Awesome Music: The trailers featured covers of classic action TV show and movie themes like The A-Team or Flash Gordon (1954). They're just covers, but damn if they still don't sound badass.
Base-Breaking Character: Johnny Gat, once again. Fans of the character are naturally ecstatic to see him, but others are simply tired of the character showing up, in lieu of the perceived Character Shilling he's gotten in Saints Row IV and Gat Out Of Hell. Others still are a bit disappointed he's a DLC character and not just in the game to begin with.
Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Touching the pipe in the corner of Gremlin's office causes the game to temporarily be styled like a 1920s silent film.
The game drew contempt from some people for being a tangentially related Spin-Off of Saints Row rather than the direct sequel they wanted. Others welcomed the new story and gameplay elements as a refreshing change of pace.
Continuing a pattern that started with Saints Row: The Third, some fans embraced AoM for carrying on Volition's newer tradition of cartoonish and over-the-top whimsy, while others scorned the game and would have preferred a return to the early SR games' more realistic style.
The Morningstar is the mysterious leader of L.E.G.I.O.N and mastermind behind their atrocities. When L.E.G.I.O.N uncovers the power of Dark Matter, the Morningstar decides to go public with "Devil's Night", an event in which L.E.G.I.O.N's armies had entire cities wiped out across the globe, with an estimated millions left dead, and multiple governments toppled. The Morningstar secretly conspires with his underling Dr. Babylon to harness more Dark Matter that would grant the Morningstar godhood; his ultimate goal is to wipe out the world and remake it in his own image. When Persephone Brimstone defects and topples Morningstar's plans, L.E.G.I.O.N has Paris destroyed by her husband to punish her. Setting up Babylon's operations in Seoul, The Morningstar threatens him with execution for his failure, a promise he ultimately makes good on.
Dr. Babylon, real name Dr. Osman Timur, is the ruthless and ambitious head of the Ministry of Pride within L.E.G.I.O.N.. In charge of mastering Dark Matter for L.E.G.I.O.N.'s weapons, Babylon takes part in their numerous attacks, at one point mixing Dark Matter with a weaponized virus that was loosed onto India, infecting and killing countless innocents, with children and babies seen among his victims. When Babylon learns that one of his scientists is also working with the Ministry of Greed, Babylon kills said scientist and enslaves his daughter Ariadne with a microchip that drives her insane. Babylon seeks to extract a giant Dark Matter crystal for its power, and sends his lieutenants to distract M.A.Y.H.E.M. from his operations. With his plans finally ready, Babylon launches the attack on the city and on M.A.Y.H.E.M.'s Ark, and when he gets his hands on the crystal, Babylon goes on a final rampage to destroy and rewrite reality in his own image.
Demonic Spiders: L.E.G.I.O.N. Snipetroopers. They have fairly average stats, but their attacks are devastating even without back up troops supporting them. A single hit from them will likely take away all of a character's shields and about half of their hit points, even if the agent is at level 20 or higher. They also have a move that can temporarily bind the player's weapon, preventing any form of counterattack. Worst of all though, is the fact that these guys are common enough that they can show up in pairs or small groups in several levels and side activities. As if all that wasn't bad enough there are even a few outposts in the open world were they have set up shop that the player can easily overlook... right up until they get hit with a surprise attack from a nearby rooftop.
Designated Hero: While most of the Agents are definitely heroic and good, a few are only heroes due to L.E.G.I.O.N. being much worse.
Braddock was a rabid Drill Sergeant Nasty who abused the recruits she trained, which led to them defecting. Her idea of atoning for her misdeeds amounts to killing the exact same people she mistreated during her days in the Marine Corps.
On her Team mission, Fortune decides to release Hollywood's Old Shame Porn, implicitly because of some light ribbing she got from Hollywood, essentially tarnishing Hollywood's status as the Face of M.A.Y.H.E.M. in response to a bruised ego.
While Kingpin was able to peacefully unite the Vice Kings, Westside Rollerz, and Los Carnales, it's hard to ignore that he's the shotcaller for a massive street gang who profits off of morally questionable and highly illegal acts, including murder.
Johnny Gat would count if it weren't for the Cosmic Retcon that changed him from a mass-murdering psycho to simply a generic Cowboy Cop.
Lazarus, when combined with her Elite Legion Tech which, when added to the right gear, will cause drone clusters that time out or kill an enemy to instead move on to a different enemy. While this does cause her to be more of a Glass Cannon, since her clusters don't return and heal her unless there's no more enemies, she can easily wipe out any number of enemies. And that's not even mentioning Lazarus' Mayhem ability, which constantly releases clusters at random enemies, each of which has the exact same ability.
Pandering to the Base: Johnny Gat's return as a playable DLC character could be seen as this to those who don't really like him or think his status as The Ace and the unstoppable badass is getting tiring after Saints Row IV and Gat Out of Hell hyped him up.
Legion Outposts. More specifically, how Legion quickly manages to recapture them, taking away your sources of income until you go through the trouble of taking them back. The game was eventually patched to a 90 minute cooldown between Legion retaking each outpost, so you won't be recapturing outposts every time you return to Seoul, as well as making it so you don't have to repeat Relic's quests each time you recapture an outpost to maintain your income.
Even without comparing to the Saints Row games (in which starting from the third game, the vehicle handling are pretty good), the driving mechanics are annoying, since the cars handle sluggishly and are easily sent careening out of control by the lightest tap while enemy-driving vehicles are able to plow through buses and trucks. Being helplessly slammed into walls by L.E.G.I.O.N. cars that never have trouble catching you and being unable to attack while driving can induce controller-throwing bouts of rage.
They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Saints Row fans were calling the game a flop even before it was released, just because it wasn't a Saints Row game, despite being one. It's just that God retconned the universe. Not to mention that the story just about ended after 4, with the only remaining plots being time- and/or space travel.
Uncertain Audience: Many were left uncertain as to who the game was meant to appeal to. Saints Row fans generally disliked it, as it's a Spin-Off that continues with the off-the-rails direction of the previous two games and for not being recognizable as a game in the series despite ostensibly being one. It was also meant to appeal to Overwatch fans as a bright and colorful Hero Shooter, but Overwatch fans overlooked it for being single-player. The divisive nature of the game caused it to bomb in sales, and over 30 Volition employees were laid off just a month after release. It narrowly avoided being a Creator Killer or a Franchise Killer, as THQ Nordic acquired parent company Koch Media six months after release, and Volition announced a new entry in the series confirmed to be a Continuity Reboot.
, and over 30 Volition employees were laid off just a month after release. It narrowly avoided being a Creator Killer or a Franchise Killer, as THQ Nordic acquired parent company Koch Media six months after release, and Volition announced a new entry in the series confirmed to be a Continuity Reboot.