“I live, I die! I LIVE AGAIN!”

These words are uttered by the many freaks of the wasteland that was once Earth. Nothing but dead, dry and desolate is the land that awaits those who wish to traverse her unforgiving rage. These ideas are what the character Mad Max deals with, among losing his wife, child and sanity, throughout the exploration to find the Plains of Silence.

For those who are unfamiliar with the Mad Max universe, let me give a brief synopsis: Max Rockatansky had a wonderful life but was blackened by greed and corruption, which led to the world becoming a bleak desert filled with murderous humans who have turned feral in search of water, food, ammo, and most importantly, fuel. The Mad Max series chronicles his “adventures” to seek respite from the night­mares that plague his rotted brain.

The game itself is a stand-alone story that fills in the gaps of what happened to him after Mad Max: Fury Road. We see him being chased by a bunch of bands, led by a man named Scrotus, yeah that really is his name. We see Max unsuccess­fully fight the raging man, and lose his trusted car.

From here, he meets with a Black Hands (one who works well to build cars) named Chum, who essentially is nothing short of the second com­ing of Christ because of his reluc­tance to follow Max into the promise land and deliver unto Max that which will lead him to the Plains.

If you have seen the movies, you know that they consist of a lot of driving, because the Earth turned into one giant backwoods driving course.

As you would speculate, you col­lect bits of cars and find spare junk to create the ultimate beast of a driving machine, all the while beat­ing the brains out of your opponents while getting upgrades to increase different abilities such as drinking water capacity and how much dam­age you can deal.

What makes this game unique and gives it the ultimate spin that helps solidify its ground, is the way in which each new camp you go to, or even each new area, is filled with a vast new way to get around. That keeps you on the edge of your seat because a bad guy might jump from the dirt and grapple you.

The blend of fighting, driving, shooting and customization of the ultimate vehicle can lead you to play this game for well over 50 hours, which is more than can be said of other video games that have come out recently.

So for future reference, I will give a buy, rent, borrow or never look at basis for video games. Mad Max is a must buy, with the beautiful landscapes and amazing fighting in car and on foot scenes.