...On another note, is the Mad Max game any good? I have never seen the movies but the game is on sale constantly so I'm thinking of buying it eventually.
Although shitting on Bethesda is the universally enjoyed past time here, I think the game looks decent. I most likely won't be buying it until it's far cheaper years after release. Maybe it will be 10/10 but it kinda looks generic at the moment.
For me the best things about the Mad Max open world games were the world building and car combat. Specially the world building. For example when you are driving around you may come across a scene like this:
The moment when you realize that you are standing on a spot that was probably some 50-100m below sea level and the large plain in the background (insta kill zone in gameplay) is most likely what is left of a dried up Pacific Ocean. The game characters and descriptions frequently refer to the great whites etc which clearly reference ocean water salt that is left over and has poisoned the last of the good lands.
Other favourite moments included driving around a sand dune desert and then you spot a weird pyramid in the distance with your scope. Upon closer inspection you discover that the pyramid is a old church tower top and the church (and surrounding buildings) are completely swallowed by the roving dunes.
Car mechanics wise it offers nice driving and upgrade system that primarily compliment combat sections in the form of random encounters and convoy mission where you assault and destroy the convoys. The enemies come in different armour plating setups which require you to dismantle them with a harpoon gun before you can kill em. You also use the car to scout and dismantle the primary defences of outposts like pulling down flamethrower towers and harpooning sniper nests etc. Overall for me it was quite enjoyable.
By far the weakest part of the game are the activities associated with the on foot movement: clearing outposts. First off the level aesthetics at every single outpost are different but they all come down to a linear corridor. The game uses the cookie cutter Batman Arkham Asylum fist fight mechanic where everyone gathers around in a circle Hong Kong movie style as you dispatch them one on one. It has firearms in the form of your sawed off shotgun but ammo is rare, you can carry only a very limited amount and more often then not you use it as a insta kill just to get rid of the most annoying enemy types in the mob (blockers etc). Like the Batman games the enemies come in different types and tiers but by far the worst offenders are the outpost mini bosses: its literally the same Tijuana wrestler but in different colors!
Clearly the outpost combat got the least funding and/or time allocated as seen with the mini bosses and the vehicle/world building probably got the most attention.
TL;DR: a) atmosphere wise the mad max game IMO captures really well the dead/dying Earth feel: both the landscape and general vibe given off from the survivors reflect that (psychosis, longing for the seas to return etc, living off the corpse of the old world etc)
b) Vehicles are the second best part of the game with a upgrade tree and nice meaty car/outpost combat.
c) worst part of it are the outposts themselves. My advice: look up where you can get what upgrade part and only do the stuff that you want to upgrade. Doing them all (like I did) really demonstrates the copy-paste nature of them. Not in level aesthetics (has a variation) but in level structure, aka linear corridors and that fucking Mexican wrestler and his twin brothers.