Max might seem mysterious because he's a neutral robot. Part of the story revolves around several factions: neutrals, rebels, and the subjugated. And then there are the monsters.
- Monsters: Enemies
- Rebels (red): They defend human memory (which is extinct)
- Subjugated (blue): They hate the rebels and humans.
- Neutrals (Gray Max): They are neutral on this issue.
The sandbox version is completely different, as the idea is to make everything more random, and to be able to build (in the future) and do more. It's more or less a survival horror/diablo-like game.
There are also some errors in the dialogue; I imagine that happened when you tried pressing E and it didn't work properly.