My first three minutes with

And having all of this happen while driving at high speeds makes it all the more tense, enjoyable, and--when you manage to pull off exactly what you intended--satisfying. Combined with the vehicle upgrades that allow you to customize the Magnum Opus (making it faster or tougher, for instance), there's potentially a huge amount of diversity in how these encounters can play out. I'd love to try out different approaches--I can see it being fun to build a tank that crashes through everything, as well as a speed demon that circles around groups of enemies, picking them apart with the harpoon.

I'll be very curious to see what balance the full game strikes between time spent in-car and on-foot--we've previously heard it'll be in the neighborhood are 50-50. While you're free to choose between the two when exploring, there are certain areas that require you to get out of the Magnum Opus. If these segments are skippable to some degree or they find some way to introduce new wrinkles to combat, Mad Max can avoid being a game that alternates between being an absolute joy to play at times and somewhat of a drag at others.