Not Mad Max so much as Disappointed Max

When I was playing Mad Max, I felt continuously compelled to hunt down another objective -- to chase the scrap, to earn the next upgrade, to unlock the next mission. But when I wasn't playing it, all I could think about were its flaws. While the game delivers impeccably on the experience of driving through a desert wasteland, almost everything within and throughout its game world is underwhelming.

There are some incredibly frustrating technical issues, like groups of enemies occasionally respawning over and over again; a gun's auto-aim being inordinately difficult to move away from the wrong target; or the fact that aiming a parry/counter correctly becomes nearly impossible when Max is surrounded (making already-tough fights even more enraging).

And there are some clear cases where content was stretched thin -- like all the "Top Dog" mini-bosses having the same character model, or action scenes that are purely non-interactive, even though they would have worked perfectly as real in-game events. The extremely low number of story missions leaves huge gaps between story "beats," and the final battle and ending sequence is a huge letdown.

But what hurts Mad Max the most are the parts that are working correctly, and were designed and implemented to completion, but just aren't fun. Most of the enemy "camp" dungeons are confusing and ponderous mazes. Attacking a Convoy is fun the first time, but quickly becomes repetitive. Scarecrows and other static objectives littering the map are thoroughly unrewarding. Even the Death Race events are invariably either dull, due to the opponents being basically useless, or unfairly aggravating, due to an overpowered enemy being able to kill you almost immediately.

There is some good in Mad Max, specifically the thrill of speeding through the desert in a haphazardly-constructed car. But you really need to have a solid tolerance for same-y open world games to put up with its generally-mediocre content.

Better than: Assassin's Creed: Freedom Cry
Not as good as: Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
Too many times during the game: I felt like I should be watching Fury Road, or playing Borderlands, instead.

Progress: Defeated Scrotus, did some other stuff.