poofka

Okay, I've been away for awhile that's because I have no life and I do nothing but play video games really... so I may be kinda rusty with this but I wanted to make a quick review of this game because I felt no one has heard of it and if you have it just sounds super weird. So here's my impressions on it and if its worth your time. 

 

So, this game is made by Atlus and Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo. Atlus makes the Megami Tensei games like Persona, Devil Survivor, and Etrian Odyssey games and Intelligent Systems makes a ton of games for Nintendo, notably Fire Emblem and Paper Mario. That right there should intrigue right there, if you're into Japanese RPGs and games that right there should grab your attention. This is also published by Nintendo though.. so that's okay. Just Okay. I'll explain, 

 

Basically Nintendo forced Atlus to censor this game a lot, I didn't care though since it was for how the costumes looked and how some enemies present themselves, but it's still kinda weird. Also this game is only on the Wii U, and I felt that kinda hindered it, I felt this game could have looked and been much better on lets say the PS4. But I digress, on with the game. 

 

What is it?

The game claims to bend Megami Tensei with Fire Emblem but truth be told it's a watered down Persona game with Fire Emblem elements. It's done pretty well.

 

Just in case you aren't too familiar with these series, Persona are jrpgs that are heavily character driven and have the characters summon historical or fictional beings into play for attacks and spells. The games also utilize what is called "social links" that allow you to form bonds or relationships not just with your party members but with NPCs and these social links in turn can offer you a wider range of gameplay from sidequests to extra items, spells, attacks to even new Personas that you can use in battles. This also all takes place in modern times, which is kinda neat. The games are really fun and are considered some of the best jrpgs on their consoles, Persona 1,2 on PS1 and Persona 3,4 on PS2. PSP. and Vita. Fire Emblem is on the other hand a strategy game that dates back to the NES and is usually fast paced and has a fantasy setting. The games also allow you to create bonds between your character units so they can do better in battles and give more of a backstory to them, sometimes you can even get more units from these bonds like in Fire Emblem Awakening and Fates. 

 

I know my summary probably does not do these games justice but it's just a run down, I recommend checking out some youtube videos about them to check them out more but they sound awesome. Really though the game itself takes the characters from Fire Emblem and uses them as bosses or "Personas" or weapons while the rest of the game is basically a Persona game. You don't have social links, instead you have character side quests that tell you more about the character but it's really nothing deep as what you would see in a true Persona game. 

 

Anyway, this game takes all of this and places it in a story that is about pop idol culture and the pop industry in Japan lol. Yes, it sounds off the walls and yes it looks like a whacky anime but it's fun, the game does not take itself too seriously. 

 

Hows the game?

 

The game has a basic world map of the city of Tokyo that you can explore, the sections you can explore are small and pretty linear. The characters you meet are pretty neat but can get way over the top anime/japanese at times. You have some simple requests you can do for NPCs to get extra money or items but the real meat and potatoes of this game is in the battle system itself. 

 

The battle system starts like a regular RPG, it's turned based. You have 3 characters you can use but you can switch them out at any time, you have special moves you can use but when you attack an enemy with their weakness you can start what is called a session. Really a session is a combo of moves that gets longer and more stronger with the more characters you have and the skills you have too. Some of them are you hitting an enemy with a sword all the way to your character literally getting on stage and singing and doing a performance and somehow... damaging the enemy or heal you and the rest of the party. The game is very whacky. 

 

Hows it look?

 

Visually the game look impressive... for the Wii U. This game isn't a powerhouse and this is what I meant before. You can't compare the Wii U to the PS4 or the Xbone, that's like comparing the SNES to the PS2. You can't do it. What I can tell you though is this is one of the better looking games on the console and the presentation to everything from the cover art all the way to how everything looks ingame are great. The music is clear and sounds nice but it's also super repetitive and gets recycled a lot. You will notice that alot of places share the same music and the same with dungeons. At times, I sometimes would turn on Sirius XM to listen to music while I play because I get tired hearing the same music for the millionth time.

