In your darker moments on the pub, you might have had your ear chewed off by a Charlie Brookerite mate who insists we, as players and partakers in geek tradition, are being infantilised by marketeers. They scratch our nostalgic itch for the popular culture staples of yesteryear and inform us it’s alright to be 30-year-old-kids, making grand gestures with their free hand whereas wanting wistfully off into the space. It was simple to shrug off on the time. And apart from, you’ve acquired that mortgage – you’re a grown-up. But then… Then you play Agents of Mayhem.
Agents of Mayhem most likely will not get into the best games of 2017, then.
The first thought that emerges as you tuck in to Volition’s faintly Saints-Row-flavoured hero shooter is that it is a sport for a youthful viewers. Gone are the intercourse toy melee weapons and executing wrestling strikes on passers by, changed by a toy-commercial plot about brokers in a secret base battling an evil scientist, and a simplified third-person run-and-gun design. There are retro-cartoon cutscenes. The humour is all about individuals saying “that’s not good!” within the face of rupturing reactor cores and gags about Uranus. Right – cool. It’s an motion shooter for teenagers.
But what’s this? All the brokers appear to be swearing at one another quite a bit. And, gosh, they’re in a position to mow down civilians of their vehicles willy nilly, even incomes factors for his or her Mayhem meters by doing so. And there’s the massive crimson ‘Pegi 18+’ ranking on the field. Probably ought to have appeared there first. So it’s an motion shooter for… who?
I’m nonetheless undecided. And to be clear, I’m not simply being sniffy concerning the Uranus gags. It’s the mechanical simplicity, the condescending design components, and above all, the endlessly repetitive construction of Agents of Mayhem that offers it the air of an expertise designed for somebody who hasn’t performed Grand Theft Auto earlier than. Or, for that matter, Saints Row. Simplicity itself isn’t a nasty factor, after all – Rocket League is easy, in any case – however in a misguided try to streamline and invigorate the open-world sport, Volition have as a substitute boiled away all however probably the most tedious components: go to the mission begin marker, go to the subsequent marker, kill the clearly indicated enemies with crimson arrows above their heads, proceed to the subsequent marker, repeat.
That’s a terrific disgrace, as a result of someplace in all of the equivalent corridors and purple explosions is an efficient sport. While it’s actually a beneficiant comparability, there’s a satisfying XCOM-like high quality to levelling up your Agents and kit again at your ARK HQ. The identical is true in relation to choosing whether or not to pursue an Agent mission – which reveals extra of that character’s backstory, or unlocks them within the first place – or ploughing on with the principle goal. Indeed, the ARK might be the very best factor concerning the sport. It is dwelling to all the sport’s finest characters: Quartermile the valuable Italian mechanic who’ll sometimes chastise you for reckless driving. Gremlin the disconcertingly chipper R&D engineer. Boss Persephone and her right-hand girl, Friday. And requisition retailer operator Relic. All of them include their very own areas which bristle with touches of persona.
These are memorable and usually likeable characters who outshine the playable Agents themselves, due in no small half to the truth that Agents are swappable, however don’t crew up in actual time. You hardly ever get to listen to any back-and-forth between them in consequence, and the swapping mechanic appears a wierd answer to the issue of translating hero shooters into the single-player realm. If you have been an evil overlord, how may you’re taking an outfit severely that employed 12 crack operatives however insisted on sending them in one by one?
Instead, you get to know them by means of well-made animations, in-engine cinematics, and mid-game radio banter with Persephone and the crew again at base. Still, even at that impersonal distance they’re a good bunch, by and huge. They’re likeably multicultural and genuinely assorted in what they create to a struggle. My private favourites, Rama and Braddock, turned many a genero-enemy into slurry with their bow and rifle, respectively, and made their motivations and aspirations crystal-clear proper from the beginning. Rama desires to remedy the plague in Mumbai, and Braddock’s out to kill all of the ex-soldiers she skilled who’ve since joined the dastardly Legion. Agents of Mayhem does a good job of taking part in with these motivations in its major plot arc, however it could have been attention-grabbing to see the Agents themselves work together extra as they argue about what to do subsequent, and why.
That stated, the levelling system works nicely to bestow a way of possession on the Agents you favour. In addition to their main weapon, every has a secondary assault, a melee, and a novel Mayhem assault, activated when the Mayhem meter has been stuffed up by acts of, nicely, mayhem. All of those are upgradeable in a roundabout way, and will be mixed with passive skills that ship your character down an more and more specialised path. Combined with a triple-jump and a touch, each Agent’s fairly lithe and fulfilling to command, however – and that is no small drawback – there’s nearly by no means something attention-grabbing to set them upon.
Mission design is totally dire. The identical construction is repeated advert nauseum, and it’s the identical one GTA III used. It doesn’t really feel thrilling to drive to a marker after which get out and kill some individuals the primary time you do it in Agents of Mayhem, and you’ll be completely sure it doesn’t whenever you do it for the 50th time, both. Despite your array of Agents, every with shut, mid, and long-range specialities, most enemies merely wait round so that you can begin attacking them, placing up the sort of struggle that might make a Star Wars stormtrooper ashamed whenever you do deign to start out firing on them. Those who current any extra problem accomplish that by way of larger well being bars and large damage-dealing floor pound assaults somewhat than smarts. Throw in some frustratingly rare checkpoints, and your enjoyment ranges are solely ever going to go a technique.
More peacefully, this is among the first video games with Nvidia’s Ansel help, which implies you may take 360-degree screenshots that may later be considered on VR gadgets. You additionally acquire free cam management when taking the shot, and you’ll render out a brilliant, tremendous high-res model at as much as 61Okay decision. Ansel is nice. Agents of Mayhem, nevertheless, just isn’t pushing the boundaries of constancy. It has a recognisable aesthetic – thanks in no small half to its copious use of the color purple – and its character design falls in step with what we’ve seen earlier than from hero shooters. The sport engine deserves credit score for dealing with large-scale destruction so nicely, too (Volition are the masterminds behind Red Faction in any case), however this isn’t the sort of sport to cease you in your tracks whilst you reverently murmur: “I have to screenshot this.” Neo-Seoul is simply too plasticky and underpopulated for that.
In the top, it’s a kind of ‘good game buried in here somewhere’ experiences. Tonally it’s all over, and its design might as nicely be from the darkish ages at this level. But there’s an alternate universe wherein the likeable, upgradeable Agents and gratifying gear-gating are as a substitute married to attention-grabbing, assorted missions and an atmospheric open-world. That is what it could have taken for Agents of Mayhem to shine, and probably the most weird factor about its precise execution is how intentionally Volition appear to have shot for mediocrity. This doesn’t really feel like a sport hampered by ineptitude, however as a substitute by a misunderstanding – or plain indecision – as to who it’s really meant for.
Verdict: 5/10
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