There have been wastelands before, of course. From the Darling brothers' The Last V8 through to Fallout 4, the dust and decay of a post-apocalyptic world have long been one of video games' playgrounds of choice, where the sandboxes are dotted with discarded car wrecks and burnt-out petrol stations. How strange and satisfying it is, then, to return to one of the original wastelands, as birthed in George Miller's edgy cult 1979 film Mad Max before being fully explored in 1981's excellent sequel The Road Warrior.
Warner Bros' open-world action take on Mad Max isn't directly linked to any film in particular, even if it takes many of its cues from the recent Fury Road. Like its filmic inspiration, its premise is brutal in its simplicity: you're Max Rockatansky, a drifter in the wasteland, and after being pounced upon by Scabrous Scrotus, son of Fury Road's wild-eyed villain Immortan Joe, you're left without your legendary Interceptor car. And so it's up to you and new acquaintance Chumbucket, a deformed, lisping mechanic, to reclaim what's rightfully yours and to build a new set of wheels for yourself in the process. What we're left with is the curious, enjoyable wreckage that comes after a head-on collision between My Summer Car and a post-apocalyptic Assassin's Creed.
Like Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and the latter Batman: Arkham games, Mad Max sees Warner Bros funnelling its cinematic property through the open-world template as established by Ubisoft's catalogue: a vast, hostile map being slowly conquered through the capture of camps and the destruction of watch towers. Hot air balloons take the place of Assassin's Creed's viewpoints, the wide vista you acquire marking out hotspots in each region, while Strongholds can be reinforced and fitted with supply units that help keep you stocked up as you work your way through the wastelands to your final mark. In the creeks and crevices of the plains of silence, there's endless busywork to be found.
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