Tweet
I'm not sure I fully understood the Mad Max game until I read one particular loading screen tip. Not that on the surface there's a lot to misunderstand, of course. The plot of Avalanche's Mad Max game can be summed up as follows: man beats up other men in order to rebuild his car. Mechanically, it's pretty straightforward too: you drive about, you beat up men, you upgrade things so that you're better at driving and beating up men. You explore, you solve simple physics-based puzzles you encounter as you explore. You unlock the map so that you can explore more, and solve more puzzles. And drive further. And find more men to beat up.It's a standard open-world game, in other words. Strip out the post-apocalyptic brutality and it's wonderfully comforting stuff. And yet it has really, really got its hooks into me, so much so that, faced with a month off work, I'm pretty much playing through it for a second time. Partly this is because Avalanche is better than most at making an open world sing, I guess. Partly because being a Warner Bros game has meant that Mad Max's man-beating-up has been able to lean very heavily on the Arkham template. But there's something else in the mix too. And that tip on a loading screen finally made it clear to me.
Man, I wish I could remember the wording. But the gist of it was this: If I wanted to grow a beard, I would have to pour points into Mad Max's personal upgrade screen. Or maybe it's the other way around: as I upgraded Max, I would also grow a beard. Either way, the genius of the thing is this: mechanically, the element that's important is the upgrade system. But the dream that's being sold? The dream that's being sold is growing a beard.
Read more…
More...