Mad Max: Not bad, but not good

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I never knew things would come to this. Left for dead, my vehicle stolen and worst of all, this after a run-in with a character called, hold your breath, Scabrous Scrotus! I was, of course, playing Mad Max (Rs 1,179 on Steam for PC) after watching Mad Max: Fury Road some hours earlier.

But the version playing out on my PC was markedly different from any movie I had seen. For one, here was Max without his Interceptor - it had been stolen. And the dark humour of the films was missing somewhat, if one discounted the names of the characters.

Avalanche Studios, developers of the game, are best known for the Far Cry series. No wonder Mad Max, too, belongs to the open world genre. The game progresses as Max comes across Chumpbucket, a mechanic, who helps him build a car. For this quest, one has to scavenge for parts, buy them or grab them. The other enjoyable pastime is defeating cars moving in a convoy. Pulverise a few, decimate the War Boys, blow up a tanker - the game has it all.

Step out of the car and all this changes. If one was getting through enemies as smooth as knife through butter, this is more like jumping hoops at an obstacle race. No, it's not difficult but it seems forced; this is no Mortal Kombat, so any combat here is painful for the fingers (I was using a game controller). There are several side quests and most enemy camps need to be attacked on foot, which diminishes much of the game's charm.

In the end, I'm still playing the game a good four months later. That's not because I love it, but due to the fact I'm unable to go into battle without the final upgrade of armour. And for that I need to eliminate every single obstacle in the map area in an open world game!

Mad Max is not a bad game; but neither is it a good one. And therein lies the problem.