Agents Of Mayhem

Volition returns to the open world, but leaves the Saints behind.

You can pinpoint the exact moment the Saints Row series redefined itself. Once barely more than a GTA clone, Saints Row: The Third saw Volition swap gangbanging for a frequently silly satire on celebrity culture and violence. In the opening mission, The Boss jumped out of a helicopter towards a penthouse full of corporate goons, backed by Power – Kanye West’s ironic ode to fame and notoriety. The new direction was brash, confident and revelled in excess. It felt right. Skip forward to Saints Row IV, and The Boss was the President of the USA, fighting aliens in VR after the destruction of Earth. After that, Volition was always going to have an escalation problem. Hence Agents Of Mayhem. There’s a canonical link if you want one, but Agents Of Mayhem isn’t Saints Row. This is, after all, a game in which no one man does have all that power. Instead, your potential abilities are spread across 12 characters.