Agents of Mayhem Reviews
A bizarrely hollow yet mechanically competent open world action RPG that struggles to justify its own existence.
Agents of Mayhem may take place in the Saints Row universe, but this adventure title has its own bizarre cast of vulgar misfits aiming to save the world from mad scientists.
Agents of Mayhem does a good job paying homage to the cartoon and live-action TV heroes of the 80s and 90s, and revels in the absurd tropes and idiosyncrasies of those inspirations. A broad and goofy arsenal of unique weapons and gadgets and the ability to switch characters on the fly to access complementary abilities offers some solid combat and good mindless fun, but due to some unpolished writing and repetitive environments and enemy types, it doesn't fully live up to its heroic potential.
Serves up a generous range of play styles, but it's hampered by repetitive levels and a few uninspired design choices.
An obnoxious and repetitive open world game that does its best to hide the fact that it's a surprisingly decent third person shooter.
Hero-swapping tactics add a unique edge to third-person combat, while humor and heart elevate Agents of Mayhem's typical world-saving fundamentals to memorable heights.
Agents of Mayhem is absurd, but it leans into its own insanity in a charming way and backs it all up with fun, destructive action
Obnoxious attitude, poor mission design, and technical bugs make Agents of Mayhem chaotic and repetitive.
You can swap between the three agents you bring into the field instantly, letting you chain their different special attacks together for maximum impact. There are some clever choices here too. Derby star Daisy, for example, has to cool off her minigun by dashing through enemies, which turns a typically boring weapon cooldown mechanic into a renewable power resource.Remember those great characters? Well, practically all their dialogue is bland beyond belief. Much of the writing in Agents of Mayhem is “joke adjacent,” meaning it's delivered with the tone, pacing and structure of a joke, but is not, in actuality, funny in any way.This has likely started to feel like a litany of sins rather than cogent critique, but it's the best way I have of illustrating Agent of Mayhem's failings. It is not felled by any one thing, but is rather undone by a thousand little cuts. Agents of Mayhem heaps theoretical fun on you. Characters, powers, upgrades, tons of missions — it's desperate to for the player to just have fun. It's a noble impulse, but one that it's depressingly incapable of consistently delivering on.
It may share a genre and universe with Saints Row, but Agents of Mayhem is a lifeless husk of Volition's prior work.
Agents of Mayhem is many things, but mostly it's what happens when the development studio responsible for one of the raunchiest game series dials back the dildos and gives its heroes a little more maturity and humanity. It's something special. Like Uranus.
Agents of Mayhem is a step back from the trippy, superpowered hijinks of Saints Row IV and Gat Out of Hell. The cast is colorful and eventually, you'll open up the game enough that you'll have fun, but for a Saints Row veteran, you'll always feel like a little bit is missing. There a definite highlights here and there, but otherwise Agents of Mayhem treads water most of the time. Fun, but not amazing.
While I do feel like Agents of Mayhem has a bit of a generic streak, I don't believe it's a bad game.
But despite these technical flaws, I still had a really fun time messing around with the agents. Enjoying Agents of Mayhem is sort of like watching a cartoon you used to love without the rose-colored glasses of nostalgia or the naivete of youth. You'll get more of a kick laughing at it, rather than with, but there's a smile on your face either way.
Agents of Mayhem would be a good product if Saint's Row did not exist. It has a simple and linear development. And that makes it boring during the most time of the adventure. The best thing of the game: the possibilities of the Agents.
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Agents of Mayhem is a step back for Volition after the success of the Saints Row series. While the characters are good and fun, they don't feel larger than life when compared to The Boss and their crew. There aren't as many memorable moments either, and the city of Seoul is wasted. The game is less Agents of Mayhem and more Agents of Mehhem.
Agents of Mayhem is a strange game. I did enjoy much of my time with it, but I kept wishing it was a fully-fledged Saints Row sequel, not some alternate universe spin-off with less content. I didn't expect all that much going in, but by the end, I wanted more than I got.
There's a lot of potential scattered around Agents of Mayhem but not enough of it is realized.
Agents of Mayhem wears the right outfit but doesn't go far beyond posing in the mirror.