 

Is it worth it?

 

If you have a Will U and you're into jrpgs then yes this game is worth your time. If you're kinda iffy on anime in general then no this game is not for you, not only because it deals alot with their pop culture but it can get really goofy at times and also the whole game is in japanese. I mean there's voice acting and it's fine, but it's all in japanese lol. There's obviously subtitles that you can read and all the menus and stuff are in english but everything else is in japanese. So if you can't deal with anime or japanese singing or reading subtitles then yeah, you won't like this. 

 

Summary

 

Honestly, I liked the game a bunch. Is it one of the best jrpgs I have ever played? No. But it's fun and it makes me use my Wii U again. I would check it out. 

 

Thanks for reading my shitty review

Hello everyone, so I actually just beat the game yesterday but I have time to review it now, this game took a while to beat. So here I go. 

 

So the Tales Games have always been like one of the top jrpg series right next to Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy. At least to me anyway, it's like if these three series were like brothers I feel like Tales would be the one brother that causes trouble sometimes, is wishy washy and smokes a ton of weed and the other two brothers are a bit embarrassed to be related to him. Tales has always been hit or miss like that story was great but the menus and skills were shit or the story was terrible but it had the best battle system. It's always been like that, I can't explain the whole series since I really want to focus on this one entry but I still recommend the games, in the end they are great and I suggest checking out some youtube videos about them. 

 

Going back to this game, it kinda got alot of bad reviews.. I dunno why. It's not the best game in the world or one of the best Tales games ever made but it's not terrible either and it's actually one of my favorite games in the series. I'll explain why... 

 

Story:

 

The story is pretty interesting for a Tales games. I'm not saying past Tales games had bad stories but this one had a nice change to things. It seemed more darker to me and dealt with emotions about people. Basically the game is about humans and beings called seraphs which are basically invisible to humans and they are magical beings. The character you play as is a hero that brings balance to the world and is called "The Shepard". The Shepard isn't reincarnated but more like someone every so often is born with the power to interact with seraphs every once in a while when the world pretty much gets into some deep shit. 

 

The bad guys of the game are known as "Hellions" and they are beings created by malevolence in which if they carry a great burden or emotion or something negative through out their whole life they turn into pretty much a monster and you fight them. Like I said.. it's kinda different from last Tales games and it's pretty refreshing. I enjoyed it, it's nothing too deep but it's fun. 

 

What is funny is remember.. the seraph are literally invisible to people, humans can't even hear them. The Shepard is the only human that can actually interact with them so to everyone else it looks like the Shepard is talking to himself and characters point that out a lot thinking you're crazy which is actually played out pretty well and is kinda funny. One character thought you were acting out a play while you talk to seraph while another thinks your possessed by ghosts. It's so stupid but its great. 

 

Characters:

 

So I feel the characters should have their own column because there's alot to discuss about them and it's an rpg so you're gonna have some party members.. I'll try to be as spoiler free as possible. To be honest I'm gonna really talk about my favorites or some important ones so I don't give away too much details.

 

Sorey - So Sorey is the Shepard, he's the main character and you know it since he's right on the cover of the game looking at you lol. He's pretty boring kinda, very nice and kind guy and nothing else to add really. Kinda sucky since he's the main character and you're stuck playing as him. Not like Cress was any better but Sorey isn't like Reid or Yuri, he's just really plain. 

 

Mikleo - Mikleo is a seraph who specializes in the element of water. He is Sorey's best friend since birth and they are very close almost like brothers. I honestly felt this character should of been a woman for a lot of reasons. Sorey meets a few girls in this game and Mikleo seems very protective of Sorey, it would of been interesting to see how he would interact with other love interests or how the story would of been if he was a she, I think it would of added much more depth to the character and I really don't think anything would of been lost if he was a chick. I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if he was even originally meant to be gay, that would of been just as good. It's just like Sorey he's kinda boring and something, anything, would of been appreciated to make him more less boring. 

