REVIEW – Continuous action, sense of humor and unleashed madness return to become the basic ingredients of the new production of the developing team Volition Games, which is responsible for the Saints Row saga. Here is their new game…

Indisputably, the spirit of the Saints Row franchise lives within Agents of Mayhem, Volition’s new madness. But not only that. It also has some Crackdown, especially about the navigability of the environment that welcomes the adventure, saga with which also keeps other similarities. These are two of the most important conclusions that I could draw after having been immersed for many hours in this new sandbox madness that will surely make a sensation among followers of this series. A hilarious adventure that despite not being perfect knows well how to entertain us for a long time.

Welcome to the future!

Everything that happens throughout the game takes place in a futuristic version (even more so) of Seoul, the capital of South Korea. A city that has been represented remarkably and that extends for many kilometers square, being able to explore freely and as they command the canons of the sort every recapture of its streets and its great buildings and skyscrapers, since the juga Bildad of Agents of Mayhem invites us to explore the stage both at ground level and from the heights.

But what is our most important goal? Finish with Doctor Babylon and the organization LEGION, which has taken such a city with plans not too flattering for the entire planet, as they plan to be with him. But to stop their intentions, there are the main protagonists of this story: the MAYHEM agents, a dozen of them that appear gradually as the story unfolds and we overcome their corresponding missions. Those particular characters enjoy special abilities … we can also expand and strengthen them as we progress as I will explain later. A plot that lasts for at least 15 hours (much more if we are dedicated to explore and overcome the countless missions and secondary tasks) that give us a lot of fun if we like this type of adventure type sandbox.

Fun, humor and lots of action

As a good sandbox, in Agents of Mayhem, we can explore with complete freedom the different areas that compose the city of Seoul … although to advance in the story it is necessary to overcome different main missions that we are commissioned. And there are more than fifty of these primary objectives so that you can get an idea of the “scale” presented by this adventure. Also, in most cases, it is possible to choose which we want to do at any given moment since many are clearly active in the mapping and can fulfill them whenever we wish.

In general, the development of each of these tasks has seemed quite varied and entertaining, although as usually happens in these works, some are more fun and exciting than others. The most striking are the objectives that allow us to unlock the different agents, missions that are also preceded by fun animation sequences. But beyond these main missions, it is also possible to perform many tasks like taking base control (Far Cry style), destroying concrete cars, participating in races around the city on board several different cars, collect special crystals ( Exactly 350 of them) that are scattered throughout the city … We even have the possibility to repeat missions already fulfilled and even surpass virtual confrontation tests that provide us with additional rewards. There is much to do in this adventure, I assure you.

The gameplay consists of several elements, although the fundamental is the action. The shootings and the confrontations are continuous, being necessary to fight against the forces of the Doctor Babylon using all the arms within our reach, including those made by our ally Gremlin, which is as fun and unique as they are forceful. These sequences of action are quite gratifying and well resolved, although they do not contribute anything new to what we have experienced in many previous titles.

However, to this playable base are added other conditions and ingredients more typical of its kind as the interaction with different secondary characters, the fact of being able to pilot a good corsage of vehicles to cross the city to all pills, much exploration (there is a lot of loots to discover), terminal hacking … You will not miss diversity, I assure you.

We need a team!

This game mechanic that I just mentioned differs somewhat from the enjoyed in most games of its style by a very specific feature. And is that instead of advancing with a character alone, in Agents of Mayhem we must form a team composed of three members. In the beginning, it is only possible to play with Hollywood, Fortune, and Hardtack, but as we move on and we meet new characters (like Oni, my favorite, as well as the stylish Joule, rapper Kingpin, etc.), the payroll grows until the dozen. And as I have mentioned before, each of these additional characters have their own special phases that unlocks them, which is a quite suggestive incentive in itself.

All these types have their own characteristics and main attributes as well as several intrinsic skills, offering a wide selection that we have at our disposal. There are those that dominate the ice in the Sub-Zero plan like Yeti; others are much nimbler and fast as Fortune, lethal in long distances like Rama … It’s our job to choose our team according to the mission of which it is necessary to take charge, which endows this adventure with a depth of which few games of its style enjoy. In addition, the personalization of all of them is tremendous, since, in addition to being able to obtain new costumes and appearances for all of them, it is also possible to go with new devices, perks, and passive skills as we gain experience, we exceed levels, and we can invest money in the development of new weaponry.

