Agents of Mayhem is a spin-off of the Saints Row series which is obvious by how their logo is similar to that of Saints Row. It’s a game about saving the world from an imminent threat. A game that doesn’t seem to take itself seriously but at the same time trying to be serious about it. Let’s see what this game is all about.
Platform Reviewed: PS4
Platforms Available: PS4, Xbox One, PC
Publisher: Deep Silver
Developer: Volition
Release Date: August 15, 2017
MSRP: $59.99
This review is based on a review copy provided by Bandai Namco Entertainment.
Agents of Mayhem takes place in the fictional adaptation of Seoul, South Korea. Where in the distant future, it’s where all the latest technologies are developed. You play as a group of agents each with their own distinct abilities. You can choose up to three characters to control to fight the evil organization LEGION.
Each character has their own unique playstyle and abilities. They have a special ability and a mayhem ability which is basically their ultimate skill. You first start with three agents named Hollywood, Hardtack and Fortune. You can easily swap between characters depending on who you want to play as.
You can unlock other agents by completing a side mission that involves the agent you want to unlock. After which when completed, you automatically unlock the character. Some of them have really good backstories but some others are your typical modern day heroes trying to rid the world of evil. I didn’t really get invested in any of them except maybe for Rama but other than that everyone seems plain and boring.
Because of its open-world style, you can actually go anywhere you like. But the world even though it’s filled with a lot of people and machines and enemies, feels a little lifeless to me. It also seems the agent has no regard for life as their abilities seem to hit just about anyone on the street and you don’t really get any penalty for doing so.
There also seems to be no sign of any kind of police force that can help you in the fight against the LEGION. It almost seems like the LEGION runs the whole city and your agents are basically the criminals. So why are these people not even bothering to leave the city? I don’t really know.
Anyway, you can upgrade your agents in three ways. One is through upgrading their gear, but by gear they mean enhancements that can boost your gear. These upgrades can be acquired either by leveling up your agents or by completing a mission. The upgrades can vary from enhancing their Mayhem ability or adding additional attributes to certain moves they have like their Dash ability.
Another way to upgrade your agents is by upgrading their passive abilities. You get a point or two everytime you level up and you can use these upgrade points to level up certain passive abilities like Hardtack’s Regeneration or Hollywood’s magazine clip size.
The last way to upgrade your agents is by collecting core crystals that are scattered throughout the city. Each agent has a three core abilities that you can upgrade by acquiring the crystals. You can then assign these crystals to any of their core abilities and once that’s done the crystal will be used up.
Aside from exploring the city of Seoul, you can also visit Mayhem’s headquarters called the Ark. The Ark holds many of Mayhem’s secret research that will help towards making your agents the best in their field. In the Ark, you can research certain perks that will help the agents in certain ways. For example, you can craft items for agents to acquire new skins for their weapons. The skins provide additional attributes for the agents as well. You can also research new cars for the agents to ride around the city.
You can call upon these cars when are you are in the city and what’s cool about them is the way the agents ride them. All you need to do is step infront of the waypoint that shows up when you call the car. Once the car reaches the waypoint, instead of running down your agents to the ground, the agent warps himself inside the car like a rockstar. I know it’s nothing really special but visuals like these are very entertaining and games are supposed to be entertaining so I appreciate them doing this. Also, the car talks. It’s like it came straight out of a Knight Rider episode.
Aside from the main missions, the city is also filled with a whole lot of side missions. These include things like “acquiring” cars from the city and delivering it to your agency’s car expert for further research. Another thing you can do is reclaim outposts from LEGION by basically getting into these bases and destroying everything in sight. You can also unlock waypoints where it becomes your entry point when you leave the Ark
Overall, I feel like Agents of Mayhem has a lot of potential but it seems that it fell flat when it came out. The characters were kind of interesting at the beginning but the more you play the more it seems like the characters are one-sided. I wish they just made you focus on three characters first and build up on their backstory. But instead you get a whole lot of characters who are trying to outdo each other and losing their identities in the process.
It’s definitely a fun game if you just want to lay waste on the world but other than that the gameplay becomes repetitive in time and it made me feel like once I’m done I don’t want to go back and play it. If you’re just looking for another open-world game to dive into, then go ahead and get it but if you’re after a game with an enriching story then this one is not for you.
