Believe it or not, it’s been a full nine years since Saints Row IV, and honestly, not much has changed (minus superpowers and alien invaders, obviously). Simply titled, Saints Row is a reboot of the series, with an all-new setting, new characters, and a fresh story, but still with the gameplay structure the property has been peddling since day one. is a mission-based third-person shooter set in a sandbox setting, but it’s a sandbox jump straight out of the PS3 era of open-world design.
As you progress through the main narrative, the map is covered in activity icons until a point where the map screen actually stops showing certain types of markers and moves them into their own separate tabs. Here in 2022, it comes across as overkill — a bloat that would make even Ubisoft titles blush. It somehow avoids padding.
Saints Row is at its best even when utter chaos unfolds. A particularly explosive main he can’t beat for tone, whether he’s on a mission or just trying to survive against dozens of SWAT teams. Like a comic book version of Grand Theft Auto, silly jokes and ultra-violence from start to finish.
It all starts with the game’s robust character creator. You have the freedom to create any killer anti-hero you want, and freely adjust your appearance at any time during gameplay. Your creation is the star, no matter who or what it is. In typical franchise fashion, your “boss” is brought up to be a natural killer — comically violent force of nature to set up their own gang, the Saints, during business hours. Blast through the criminal underworld.
Three of your best allies have joined you to conquer Santo Ileso: Eli the man of numbers, Neenah the dangerous driver and Kevin the shirtless muscle. As far as Saints Row characters go, they’re relatively down-to-earth, and it could be argued that they’re a little boring. It doesn’t really fuse, but it does make the boss stand out in all of its potential absurdity.
The story has some really great moments, but it all feels a little too fast. Most of the major plot points are dropped without warning, and you’re swiftly ushered from one narrative beat to the next via snappy cutscenes. It works out in the end — we felt pretty satisfied as the credits rolled — but there was definitely room for a more elaborate rag-to-riches storyline here. .
But the hunger for more story missions shows that the quality of the game has wavered when it comes to side activities. It’s the most feature-rich Saints Row to date, and while it’s some distance from the series’ biggest map, many of the activities feel like straight-forward, hectic work. The return excursion, which is like an insurance scam to throw yourself into oncoming traffic, is still a lot of fun, but completely masks the job of driving a truck carrying toxic waste. very slowly “Choplifter” missions to carry containers across the map or between locations. Wow.
It wouldn’t be too bad if these tasks were scattered around the city, but as I wrote earlier, here’s the map: covered by icon.sure you don’t Have But Criminal Ventures (or Criminal Ventures as they say in the game) is your biggest source of income, and you need that money to build more business and unlock the next story mission. To be clear, don’t go into Saints Row expecting detailed business management. Where you place which fronts is up to you, but that’s it.
Thankfully, the busy work is (mostly) made bearable by the title’s punchy gun-based combat and arcade-like driving mechanics. It feels good to play. A DOOM-esque system of performing brutal takedown attacks to restore health gives each battle a fun flow, and leveling up gives you access to a range of special abilities that can turn the tide of tricky encounters. In nearly every respect, Saints Row’s gameplay formula is a welcome evolution.
It’s worth mentioning that there are also plenty of accessibility options that exist alongside the standard difficulty settings. Can be remapped.
And do you know what is worth mentioning? It’s implemented especially well here, so please help. You can team up with another player online to play the entire game, main missions, etc. together if you want. As you can imagine, having another human as a clown gives Saints Row an extra comedic edge, albeit with some co-op-specific bugs. Progress made with friends carries over to his single player campaign and vice versa.
Visually, on the other hand, Saints Row is clearly the last generation. It’s not ugly at all, but it certainly doesn’t look good either. The character models are very basic, the NPCs in general are particularly bland, and the game’s graphical options leave much to be desired. You can opt for a very muddy 1080p locked 60 frames per second for performance on the PS5, or 1440p with a framerate targeting 60, but it has a bad habit of dipping at 30fps. , you can push the resolution up to 4K, but for very action-heavy titles, half the frame rate is turned off. But hey, desert sunsets are lovely. Dramatic lighting is definitely one of his strengths in the game’s graphics.
Conclusion
Saints Row can sometimes feel dangerously outdated in terms of open world design, but it’s a hugely successful reboot. Its story and characters are hit and miss, but the fun gameplay and sweet sense of humor make the experience. Despite the new face, Saints Row will definitely remain Saints Row. probably Better.