 

So I just spoke about two characters and they are boring already.. so you can see where I am going with this. I would have to say there is a girl named Edna who joins you and she is by far one of my favorite characters in a Tales game by far and it's good she's in this game because this game needs interesting characters. She is pretty much a sarcastic asshole to everyone and it's just great. 

 

Environment:

 

So the previous entries, Tales of Xillia and Xillia 2 were very futuristic for a Tales game. Zestiria brings it back to his fantasy medieval roots, which is awesome. But at the same time kinda shitty, everything was like the same, all the towns and large cities were kinda the same with not a lot going on. Once you beat your mission you leave and there's no point in going back unless you are doing a side mission. 

 

Side Quests:

 

Okay so like in every other rpg you can do side quests and I have to say Tales of Zestiria did an amazing job at this. I don't care what anyone else thinks about this but they were all great. First off, none of the side quests were fetch quests which is a HUGE DEAL. Think of one jrpg that didn't have you do a fetch quest or any rpg for that matter. Yeah, didn't think so. 

 

Each side quest felt unique and it had full voice acting and cut scenes. They are easy to find out about and good enough to do but even if you miss it you won't lose much story. It's just a nice thing to do. I did them without realizing they were side quests at first. They were enjoyable and it's great to play a game that doesn't have you running around for coffee or to get some assholes dvd (looking at you Dying Light)

 

Gameplay:

 

So alot to talk about here, lets get started. The basic gameplay is real easy, not alot going on, pretty standard stuff. The battle system is amazing. This game probably has the best battle system in any Tales game ever. You have battle actions that allow you to turn on or off special skills in battles like running faster, free roaming, or defending boosts. The Tales game kinda acts like a real time action rpg in a battle, there's no waiting you can run around and swing your sword around whenever. Most Tales games have you run in a straight line in a 3D environment but in this game, you can set it up to free roam which is a god send for a tales game, it needed this. 

 

Here's some examples:

 

https://www.youtube....E20Nk&start=200

 

Now you have:

 

https://www.youtube....TCgoLc&start=56

 

See the difference? The free roaming is great. You can also fuse with a Seraph in battle to change it up a bit which is fun to do. 

 

https://www.youtube....D7jfQ&start=160

 

 

Those videos I'm sure gives you a clear view on how the battle works and looks and it looks great. I also like how the battle background is actually the map you are on not some generic background like in previous entries, it looks great. One thing I hate though is the skill system and how you get them. So you can fuse items like weapons to make them stronger which is okay and you can get new skills but only after finding them. And you don't find them through items.. you find them by collecting little cat people that give you a skill as a reward which is fucking stupid. I don't get it.. on top of that the skill system is kinda complicated and kinda shallow at the same time. I don't like it. 

 

This is what I was talking about with Tales being that weird series. One game has a great story but a shitty battle system or vice versa, this one has a meh story a great battle system but a shitty skill and fusion system. Like what the heck, why couldn't they just use the skill system like in Xillia 1 that was fine or Tales of Eternia or Tales of Vesperia. No they had to switch it up and make this crap. I don't like it. But everything else is great lol

 

Overall: 

 

So there are some great stuff in this game. Some characters, Edna, are alot of fun. Some, everyone else, is kinda boring or stereotypical for jrpg standards. The story is different for a Tales game but somewhat lacking. The battle system is alot of fun and fast and great but the skill system is stupid. 

 

I just want to say though that this game is not crap. It's seriously not, I know it's pretty close to generic to be honest but it's certainly not a shitty game that a lot of reviewers make it out to be. I hope that a sequel or an updated version comes out to fix it's mistakes like how Xillia 2 did for Xillia or how Eternia did for Destiny. But who knows. 

