It's obvious that this game took tremendous effort. The scenery, the clothes, the vehicles, the ruins...incredible detail work, especially considering the scale of its open world. It would be impossible to convey the amount of detail in a simple review. It's astounding. In fact, the developers put so much effort into making the world immersive, I think they ran out of cash in the budget line to pay the voice actors! I encountered a total of four obvious bugs in-game--none were show-stoppers--and only two had no workarounds. Somebody really polished this work.



Aside from the wonky control layout, the game play is pretty easy to master. What it lacks in difficulty comes back at the player ten-fold, as it tests the player's endurance to the extreme. Many side missions turn out to be necessary. This game has so much grind that I think it beats Assassin's Creed II. (You were warned: if you don't like grindy games, stay clear!) Also be aware that only 8% of the players (in-game Xbox stats) actually accomplished the primary goals the game establishes for the player.



While there's very little cussing, it's tremendously violent. The opening scene features Max bury a chainsaw in someone's skull. The underlying theme is dark, depressing and relentlessly hopeless. The game's ending is a thunderstick to the gut. The characters are broken by the apocalypse, and Mad Max stands out not because he's a better quality of human, but because he's so apologetically brutal, so driven and single-minded, that even the main villain won't face off with without an army of henchmen. Max isn't even an anti-hero--he's simply the leather-clad personification of the Will to Survive.



And of course the downsides... This game is just too long. Gamers love to gripe about "short" games and a $60 price tag. I think 24 hours-to-complete is perfect and worth the price--and this game far exceeded my expectations. But it tried much too hard. Some of the activities were obviously designed to be time-wasters, and some of the encounters were recycled, "generic" missions. Very little of the side missions were tied to a backstory, revealed anything of value about a character, or tied into the plot. Most of the loot missions were not needed. And certain areas had re-spawning enemies, and were "reset" and reused several times. I don't stick with one style of game, and I have a high tolerance for grinding in games, but at almost 100 hours I was relieved to finish the game. I respect the immense work of this game, but I felt I was mentally beaten to a pulp by the end of it.