10 Badass Things We Did In Mad Max's Open World

Earlier this week, we announced that the original
post-apocalyptic anti-hero, Mad Max, graces the newest cover of Game Informer .

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We traveled to Avalanche Studio's office in Stockholm, Sweden, to test our
mettle in an exclusive hands-on session in the open-world Wasteland. I survived
several hours roaming a vast, dried-out sea bed looking for trouble, and compiled
the moments that made me feel most like the Road Warrior himself. My exploits
include impaling raiders with harpoon guns and punching my way through
oil-pumping shanty fortresses.

Become Death On Four Wheels

Mad Max is only operating at maximum efficiency when he's
joined by his better half - a badass car. Max's deformed, Igor-like mechanical
assistant, Chumbucket, refers to the game's featured vehicular murder machine
as the Magnum Opus.

Pursuing and taking down enemy vehicles feels awesome. Max
has tools like a turbo boost, spiked grill, tire-shredding rims, mounted guns,
and flamethrowers at his disposal to take out the Wasteland's trash. I love the
options available when it comes to dismantling enemy cars. Sidling up next to
another car and watching sparks fly as your rims shred theirs. Seeing would-be
hijackers accidentally impale themselves on your defensive spikes. Even good,
old-fashioned head-on collisions are a blast when you engage the boost to
obliterate your enemies with a beefy grill.

Modifying the Magnum Opus is almost as fun as driving it,
but that's a topic we'll dive deeper into later in our month of exclusive
online content.

Harpoon Mayhem

Early on in Mad Max, Chumbucket helps our hero by attaching
a harpoon weapon to the Magnum Opus. This gun's primary function is to launch a
cable-tethered spear into objects, which can then be dragged or pulled with the
car. Discovering new ways to dissect and demolish structures and enemies with
the harpoon is one of Mad Max's most fun features.

Players can take aim on objects like fortress walls and
sniper towers while driving, then use their car's momentum to yank them to
bits. Even more fun is tearing pieces of a pesky foe's car apart, then
eventually blasting the harpoon into the driver themselves. Winning a heated
vehicular battle by dragging your enemy off the back of your car is rewarding.

Chase Down Convoys

The Road Warrior 's
unforgettable climax involves an intense assault on a moving caravan that's
barreling through the Wasteland. Moments like this one have been integrated
into Mad Max's open world. Players are likely to see huge clouds of dust
billowing up in the distance. Should they follow these cues, they're likely to
drive up on a convoy of up to 12 vehicles defending a lead truck carrying
precious cargo.

Charging grill-first into these wheeled warriors isn't the
smartest idea. Max could easily succumb to a rear-mounted flamethrower, get
caught in a pincer attack between two cars' grinding rims, or be boarded by an
enemy. Players are better off picking off cars one-by-one. Destroying the lead
vehicle of a convoy scores Max a hood ornament, which can be attached to the
Magnum Opus for an automotive stat boost.

White-Knuckle First-Person Driving

Mad Max is primarily a third-person action game, but players
have the option to look through the Road Warrior's eyes when driving. I'm
usually averse to driving in a restrictive first-person view when I have the
option to see more of my surroundings in driving games, but this is different.
Seeing Max's jagged metal-studded gloves and the beefy engine jutting out of
the hood elicited a cathartic, joyful thrill I haven't felt while behind the
wheel in a game for some time. The sense of speed when cruising down a worn
road and the visceral impact of boosting into a wrecked enemy vehicle feels
amazing.

Crack Skulls

Max is fast behind the wheel, but his more lumbering
fighting style still packs a wallop. This bruiser's approach to combat feels
inspired by the popular mechanics first seen in Batman: Arkham Asylum. Max doesn't
have Bruce Wayne's martial-arts training, but he can manhandle enemies with a
more straightforward and murderous approach, complete with visceral suplexes
and leg locks.

Enemies surround Max, sizing him up before closing the gap
for a punch. Max has the opportunity to counter these attacks and follow up
with a flurry of brass-knuckle punches. His Fury Mode helps differentiate
itself from similar combat systems, too. Following up light attacks with a
heavy attack deals more damage to goons and fills his Fury level faster.
Fighting enemies builds up a meter that, when activated, sends Max into an
adrenaline-fueled state where he deals more damage faster than usual. Similar
to another post-apocalyptic tale, The Last of Us, Max can pick up rare shivs to
take enemies out of the equation even faster.

Up next: Pushing the boundaries of the Wasteland and making an impact on the big, wild world.