Up there with Hollow Knight and Metroid: Dread as a recent masterpiece of the search-action genre. The platforming and combat are spectacular and could stand independently as their own games. I was never won over by the art style, but there are some really inventive environments that are a joy to jump and fight through. My only real complaint is that a lot of the lore is delivered through large text blocks that disrupt the flow of the game and stop bothering to read them pretty early in my play through. Would battle more Krayons analogues across storms frozen in time!

The problem with this game is, to my mind, a complete misunderstanding of the Mad Max license. It lacks those films’ visual inventiveness: it’s bland, dull, and looks likes more like bad military shooter than a George Miller film. The story here lacks any of the heart in the films: the characters are all either sociopaths or boring and are often both. There’s an absolutely bizarre 5th act love interest that doesn’t land. And I really don’t understand the decision to make a character as unpleasant and one note as Chumbucket, your primary companion character… Finally, instead of car chases, you spend most of your time in this game in enemy camps hunting for oil transfer tanks and scrumming with large groups of goons. Why is there this much hand-to-hand combat in a Mad Max game? Why does Max Rockatansky need to be able to fight fifteen dudes at once?! Would think twice about playing another Avalanche game!