A bit of a disclaimer. I placed myself on a media blackout for Saints Row 4. It felt odd doing this, I wasn’t a huge fan of the first two Saints Rows, and the 3rd was fun but it wasn’t exactly an award winning story. However my media blackout had nothing to do with story or narrative, it had everything to do with no-holds-barred awesome. The appeal of the 3rd to me was just how the game kept topping itself with humor and missions and just pure fun at every corner. That’s what I had to do with 4, preserve that surprise, let the event that is the game unfold in front of me. I’d recommend the same for you and thus if you’d like to avoid spoilers, jump straight to the end of this article, read the summary and score, then leave.
The fourth installment of the series picks up exactly where the 3rd left off, topping itself by any means necessary. The Saints are now, somehow, terrorists hunting soldiers cooperating with MI6. You track down an old friend from the previous game, they launch a nuke and you, the Boss, naturally climb up the side of this missile rocketing towards Washington D.C. with Aerosmith blasting in the background to disarm the warhead.
Then you get the presidency.
The game doesn’t let up from there. Things escalate quickly with the game depositing your from one wild messed up scenario to the next like an overexcited little kid at an amusement park.
Once things settled down a bit I was back in good ol’ Steelport from Saints Row the Third… Sorta. I have to say this is the first time in a long time I’ve felt like I was playing a true open world game. The last time would be Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. But where San Andreas just had loads of activities, Saints Row 4 takes the approach of “Do what you want, when you want to, where ever you want.” Steelport is open to you right away, want a car? Grab it and save it anywhere. Call it up whenever you like. Drive around Steelport forever… But why would you want to?
Soon after you realize the map and a few small extras are open to you right off the bat, you get superpowers. Essentially Steelport is now the Matrix, and you’re its stubborn psychotic Neo. Run faster than a speeding bullet, leaping buildings in a single bound. These two abilities by themselves, having no upgrades available yet for either, had me engaged for a good 45 minutes of the game. I simply used my new found powers to screw around, see how high I could climb or how many pedestrians I could super punch into oblivion. I wasn’t progressing the story but I was having fun.
The gameplay model is relatively simple. Your Saints have all been locked away in their own digital prisons, a simulated hell, and it’s your job to get them back. The simulations your homies are trapped in make for some solid nostalgia trips back to events that occurred in previous games… or occasionally in other games entirely. While a newcomer can still jump in and play, you’ll find yourself getting a bit more out of the rescue missions if you’re familiar with the previous franchise installments. What was particularly cool for me in playing these throwback missions is they didn’t just recreate events, the missions themselves felt like something out of the game they were honoring. As big as powers are in this game, Volition also knows when to strip you of them to provide a bit of a challenge and to add to the nostalgia bomb. From missions to help Shaundi get high in Saints Row 2 to the missions fighting the Deckers in a Tron-like universe in Saints Row 3, the mechanics, aesthetics and story did a great job of planting me back into those moments.
Then there’s the loyalty missions. Again, taking aspects of the previous games and injecting it into the new the loyalty missions will result in your Saints getting superpowers (and often add a unique homie to your list of folks who can be called up). Saints Row 4 is at its core a love letter to the previous 3 games, while bringing something fresh to the table all on its own. The superpowers alone make for a unique, new experience and allow for some very awesome boss fights. If superpowers aren’t your thing the game also gives you a lot of other toys in the form of its vaguely sci-fi related guns, from inflate-o-rays to black hole generating rifles. I’ll be honest I didn’t use a whole lot outside of the dubstep gun, why would I when I could drop explosive beats and force everyone to pop lock?
I didn’t mind the fact that they reused assets or layouts from previous games since the change in mechanics not only allowed me to see Steelport in a new light, but probably would have been a disservice to any map built from the ground up. You’ll be spending so much time on rooftops, or eager to see your homie’s next personal hell, that you’re not missing a whole lot on the ground level of the city.
And did I mention the soundtrack? Saints 4 takes everything the 3rd did in using licensed and ambient music to powerful effect, and makes it better. You can now customize guns, and if you’re a little bored you can romance homies on your ship. All of them. Except for Keith David, he broke my heart.
Unfortunately the title isn’t without its problems. You’ll quickly realize the side missions in this game are little more than homies having you run around, clearing optional events you may ignore otherwise. Sometimes the reward is worth it, an upgrade to a superpower or new weapon perhaps, other times you might get a costume or a game mechanic adjustment that doesn’t feel worth all the effort. Clearing these missions does provide achievements, but not much in the way of originality in the same way the rescue or loyalty missions.
A few of the events also aren’t quite as fun as Volition seems to think they are. One example is the inclusion of telekinesis and a good number of events being centered around it, the mechanics just aren’t tight enough to fully service the event, and so a few of these side quests such as the ones that required telekinesis to do massive amounts of damage felt more like a chore than fun.
Then there’s the game glitches. The glitches can quite literally stop the game cold. From either having your Saint glitch through a building and be stuck in an eternal jump, or just altogether locking up. Now I haven’t encountered them that much, and the autosave function does a lot to help prevent any major data losses, but it is a joy kill to be flying across the city and just have the game flat out freeze up, this alone is cause to knock the score down, because there’s no use in having a stellar game if you run the risk of not being able to play it. Also as an fyi my copy was played on the Playstation 3.
In summation, Saints Row 4 is overall a pretty great ride. The music and aesthetic make it feel like playing a nonstop rave, the various computer simulations and loyalty missions are where the game truly shines, and this game really pushes fan service to the limits in terms of nostalgia and self referencing complete with a story that can be genuinely interesting at times. The gameplay is overwhelmingly fun, though the design in a few misguided events will have you cursing Volition. It would be a better game if it weren’t for the glitches, and the side missions are mostly uninspired. All in all I would say this is a must for Saints Row fans, and a strong recommend for anyone else.
