Saints Row IV Review

Deep Silver/Volition Inc. 2013

Rated M

Review based on XBox 360 Version

My first experience with Saints Row was the second game, which was the first on the PS3. I only got to play the first game when I got my 360 earlier this year. Ironically, it's the only one of the four games I haven't finished yet. This may be because when you go backward on a game series, you realize that the first game is usually weaker than the newer ones. Just the idea that your character doesn't talk in SR1 and then basically won't STFU in the other games (they mention that in the new game, apparently your character was scared when he [male only on SR1] was scared speechless by Julius and Gat and the others]) kind of turns me off. But I had the same problem with playing the first Mass Effect after playing ME2 and ME3. But enough of my problem with playing games out of order, back to the review.

Saints Row IV may feel like an expansion pack to Saints Row the Third. Well, that's because it is. It's basically the same Steelport as the first, except that your cribs are gone, the Syndicate tower is replaced by a gigantic UFO, and there's gigantic platforms all over the city which you can super jump to (it's easier later in the game after you upgrade your powers). The story (which isn't really important in a SR game, but nonetheless) is that after you and the Saints prevented a nuclear attack on the US, ride that wave to become President of the United States. Well, at least you get to have a "name" in this game. Aliens attack the White House, and capture you and a large amount of your crew. The aliens put you in a simulation of Steelport and, well somehow you have to destroy the aliens in a series of missions inside and outside the simulation. Along the way, Earth is destroyed and Johnny Gat is still alive and your character has super powers like super jumps, firing icy and fiery projectiles and explosive ammo.

The game is still just as fun and practically insane as the previous games. But there are some annoyances. First off, once you get all these powers, the game becomes way too easy. I played it on Normal difficulty, but after I reached Level 25, you're basically invincible. Your notoriety also shrinks way too quickly once you play the game long enough and I was able to take 100% control of the city by Level 30, making notoriety useless since there are Saints everywhere. Kill one person, a cop shows up and five Saints shoot him before you can even shoot him. In normal circumstances, you can lose all your notoriety by chasing a "Golden CID" and destroy it. But at higher levels, the notoriety drops so fast, it's unnecessary. One time, I tried chasing it, and the notoriety disappeared, and so did the CID.

Mind you, none of the major DLC has been released yet. Maybe they'll have a way to keep the notoriety from dropping too quickly. I hope Volition will consider that.

I would give Saints Row 2 a A- and Saints Row the Third an A. I will give Saints Row IV a B+. This grade can be adjusted when all the DLC comes out (and the probable GOTY edition comes out). With GTAV coming out next week, hopefully Rockstar looked at the Saints Row games and I hope they remember to add some fun and goofiness in GTAV. Something I thought was lacking in GTAIV.