 

Final Verdict: 

 

If 1 was gollum and 5 was that busty anime chick that every weeaboo wants to bang then this would be a generic villager 3

I'm just sad because I wish it was better, it's a fun game I enjoyed it. But it's no Symphonia and Sorey is no Yuri. But it's not shit either. If you're looking for a jrpg try it out, especially if you have a ps4 it's out for the PS3 also but it looks better on the 4. 

So I figure it's fun to talk about games here, so I try to pick up a new game whenever I can. This time I played Dying Light. I feel like no one has ever heard of this game, I dunno, maybe that's just me. I mean with Batman, call of duty, Halo and soon Battlefront Starwars flying around I feel like this game is kinda lost in the mix, which is a shame because it's pretty good. 

 

So basically, Dying Light is a zombie game. I know, "Another one?" But it has a nice twist to it. Imagine Mirror's Edge.. but in a zombie apocalypse. Yep, pretty epic right? It's like if Mirror's Edge and Left for Dead has a baby, it would be Dying Light. It has pretty decent characters and a well written story.. alright.. let's dive in. 

 

 

Graphics:

 

The game looks amazing, everything about it looks real and believable and the zombies are gross and at times actually scary. The facial expressions and the movements in the game are done very well. It really does make you feel like you are the main character (Crane) from the sounds of your head movement to the body moving and your vision blurring when you get tired. It's like a VR game without the VR. Youtube videos do not do this game justice. I recommend that you actually try it out yourself. 

 

Sound:

 

The music is okay, kinda generic but the sound effects and the voice of the people are pretty well done. The voice acting is pretty top notch and the sounds from the zombies are well done to. It really does sound like they are sick or messed up. The running zombies and the night hunters are really freaky. 

 

Gameplay:

 

This game isn't like your typical zombie shooter. You're not some dude with a shit ton of guns and you're not some military unit in a mansion. You're just a dude that runs. That's it. The game starts off really intense and it's not forgiving you will die alot and you will run away alot from zombies. The gameplay is all about fight or flight and everytime I pick up the controller I certainly do get a rush, like shit should I run? Fuck can I kill this zombie? I mean yes you do get weapons but they all start off like shit and break easily. At first it could be very frustrating since you could only run for so long until you decide you gotta fight. 

 

At first everything sucked, all the weapons sucked, your stamina and stats sucked.. but once you get the hang out of the crafting system you slowly find yourself getting better weapons and finding things with better durability. Soon enough you find yourself killing zombies with relative ease and I find it to be rewarding. I found it to be I worked hard to get that good weapon and kill zombies better now, like it doesn't feel cheap, it feels like I earned it. 

 

However somethings about the gameplay get repetitive like the side quests...

 

Side Quests:

 

So this game works in a stat system where you gain experience by attacking or running or just not dying so it's broken up into 3 categories:

 

1. Agility: Running, climbing stuff, evading attacks, etc, gives you agility points that you can use to gain new moves like running across walls, stunning enemies, etc.

2. Power: Attacking shit and killing shit gives you points that you can use to gain more strength and better durability and stamina for your weapons and attacks. This one is pretty straight forward.

3. Survivor: This one is weird, you get points by not dying because if you die you actually lose points in this category. You also get points by helping people. The benefits of this category is more item slots, cheaper items, crafting better items, etc. It's a pretty important category. 

 

Now Side Quests are supposed to help with the Survivor Rank I feel but they are all so boring.. I mean the story behind the side quests are really cool and some of them are funny. I feel like there was some real effort placed into them like the story quests but they are all fetch quests. Like every single side quest is "Get this for me." over and over, it's like I am role playing to be someones intern, I mean shit, there's even a side quest to get someone some coffee. 

 

I mean... yeah you got some challenges and stuff that breaks it up.. but I got some annoyed by the fetch quests that it just put me off from doing side quests at all and made me stick to just the main story. 

