Genre: Action
Developer: Avalanche Studios
Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive

The best kind of game art is that in which every component has a functional purpose, in which the game's chosen technology is put to full use, and that which implies more than is actually presented. Mad Max's designers have contributed more than a grain of sand on all counts here, with a wonderful use of functional styling cues-- yellow for interactable objects, red for explosives, and so on-- to go along with some amazing tech, such as incredible dynamic lighting, crazy realistic foot prints, and texture resolution that's so good in spots that one questions whether it's in fact a mirage. There isn't a ton of variety, and the designers didn't quite hit the third point as well as games of yore-- but for a modern effort, the title is somewhat of an oasis!

Jason Spisak absolutely knocks it out of the park with his role as the pecularly lovable hunchback "Chumbucket", delivering his lines believably and with absolute gusto. The rest of the voice acting is only so-so, and the game essentially lacks any music worth mentioning. Yet, taken another way, Mad Max reminds this reviewer of Nintendo's "Splatoon", in that great care was taken to make sound effects an integral part of the experience-- for example, the distinctive car horns that signal the pursuit initiation of one of the game's innumerable goons.

Anyone who has ever seen those "Just Cause 3" Youtube videos of players strapping rockets to cows then watching them sail through the air like deflating balloons knows that Avalanche Studios are the masters of ludonarrative. In any given Mad Max session, the player will attack an entire convoy of flame throwing cars, ripping off wheels with the game's ridiculously great harpoon mechanic, while running head-long into a cluster of bad guys coming from the other direction, resulting in a pack of exploding cars that end up careening off of a cliff while a blinding sandstorm spontaneously erupts. The game isn't quite as sandboxey as some of Avalanche's other releases, and it can't be played in co-op-- but it still lends itself to outrageous, totally dynamic situations.

Mad Max is Grand Theft Auto, set in a desert. Like any entry in that genre, the fun factor of the game's core loop is absolutely crucial. And on that note, Mad Max creates quite the dust storm, with a non-stop assortment of activities that never seem to get old-- including, but not limited to, raiding enemy camps with hand-to-hand combat, surveying areas with a bird's eye view using hot air balloons, and participating in totally wacky and non-sequitur racing events, not to mention engaging in fantastic car combat. Mad Max is an excellently designed, deep yet easily digestible open-world action game that focuses on doing just a few things and doing them well. It also builds a nice pediment as the player gains abilities and skill, providing an excellent sense of player progression.