Deep Silver and Volition are back to grace our controllers once again. Agents of Mayhem is the spiritual follow up to Saints Row, the crazed alternative to Grand Theft Auto. And boy is it a follow up. So come with me and we'll take a look at Deep Silver Volition's first new release on this generation.
Instantly you're cast into a cut-scene that emits nothing but Saturday Morning Cartoons. And this is what AoM use to survey the story throughout the game. It suits the attitude of Deep Silver and you can tell this wasn't a cop-out. With great animation and voice work, it's entertaining and for once I wasn't tempted to skip a cut-scene.
You're cast into an opening mission introducing you to the first three Agents of Mayhem. Hollywood, a Johnny-Gat esc lead man, who has an assault rifle and is what you'd call a 'standard' soldier type, Hardtack, the 'tank', equipped with a shotgun and the ability to teleport enemies to you for a hard smack round the head and Fortune, the quick and agile dual wielding attacker whose little robotic friend Glory tags along with. The starting mission splits the team up, so you get a chance to try each play style, before combining the three back together and giving you full control and the ability to switch to any of the three characters.
The game controls incredibly well, with the standard sandbox play style mixed in well with the variety of abilities available. Being able to sprint down a road, triple jump over a building and unleashing a barrage of explosions flows easily and feels absolutely awesome. It may borrow slightly from the previous games, but the addition of a levelling system, upgrades and interchangeable abilities, it breathes new life into what seemed like a saturated genre.
What really helps Agents of Mayhem stand out is the range of ways to play. With a sizeable roster of characters to play as, every mission can be tackled in a different way. Picking the best combination of agents for your play style is a little slow at the start, but when it clicks, it clicks.
The jump to this console generation however isn't the greatest it could have been graphically for the game. It's full of colour and life, but it feels like it could have been a late game for the previous generation. Coupled with some performance issue it's a little blip, but hopefully it all gets ironed out soon in patches.
Content wise, it's everything you'd expect from a sandbox, but the collectathons are a little different, which adds a fun twist and doesn't make them a slog to do. From putting hostages in giant bouncing bubbles to sprinting across building tops, it's constant fun.
Agents of Mayhem doesn't disappoint at all. The game is a blast to play, gives every option of play style and is a continuation of the traditional Deep Silver madness. If you enjoy Saints Row, you'll love this. If you don't, chances are you'll still enjoy this.