Triple “A” Fail – Mad Max the Video Game

I have no interest in playing the new Mad Max game, Jim Sterling summarizes the hollow shell that is this game:

“Mad Max feels like the embodiment of everything Ubisoft has been building with its own dire stable of open world games – a pure saturation of nebulous “content” that offers nothing of substance but simply litters a massive map with repetitive busywork so it may display a facsimile of “value” to its audience.

It’s just stuff. Exhausting, tiring stuff. The very opposite of a game like Wander or Submerged. While those games present a massive vacuum of things to do, Mad Max drowns its player in endless scarecrows to tear down, snipers to kill, encampments to dismantle, and scavenging posts to loot. None of it compelling in the least.”

Yeah… So…  Why write about a shitty game Arbourist?

Glad you asked faithful reader because I think that Mad Max the video game shows exactly how ubiquitous the deference to the status-quo is in the triple A gaming market.

The makers of this video game overlooked one unique aspect of the movie that made the movie so awesome.

Oh you mean the protagonist in Fury Road that got shit done?  What was her name again… Imperator Furiosa? 

The game is centered around Max – the boring protagonist of the movie, while Furiosa the character with motivations, emotions, and speaking lines is relegated to the background in the game.

This would seem to be a bad decision at the very root of this particular game.  The choice to go with Blandy McBlanderson in an attempt to court the supposed appropriate demographic (youngish white dudes) resulted in a lack lustre, been there done that game, whose mechanics have been done with more polish and better execution in a game released last year – Shadow of Mordor (even in SoM you have the option to play as a female character).

What would have garnered my attention rather than another sandbox fetch quest grind, featuring Blandy?  Maybe a story where you get to play as the female bad-ass of the movie, where we could learn more about her and her backstory.  A game that featured Furiosa would almost write itself as you might get to see her move up in the ranks, how she lost her arm, why she makes the choices that she does.  All interesting shit.

But nope.  Let’s go with ‘safe’ and staid Blandy and let the chips fall where they may.

The chips have fallen, and yet another cookie-cutter grindfest is the result.  Way to go Triple A publishers.  :/