Avalanche Studios are really good at two things: building gorgeous, near-borderless landscapes, and providing all of the planes, parachutes and automobiles necessary to get from one end to the other in the blink of an eye.
I’d say that leaves them pretty well-qualified to make a Mad Max game, wouldn’t you?
Avalanche’s take on the iconic road warrior will see players fight for survival in The Wasteland (as opposed to the many other The Wastelands you might have previously inhabited – even Epic Mickey had one). There’ll be bandits to be dealt with either on the ground or, of course, in your car, which will be upgraded via the crank shafts, go-faster stripes and other doohickies you’ll find littered around the game world.
“Mad Max places gamers directly into the driver’s seat of their ultimate customized vehicle to battle it out in the action-packed, open world of The Wasteland,” said Warner Bros’ boss of production and development, Samantha Ryan. “We are very pleased to work with Avalanche Studios to provide a next generation gaming experience with robust fighting paired with dynamic vehicular combat.”
“Over a decade of creating open world experiences has led us to this point,” added Avalache’s Christofer Sundberg. “The Wasteland lends itself incredibly well to the high level of player freedom with which Avalanche Studios has become synonymous.
“This unforgiving environment inspired us to create a gritty and diverse experience where driving, fighting and scavenging are essential for survival.”
In the trailer first shown at Sony’s E3 conference in the early hours of this morning, a silent Max euthanizes some poor bugger on the road to God-know’s-where:
Like Aliens, Mad Max is a cinematic name videogames have been ripping costumes and imagery from for 20 years – then in Fallout, now in Rage and Borderlands. Does the single-sleeved garb Max sports in the trailer look familiar? It ought to. It’s been the model for leather armour in all four Fallout games to date.
With Avalanche behind the wheel of the Interceptor, I think we stand a good chance of not mucking this one up the way a certain somebody did Colonial Marines. What do you reckon?
Mad Max is due out on PC sometime in 2014.