I'm currently trying to clear my backlog of games I bought but never finished, or in some cases never opened. Mainly because I had a realization that I buy things I don't need. This time I'm playing Agents of Mayhem from the creator of Saint's Row. If you remember, I reviewed this game back when it first came out. Well, I never finished and it was a glitchy mess back then. Today we're going to take a new look at the game, from a finished standpoint, after three hours of patches.
Agents of Mayhem spins out of one of the possible endings for Gat Out of Hell. It's the ending in which Johnny Gat has God recreate the world with all of his friends living again, although they'll have different lives and may not know each other. Plenty of them do end up at MAYHEM eventually. Johnny, Kingpin (Pierce), Safeword (Kinzie), and Yeti (Oleg). MAYHEM is out to protect the world from being conquered by LEGION and has assembled elite agents to do so. That's the basics of the story.
Graphically it still maintains that Saint's Row feel while placing us in Seoul. There are plenty of vibrant colors and there's a few small things that really help keep it fresh. Each of the agents has some things that are basic like jumping into vehicles or triple jumping, but they're all unique to the agent. Kingpin will throw up a gang sign as he hops in, Oni will fire a gun shot at the camera, Redcard will kick a soccer ball and every other character will do something different.
Audio, I still hate it. Part of the Saint's Row charm was beautifully crafted soundtracks. I know this is an entirely different franchise but it's the same Volition. There's no real soundtrack to the game and the city feels less alive for it. The music in cars is just ambience and elevator music. There's no music from cars driving by. Serious moments don't have the most tense music. I'm not even talking about just picking out mainstream songs, the actual in house soundtrack isn't great.
One thing I loved is the Saturday morning cartoon vibe given off by the classic style animation. When you return to base there's little eyecatchers like Rama telling you to wash your hands because it always makes a good impressions. It doesn't matter if you're shaking hands, stacking corpses or strangling enemies.
I love most of the characters. They all have fleshed out backstories and interact with each other in different ways. Gremlin is in love with Hardtack but he has no intentions of dating someone he sees as a kid sister. It's the one thing she isn't optimistic about. Yeti and Kingpin play chess, similar to their Saints Row counterparts. Hollywood and Kingpin bond over gaining the most popularity.
Each of the characters plays different and it is up to you how your build your team of agents. My team always has Yeti, he's an incredible tank and freezing enemies is great when you're surrounded. I keep Kingpin because he's got a high rate of fire, moves fast and get his special back quickly. The third spot usually rotates but the main stays are Gat because his shotgun is great for close range. Rama, because you can set her up to one shot nearly anyone. Lastly is Oni, who I just love. He carries a silenced pistol and his biggest perk is that he has a constant area of fear that extends every time you kill someone. The constant panic gripping everyone is wonderful.
One thing I still dislike about the game, the grinding. You have to grind for everything. Capture a LEGION Base? They take it back in an hour. I see you captured all the Gremlin hideouts, well, the base is gone so now the hideout is gone. Sometimes main missions reset everything. There's plenty of content to keep you playing without resetting everything every time you play for more than hour.
It's not the perfect game, I would even call it a great game. It does lay the foundation for a second franchise for Volition but it needs some work. It's a squad based shooter with no multiplayer? Every Saints Row game lets you play through co-op but suddenly it doesn't matter. I'd love to see another Agents of Mayhem game after another Saints Row game. There just needs to be a few changes to make it great.
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