The Little Details That Make Mad Max Great

The Mad Max game (2015) is loaded with small details that make the world feel like a living breathing entity. The wasteland is full of lore and history which shows in every area. Everything in the environment was placed with gentle care. Quest items are hinted at through decorations in the world. To illustrate this, I’ve collected the top five small details that make Mad Max great.

Mad Max Thrall Rustlers

  1. Thrall Rustlers: Slavery plays a big part in the wasteland. A handful of main characters are slaves. Nearly every camp has slave cages. The player hears a lot of discussion about the slave trade, yet there aren’t slave caravans or opportunities to free slaves in the game. What there is however, is a very interesting idea.
    They only appear in one mission before Max wipes them out, but the Thrall Rustlers have a very cool concept. A slaving guild that only kidnaps people with strange deformities or useful skills. Had this been developed a bit more, this could have been an impressive faction. For the Thrall Rustlers quest, I would have enjoyed seeing Max use Chumbucket as bait (since he is a renowned mechanic with a deformity), then follow the slavers to their hideout. This would also better establish the relationship between Max and Chum. There was a lot of opportunity in this quest for something really interesting, if only it had been given an extra push.

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The Complexity of Lord Humungus

Lord Humungus Rad-Lands

The Lord Humungus of Mad Max 2 is a perfect illustration of how an outwardly one-dimensional villain can become human through small details. Looking at The Road Warrior’s script, one would get the impression the Lord Humungus is just a means of creating conflict, but the visual medium of film allows this character to become two and maybe even three dimensional. Cleverly, director George Miller planned for this from the beginning by writing backstories for each character in the Mad Max franchise.

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