Games like Mad Max: 9 wasteland games with cars and combat

Want more games like Mad Max? This list gives you 9 PC games with a broken world, a vehicle that matters, and fights on the road. Each entry says what you drive, how you fight, and how the game is different from Mad Max.

What makes a game feel like Mad Max

Mad Max is an open-world action game from Avalanche Studios. It came out in 2015. You build a car called the Magnum Opus with your mechanic, Chumbucket. You collect scrap to upgrade it, and you fight gangs on foot and from the car.

So a good match has at least two of these parts:

• A wasteland or a broken world that you cross by road.
• A vehicle that you upgrade, repair, or fuel.
• Fights against gangs or other threats, on the road or near it.

Route 48 (our game)

Full disclosure: we made Route 48, so we put it first.

Developer: HOLY STUDIOS. Released: 2026, Early Access. Players: Single-player.

Route 48 is a first-person driving survival game in a procedurally generated world, so each new game has different roads, towns, and loot locations. You scavenge for fuel and parts, repair your car, and fight the infected and armed survivors with guns. Your main job is to keep the car alive, and you decide when to fight and when to get back on the road. It is in Early Access on Steam now.

Rage 2

Developer: id Software and Avalanche Studios. Released: 2019. Players: Single-player.

Rage 2 has a direct link to Mad Max: Avalanche Studios, the Mad Max developer, made it together with id Software. It is a first-person shooter in an open wasteland after an asteroid strike. The store page says that you can drive any vehicle that you see.

You fight bandits, mutants, and a group called the Authority. You use upgradable weapons and Nanotrite powers. Vehicle fights and races are part of the open world.

How it differs: you fight on foot in first person, with fast guns and special powers.

Best for: players who want the road fights of Mad Max, plus fast gunplay on foot.

Crossout

Developer: Targem Games. Released: 2017. Players: Online multiplayer.

In Crossout, the garage is the core of the game. You build an armored vehicle from many parts. A design can be a buggy, a tracked rover, a hover platform, or an aircraft. Then you take it into battles against other players, on land and in the sky.

The setting is a wasteland after a disease called Crossout. When you shoot a part off an enemy vehicle, that vehicle loses performance at once.

How it differs: there is no single-player campaign. The battles are online.

Best for: players who liked to upgrade the Magnum Opus more than anything else.

Hard Truck Apocalypse / Ex Machina

Developer: Targem Games. Released: 2005 (on Steam since 2014). Players: Single-player.

This is an older game from the Crossout studio. You drive a heavy truck through a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Gangs control the trade routes between the last cities. You fight the gangs to deliver supplies, and you keep the truck ready for combat.

How it differs: it came out in 2005, so expect older graphics and controls. Trade and delivery are a large part of the game.

Best for: players who want a truck, a trade route, and fights on the road.

Road Redemption

Developer: Redemption Road and Pixel Dash Studios. Released: 2017. Players: Single-player, or split-screen co-op for up to 4 players.

Road Redemption is motorcycle combat at full speed. The setting is a post-apocalyptic country under a cruel dictator. You race and fight other riders with weapons, kicks, and grabs.

When you die, you keep your experience. You spend it on upgrades for your rider, your bike, and your weapons.

How it differs: it is a series of races and challenges, not an open world.

Best for: players who liked the fights at speed and want to play with friends on one screen.

Wasteland 3

Developer: inXile Entertainment. Released: 2020. Players: Single-player or online co-op with a friend.

Wasteland 3 is a squad RPG. You lead up to six Rangers from the Arizona desert to frozen Colorado. Your vehicle, the Kodiak, is an armored truck. You upgrade it with weapons, armor, and other parts, and in fights it gives your squad cover and fire support.

How it differs: combat is turn-based, so this is a tactics game, not an action game. Your dialogue choices change the world and the story.

Best for: players who want a wasteland story with hard choices and a battle truck.

Far Cry New Dawn

Developer: Ubisoft Montreal, with Ubisoft Kiev and Ubisoft Shanghai. Released: 2019. Players: Single-player or online co-op for 2 players.

Far Cry New Dawn is a first-person shooter in Hope County, Montana, 17 years after a nuclear disaster. A gang called the Highwaymen takes the last resources. You drive many vehicles, and you can craft and upgrade vehicles and weapons.

You also upgrade a home base called Prosperity. On Expeditions, you travel to other places in the USA for resources.

How it differs: the world is greener and brighter than the Mad Max desert.

Best for: players who want gang fights and vehicles with a friend in co-op.

Days Gone

Developer: Bend Studio. Released: 2019 on PS4, 2021 on PC. Players: Single-player.

Days Gone is a third-person open-world game in Oregon. You ride the Drifter bike. It uses fuel and takes damage, so you refuel at gas stations and camps and repair it with scrap. Large hordes of Freakers chase you, and a broken bike makes an escape much harder.

How it differs: your vehicle is a motorbike, and the main threat is the horde.

Best for: players who liked to keep a vehicle alive with fuel and repairs. Read our full list of games like Days Gone.

Death Stranding

Developer: Kojima Productions. Released: 2020 on PC. Players: Single-player, with online features.

You play Sam Bridges. You carry cargo across a broken America to connect the last survivors. Later, you get vehicles such as the Reverse Trike. It runs on a battery, and it takes damage. Creatures from the afterlife, called BTs, can leave tar that traps your vehicle.

The Social Strand System connects you to other players and to the structures that they build.

How it differs: deliveries are the core activity, and the route is the main challenge.

Best for: players who liked the long drives across the wasteland.

Pacific Drive

Developer: Ironwood Studios. Released: 2024. Players: Single-player.

Pacific Drive is a first-person driving survival game. You explore the Olympic Exclusion Zone in an old station wagon. Between trips, you repair and upgrade the car in an abandoned garage. On the road, anomalies, radiation, and storms damage you and the car.

How it differs: the threats are anomalies, radiation, and Zone Storms, not gangs.

Best for: players who want a car that feels like a partner that needs care. See more in games like Pacific Drive.

How we picked these games

We looked for three parts: a broken world, a vehicle that matters, and danger on the road. Every game here has at least two of them. We checked the developer, the release year, and the player modes on each store page, and we used a second source for gameplay details. We left out games that you cannot play on PC.

Which one should you play first?

• For first-person guns and car fights in one open world, start with Rage 2.
• To design and build your own war machine, try Crossout.
• For a car that you must fuel and repair to survive, try Route 48 or Pacific Drive.
• For a story with a bike and hordes, try Days Gone.
• For turn-based tactics with a battle truck, try Wasteland 3.

For more ruined worlds, see our list of the best post-apocalyptic games on PC.