Mad Max: V8 Quest Entry Three

I’m trying something new with this series, something along the lines of the Metro Diaries written by Andrew, only not exploring the main story of Mad Max, but rather documenting the journey I have into a long term goal: installing the Ultimate Big Chief V8.

After some miscellaneous toying with the game with a friend, I hadn’t played the game for a few weeks. When I launched back in, I was in Gutgash’s stronghold, a good bit away from my previous objective (the “Pilot Light”).

I was going to complete the mission I’d started on the last entry today, as putting it off any further would just bug me, so I set a course for the Burning Mound and set off into the bright sands.

Almost immediately, a few Road Kill mooks started after me. I briefly got into a spat with them before deciding they weren’t worth the effort and sped off, leaving them very much in the dust. Their rust buckets didn’t have the speed the Magnum Opus did.

Along the way, I found a hot air balloon station that I hadn’t yet used. If you’re unaware, these balloons are used to scout out the area and discover objectives and enemy camps.

Naturally, Scrotus isn’t stupid enough to leave the station unmanned, and a sniper quickly spotted my approach and attempted to turn me into red mist. He wasn’t the best marksman, though, and I was able to outsnipe him with my own weapon.

The station now cleared, I climbed up to the balloon.

I’d forgotten that the balloons were tied down and the cables needed to be severed before you could ride it up. I was beginning to get fed up with the busy work in this game, but I used my firearms to destroy the cables.

That finished with, I finally was able to rise up into the skies.

A stray Scrotus Scarecrow and a few enemy camps revealed, I made my way to the Burning Mound.

It was still daylight when I arrived, and I was truthfully rather fed up with the time system in this game. I ended up going to make pasta whilst I waited for the in-game timer to go to night so the objective could start. This took a surprising amount of time.

Eventually, I was able to begin the mission proper, and spotted the fire in the night that marked the camp I needed to clear to get the “Pilot Light”. I drove over, Chumbucket cowering in fear.

I broke into the building the followers were hiding out in, knocking down the door with my foot and starting a brawl. These guys were slightly tougher than the usual mooks, carrying shields and weapons but ultimately not amounting to much of a threat at all. I defeated them with relative ease and moved up to the Arkytekt’s level, where the roaring flame of the pilot light set the tone for a brutal scrap.

Bosses in Mad Max are ultimately one of the game's weaker aspects. The hand-to-hand combat is okay at best, but the main bosses are ultimately quite frustrating to fight because of the lack of impact of your punches a lot of the time and the inability to parry many of their attacks.

Arkytekt, however, was mostly a fun battle. The abundance of melee weapons carried by his loyal followers meant I dealt some serious damage and the large amount of other enemies meant I could build my Rage meter up quickly. Once they were gone, though, it was just me and him.

I bobbed and weaved his melee attacks and waited for my Rage meter to build so I could keep him staggered. I needed the Pilot Light more than he did.

Then, once his health was low enough, Max executed the brute.

All that trouble for such a short mission.

I decided to call it there, having achieved my goal and gained some favour from Deep Friah in order to get some better car parts in the future.

Join me next time, as I try and fully complete Deep Friah’s chain of quests.