Agents of Mayhem

Agents of Mayhem is Volition trying something new with a bit of their longstanding franchises mixed in, and they mostly do a great job at forging new paths. It has a few bugs and it's not perfect, but it makes for an excellent new game with a heck of a lot of character.

Watching Saturday morning cartoons as kid, there was always one thing that bothered us about shows focusing on paramilitary groups such as M.A.S.K. and G.I Joe. No, it wasn’t the fact they were designed primarily to sell toys to impressionable young minds, it was the way none of the teams ever showed up en masse to foil the plans of whichever evil organisation they were up against. Instead, they’d only ever opt to send a few team members (at least one of which would be a laughably over-the-top stereotype).

Despite these flaws, Agents of Mayhem truly does offer a unique and fresh spin on the Saints Row world. By distancing itself from the main franchise's core characters and conflicts, the game is able to embrace its own aesthetic and create a new world that is just as weird and addicting as the original.

Agents of Mayhem does a good job paying homage to the cartoon and live-action TV heroes of the 80s and 90s, and revels in the absurd tropes and idiosyncrasies of those inspirations. A broad and goofy arsenal of unique weapons and gadgets and the ability to switch characters on the fly to access complementary abilities offers some solid combat and good mindless fun, but due to some unpolished writing and repetitive environments and enemy types, it doesn't fully live up to its heroic potential.

Agents of Mayhem is a game that tries and accomplishes a lot of things, but a general lack of ambition and mechanics that are often sluggish weigh down the overall experience.

The presentation, the characters, the gameplay -- Agents of Mayhem feels like a great game in spots.  It's got all the Saints Row style that you're accustomed to seeing from Volition, but it lacks in features when compared to other open world games of this nature.

Repetitive and not as funny as Saints Row, but the characters save it.

Volition tries to carve out a new spot for itself, with mixed results.

The new game from the creators of Saints Row tries to combine the best features of the studio's previous works with solutions typical of MMORPG games. Unfortunately, this turned out to be a bad idea.

Despite fun combat and characters, Agents of Mayhem becomes repetitive and grinding. In trying to chase the popularity of Saints Row, it misses having an identity of its own.

“Agents of Mayhem settles in as an underwhelming, forgetful entry in the overfilled open world genre.”

Bad attitude.