 

The Story:

 

So the story of this game.. is well.. I'm probably going to ruin this so if you don't wanna know then skip this section but I'll try not give out too many spoilers. So pretty much you're this dude that gets thrown into this city that is infected by a zombie virus and everything is fucked. You meet some survivors who are nice and you meet others who are total assholes. Since they are assholes they are the bad guys since they try to stop you from finding a cure and stuff because like, they think that if they can control the virus they can control the world or whatever. The bad guys would fit right into Resident Evil to be honest. 

 

So that's basically it, it's kinda simple but the way it's told and the characters you meet and how they interact with you and how you interact with them are pretty well done. It feels very natural. Like you get the sense that alot of the survivors are confused with what to do, you get a sense you become unsure of what to do yourself with your own morals and values. And everything does, I just want to point out that the guy you play as is real nice, like super duper nice to everyone he meets. It's sorta really weird in some parts but yeah. You play as a swell guy in this game.. nothing wrong with that but I wouldn't mind if he acted shitty for certain times in the story.  

 

There are also some parts in this game where you get seizures because you are infected by the virus yourself and I found all of those parts to be pretty trippy, especially when there are other enemies around you.. like it's pretty interesting in my opinion. 

 

The story though is pretty well done though, I mean, even if you don't like zombie or horror games and can't stand playing through them I would still try to find a youtube video of someone doing a story speed run of a movie of all the major cut scenes to check out what this game is about. I think it's worth a watch. 

 

Would you play this?:

 

If you like zombie games and you want to try something different then I would definitely pick this game up. If you want a good action game with a good story I would pick this game up. I know some people do not like horror games and that's fine because this whole game is in first person and it's pretty real so it will have some scary moments especially in the beginning when you are weak as shit. But even if you just want a challenge then get this game now that I think about it. 

 

Overall: 

 

If 1 was an anal bead in a dead zombie body and 5 was that sweet red cherry on top of that sundae you really like then I would give this game a real 4. 

 

It's close, real close to that cherry but if it wasn't for a lot of the repetitiveness in the game I would rank it higher. 

So I play a lot of games, and I decided to start my reviews here because why not, everyone here seems to like games right? I may not be the best writer but I like to share my thoughts so here it goes. 

 

This game is amazing. I can't even describe it.. lol yes I can that's the point to this! So first off this game is made by Platinum Games, so you already know it's fun. It's based off the Transformers franchise AND it uses the 80's era characters and story arc, not to mention it's cel shaded in a way that it literally looks like you are playing the retro anime. So, yeah, this game is pretty sweet. Let's dive in.

 

 

Graphics:

 

I want to start off with the graphics. It seriously feels like you are playing the old school anime. This is like what kids in the late 80s and early 90's wish they could have but never could. It's seriously amazing. Even if you aren't into transformers you should at least google some screenshots or watch some people play it on Twitch. It's done very well and Platinum Games really hit it dead on. It honestly looks like you are playing a cartoon and it's so cool. The transformations are done well too. 

 

I also love how they kept all the characters the same from the 80's(Peter Cullen and Frank Welker just to name a few), they even kept the music and voices the same. They even had the Transformer logo swaps during transitions. The lines were so cheesy, but it's the good kind of cheese, like velveeta cheese. I bet the voice rehearsals were fun. Geez, this was just done well and I felt this should of been mentioned first. 

 

I played this on the 360 though, I could only imagine how amazing this game looks on a next gen console, if you buy this game I would definitely get it for a ps4 or xbone, I regret not getting it for my ps4.

 

Gameplay:

 

This game is fun, like super fun. Well, okay, it's a bit of a water down Bayonetta, but if you like Bayonetta then you will love this game. Imagine the Bayonetta game engine with transformers and their transformations as finishers. Everything is so over the top and so much fun. I couldn't stop playing. The battles are very easy to control and the action is very fluid. Unlike Mad Max where the camera sucks, this one just works. Even if there is an enemy off screen you get warnings to remind you. Everything happens so fast though, it's such a rush, especially when you hear your favorite autobot talk shit to a decepticon when you evade their attack and go into slow mo to bring them down. 

