chained to the back of his truck. He later learns that Gutgash sold her to Stank Gum so Scrotus' men would leave him at his stronghold alone. Max makes a deal with Pink Eye which she accepts. Her stronghold is the remains of a nuclear power plant cooling tower. Pink Eyes territory is made up of ruined highway overpasses and a complete freeway that connects to the bay bridge to the east in the Dry Gustie region which is a collapsed bridge that spans across The Great White and to the west end of the freeway a collapsed tunnel leads to a Top Dog boss named Cock Locka, as well as old pre-fall dinners and industrial buildings.

Mad-max-le-jeu

Max eventually makes his way to the dump surrounding Gas Town, where he meets Deep Friah (Robin Atkin Downes), a badly burned man who seems to have formed a religion around the fire. Gas Town is a massive oil refinery that is still operational and produces mass amounts of fuel and is the main base for the bandits. Max again offers his services to Friah, in a similar manner to the others. Max's efforts weaken Scrotus' influence over the land, and the other strongholds flourish.

Max eventually makes his way to Gastown where learns about a race that will be giving the winner the Big Chief V8 that Chumbucket spoke of as a prize. But Max needs to qualify in order to get a place in the race. Max makes a deal with extravagant Outcrier, for light bulbs, which are in the Underdune, in the middle of Buzzard territory. He follows the road leading east to see a tower far in the distance. Max discovers that the Underdune is in fact a buried airport, swarming with Buzzards. The interior of the underdune has a large terminal sector that spans the whole airport. Christmas wreaths and decorations strewn along the terminal may hint that the Fall (The War that made the world a wasteland) possibly happened before Christmas. Max retrieves the light bulbs but is attacked by Buzzards who are ruthless, murderous bandits that live in the shadows. He fights them off but has to get out of the airport as he is being overrun. After escaping the Underdune, Max returns to Gastown. The Outcrier, is shocked that Max survived, accepts the bulbs and puts Max in the race.

Max is told however, that in order to qualify, he needs a second, participant, a fighter, and that is cleared for fighting in the Gastown Races. Max meets with Crow Dazzle, a race organizer who points Max to Tenderloin, who is cleared to fight in Gastown. Tenderloin agrees on the grounds that Max square her debt with Crow Dazzle. Max participates in a Death Run, claiming victory. Tenderloin agrees to help. Tendorlin is a scavenger who is addicted to gasoline fumes and inhales it for her pleasure.

Max heads back to Gas Town and takes his place at the starting line. There, he notices that the V8 engine that is being offered as a prize, is the engine from the Interceptor. After winning the race, he and Tenderloin are heralded as the victors, however, they are swiftly raiser up into a large dome and forced to fight to the death. Max is initially reluctant to fight, however Tenderloin savagely attacks him, and he is forced to defeat her in self defense. Max is heralded as the victor.

His victory is short-lived; as Hope, who was supposed to present the winner with the V8, was replaced by Scrotus, still alive, with the blade of the chainsaw still wedged in his skull and enraged at Max. He attacks him and the two engage in a battle, with Scrotus aided by his War Boys. Max is eventually shot with a crossbow bolt and thrown down a oil reservoir. Max is saved by Hope, who takes him to Abdominous, the organic mechanic, and Scab (Orion Acaba), a paralyzed former War Boy who was used as a Bloodbag. While Max is undergoing surgery, he has a hallucination that his wedding to Hope is officiated by Chumbucket and a man with a dog's head. When he wakes up, he and Hope steal the Big Chief; they drive to the temple of Deep Friah.

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Hope, Glory's mother (in game)

At the temple Hope asks Max to find her daughter, Glory (Madison Carlon), who had fled to Buzzard territory. He eventually agrees, and travels to the Underdune. Max and Chumbucket break down a makeshift barricade on an old observation dome and navigate around the airport. Max finds a collapsed floor which leads to a parking garage. Finding the main route blocked by a barricade, Max finds a detour in an old elevator shaft. Traversing the old elevator cabs, Max jumps onto the second cab, but suddenly begin to weaken. Max jumps off before the elevator crashes to the ground floor hard enough to alert every Buzzard nearby. This terrifies Chumbucket enough to run away with the Magnum Opus, abandoning Max. Finding himself in another level of the parking garage, he must search 3 collapsed areas that the buzzards use children to find any salvage in the buried areas. After freeing the 3 Buzzard Diglings, the final one tells Max of a new Digling deeper in the garage. Max Find Glory in an destroy restaurant. He carries her to another part of the parking garage only to be ambushed by Buzzards along with an elite Buzzard. After fighting the Buzzards, Max puts Glory in a Buzzard "Drop Kicker" car and drive to Deep Friah' Temple. Exiting the airport, Max comes under attack by more Buzzards who emerge from under the sands. He returns to the temple to reunite Glory with her mother. He finds that Chumbucket is gone, and the Magnum Opus along with him. Max threatens Friah to find out where he is and Friah reveals that Chumbucket intended to take the Magnum Opus back to "where she was born," which Max realizes is Chumbucket's destroyed hideout. Max demands Friah's fastest vehicle, and despite the protests of Hope and Glory, he leaves to retrieve his vehicle. He uses a vehicle called The Twelve, a car with 2 V6 engine merged together into one shaft.

