Who it Caters to (Use AOM #1)
Agents of Mayhem combines the Saints Row world with concepts of the Red Faction series to create an open world action-adventure third person shooter. Players will use one of 12 agents to run and gun their way through hundreds of missions and side missions to save the world from the evil L.E.G.I.O.N army. Agents of Mayhem is for those who want a comic book type story filled with the same level of humor found in the Saints Row world. Get ready to show the forces of L.E.G.I.O.N who can be the tougher fighter. Get ready agents, your mission to save the world begins here.

Players familiar with the open world setting of Saints Row and the gameplay of games like Crackdown should have an idea of how Agents of Mayhem plays. In Agents of Mayhem you’ll be taking various missions and killing dozens of baddies in a fictional future city of Seoul, South Korea.

Set in a merged world taking concepts from the Saints Row and Red faction series comes an interesting story of one group of anti-heroes fighting an evil force and how they end trying to stop one another. On one hand, you have the agents of M.A.Y.H.E.M—Multinational Agency Hunting Evil Masterminds—and on the other side you have L.E.G.I.O.N which is short for The League of Evil Gentleman Intent on Obliterating Nations. L.E.G.I.O.N’s power has grown thus taking over various world leaders and governments alike. If they are left unchecked then the world as we know it will fall into annihilation and a truly dark time will arise. M.A.Y.H.E.M was created to fight L.E.G.I.O.N with its 12 unique anti-heroes who may or may not be fighting because it’s exciting and something to do. Both sides aren’t exactly good but M.A.Y.H.E.M’s ideals are a bit less terrifying than the others. Arm up and get ready you’re about to cause some serious destruction and chaos to save the lives of others!

Agents of Mayhem is a very interesting open world game from developer Volition. While it may not have the same elements found in the Saints Row series, it does have plenty of elements within the story and gameplay ideals. Agents of Mayhem is ridiculous in every sense of the word and it is what most will love about it. However, there are some issues here and there with Agents of Mayhem but as always we’ll save those for last. Now then let’s get into this review of Agents of Mayhem, shall we?

The story of Agents of Mayhem plays out in the style of a goofy comic book movie, and to be honest, we loved that theme. Agents of Mayhem knows it’s being overly corny yet it never feels groan inducing. The characters of Agents of Mayhem and their banter kept us laughing as we played. Hearing Hollywood say how great he was and then having the other agents take jabs at him for his narcissism never got old. Equally while Hollywood may steal the show at times—which seems obvious seeing how he’s an actor—the other agents do a great job of feeling different and filled with originality. Agents of Mayhem will be a treat for anyone who loves the Saints Row humor though with less of a focus on oddly purple shaped bats—fans of Saints Row will get this reference—and more of a focus on bad versus evil.

Set in a futuristic fictional version of Seoul, South Kore,a Agents of Mayhem has a big open world for players to explore and play in. There are tons of side quests and missions to take on with different objectives and occasionally different bosses to take down. Even us here at Honey’s Anime haven’t done it all yet within Agents of Mayhem but that’s a good element to any single player open world title. While there are some issues to be found with the open world—which we will talk about later—as a whole we loved exploring various areas just to find various collectibles and random missions to be found. Get ready to pour in a lot of hours into Agents of Mayhem if you want to do complete it 100%.

Agents of Mayhem may not be Saints Row but that doesn’t mean you can’t find a lot of the ideals from that series within. Not only is the explosive action and story—which are both equally silly—an echo of the Saints Row series but the same can be said of the gameplay itself. Acting as a third person shooter, players can use a wide assortment of weapons to kill the L.E.G.I.O.N enemies. That’s where Agent of Mayhem shines in comparison to Saints Row, the idea that players don’t just have one character hoarding all the weapons but instead pick from 3 of 12 agents—3 can be switched out during missions and exploration on the fly—who each have their own specific weapons to choose from. Take, for example, Hollywood the cocky agent of the group. His weapon of choice is an assault rifle while Rama uses a bow. This where Agents of Mayhem truly shines.

In Agent of Mayhem there are twelve agents you can play. Each of the agents have their own specific main weapon of choice—as we stated above—as well as special perks that can be upgraded and swapped out. On top of their individual gear, the twelve agents all have their own special power called Mayhem which gives them special attacks for a duration of time. Gat—one of the characters from Saints Row who can be downloaded—uses twin guns and can auto lock onto enemies and blast them away or Fortune—another one of the agents—can use a drone to stun a massive group of enemies in their place. This gives an awesome amount of freedom in Agents of Mayhem that allows players to take their 3 favorites and run missions with a playstyle of their own.

Graphically Agents of Mayhem looks very good and the same can be said of the impressive voice and music. As we played, we noticed that some designs could have been a bit better—seriously a bit too much with the purple and silver colors even if those are staples of the Saints Row world now—but overall, the unique agent designs and cool boss enemies were pretty impressive. Though we here at Honey’s Anime stand unanimous in saying the voice acting and music took first prize in Agents of Mayhem. While funny banter and lines are great to have in any game, if the voice acting isn’t up to par then the execution falls flat. That thankfully isn’t the case as the voice actors delivered their respected lines perfectly. The music as well is great for when a boss fight occurs or a scene needs to be enhanced.

Now as we said Agents of Mayhem does suffer from several big issues and these are what keep the game from being amazing. Agents of Mayhem shares a gameplay feel with Saints Row and Crackdown but as a whole doesn’t do either of those two justice. Agents of Mayhem works as a third person shooter and open world title but neither one is without issue. The shooting feels stiff and some of the agents don’t feel too different from one another. The gameplay gets repetitive too as there really isn’t much variation in Agents of Mayhem.

Sure you may at times face big bosses or enemies that require different means to take them out but too often you can just shoot your issues away and things like hacking objects or defending a spot on the map get old within the first hour. This would have been alleviated if the world within Agents of Mayhem had some different things to do or see but the city feels lifeless even with cars and people walking around. Heck, we even had some moments where NPCs didn’t react when explosions were happening right next to them. Agents of Mayhem feels like a game that within the first three hours of play you have possibly seen all there is too it. Gaining cash and upgrades will be the only reason to ever really scour around the map to find new missions to take on. The bottom line folks is be prepared to take long breaks from Agents of Mayhem if you don’t want to get burnt out on it.

Like the Saints Row series, Agents of Mayhem has a lot of personality. The fun and goofy story/characters give this game a real persona outside other open world action titles. The ability to use different agents with different powers and weapons is also neat as it gives you some gameplay variance. However, Agents of Mayhem gets old very fast. It won’t be long before you’re just focusing on main missions to avoid the tedious side quests. The quests that focus on gaining the various agents are an exception here but once you’ve done them all you won’t care to do any of the other stories no matter how funny they may be. Agents of Mayhem is still worth the price of admission but your enjoyment of it will be tested if you don’t take breaks every so often.

We here at Honey’s Anime enjoyed our time with Agents of Mayhem. Like the Saints Row titles, Agents of Mayhem is fun, mature and ridiculous all in one title. There are numerous issues with it that keep Agents of Mayhem from being the best title it could be but for the story and various characters, we say it’s worth checking this game out. We would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. Do you plan on picking up Agents of Mayhem or are you a bit hesitant? As always if you enjoyed our review of Agents of Mayhem check out our site for other game reviews and articles that we here at Honey’s Anime worked on for your entertainment and reading pleasure.