The desert, the dust, an engine you tinker with between two rounds of carnage.

Mad Max profiles as a solid game that never quite holds onto you. Almost everything hovers around the middle: controller feel ahead of 55% of games, art direction ahead of 50%, rediscovery right in the middle, fun ahead of 60%. Desert island climbs a bit higher, ahead of 63% of titles, probably because the playground lasts. But attachment nosedives: ahead of only 16% of games. That is low. The soundtrack too, ahead of just 25%. Both figures rest on very few votes, so treat them as early signals. Still, the direction is clear: you play, you enjoy, you do not really love.

Against open worlds that bet on characters and a story you keep, Mad Max bets on the gesture. Vehicular combat, the wreck you upgrade, the empty horizon. It is coherent, but it leaves few emotional traces.

So, who is it for? For you if you like to drive, to smash, and to watch a vehicle become your true main character. Much less so if you expect an open world to tell you something you will remember.