Max returns to the ship, and finds Chumbucket unconscious. Stank Gum makes himself known, and insults Max, enraged that he had taken his place as champion along with the V8 engine. He tells Max that Chumbucket was tortured and interrogated, for information on Max, before attacking him. Max engages Stank Gum viciously. Pummeling Stank Gum, he demands to know what Chumbucket told Scrotus. Stank Gum reveals that Chumbucket told them about Hope and Glory, and Scrotus went to find them. Max rushes for the Magnum Opus, while Stank Gum taunts Max, and Max kills him by running over him in the Magnum Opus.

Max rushes to Deep Friah's Temple, a badly beaten Friah tells him that he is too late, and that Scrotus is already gone. He finds Hope hanged to death and a badly wounded Glory, as if to be presented to Max. Glory, with her last breath, tells Max that no one will remember her name, Max promises that he will remember, though she goes limp and dies in his arms.

This tragedy sends Max further into his spiral of madness. He tells Chumbucket that he will kill Scrotus, but Chucmbucket tells him that no one but the War Boys know where Scrotus is. Max realizes that Scab probably knows where he is and returns to Gastown. Max kicks the door to the surgery room down and questions Scab. Scab willingly tells Max where Scrotus is, since he feels that he is contributing to Max's legend since Max has some of his blood, and because he's sure Max will kill Scrotus for forcing him to be a Bloodbag, granting Scab his own vengeance.

Max and Chumbucket find Scrotus' Land Mover at an area called the Purgity Flatlands which is a small yet wide open place that is littered with rugged terrain and ruined elevated freeways. This location is possibly very far east as one can see the black smoke from Gastown on the left after passing under the second ruined freeway. A glitch that is potentially patched allowed the player to cross the Big Nothing to reach this area without dying. One had to proceed east from the Underdune. Chumbucket would constantly make statements concerning the Magnum Opus' radiator. He then manage to get it on the edge of a cliff, though the Magnum Opus is heavily damaged in the process. Chumbucket manages to get the engine running again and Max tells him to get off, intending to crash into the Land Mover to force it off the edge. Chumbucket, who considers himself the car's protector, pleads for Max to not destroy the car, but with no other choice Max ignores Chumbucket and charges at the Land Mover, bailing out at the last second, as the car rams it at full speed. Fuel on the ground ignites and the Magnum Opus explodes, killing Chumbucket and finally forcing the Land Mover off the cliff. However, the back door of the rig opens, and Scrotus escapes with the Max's Interceptor, still intact, and challenges him.

Max wins the battle. Scrotus awakens and makes a final attempt to kill Max, but Max punches him several times before forcefully pulling the chainsaw blade from Scrotus' head and finally killing him. Max reclaims the Interceptor and, placing the picture of his family back on the dashboard, he leaves for parts unknown.

Setting[]

Avalanche Studios have commented that the game is not based in any country in particular, choosing to base it more upon the mythology, or tone, of the Mad Max film series. Due to this, there are likely to be few recognizable story elements from the films within the game. This has given the developers the ability to shape a post-apocalyptic world that is distinct, yet reminiscent, of the world Max has previously explored. Several locations within the world have been revealed, including: Gas Town, a densely populated urban area; The Great White, a dried out sea-bed dotted with lighthouse-strongholds and rusted ships; and Dead Barren's Pass - an area linking the Great White with Gas Town.[1]

Prior to the apocalypse and the dehydration of the Wasteland, there existed a large city. Parts of this city still remain, including Harbourwall, an industrial area that serviced the oil refinery that later became Gas Town, an airport and a financial district. The receding seas have also unearthed a volcano.[2]

Cast[]

Development[]

The game is a stand-alone creation of WB and Avalanche Studios based on assets used in production of Fury Road from 1997 to 2010. George Miller was not involved in the creation of this game and the game itself is not canonical albeit using familiar elements from Fury Road.

Originally, George Miller and Cory Barlog were working on a true tie-in Mad Max video game since 2008.[3] Their game was supposed to be released with Fury Road that was set to be filmed in Broken Hill in 2009. The game was going to be developed at Miller's own Dr. D Studios.[4] Unfortunately, massive rains in Broken Hill stalled the filming of the movie, and Warner Bros - the studio that partially owned the rights to Mad Max and financed the entire endeavor - could not afford to finance the movie, Miller's game and also a planned 3D CGI Anime called 'Furiosa'. Therefore WB took the game development in their own hands,[5] cancelled the Furiosa anime and instructed Miller to focus on filming the movie in Namibia. In a last ditch attempt, Miller tried to develop his tie-in Mad Max game with help of newly acquired members of an Australian developer studio Team Bondi, but that plan had failed as well.[6] Dr. D Studios eventually dissolved in 2013.[7]

In 2010 - shortly after the Mad Max game project was taken over by WB - Cory Barlog briefly started working at Avalanche Studios, however he later put out a statement that he did not bring his (and Miller's) version of the game to Avalanche and only worked there as a consultant.[8] Later, Avalanche's CEO Cristofer Sundberg claimed that Barlog wasn't working at Avalanche Studios at Mad Max game at all. Subsequently, George Miller - the creator of Mad Max movies - wouldn't be credited in this game either.

