We've now spent some time with a final retail version of Mad Max on PlayStation 4, which includes a day one patch that was not available during our initial review. We're happy to report that the technical issues we encountered — sound problems, giant frame rate drops, major graphical pop-in and more — seem to be largely fixed.
We also discovered a gameplay tweak that slightly addresses one of our main complaints about Mad Max. In the original review, we noted that several story missions throughout the game force you to use a set loadout for your vehicle, regardless of whatever better upgrades you may have purchased.
As it turns out, you’re only required to set up those specific loadouts to begin the missions in question. Once the mission has started, you can go into the menu and swap back to your preferred loadout. This is not made clear at all in the game, but poorly explaining your options is at least a slightly less grave sin than the terrible design of forcing you into a worse, less familiar vehicle.
These changes don’t redeem Mad Max, but they make it somewhat easier to recommend than it was at launch.
Mad Max is a shallow, forgettable experience
Those inevitable wins felt empty, and that's really the biggest problem with Mad Max. 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.
Mad Max was reviewed using non-final PlayStation 4 “debug” code provided by Warner Bros. You can find additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here.
Update: 09/08/2015
Mad Max review update 1: day one patch
We've now spent some time with a final retail version of Mad Max on PlayStation 4, which includes a day one patch that was not available during our initial review. We're happy to report that the technical issues we encountered — sound problems, giant frame rate drops, major graphical pop-in and more — seem to be largely fixed.
We also discovered a gameplay tweak that slightly addresses one of our main complaints about Mad Max. In the original review, we noted that several story missions throughout the game force you to use a set loadout for your vehicle, regardless of whatever better upgrades you may have purchased.
As it turns out, you’re only required to set up those specific loadouts to begin the missions in question. Once the mission has started, you can go into the menu and swap back to your preferred loadout. This is not made clear at all in the game, but poorly explaining your options is at least a slightly less grave sin than the terrible design of forcing you into a worse, less familiar vehicle.
These changes don’t redeem Mad Max, but they make it somewhat easier to recommend than it was at launch.
Initial Review: 08/31/2015
Mad Max review: wasted land
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