What Max Mayhem is
It is 2049 in Neo Bayside City. The Vex — a species of alien landlords — have served Earth an eviction notice and begun removing the tenants. Max Mayhem, an ex-demolitions contractor, returns the paperwork floor by floor. It is a shooter with jokes in it, built in the idiom of the mid-1990s.
Episode 1: Alien Eviction is complete and plays end to end across six levels — Rooftop Drop, The Multiplex, Metro Line 9, Sewer Works, Harbor Freight and The Mothership. Health, armour, weapons and ammunition carry between them and each level has a par time to beat. The save is written when a level begins, so closing the tab mid-episode costs you at most the level you were partway through: Continue drops you back at the start of that level with the equipment you carried into it, never earlier in the episode.
Each level's result is banked at its tally screen, but the score only reaches the Blitzcade leaderboard when the run itself ends — either because Max dies or because the episode is complete. Quitting mid-episode banks nothing to the board.
How it plays
On a desktop, WASD run and strafe with momentum, clicking the view locks the mouse for aiming, Space jumps, C crouches and E operates doors, switches and lifts. On touch, the left third of the screen is a virtual stick, dragging on the right turns and looks, and FIRE, USE, JUMP and WPN accept simultaneous touches.
Three difficulty tiers are chosen before you start. Rookie gives Max more health, halves incoming damage, fills medkits and ammo boxes more generously and sends the Vex at you two at a time. Regular is the fight as designed. Mayhem gives the Vex longer sight lines, faster reactions, half again the damage, and no limit on how many come at once. Enemy health, movement speed and the level layouts are identical across all three.
Levels, keycards and secrets
Locked doors carry a coloured seal and need the matching rust, cyan or violet keycard from somewhere on the same level. Secret stashes hide behind odd-looking walls; a chime confirms each one and the tally counts them.
The city is interactive rather than scenery: barrels explode, cracked walls come down, and hydrants, vending machines and arcade cabinets all respond to the use key. Medkits restore health, armour absorbs damage, and the rare Landlord's Deposit pushes health above its normal maximum. Kills, secrets found and beating the level par all feed the score banked at the end of a floor.
Questions
How long is the campaign?
Episode 1 runs to six levels and is complete. Health, armour, weapons and ammo carry between them, and the save is written at the start of each level, so you can play it across several sittings and lose at most the level in progress.
When does my score reach the leaderboard?
When the run ends — on Max's death or on completing the episode. Level tallies are banked as you go, but they are not reported individually.
Is it suitable for children?
16+ advised — Blitzcade advisory, not an official age rating. It is a first-person shooter with stylised science-fiction combat throughout, and parents may want to look at it before handing it over.
Does it work on a phone?
Yes. The touch scheme uses a virtual stick with simultaneous-touch buttons, so moving, aiming and firing at once is possible.
Do I need to install anything?
No. It runs in the browser with no download and no account.
At a glance
- Genre
- Action, first-person shooter
- Campaign
- Episode 1: Alien Eviction — six levels, complete
- Difficulty
- Rookie, Regular and Mayhem
- Controls
- Virtual stick and touch buttons; WASD and mouse on a desktop
- Saves
- Saved at the start of each level, in this browser
- Advisory
- 16+ advised — Blitzcade advisory, not an official age rating
- Cost
- Free, no account, nothing to install