10. Hauled down the door of a camp before executing everyone inside
Yup, sometimes theres something enjoyable about taking the non-Batman approach to things. While you can take a more softly softly approach to taking down camps and view it all through binoculars before planning your attack, its far more entertaining to arrive at a camp and yank down every guard tower in sight with your harpoon, before hauling down the front door and skipping inside to slaughter the evil horde within. The first thing to do once in there is to check above for a caged enemy strapped to an explosive barrel. Hell rile up the other goons, so taking him out is a good call, if nothing else but to watch him disappear in a ball of flame.
11. Got fast and very, very furious
Furiousa might not be present in the game, but Max has his very own Fury meter. With Batman-style, counter-focused combat, Max has both a light and heavy attacks. Juggle them just right and Maxs Fury meter slowly builds, culminating in an utter rage that means you inflict more damage. And oh what damage. While this isnt quite at Rocksteadys level of punchy panache, a perfect parry - pressing the counter button at just the right time - will reward you with delightfully crunchy skull crushing and bone breaking finishers. Which leads me nicely onto...
12. Learned to shiv with style
Just like Joel in The Last Of Us, Max has a collection of shivs for close combat carnage. Short and brutal, you can see how many youve got in your collection at the bottom right of the screen. Unlike in The Last Of Us however, these are just bonus bloody extras during combat. When theres a chance to use one of the deadly blades, a prompt appears for a shiv execution, which come in a number of delightfully brutal variations. Stabbings against walls, plunging blades into the necks of prone enemies... none of these things disappoint when you want things to get satisfyingly nasty.
13. Sniped enemies from the back of the Magnum Opus
Maxs handy sniper rifle can only be used from the rear of the car, and Chumbucket will hand it over for easy targeting of distant goons. Sniper towers are scattered across the world and clearly labelled in red on your world map. Sniping is a far more controlled way to clean up the guard areas outside camps, but youll miss out on some gloriously chaotic carnage if you choose to play it safe.
14. Drove off into the horizon and found a hell of a party waiting
The joy of this almost completely desolate open-world is the freedom to drive in whichever direction you like. Chances are youll find something interesting whichever way you head. Doing so, I discovered two enormous guarded oil silos called The Twins. Sniper bullets greeted me as I screeched up, so I quickly darted inside the only door that wasnt guarded by flames. Once inside I battled slews of neon dust covered enemies in near darkness, before heading up to the roof and taking out even more mutated nasties. A bridge linked the two silos. and a quick jaunt across later, I was doing it all again on other other side. The best bit? However strenuous a gauntlet this whole assault was, it felt like just a drop in a rich and brutal ocean.
15. Played a manic racing version of Speed
Avalanche didnt want to build a racing game with Max, but of course there are opportunities to get behind the wheel and prove youre better than everyone else. Races and unique time trials are scattered across the Wasteland. During one, I ended up screeching across the world, desperately trying to reach a designated point on the map before the explosives strapped to my car decided to go off. Making matters somewhat worse, I was attacked by a mob of bandits on the way. Whether I was just unlucky, or this was a scripted occurrence, who knows, but it certainly added to the general, ongoing theme of complete and utter chaos.
16. Got used to firing with B
Handily, Avalanche has made sure youve got the same controls for both driving and when youre on foot, for a more seamless transition between the two. However, this does mean youre firing your weapons with the B button and not the traditional trigger. You get used to it pretty speedily, but it does mean a little rewiring of your brain until you stop missing well-trained sniper shots as a result of, well, not actually firing.
17. Took a history lesson
Scattered across the world are historical images taken before that big bad apocalypse of unknown origin. These signs and tokens of the world before everything was just hot and insane are intriguing snapshots. Yet this is just the beginning of the collectibles strewn across the Wasteland. Scrap is lying around everywhere, just waiting to be thrown into upgrades, and chests of ammo can be discovered too. Less invitingly, Scrotus insignia is also hidden across various campsites for you to destroy. OCD MacGuffin-hunters are going to have a field day with this overwhelming open-world.
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