Agents of Mayhem Reviews
Agents of Mayhem needed more cooking time in the oven, more polish and it would have been a much better game. The different characters is what keeps the game floating, everything else, like the performance and the open world are disappointing. Shooter fans will still have a lot of fun but don’t expect too much before diving in.
Agents of Mayhem is one of the most entertaining open world shooters of this generation thanks to its fast paced combat and innovative team-up system. Sadly, Volition‘s latest is far from perfect, as poor vehicle handling, annoying performance issues and a few nasty bugs conspire to drag down the overall experience.
Agents of Mayhem has it’s lumps to be sure, but fans of the genre who can look past these issues will find a densely-packed sandbox title that revels in its absurdity. You just might want to wait until Volition irons out those kinks with a patch or two before plunking down your hard-earned cash.
Each agent comes with their own personality and back story. Each time you do a mission to unlock a new agent, you get a nice little introduction to who they were before everything went to shit.
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.
Agents of Mayhem is a whole lot of fun but we've seen it all before.
Agents of Mayhem is a great game and it provides a unique style of excitement.
At its worst, Agents of Mayhem is an extremely watered down Crackdown and at its best it's a moderately watered down Saints Row experience. The game's positives just aren't enough to make up for the rest of the game's shortcomings.(...) With so many better alternatives out there, some of them even made by Volition themselves already, there just isn't much of a reason to choose Agents of Mayhem.
Somewhere between the explosions, the jokes and the generic gameplay, there is some brilliancy to be found. The huge roster of weapons, upgrades and add-ons for the weapons and abilities that changes how you deal with your enemies, that also changes completely every time you change an agent. There's much fun to be had with Agents of Mayhem, but don't expect some deep touchy story to discuss for the evening – the story is on the level of a B level cartoon, but the jokes sparks some good laughs.
I’ve compared Agents of Mayhem to Saints Row a lot in this review, and perhaps some of you reading might think that unfair. I think it’s entirely appropriate, however, since at their core they are essentially the same game, and there’s even some canon crossover happening between the two. Agents of Mayhem is just a stripped down Saints Row with less charm and character, less willingness to embrace its own silliness, and dreams of being something like Crackdown. There are too many player characters with not enough customisation, and little point to there being so many for the lack of unique content in this title. Well done, Volition, you spent four years making a terrible version of one of your most beloved franchises. Please don’t do this with whatever comes next for Saints Row.
Agents of Mayhem had a lot to live up to with a built franchise like Saints Row, but I feel the spinoff accomplishes its goal and more. The open world was a fun world to play with and the story is very charming and enjoyable. The only real flaw with the game is it can drop in frame rates and there were a few bugs that required me to restart the game but none of that was a deal breaker.