The game itself is based on materials used in the production of Fury Road and its side-plots without Miller's supervision. It is especially noticeable by the design of cars which is based on Fury Road cars from 2009. The vehicles used in the movie later underwent further modifications which were not included in the game. Plots and stories developed for the purpose of Fury Road had been used and modified by Avalanche Studios, the central point being the story of Glory and Hope which is a modified version of the official story of Glory and her mother as presented in the Mad Max #1 and #2 comic books released by Vertigo Comics. Due to WB being focused on profit rather than the integrity of Mad Max with its assorted movies, certain questionable decisions have been made to make the game more vague and thus profitable.

There has been notable controversy surrounding Max's accent. Several journalists who attended previews of the gameplay reported that Max was portrayed with an American accent. This caused notable protest amongst fans,[9] and a petition was created demanding for an Australian voice-actor.[10] Avalanche Studios have since listened to the fans and have cast Australian actor Bren Foster in the role. Additionally, various characters in the game have very distinct American accents and the setting of the game (excluding the bottom of the ocean) doesn't appear Australian either, but rather a generic Wasteland.

The game is not directly connected to Mad Max: Fury Road, despite being released in the same year, and was never planned as a tie-in.[11] As such, its setting and story is original and standalone.[12]

Gameplay[]

The game is primarily focused on open-world car combat/racing like "Twisted Metal" in a sense, but also features on-foot combat similar to the Batman Arkham series. Vehicles in the game will be heavily customizable, and feature many parts to upgrade via collecting scrap found in the world and collected from enemies. Car combat will involve doing enough damage to the car to destroy it, or taking out the driver after peeling away enough of the car's armor to get at them. Enemy cars defeated in this way can be captured and driven by the player.[13]

Customization Categories[]

  • Ramming Grill: Increases ramming damage, reduces handling/speed
  • Armor: Increases durability, reduces speed
  • Engine: Increases vehicle acceleration, decreases amount of time needed to reach top speed.
  • Exhaust: Increases top speed.
  • Tires: Slicks provide better on-road grip while off-road tires work better in the dirt
  • Suspension: Increases handling, especially for heavy vehicles
  • Boost: Nitro provides a temporary surge of speed for ramming, pursuing etc.
  • Rims: Add spikes to your wheels to do additional damage to the enemy's armor while "grinding" against enemy.
  • Boarder Spikes: A defensive weapon that prevents raiders from jumping on your vehicle
  • Sniper Rifle: Provides a ranged combat option for picking Raiders off at a distance
  • Harpoon: Operated by Chumbucket, the harpoon can pull off enemy armor, grab drivers etc
  • Thunderpoon: When equipped with an explosive cap, the Harpoon becomes extra lethal
  • Side Burners: Side-mounted flamethrowers that do additional damage to Raiders, but cost extensive amounts of fuel in order to use
  • Repair Speed: Increases the rate at which Chumbucket repairs the Magnum Opus
  • Car Body: Mostly visual, allows the player to change the appearance of the car
  • Body Color: Allows for recoloring of the vehicle
  • Hood Ornament: Collected from defeated enemy caravan leaders, these provide a buff to your stats

Car Stats[]

  • Attack - Increases damage done by your car's weapons.
  • Defense - Decreases damage done to your car by various sources.
  • Weaponry - Indicates the effectiveness and variation of your weapons.
  • Top Speed - Indicates how fast your car can go.
  • Acceleration - Indicates how fast your car can reach its top speed.
  • Handling - Indicates turning ability.
  • Boost - Indicates the potency of your Nitrous.
  • Grinding - Indicates damage done to enemy vehicles by grinding into them.
  • Repair Speed - Indicates the speed Chumbucket can repair your car while standing still.
  • Boarding Defense - Indicates difficulty of enemies jumping onto and damaging your car.

Max's Stats[]

You can also use scrap to improve Max's gear and stats once he reaches certain Legend levels.

  • Fist Damage - Increases Max's damage output in ground combat.
  • Jacket Armor - Decreases damage done to Max's health.
  • Parry Ability - Increases parrying damage to enemies and reduces damage to you by failed parries.
  • Ammo Inventory - Increases maximum ammo capacity for all weapons.
  • Shotgun - Indicates the effectiveness of Max's shotgun.
  • Skills - Indicates how varied and effective Max's moveset is.

Tie-in motion comic[]

A motion comic series (titled: Mad Max: Motion Comic) by DC Entertainment was released at Comic-con 2013. The series serves as a prequel to the game, and introduces Max's side-kick mechanic, Chumbucket.[14]

Videos[]

Gallery[]

References[]

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