If the idea of videogame adaptations of your favourite movies send you into fits of despair then you’re not alone, but Mad Max is definitely looking more Alien Isolation than Colonial Marines. The new issue of GamesMaster magazine has the team getting hands on with the driving apocalypse-fest and it’s looking like explosive work from Just Cause devs Avalanche Studios.

When it comes to combat on wheels, the game is pretty unforgiving. “During our first attempt at taking down a particularly tough convoy (we eschewed the advice of the developer showing us the game to steer clear of the further reaches of the map, and leapt at the chance to go as far afield as possible) we quickly came a cropper,” says team GM. “Our still-rusty car, only packing a V6 engine right out of Chumbucket’s garage, just couldn’t cope with the crazy number of boarders that leapt onto its sides.”

“The shotgun could make quick and devastating work of a few of these, but ammunition for it is in startlingly scarce supply, and even so, we could only carry three rounds at a time. Another example of how deliberate limitations inspire creative approaches to combat. Back in the garage we fitted the Opus up with boarder spikes: vulgar jutting metal points that impale anyone foolhardy enough to try to clamber onto our car. One defeated convoy (and a whole lot of tasty scrap) later, you might as well have unpacked the cigars, it felt that empowering.”

Plus, it turns out you can see the world as Max himself with a first person view of the action. “Whenever you’re in the Magnum Opus, which will be a lot of your time in the wasteland, you can tap up on the D-pad to initiate a first-person view,” says GM. “It’s devastatingly cinematic, and we found it a little detrimental to our abilities, but seeing the utter chaos unfold from within Max’s bearded face, during a convoy battle, for example, is a hell of a thing. There are bodies and charred bits of flaming metal flying everywhere, while the ludicrous suspension jiggles you about like you’re driving on a bouncy castle.”

“It’s like being a rally driver inside the car cam,” says John Fuller, the game’s producer. “It’s got a feeling of action, a feeling of almost-out-of-control every other second. So it really gets the adrenaline pumping.”

Read the full feature to see vehicle run downs and to find out more about the game’s Batman-esque hand to hand combat in the new issue of GamesMaster magazine. Download the new issue digitally from tomorrow or subscribe for future issues.