Ryan 'Razor Lined'
Agents of Mayhem is so full of clichés you wonder who the joke is actually aimed at. Yet another evil doctor (doctors really get a rough time of it these days) is looking to rule the world, so you, the good guys band together to flip the bird at his plans. Simples but oh so very familiar. It marks a somewhat more subtle approach to the open world game from Volition who are known for better or worse for being a tad unpredictable.
They have been responsible for inspired moments in gaming by bringing weapons such as the purple phallic bat (that seemed to jiggle a tad more than was necessary) and by comparison AoM is a slightly, and I emphasise slightly, more controlled approach to their back catalogue of madness. As a game its foundations are painfully average and only on closer inspection you might notice that in fact this average Joe is in fact wearing lacy stockings under his slacks.
In this more considered approach you always feels like you are in charge of what is happening, the master of your own demise. It is a pet hate when you feel a game is unfair and on that note this always makes you feel fully to blame for your failures. Your many stupid failures. It is not an always an easy game but by having many different difficulty settings it means that everyone can choose their experience be it a casual gamer or a sadist. Very much like the Saints Row games previously it is an enjoyable to just mess about and be a general nuisance to the NPC’s. I have passed many an hour exploring the world and trying to find the limits of the sandbox. Seoul is an interesting choice of locale with a mixture of classic oriental and futuristic western architecture filling not only the streets but almost touching the sky. Surprisingly with the addition of a double jump and a dash here and there the world has been designed well enough that you can scale almost everything in sight which upon discovery sent my OCD into overdrive. Combined with the collectibles which thankfully have value and purpose, navigating the city is much more involved and I never wished to have any form of fast travel and found myself favouring using my two feet rather than the cars available.
The visuals serve a purpose being adequate but not distracting as Mayhem is the name of the game here. When the enemy count ramps up the visuals hold up, running smoothly and meaning that the screen isn’t so busy that you cannot distinguish whats happening. This means that the game can push the enemy count, and your own reactions, as enemies can join the fray almost as fast as you despatch them and it is in these moments the game excels as dashing between bullets while countering with your own attacks is very rewarding once it clicks. Outside of the these moments the city as a whole while pleasant to look at is more about the variety of what is on screen rather than realism and for anyone who has played the previous games you will feel on familiar ground but not blown away.
In contrast to previous games the soundtrack to the carnage will not be familiar songs but instead provided by civilians cowering in fear, sirens from the emergency services who never seem to arrive anywhere strangely, and insults from those opposing you. It bears special mention that on more than one occasion while playing this game with headphones that I had to lift an ear to make sure the emergency services were not about to bust the front door in of my city centre flat. So well done on making me a paranoid wreck on occasions Volition, hope you feel happy with yourselves. I cannot help feel however that they missed a trick by not having a more musical presence to emphasise different moments of destruction, comedy or victory as although there is limited use of music these are too occasional to be effective.
One massive departure from previous games which came like a slap to the chops upon starting the game is when you realise there is no character creation, no voice options, no crude hand gestures and certainly no morbidly obese yet very feminine men. As a person who went into this on an impulse buy and the faith from enjoying the previous games this came as a big shock but ended up giving way to my biggest love about the game. By stripping away the character creation they have actually opened the door to being able to sculpt a group of interesting fully realised characters with back stories that could never happen if you were making your own character. Through the addition of voice actors for each agent and by being able to make each have their own unique weapons and forms of attach they have made the game feel fleshed out in a way that previous games have not.
It also means that as opposed to picking a sole character to play it is a case of three is the magic number as you build your team and find a play style that favours you. You can hot swap mid fight which lends a level of strategy and variety on a moment’s notice and when you combine that there are twelve playable agents with different skills and unlocks it combines to give a truly staggering amount of options in a game that I’ll be honest I wasn’t expecting to have that much depth in that department.
A good, if imperfect game, that will keep you entertained for hours if you can stop focusing on its massive ‘but’.
I have put myself at a heavy disadvantage purely to pick the characters that amuse which can only go to show how hilarious some of them are and just as soon as you have decided who your favourites are they go and give you more to confuse the issue. I have not found myself enjoying dialogue as much in a game since the Borderlands series and that is heavy praise. Not only in the story but while having a wee dander (or walk about if my funny words are confusing) and exploring characters will frequently start conversations out of the blue to reinforce that it’s ok to do a lot of not at all. In this post Nolan Batman era games have become a bit serious and gritty and AoM has been a welcome palette cleanser and a reminder that games can be silly and fun for no other reason than it fancies it.
Now just like any magazine these days with the Kardasians on the cover, here comes the but, and its a very large but indeed. AoM is solo only. I’ll just let that hang right there because as mentioned previously I came into this game naive and full of youthful lofty expectations of forming some crew of miscreants and cackling as we ran amuck. Well that idea got shut down real fast, and while there was the inevitable protruding bottom lip and stomping about the living room like a child who got books for Christmas (it’s a reference worth investigating trust me) I eventually let calmer thoughts prevail. In reality yes it is a solo game but would it have been better with others? Being totally honest I actually don’t know if it would have been. I think the games real genius comes from the dialogue and the ability to waste time like no other.
Solo you can appreciate the sly little nods to other material through Easter eggs, with special attention to the oft neglected Achievement pictures which are a movie buffs dream if you need some new wallpaper. If you take other people and drop those chattering monkeys over the top of what was the game’s best feature I feel you would make AoM seem very mediocre very quickly.
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