 

The bosses are fun too, they aren't just hit bags, they are challenging but fun. Everything just worked. The only thing though is the weapon system isn't like Bayonetta, it's more like a upgrade system. You find weapon drops like axes, swords, hammers, etc and you can upgrade them and add skills to them. You do the same with armor upgrades too called tech.

 

You can also switch between your autobots. It's basically the original cast or the more popular ones. Of course you have Optimus Prime but there's also Wheeljack, Sideswipe, Bumblebee and Grimlock. Each have their own transformations and special moves. My favorites were Prime, I mean of course. Grimlock was great too, who doesn't like wrecking shit up as a robot t-rex? Remember Grimlock is no bozo he is king, Slag and Sludge do what Grimlock say!

 

 

Environment:

 

So even though the graphics are great, the environment and level design get repetitive and dull fast unfortunately. You are either in a city, or in a dark hallway. The lack of exotic levels really brings the game down kinda. It works, but it would of been nice to see more of a variety of places.This lead me to the enemy designs too, You will notice that a lot of the normal enemies look the same with different color schemes. Kinda sucks since Bayonetta had all sorts of bad guys. 

 

Replay Value:

 

Even though I really liked this game I have to say that it's... disappointingly short. You can probably beat it in one sitting if you had a single day off to play. It's not that long. The game is broken up into 7 chapters. Yeah you can always go back to do challenges or upgrade characters you didn't play as but.. if you like to play for the story, even if it is shallow, there's not much to offer. Also it would of been cool if they had secret autobots that you could unlock but sadly there aren't any extras. It would of been cool to play as an Autobot that's very different. I mean aside from Prime and Grimlock, the other 3 were all cars and that's it. Maybe that's why I liked Prime and Grim so much because they were honestly different. It would of been cool to play as a flying autobot or something like Strafe but the variety is lacking. 

 

 

Overall: 

 

So the game looks nice and plays nice. It's lots of fun but very short. If fast action games are your thing you should play it. If animes are your thing you should play it. If you like transformers then you should play it. If you like all of these things then you should definitely buy it. But it's super short with all the levels looking the same.. over and over again. So maybe you wanna hold off until you see it at the bargain bin. 

 

Rating: 

 

If 1 is abysmal but 5 is god incarnate then I rate this a serious 4. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just want to point out I am a terrible writer. Okay, here we go. 

 

So to those of you that never heard of Mad Max, it's a series of movies that originally starred Mel Gibson as a cop gone rogue in a world that is pretty much entering the apocalypse with the downfall of civilized society. The movies that come out after the first already takes place in the post apocalyptic world with insane people and fast cars. The newest one was Fury Road with Tom Hardy as Max, but there was Mad Max, Mad Max: The Road Warrior and Mad Max beyond the Thunderdome. 

 

Now that I filled you in with some basics you may be asking, how was the game? Was it like the movies? But my biggest question from everyone that knew I got the game was: What do you do? My answer is, you are Mad Max, that's what you do. A simple answer but really the game isn't that complex and that isn't a bad thing. 

 

Alright let's dive in:

 

Graphics: 

 

The graphics are pretty good but not great. It gets the job done. To be honest it looked like a better version of a possible PS3 game. Now if it looks better on the Xbone I have no idea since I played it on the PS4. It gets the job done and it's to make everything basically look decayed and broken, which is great. But when you see parts of people, even in cut scenes go through objects and walls and stuff that doesn't look so hot. I feel like the game needed more polish. 

 

Gameplay:

 

The game is developed by Avalanche Studios, same developer that make the Just Cause series and soon FF15. Just Cause is an open world game. Mad Max is also an open world game. Just Cause generally takes place in vibrant areas with tons to do. Mad Max takes place in a destroyed post apocalyptic wasteland and that's the problem. I need to break down gameplay in a few parts here. 

