Mad Max Review Roundup

Following the surprisingly excellent Mad Max: Fury Road earlier this year, the first Mad Max game in more than two decades is almost here. The critics have now weighed in with their thoughts on the game, and you can see a sampling of the first reviews below.

Mad Max is an open-world game that offers a mix of vehicular combat (featuring a particularly enjoyable harpoon gun) and on-foot action similar to the Batman: Arkham games. It was originally slated to come to Xbox 360 and PS3 in addition to Xbox One, PS4, and PC, but the last-gen versions were canceled earlier this year.

If you're trying to decide between platforms, both console versions run at 1080p, and you can see PC system requirements here. The PS4 version, it should be noted, offers some content that will remain exclusive to it for at least a few months.

• Game: Mad Max
• Developer: Avalanche Studios
• Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
• Release Date: September 1
• Price: $60

GameSpot -- 6/10

"The ending, like many of the game's minor faults, devalues your struggle to survive in the harsh wasteland. It's a shame because Mad Max's world in the game is beautiful, grim, and fascinating. Some interesting characters, impressive environments and great car combat draw you in and incentivise you to keep going, but it's when you get out of the car that things fall apart. Mad Max's combat system is too dumbed down to enjoy, and repetitive activities such as searching for scrap and invading small enemy camps gets old fast. Mad Max offers some great experiences, but for a game that tries to impose the realities of survival on you, it does a poor job of following up on this pressure. Mad Max is too focused on providing you with an open-world that's filled with missions, and not focused enough on making those missions worth your time." - Peter Brown [Full review]

Polygon -- 5/10

"The film franchise has always transcended the summer blockbuster genre, providing worlds and characters and scenarios that have stuck in my mind. Mad Max the game is the opposite; it's got chase scenes and big explosions and bloody fights, but nothing to remember it for. In spite of some annoying technical issues and questionable design, Mad Max is functional, but it's fluff, plain and simple." - Philip Kollar [Full review]

GamesRadar -- 4/5

"Once you get past those muddy first hours however, the world opens up and Mad Max becomes a seriously enjoyable realisation of the character. The plot, already more a distraction than a directive, becomes secondary to the pure dusty joy of driving around looking for trouble. Forget that main mission, the wasteland is the game. Whether that's ramming convoys off the road or fighting your way through camps--this is all about the journey, a perfect setup for the original Road Warrior." - Leon Hurley [Full review]

Game Informer -- 7.5/10

"Max's adventure inevitably leads to a showdown with Scrotus, but as the story concludes you are left wondering what, if anything, was gained in this pursuit. At the end of the day, Max overtook some bases, ran a couple hundred cars off the road, met some forgettable characters, and buried his fist into the sunburnt skin of the villainous locals. Was it worth the effort? That ultimately depends on how much fun you had in performing these basic, repetitious open-world activities." - Matt Bertz [Full review]

IGN -- 8.4

"Mad Max is a juxtaposition of exciting, thrilling fun set in a world of disgusting, primal depravity – like a singing telegram informing you of a death in the family, or an ice-cream cake with your terminal test results written in frosting. It’s a conflicting place of despair, a personal playground of explosive action and compulsive, unending progression that I can’t wait to get back to, and one hell of a ride." - Brandin Tyrrel [Full review]