First and foremost, Agents of Mayhem (AOM) is a singleplayer game and not a multiplayer game, unlike what the trailer led many to believe. Right off the bat, AOM plays and feels like the Saints Row series. With its (in)sane cast of characters and its color palette heavily focusing on purple, it is not without reason, as the game is produced by the same developer – Volition. Let’s look at how the game stack up against its predecessor.
Story
The story in AOM is told through a mix of in-engine and animated cutscenes. Both of which are done well, especially the animated ones which allows for a more expressive and bombastic action scene.
Gameplay
The game follows some open-world traits such as taking over an important area to unlock perks as well as the ever so familiar stars-based rating system, which increases when you do more bad deeds. Once enough mayhem occurs, “Extreme Malice” mode will be enabled and strong enemies will start raining down on you.
Every agent has their own secret lair. In AOM, it is called the Ark. The Ark allows you to swap and customize controllable characters, collect shareable quests (also known as contracts) or you can just bask in the glory of your own purple Batcave.
Me, Myself and I
AOM features a diverse cast of characters, allowing for a much more varied gameplay experience. Typically, in a game with this many classes, several favorites would be chosen while the rest of the characters would be quickly forgotten. This also means that there would be much less screen time for each agent in terms of story and feeling connected to them. To combat this, each agent is designed with their own specialization. Be it quickly taking down a single target, melting through shields or even armor. This forces you to swap around active agents based on each missions’ enemies.
Moar Firepower
Ever wanted your explosions to be more explosiony? Ever wanted to play bowling using humans as pins? Gremlin Tech as well as the various loadouts of each agent allows you to customize each character to your liking. From providing useful passives to sick power-ups, the craziness of Saints Row is undoubtedly brought into the game, although slightly more PG.
If you do enjoy GTA or the Saints Row series, you should definitely check it out. However, as someone who enjoys the wackiness of the Saints Row series more than GTA, AOM slightly lacks the over-the-top nature that makes its predecessor so memorable. Agents of Mayhem is still no doubt a fun game.
TLDR
+ Shooting baddies
+ Depth in terms of customization and squad combinations
+ Pretty particle effects
= Wide variety of characters
– Some dropped frames in intense fight scenes (PS4 Slim)