 

The setting: The game is an open world game and you may think, awesome I bet there is so much to do. I mean Batman was open world, GTA is open world those were great right? Mad Max definitely gets the job done at displaying the world, you know something terrible happened, you know everything is in ruins. It honestly feels like the movie, it feels like you are driving down Fury Road, at least cosmetically. They really get the idea down that it's a Wasteland, a barren Wasteland, and that's the problem, it's barren. Most of the time I found myself driving around from mission to mission with really nothing to do inbetween aside from listening to my engine roar loudly and characters talk from time to time about random things in the environment. Even though I love me some Mad Max apocalyptic Wasteland, I was bored. Which leads to.. 

 

Driving: In the movies you have tons of driving, Mad Max drives he's beloved Interceptor (Or Black on Black in the game) or huge War Machine Trucks (like in Road Warrior or Fury Road). Instead in this game you drive around the Magnum Opus which is a customized car that you can make and buy parts for. At first that sounds awesome. A customized car in a Mad Max game? Holy crap!! Honestly though, the car always felt and handled like crap. You always miss a turn or bump into something and the defense of your car is never good enough, I found myself constantly stopping in the middle of the action to allow my car to heal which is great or realistic and all but the last thing I want to do in a car chase once I actually find something to do in the wasteland is sit and do nothing while my car heals. 

 

I never felt like a bad ass in the car, I felt like an old timer driving 20 mph on the interstate. I felt like if I bumped into something I would be royally screwed and there's alot to bump into, trust me. Despite it being a Wasteland there's rocks, everywhere. And you may think, just turn out of the way, use your camera. The camera is terrible. I'll get to that in a moment. But the driving was bad, and the lack of vehicles in the game was weird too. I mean there are trucks and bikes in the movies, they are in the Just Cause games.. why aren't they in Mad Max? The cars are cool.. but that's it. Just cars. In the movies the cars were nuts too like people swing around on giant poles or hanging around with chainsaws. None of that was in the game. Just ragtag cars that you attack by literally playing bumper car and harpoons at. It gets repetitive and dull. 

 

Camera: The camera in the game is terrible, you never get used to it really, you just accept it for being terrible. I love not seeing where I am going when I drive. It's so cool that it changes automatically when I attack another car and veer off the road because I have no idea where I am going while I attacked. That's so much fun. Oh man, even when I am on the ground it still sucks? Awesome. It's so cool to get hit by enemies off screen. So cool. 

 

Sorry couldn't help but become sarcastic here, the camera is terrible though. 

 

Combat: Well driving sucks, I mean that's okay. Most of the movies take place with Max DRIVING. How bad can on foot combat be? I mean there was some of that in the movies. Well the combat is a total rip off from the Batman: Arkham Asylum games. That being said it's fine. The only difference is that it's not as fluid, your counters have to be more exact and you can get hit while you do combos. I thought that was weird. 

 

Okay so let me explain why that's weird. So in this game if you attack enough times you enter a fury mode where the camera goes crazy and Mad Max gets more stronger. You may think cool right? I thought so too I mean with the crazy combos and how he throws a kick at people and does suplexes. All cool looking until you realize the enemies can attack you during your long ass animations and hurt you. Like I get you want Max to look cool or whatever but don't make his animations for attacks so long that you literally get hit by other enemies while you do them that it interrupts the animation and stops the attack from even happening. I don't know if this is a glitch or what but get used to it. 

 

Like, I never had this problem in Batman, ever. You do a combo, you see it happen and the enemy gets hit. Not you do a combo, an enemy hits you during the animation and it stops. It's like Ryu doing his mini cutscene to do an ultimate hadouken in SF4 and the other player being able to actually hit him during that mini cutscene and stopping the attack altogether. It's weird. 

