Agents of Mayhem: Total Mayhem Bundle

Agents of Mayhem: Total Mayhem Bundle is an open-world, third-person action game from the creators of the Saints Row franchise. Players command a team of agents from the Multinational Agency for Hunting Evil Masterminds (MAYHEM) in a no-holds-barred operation against LEGION, a shadowy super-villain organization led by the mysterious Morningstar. The bundle includes the base game and a substantial collection of additional content, such as multiple agent packs, skin packs, and DLC, offering an expanded experience in the game’s futuristic setting.

Agents of Mayhem: Total Mayhem Bundle: A Requiem for a Franchise That Never Was

In the vast and often unforgiving landscape of video game history, certain titles are destined not for triumph, but to serve as poignant case studies. Agents of Mayhem: Total Mayhem Bundle is one such artifact—a comprehensive, post-mortem collection of a bold experiment that stumbled at the starting gate. It is the definitive, albeit somber, tombstone for a game that aimed to channel the anarchic spirit of Saints Row into a new superhero universe, only to find itself lost in the very open world it sought to conquer.

Introduction

From the revered, chaos-infused halls of Deep Silver Volition, creators of the legendary Saints Row franchise, emerged a new hope in 2017: Agents of Mayhem. It was pitched as a vibrant, over-the-top, open-world romp—a spiritual successor that promised to trade street gang warfare for globe-trotting super-spy antics. The Total Mayhem Bundle represents the game’s final form: the base experience bundled with a slew of post-launch DLC agent packs and cosmetic skins, a last-ditch effort to present a complete package after a tepid commercial and critical reception. This review posits that while the bundle offers a more substantial content offering, it cannot mask the fundamental design flaws and identity crisis that plagued Agents of Mayhem from its inception, cementing its legacy as a fascinating misstep from a beloved studio.

Development History & Context

Developed by Deep Silver Volition and published by Koch Media’s Deep Silver label, Agents of Mayhem was born from a desire to evolve. After pushing the boundaries of satire and absurdity to their logical conclusion with Saints Row IV and Gat out of Hell, the studio sought a new IP. Their vision was to create a contemporary take on classic cartoon-inspired action, like G.I. Joe meets The Avengers, filtered through their signature brand of humor.

The gaming landscape of 2017 was dominated by live-service models and sprawling open worlds, from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild to Horizon Zero Dawn. Volition aimed to carve its own niche within this trend. Technologically, the game was built on a modified version of their proprietary engine, capable of rendering a bright, comic-book Seoul, South Korea, but often criticized for its performance issues and lack of visual polish compared to its contemporaries. The Total Mayhem Bundle, released mere months after the base game in November 2017, was a rapid response to the game’s underwhelming launch, an attempt to package all available content—including the Johnny Gat, Lazarus, and Safeword Agent Packs, and numerous skin packs like Bombshells and Carnage a Trois—into a more attractive, value-driven product.

Narrative & Thematic Deep Dive

The narrative framework of Agents of Mayhem is its most tantalizing “what if.” Players command M.A.Y.H.E.M. (Multinational Agency Hunting Evil Masterminds), a counter-operative tasked with stopping the sinister LEGION (League of Evil Gentlemen Intent on Obliterating Nations) and its enigmatic leader, the Morningstar.

The premise is ripe with potential for Volition’s signature parody. The game attempts to skewer superhero tropes, corporate espionage, and Bond-like clichés. However, the execution falters. The story is delivered primarily through brief mission introductions and radio chatter, lacking the cinematic punch or narrative depth to truly engage. The characters, while individually designed with unique personalities (from the cowboy-esque Hardtack to the tech-genius Joule), often feel one-dimensional, their backstories relegated to optional audio logs rather than being woven into the core experience.

The inclusion of DLC characters like the fan-favorite Johnny Gat from Saints Row highlights a central thematic conflict: a reliance on past glory. While his addition is a welcome nod for veterans, it underscores the new IP’s struggle to establish its own iconic identity. The humor, a cornerstone of Volition’s success, feels more forced here—repeating quippy one-liners during combat that quickly lose their charm rather than building the clever, situational comedy of their previous work. The theme of chaotic good versus orderly evil is present but never explored with any real nuance, leaving the narrative feeling like a skeleton waiting for meat it never receives.

