Agents Of Mayhem – Anti-Hero Shooter Ain’t No Saint

How do you sum up the Saints Row series in one (polite) word? Factoring in musical throwdowns with Satan, fartin-a-jar grenades and live molluscs as ammunition, we’d pick: unique. But despite being part of the same universe, Volition’s new thirdperson shooter dares to be different yet again.

Okay, so it is faintly Saintly. A sandbox blaster, you bomb about the cartoony city of Seoul – obliterating buildings and your reputation in equal measure – as a vigilante Super Agent. Or rather, agents. To switch things up, the single-player-only Agents Of Mayhem has you save the day solo by… switching things up. Before entering missions, you select a team of three from 12 potential characters. Our balanced squad is toting a diverse mix of weapons and gadgets, giving us options when we’re ambushed by evil LEGION robots in colourful sidestreets.

Playing as mobile archer Rama, we’re overwhelmed at close range. We hammer Circle to dash and dodge, then hit => on the D-pad. Rama jumps into the void, replaced with Hardtack and his punchy shotgun. A few cyborg-crowd-clearing blasts later it’s D-pad time again and we slay the rest with Hollywood’s unique grenade ability. It’s a fast and fluid setup.

Now for one of the many secret enemy lairs. Our agents’ in-ear babysitter Friday suggests we look for “a switch or lever, or an evil trashcan or something.” Sure enough, a nearby bin opens a hidden staircase, and it’s time to neutralise an AI K-pop starlet’s fiancé/lackey while a ridiculous disco beat blasts out.

Star Player

Sounds like a rush, right? It’s not feeling that way just yet. While character-switching’s fun, enemies don’t really require you to adapt. We spend a lot of time as average auto-rifle all-rounder Hollywood: in fact, he’s all we use against that boogieing, strangely boring boss.

Customisable skills and upgradeable arsenals (including vehicles to speed and fly about town in) look set to add even more variety and choice. A little papery for now, Agents Of Mayhem’s comic book action is nonetheless chock-full of loud ideas.

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