Worth: $14.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
NA
Intro:
Agents of Mayhem is a slight, goofy good time that offers colour and movement but it’s unlikely to leave a lasting impression.
Your enjoyment of Agents of Mayhem really boils down to one question: are you a fan of Saturday morning cartoons? As a youngster – or, hell, a full grown person – did/do you thrill to the slightly generic, safe violence of G.I. Joe, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or The Transformers? If no, then Mayhem will cause you to roll your eyes and sigh loudly, a lot. If yes, then we have much to discuss.
Agents of Mayhem is set in a futuristic Seoul, South Korea. MAYHEM is actually an acronym for Multinational Agency Hunting Evil Masterminds, and it’s up to you – playing as twelve different heroes (fourteen with pre-order) – to stop LEGION aka League of Evil Gentlemen Intent on Obliterating Nations.
If the above paragraph sounds like insane nonsense to you, congratulations – you are correct. Agents of Mayhem is a powerfully silly story, but where it shines is with the heroes themselves. You can team up said protagonists into groups of three and switch them on the fly. Personally I enjoyed a team consisting of Daisy the alcoholic derby girl with a Gatling gun, Oni the insane, serial-killing former Yakuza who fights with fear and a silenced pistol and Braddock, a tough-as-nails former military lady who brings the pain and airstrikes. However most combinations can be effective, and unlocking each of the new characters and experimenting with them is a great deal of fun. The variety of characters you can choose from is such that even if you find half a dozen of them annoying – and you will probably will – there are likely just as many you’ll kind of dig.
The first ten or so hours of AOM are fantastic, you’ll unlock characters, defeat boss enemies, investigate underground bases and slowly take Seoul back. The problem is at around the halfway point the game stops evolving in any meaningful way. It’s still fun, mind you, but the repetition becomes a little deadening after a while and Volition’s trademark humour becomes less edgy and more annoying-younger-brother-on-a-sugar-high as time goes on.
Enemy variety is also a little disappointing, as you end up fighting the same faceless, generic robo-soldiers over and over. If one were to be particularly kind one might suggest it’s a knowing homage to the cartoons that pulled similar crap in the 1980s, but even if that’s the case it still doesn’t make it any more engaging.
Those caveats aside, Agents of Mayhem is a lot of dumb fun. The run-and-gun gameplay is an absolute joy and triple jumping around the huge (albeit somewhat lifeless) map never stops being a blast. Like the disposable Saturday morning cartoons it seeks to emulate, Agents of Mayhem is a slight, goofy good time that offers colour and movement but it’s unlikely to leave a lasting impression.