Gameplay Mechanics & Systems

At its core, Agents of Mayhem is a third-person shooter with a central gimmick: a roster of 12+ agents (expanded by DLC in the bundle), whom players can swap between in a trio during missions. This “character switching” mechanic is the game’s most innovative idea, allowing for on-the-fly strategy by combining different abilities, from frontal assaults to stealth and tech attacks.

The core gameplay loop, however, becomes relentlessly repetitive. Missions largely involve dropping into a district of Seoul, fighting through waves of identical LEGION clones in bland, copy-pasted interior environments, and completing simplistic objectives. The open world, while colorful, feels hollow and underutilized, serving more as a backdrop for travel between identical points of interest than a living city to explore.

Combat is serviceable but lacks impact. Gunplay feels floaty, and enemy AI is often rudimentary. While each agent’s unique special ability (Mayhem Legion) provides momentary spectacle, the core shooting never achieves the satisfying feedback of its genre peers. The progression system, involving upgrading agents and their headquarters, the Ark, offers a grind for resources but feels disconnected from any meaningful player advancement.

The Total Mayhem Bundle injects variety through added characters. Johnny Gat brings his signature dual pistols and brutal melee, Lazarus offers temporal manipulation, and Safeword provides support abilities. These additions are the bundle’s greatest strength, directly addressing the base game’s lack of gameplay diversity. However, they are Band-Aids on a deeper wound; they provide new tools, but the tasks you use them for remain fundamentally unchanged and uninspired.

World-Building, Art & Sound

The game’s setting in a futuristic Seoul is a refreshing departure from the typical American urban landscapes. The art direction embraces a bright, almost cel-shaded comic book aesthetic, with neon-drenched streets and towering skyscrapers. Character designs are standout, with each agent boasting a distinct, exaggerated silhouette and style, from Fortune’s sleek spy gear to Rama’s cyber-nun aesthetic.

Yet, this visual promise is betrayed by a world that feels static and lifeless. Pedestrian and traffic AI is minimal, and the city lacks the interactive chaos that defined the Saints Row series. It’s a beautiful painting, but you can’t touch it.

The sound design follows a similar path. The soundtrack features a pulse-pounding electronic score that fits the super-spy theme perfectly, and the voice acting is generally competent, if overly reliant on repetitive combat barks. The audio lacks the memorable, iconic personality of its predecessors. The world, in both sight and sound, presents a fantastic concept that never evolves beyond a shallow backdrop, failing to immerse the player in its reality.

Reception & Legacy

Upon its initial release in August 2017, Agents of Mayhem was met with a lukewarm-to-poor critical reception. Reviews consistently cited its repetitive mission design, hollow open world, underwhelming story, and failure to capture the magic of Saints Row. Commercially, it failed to meet expectations, a significant setback for Volition.

The Total Mayhem Bundle was a quiet, last-ditch effort to salvage value from the project, bundling all content for a higher price point. Its legacy is twofold. First, it stands as a cautionary tale about the challenges of launching a new IP, even for an established studio, especially one that seems to actively resist the very elements that made its creators famous. Second, its commercial failure directly impacted Volition’s trajectory, leading the studio to return to the safety of its established franchise with 2022’s Saints Row reboot—a game that itself faced an identity crisis, arguably influenced by the lessons, both learned and unlearned, from Agents of Mayhem‘s stumble. Its influence on the industry is negligible, a footnote in the history of open-world games that serves primarily as a reminder that style, without substantive gameplay and heart, is not enough.

Conclusion

The Agents of Mayhem: Total Mayhem Bundle is the most complete way to experience a flawed experiment. It offers more agents, more skins, and more content than the original release. Yet, it is the video game equivalent of putting a polished chrome bumper on a car with a faulty engine. The additional DLC characters provide welcome sparks of fun and fan service, but they are ultimately let down by the monotonous, repetitive structure of the game they are built into.

For completionists and devout Volition historians, the bundle represents a comprehensive archive of a curious dead end in the studio’s history. For the average player, it is a difficult sell. It is not a terrible game, but it is a profoundly mediocre one, a title that reaches for the stars of its own ambitions but trips over the constraints of its own design. Its place in video game history is secured not as a triumph, but as a fascinating, beautifully dressed misstep—a testament to the fact that mayhem, without heart, is just noise.