Agents of Mayhem

Agents Of Mayhem generates its personality from the first minute of the game. Its sense of humor and action add to the variety of its 12 characters, making this new Volition game the perfect entertainment that ends the month of August.

Like how the Saints Row franchise started off slowly – eventually turning into a juggernaut filled with fun – the Agents of Mayhem are starting their career off in the same manner. Slowly, solidly and repetitively.

The more serious tone and occasional lack of polish might disappoint players hoping for a true successor to Saints Row. But considering this is essentially a different brand and hopefully the first game of many, it certainly stands on its own as a quality open-world game. Just don't be surprised if it gets a stronger sequel down the line.

Despite these flaws, Agents of Mayhem truly does offer a unique and fresh spin on the Saints Row world. By distancing itself from the main franchise’s core characters and conflicts, the game is able to embrace its own aesthetic and create a new world that is just as weird and addicting as the original.

Agents of Mayhem finds an identity of its own thanks to the memorable characters and structure, even if the action is familiar.

The fun you’ll have with this over-the-top action in a remote corner of the Saint’s Row universe strongly depends on your sense of humor. If you think that the sometimes subtle, but mostly vulgar and in-your-face jokes or ridiculous dialogues are not funny, you will stumble rather sooner than later over the redundant mission design.

An entertaining game, with a great set of characters and lots of contents. What it lacks, though, is in variety, with an excessive repetitiveness due to too few locations and enemy types.

Agents of Mayhem delivers high-octane action with an enticing character progression system that has you tweaking and testing out fun and efficient upgrades in combat. Once the battle is over, however, you’re left to either wander a listless city out of the compulsory desire to complete every tedious task or grab a vehicle and drive 300mph to the next scripted objective simply to keep the adrenaline rushing.

There's so much to like if you're a fan of action cartoons but Agents of Mayhem is let down by repeated use of locations and annoying bugs.

Agents of Mayhem offers fast-paced and mindless fun filled with Volition’s signature crude humour, but elements of it make it feel like a missed opportunity. The open world setting seems lifeless compared to games of its kind, the missions are extremely repetitive and there are a few bugs that will need addressing. Still, the impressive array of weapons and abilities, as well as the diversity of the different Agents on offer adds a level of depth that will help to keep you playing to the end. It's far from perfect, but if you can stand the repetition, there's enough left over to blow up and make you laugh.

The first few hours of Agents of Mayhem are genuinely exciting and entertaining. And funny too. It’s the open-world of high-tech Seoul and the repetitive missions that fail to live up to the colourful Agents and the Saturday morning cartoon vibe. Which is unfortunate. The juvenile sense of humour won’t appeal to everyone, but the same could be said for just about every Volition-developed title of the past decade. And in that sense, the studio’s latest effort is worth considering if you’re a Saints Row fan. For everyone else, imagine a ludicrous ‘80s cartoon built around the profane and juvenile marines featured in James Cameron’s classic film Aliens. Where they’re globe-trotting government agents, and prone to enter fits of gravity defying carnage.

There’s a good formula hiding somewhere in Agents of Mayhem, I just don’t think the solution was ever found. Perhaps in time with some improvements, my mind will change, but right now I don’t know if I’ll enlist with the Agents of Mayhem again.

A bit of a departure from Saints Row (though not really a massive one), Agents of Mayhem is an entertaining spin-off shooter laced with RPG elements that enhance an otherwise uncomplicated game. There's fun to be had here, providing you can get past the repetitive action.

Agents of Mayhem is one of those games with so much potential that just doesn’t quite reach the heights it probably could. That being said, it’s exhilarating combat and unique character system have me looking forward to a more polished, more fully conceived sequel.

Is Agents of Mayhem worth a purchase? That really depends on how much extra cash you have laying around. If you’re someone who has limited spending ability and can only buy a select amount of games each year, you’re better off saving your money for something else and maybe waiting for a sale or price drop on this one. There’s nothing about this game that really stands out or separates it from the pack in any meaningful way, which is disappointing for more than just one reason. Still, it's got a few funny lines, has some solid moments and can be somewhat fun.

A spin-off that unfortunately fails to scratch that irritating Saints Row itch. [Nov 2017, p.85]