With every given installment, the Saints Row franchise continues to get more and more insane in nature. In the first three games, you battled gangs, and rose to power in the cities of Stillwater and Steelport. In the fourth, you become the President of the United States, and exact revenge on an alien overlord through a simulation that allows you to utilize superpowers. Quite the change of pace.
When it was announced earlier in the year, I was rather skeptical of the fourth installment of the franchise. It appeared to be taking things to an insane amount of ridiculousness, even more so than the third game. It also appeared to be rather visually similar to the third game, seeing as it was originally being developed as a DLC. Did the game itself manage to prove me wrong? Overall, I would say yes.
WHAT IS HAPPENING
The Good: Saints Row IV is a truly fun game at it’s core. It expands greatly on the somewhat disappointing third title, and creates a wholly satisfying experience overall. While the simulated Steelport can feel a bit lifeless, navigating it is a lot of fun with your superpowers, and when you consider the fact that there are over a thousand collectibles, and tons of side quests, you’ll be busy with this one for a long time.
Again, unlike the third game, the story here is actually rather good. I know that must sound preposterous when the story involves an alien race blowing up earth, and the hero saving the day through a computer simulation, but it genuinely is. The characters are all written well, the past three games are often revisited, and the humor in the game is ever present. It’s also chalk full of references, the biggest being the fact that the entire game could be seen as a pseudo-parody of the Mass Effect games. The nods to Streets of Rage and Transformers, among others, are also brilliantly done. I thought it was odd that the game was advertised as the “Final Conclusion” to the story, however, seeing as the ending was completely open ended.
The story is also a lot longer, and more fleshed out, than it was last time. While I still wouldn’t say it lives up to the depth of the fantastic Saints Row 2, it should take you over 20 hours to get all the quests done. Some fun new activities are added as well, my favorite being the platforming rift.
Destroy All Aliens!
The Bad: As I said earlier, the graphics in the game are rather similar to those of Saints Row 2. While the “simulated” Steelport is presented as a glitchy computer universe on purpose, it does feel rather lacking. what’s more is that the “50s Sitcom” world, used in a couple of missions throughout the game, is actually graphically superior to the regular old Steelport. Luckily, a feature is added to change the overall tone of the simulation. Unfortunately, it isn’t available until the end of the game.
The story, while good, also has a few inconsistent moments. Some characters from the third game simply disappear, never to be mentioned again. The explanation for the reason you became President in the first place is also rather lacking. It just feels like a bit more time could be put into the set up of the story. Speaking of the character’s status as President, it feels a little under utilized. You get the feeling that the story could be the exact same whether your character was president or not. It would have helped to add a few more choices, like those in the first mission, to the rest of the story, possibly with a Presidential theme. This would be a welcome addition, as there are barely any choices in the game at all.
Your crew is significantly smaller this time around.
The Ugly: Like the third game, several of the missions are again glorified tutorials and introductions to activities, even towards the end of the game. There are far too few actual storyline cutscenes, with none of the side quests having any, and several of the main missions lacking them. In fact, all the side quests are simply checklists of activities to do, making them feel rather generic and repetitive overall.
While the main two superpowers, running and super jump, are great for navigation, the others are lacking. Flying, Bone Claws, Wall Crawling, and Shape Shifting, among others, aren’t present. The powers we do get aren’t ever used for much in the real world but taking down enemies with shields, and uncovering data clusters (currency for upgrading your powers). Seeing as superpowers are one of the games main draws, it feels like a little more effort could have been put into them.
Another thing about the game I absolutely hated may seem like a minor detail, but was the absolute bane of my existence during my play time. When your character is low on health, an alarm noise goes off on repeat that is ridiculously annoying and agonizing to the point that it is almost hard to enjoy the game. The noise plays through cutscenes and character dialog, it never lets up, and it simply seems completely unnecessary. The worst part is that your user created character only needs to lose 50% of their health to trigger the noise of hell. When I was playing story missions, I often had to run off way into the distance just to heal up and make the noise stop.
The Romance System could have been a lot better.
While Saints Row IV is by no means a perfect game, its still guaranteed to be a lot of fun for you, especially if you’ve played the previous games and know the story well. The missions are creative, the storyline is funny and well done, and the world is fun to explore, if a bit underdeveloped. You might not like this title if you didn’t care for the last game, but if you consider yourself a fan of open world games, I would recommend you check this one out.