 

Environment:

 

So the game isn't a total loss and I touched on this a bit in graphics but I felt this needed it's own little thing. The environment and setting of this game is amazing. When I first turned on the game I was blown away. It felt like I was first playing a Mad Max movie. The history, the griddines of the world, it's all there. Every bit of it. I loved finding relics of the pre-apocalypse world and learning about the quick and brutal downfall of mankind. It wasn't really explained much in the movies, but in this game, the bits you find out are always so cool to find and read about, this was one of the highlights of the game, finding all these things. Even finding hidden locations and listening to Max talk about his immediate environment and seeing what these crazy horrible people have done to other people to just survive.. it's all shown well in the game and this is really well done. 

 

It's really here I can tell there was some effort and care brought into this game. I think Avalanche cared about the Mad Max franchise but like many other developers, may not of had enough time to bring out all of their ideas to the table. I felt like if this much care was put into the gameplay it would have been a much different experience. 

 

Story:

 

Okay, so I saved this for last because to me, this is the big deal. This answers the, What do you do in a Mad Max game? What IS there to do? The world already ended, and it wasn't like it was yesterday, it's a given it was awhile ago. So what happens now?

 

Well, if you ever seen the movies, they all have simple stories really, Mad Max is a loner, gets caught up in someone else's problem and an adventure is created by this. The only movie that didn't do this was the first one, so I'll break it down:

 

Mad Max 1: Biker gang kills Max's family and police partner. Max goes crazy, or MAD, goes rogue and kills everyone.

 

Mad Max 2: Some warlord is trying to steal gas from some people. Max gets caught up in the fight and helps out for gas.

 

Mad Max 3: Max agrees to kill some people for gas.

 

Mad Max 4: Max drives people around to escape other people and get gas. 

 

Those are the movies in a nutshell. So the game?

 

Mad Max the video game: Max wants to drive out to the middle of nowhere to forget his terrible life. Meets mutants and a concubine with her kid. Fights some War Boys, Kills insane people and is basically an errand boy for everyone he meets. Oh right, it's all for gas. 

 

Yeah, at least the gas part is there for consistency. You may ask, that's it? Well if you read my summaries of the movies then you will understand that there isn't much to work with. 

 

It's really the rich environment and crazy characters that Max meets that tells the story. I don't want to spoil it too much but that's what makes the movies so good and that's what made me want to play the game even more. I kept thinking what else are they going to show? Who or what else is Max going to meet. It was that stuff that made you want to play more. 

 

The only thing I didn't like was they made Max everyones errand boy. Like some missions felt like huge fetch quests, which is okay but this is Mad Max. MAD MAX. Max doesn't wanna do anything for anyone but agrees to do stuff in seconds, like, why?

 

In Fury Road he didn't even want to help anyone and would rather wait for Immortan Joe to come and kill everyone than help. It was the fact that Furiosa had a file she would give him to remove his crazy mask that made Max wanna actually do stuff.

 

In Thunderdome he didn't want to help those children at all until they promised gas. 

 

In Road Warrior he didn't want to help those people until they promised gas. 

 

In Mad Max he didn't do much until his family and friends were killed. 

 

He's a dick that ends up doing good anyway.

 

But in the game he just does good and acts kinda like an asshole while doing it. Which I felt was way off. 

 

Conclusion:

 

The game does capture some elements from the movies and the characters are all screwed up and crazy and I love it. The graphics aren't bad but could be better. The gameplay needs work and the camera is bad. But the story and the setting of the game are pretty much spot on for a Mad Max Story. 

 

If you are a Mad Max fan then I think you should play this game. It has tons of easter eggs and nods to the movies with: raggity man and two men enter, one man leaves! And I live I die I live again! And all that crazy aussie talk goodness. Not to mention bad ass looking cars. 

 

If you are looking for an action game then try it out, especially if you liked Batman Arkham Asylum and open worlds. 

 

If you are undecided then I say save your money and watch Let's Play Videos. Especially watch them if the player is a Mad Max Fan. 

 

Overall: If 1 was god awful and 5 was the second coming I would pit this at a solid 3. 

 

Anything else you wanna know then just ask.