Agents Of Mayhem Review: 3 Ups & 7 Downs

Of all the franchises that took a shot at the king, Saints Row wounded GTA more than most.

Though the original felt like Volition taking Rockstar's base template and imitating it to a fault, Saints Row The Third was an outstanding achievement. Delivering a hilariously biting, satirical take on the open-world crime genre, it reminded us of that older, 'goofier' GTA charm, yet in the process of expanding down down the zany route, Volition would go one step too far with the almost incomprehensible Gat out of Hell.

Flash-forward a couple of years and we have Agents of Mayhem; a new IP that takes the superpowers of Saints 4/Gat out of Hell and builds an entire game around them.

Gone are the multi-layered mission structures comprising mini-games, driving sections, the occasional collectible and tons of gunplay with huge amounts of weapons, and in is a focus on grinding. Grinding to unlock upgrade points, core abilities, skins, schematics and more. Grinding to accrue multiple currencies and to alter everything from meter burn times to the radius of your grenades.

Still, there's a sense of propulsion to seeing so many bundles of cash, collectible components and high-contrast explosions popping off in quick succession - it's just a shame that's quite literally all there is to Agents of Mayhem, once you start getting critical.