Once we are in full action and except in the special phases dedicated to each protagonist in which we advance alone, we can change from one agent to another at any time using the digital crosshead, which allows us to adapt our style of play in any Instant to overcome the situation that we lose the title at any time. And there are many! Hacking terminals, finishing with final bosses, reaching as soon as possible a certain place of the map piloting a luxury sports car, entering an underground LEGION den, facing duels against rivals that never stop coming to us … A varied gameplay that we can adapt easily changing protagonist when we consider it appropriate, something I personally have liked a lot.

No co-op mode

In fact and precisely by this characteristic I have been somewhat shocked that the adventure does not include cooperative mode of any kind. I think that this modality would have adapted perfectly to the development that this sandbox proposes, but unfortunately those responsible have not had to see it as clear and have not incorporated this option.

What Volition Games has tried by all means is to provide their game with the greatest depth possible and lots of possibilities, and for that very reason, we are facing an adventure that enjoys a tremendous amount of content. For starters, whenever we wish, it is possible to take a tour of our headquarters, ARK, where it is possible to carry out a good amount of tasks and to fine-tune our characters.

In these facilities, it is possible to accept missions and commissions, to speak with other characters, to offer us intelligence on some specific aspect, to invest in R & D to obtain new weapons and technology of several different classes, Empower our agents … A perfect place to relax a little between one mission and the next. Also, here we can also follow the evolution of the so-called Global Conflict, a complementary function that allows us to go sending some of our agents around the world for a certain time (about 5 or 10 minutes of a real game of average) to inspect what happens with LEGION beyond Seoul. As long as each of these missions lasts the agent sent is blocked and we cannot use it to carry out the main missions, but in return, we can obtain valuable rewards such as new contracts, money or more resources for the agency. One more way to contribute content to the adventure.

Explore the city!

It is also worth exploring the city quietly and to discover some of its intricacies and the different areas that make it up, since there is a good number of places of interest. The navigation seemed very accessible thanks to the triple jump that the protagonists enjoy, which allows us to climb buildings with great ease, remembering the long established with the acclaimed Crackdown. The design of the city of Seoul is very praiseworthy, and the gameplay benefits from it in several different ways, so I think it has been well exploited by Volition Games … just like the sense of humor typical of the company.

What would a game of this study be without its particular ambiance? Agents of Mayhem is no exception and so much during many of the conversations that we can witness as in a lot of situations that we live throughout the adventure we are entertained with jokes and comic contexts of all type. Another way to create a fun and attractive environment for anyone who comes in this video game that, although it will not go down in history because of its importance, visibility or originality in its approach, it does manage to entertain us, and much more. And that remains the most important thing in any game that comes to the market, which sometimes we forget.

For all of this agent of Mayhem is a kind of spiritual successor of Saints Row, offering a similar approach that has an old flavor, so it looks like an “old school sandbox” if you allow me to use that term in this genre. But far from looking outdated in the worst sense, at least it has been very refreshing and, I reiterate, it’s one of those games that you want to play despite their flaws, which also has them. Certain occasional bugs, repetition of objectives, LEGION den design, is repeated over the account, or certain inconsistencies in the AI of the rivals negatively affect the gameplay but never become so important as to muddle it noticeably. Sometimes they bother us, but not many times.

A worthy addition

The creators of Saints Row have created another saga that keeps several important similarities with its venerated franchise, but that has its own personality. Agents of Mayhem is a very fun game that offers us many possibilities. The fact of being able to change the protagonist and to be able to choose between a dozen of them is one of its main virtues, in addition to a great sense of humor. It is not perfect, technically it is not a marvel, and it misses some feature like the integration of a cooperative game mode (it screams for its idiosyncrasy), but make no mistake: it is an adventure to take in account, and one, that will most likely become a new series that will be with us for many years. It’s just fun above any other aspects.

-BadSector-

Publisher: Take 2

Developer: Volition

Genre: TPS, action

Release date: Aug 15, 2017