Replayed and completed the game recently, so an update.
Gameplay-wise it's quite solid. Vehicular combat can actually be quite fun, although the challenge for it is very uneven, and I am not sure if it's dependent on the area, on your level or story progression. Regardless it is quite satisfying to blow-up cars at high speed. Melee combat can be is not Batman, of course, but still solid, although it would help if it was a bit more clear that skills have a description, and that you may need to press an extra button sometimes (I noticed that there was a button prompt for description when I was half way through the game).
The emptiness of the environment I now find somewhat beneficial, because it works better for combat, especially convoys (most of them at least). Mostly due to car controls, since sometimes a slight mistake can send you spiraling or into the air. Before you say, that I just suck (and I am, indeed, bad at driving), get to the race against Stank Gum (or read the comments about it). This race is just infuriating, and specifically because of the car physics. The track there is very narrow, there are lots of things that get into your way (including infinite enemies), so it's quite easy to do a 180, get stuck between cars and as result waste health and time. Luckily you can repair your car in white smoke or whatever, which is not obvious, really, and does not even make sense. Overall this race was poorly tested, I think, especially, since it favors very specific build of the car. In a game, that seems to care a lot about customization. The fight after the race also bugged out on me, and game reacted only to D-Pad, and nothing else. The Big Chief car "escape" was not good either, because that car was slow, had low armor and even worse handling, but at least it was short enough.
I liked first visit to the airport. It was quite atmospheric and creepy. Unfortunately it was ruined by an escape race there, too, but for different reasons. Airport track was wide enough, and enemies were not infinite, but... Once I realized, that I can stop at any time and just repair safely, and no one will even attack me (at least at certain points) - it became too easy. It should have been a more tailored and scripted experience, where you feel like you are about to be destroyed, but able to get through. The beginning of the chase had just enough pressure, but I guess devs were scared to keep it, and instead doubled it with Stank Gum.
Minefields suck: annoying that you need to switch car, and dog reacting to mines like that does not make much sense to me. Jumping is practically pointless except for a couple of places. Transparent objects liked to up and take a literal minute to load also was not good, but... Not as bad as the plot. It's just... Brain-dead. Something like this can work for a b-movie, where you spend an hour, two at most, and then forget it, but in a game for tens of hours... Max is also not a great character, very "flat" even with the poor attempts to give him dimension. They also did not use opportunity to have unique "top dogs", mini-bosses at certain camps: should have gone Borderlands route here, but ended up with just differently-colored bulky guys.
Overall, I guess I would still recommend it for the gameplay itself, and for some atmosphere, but definitely do not go into this for the plot, and possibly leave the plot for last even.
