E3 2016 Hands On — Agents Of Mayhem

Agents Of Mayhem

While at E3 I was able to see Agents Of Mayhem in a more intimate setting than just a trailer. Here’s my take on Agents Of Mayhem

With Agents Of Mayhem getting the full announcement just before E3 I was a little shocked to see that the game was available to play at the show. It looks like Volition had kept this little gem under-wraps so well that they have at least a solid playable demo and during my visit to see what Deep Silver had to show off I was able to sit down and play Agents Of Mayhem quite a bit. In fact I was able to run through the demo almost twice using one of the characters yet to be announced with the initial push. Yes, it looks like there will be more than just the three characters we originally thought.

From the start we were set forth to choose three of the agents to play through the demo. I opted to give Hollywood, Hardtack, and Rama a chance to show me what Agents Of Mayhem was made of. Rama being the forth character that wasn’t shown in the announcement trailer. This brought my team together with a long range (Rama), close range (Hardtack), and mid range (Hollywood). I figured this would be the best way to jump in and then I continued on to the missions starting screen.

This is where the game’s true comic book aesthetic shines through as the cut scenes and missions loading screens more or less play out in a fun animatic way while keeping all of the humor that Volition is known for. The mission here was to head into the city and rescue the biggest K-Pop star, whom also happens to be an AI hologram, from the clutches of L.E.G.I.O.N. Of course things are not always easy so we set out in a third person adventure where we had to shoot some goons and search for a secret entrance in quite literally a garbage can. Well at leas that is where the hidden switch was to let us in.

Seeing as Agents Of Mayhem is only sharing a universe with Saints Row it is worth noting that the third person view and action here is nothing like we’ve had in the developer’s past titles. While it was a bit on the over-the-top style we would expect it also felt a bit more grounded if that makes sense. Think along the latest Saints title but with all of the super powers turned down and the gun play turned up. Agents Of Mayhem definitely focuses more there than anything else with the true insanity being unleashed when we activate the Mayhem Attack for which character we currently have active.

While each had their own very distinct attack the one that I kept going toward was Hollywood in this demo. His character felt to be the most balanced out of all four as his rate of fire and damage matched up perfectly and his Mayhem Attack felt like a true bonus and not just an extra. Seeing as these attacks have to be “charged” up over time you want a bit more bang for the buck and with Hardtack only pulling enemies in and Rama trying to leave a trap on the floor I felt that Hollywood’s action pack “Damage Everyone” move truly worked. It is all in early stages so maybe things will be worked out later or with other characters.

In terms of the overall story being told in the demo mission for Agents Of Mayhem, you can completely see Volition’s writing coming through again. In fact, without spoiling anything in case it is in the final build, this whole bit was a romantic comedy in terms of the story. Quite a bit like the fun that was in Gat Out Of Hell. You can see that they are taking their time to craft an amazing story in the background as well as some solid gameplay. I know I am ready for more and only wished that Agents Of Mayhem was slated for a 2016 release and not a 2017 one. Either way I am hopefully to see how it all progresses.