i'm still undecided about getting this game :/
Saints Row IV - great story, but too similar to 3?
Game Review | September 2, 2013 9:18 pm
By Meta
Developer: Volition, Inc
Publisher: Deep Silver
Genre: Open-world action
Subgenre: Third person shooter
Players: 1 local or 2 online coop
Rated: M for Mature (blood, intense violence, partial nudity, sexual content, strong language, use of drugs)
The Saints Row team is back with their fourth installment. Originally, the final piece of DLC for Saints Row the Third developed in to a standalone expansion called “Enter the Dominatrix” and was going to contain many hours of new story as well as new characters & items. The team working on it kept adding more content and eventually petitioned the publisher to make it a full-fledged sequel.
A lot of gamers took issue with the company seeming to add some filler to DLC in order to pass it off as a whole new game. Overall the presentation validates these complaints as the visuals and customization options make it apparent that the game’s running on the same engine as 3. The core gameplay takes place in Steelport, the same city as 3. Even some of the mini-games and challenge tasks are recycled.
Once you get a few hours in to the story Saints Row IV starts to come in to its own. The returning characters, including a villain-turned-ally, have changed and grown (in small ways - this IS still a Saints Row title), and there are a few new faces as well. I’ve read a lot of negative feedback about them, but I feel like the newbies fit in well with the rest of the cast.
Without spoiling anything that hasn’t already been shown in TV commercials and online ads, the big hook to SR4 is that your “boss” character has just been elected president of the United States and the Third Street Saints are filling up the White House, complete with their hideous purple gang attire. You don’t have time to enjoy the perks of the office, however, because aliens invade to abduct our best & brightest and annihilate everyone else. This sets up the first part of the gameplay hook as you have to retrieve Shaundi, Ben King and the others.
These “rescue” mission series are my favourite part of the game, as each one has its own unique flavor and are split up in to chunks so you can screw around the city between objectives. You revisit Steelwind in one, stomp around in a mech in others, and even get to experience the game as a 16-bit side scrolling beat ‘em up.
The other major new element to Saints Row is the addition of “super powers”—I can’t explain why without spoiling the story, but early on you are granted the abilities to sprint very fast and jump incredibly high. Not only are these and the other powers you receive fun to abuse, they vastly improve the process of getting around the city and from mission to mission. There are still plenty of vehicles, from cars and hummers to motorcycles, golf carts and can-shaped Saints Flow-mobiles, and the majority can be customized as much as or more than in 3. You can even commandeer alien ships.
Any vehicle you get in outside of task-specific ones can be quickly added to your “garage” with the d-pad then retrieved any time from your phone. Upgrades to your abilities and super powers are also handled via the phone, as well as a handy GPS for the map. “Homies” from your gang are available, as are the folks you have rescued so far, and you can call them in almost any time including in the middle of missions. Like the vehicles, though, you will probably not use your gang members much due to your super powers. On the normal difficulty, you quickly become a powerhouse and can eradicate swathes of enemies without even pulling out your guns.
This isn’t to say the gunplay is bad, though. The game uses a simple aim-and-shoot mechanic with heavy but optional aim assist that snaps to center mass of the target closest to your reticule. Besides the usual assortment of pistols, shotguns, SMGs and sex toys, you also get access to some fun & wacky alien weapons. There is a Singularity Gun that generates a black hole, showing off the game’s exaggerated physics nicely; there is also the lauded Dubstep Gun which drops the bass all over your enemies and is available in 3 different wubgenres.
+ The super powers are stupid fun!
+ Entertaining assortment of customizable guns & vehicles
+ The Penetrator dildo bat is back, and you can change it to glow bright blue!
+ Almost everything can be done in drop-in, drop-out coop online
+ Tons of hilarious references and easter eggs
- Good but not great visuals, no real improvement over 3
- Too many damn collectibles, despite the Collectible Finder
- Music selection not as good as 3’s
- Challenges & enemies become repetitive quickly
? You STILL can’t make a fully topless female character, despite the game having Shaundi’s Playboy cover and statues of fully nude chicks with three breasts
Saints Row IV gets an even 8 from me. The main story is very fun to play through, but I can’t score it any higher because of all the stuff that was already in SR The Third. The bottom line is that Saints Row IV is a fun & fresh experience for fans of the series, especially the third game. If you didn’t like The Third or felt like 2 was the pinnacle of Saints Row then this 4th game won’t change your mind and really will seem like bloated DLC.
If you haven’t played Saints Row the Third then you could compare IV to Crackdown or Prototype. If you liked either of those then you will really like this.
My save game showed 23 hours just before I started the final mission, but this included miscellaneous tasks and screwing around online in co-op. If you rush through the story it would probably take 10-12 hours. Right now I am around 96% completion which includes all the side quests and most of the challenges, plus rubber-banding the controller for a few hours, and my save file shows 39 hours.
Achievements come fast and easy in SR4—only the last few require some skill and time. You need to log 40 hours in the game, and you will have to get Gold in every challenge if you want the full 1000G.
Extras include 2 different avatar t-shirts and an armor outfit.
Rating: 8.0 of 10
Reviewed: Saints Row IV
Keywords: None
