Saints Row: The Third - Remastered (PS4, XB1, PC) Review

I'm running out of time for the month of June, so it's time to kick it into high gear with the review backlog I have this month. Let's begin with Saints Row: The Third - Remastered, my third go with this particular entry in the Saints Row series. Is this remaster of such a high quality that it's worth taking a return trip to Steelport? Like the Saints, let's go marching into the SuperPhillip Central review!

The third time's the charm for the Saints' third entry

I'm no stranger to the Saints, in particular, Saints Row: The Third. Having reviewed it on the PlayStation 3, the Nintendo Switch, and now the PlayStation 4 build of a brand-new remastered version, I've been around Steelport a few times now. Despite the series's flagrant juvenile sense of humor and moments that occasionally bring a cringe to my face, there's something about the open world sandbox gameplay of Saints Row: The Third that keeps me coming back for more.

Saints Row: The Third - Remastered is hardly a "tighten up the graphics on level 3" and call it a day effort. No, between the much more defined and detailed characters and environments, the Saints and Steelport have never looked so good. It almost seems like the developers undersold their own tech giving the game a "Remastered" title when it feels sometimes like a full-fledged remake. While the beauty of the game is a bit of a bittersweet thing, underneath its flashy veneer is a game full of retained bugs and occasional frame-rate issues.

Compare and contrast the top screen (on Switch) to the bottom (on base PS4).

While Saints Row: The Third - Remastered has been greatly changed visually, it remains a very similar experience to its original release back in 2011 with regard to gameplay. Aiming at targets can be a bit troublesome, as can the less than stellar driving controls. There's definitely a learning curve to both. As mentioned, various and numerous bugs and glitches plague the game, whether they be characters falling through the environment and other gameplay-related issues, trophies not popping up, or worse, game crashes. Still, it says something about this remaster and Saints Row: The Third in general that even with these bothersome issues, I still felt the urge to continue playing, seeing myself enjoying my time with the Saints again regardless.

The Deckers are but one of three rival gangs ready to get in the way of the Saints' Steelport domination.

Your character in Saints Row: The Third is yours to customize how ever you wish. The Saints Row series delivers one of the most robust character creation systems in gaming, to my recollection, and everything from voice to brow size to... ahem... sex appeal, can be altered to your liking. As you earn respect from completing missions, performing insane stunts and otherwise awesome feats, you unlock new abilities for your character to purchase for themselves. These range from more ammo capacity, lowered vulnerability to weapons and hazards of various types, higher health and stamina, and an increased amount of Saints members that can tag along with you at once, to name just a small sample of the abundant amount of options available.

The Third Street Saints are number one, baby!

Saints Row: The Third - Remastered as a game, much like the Saints, is one of excess, and Remastered delivers content in spades with all three DLC packages in one nice and neat game. If you recall, the Nintendo Switch port also had these missions in the game right from the start, but with this fully remastered version, you get all that and some gorgeous graphics as opposed to visuals from the early 2010s. These missions take you from encounters with Genki, a bloodthirsty mascot who puts the leader of the Saints through death-defying stunt mini-games, to being an unassuming actor in a crazed director's big blockbuster project about gangsters in space, appropriately called "Gangsters in Space".

It's no Ben-Hur chariot race, but this is one intense vehicular exchange all the same!

Aside from the DLC missions, there are the standard missions within Saints Row: The Third's story that sees the game opening up with the Saints robbing a bank in a caper gone awry, as things are never easy when it comes to the Saints. A rival gang sees that the Saints are arrested for their ill-fated heist and they are thrust into the unknown, the sin-soaked metropolis of Steelport, where the Saints must rebuild their empire from scratch. Of course, the three large gangs of Steelport won't lie down and die so easily. Missions in Saints Row: The Third follow a similar prototype to that the series's clear inspiration, Grand Theft Auto, though Saints Row's third outing has no qualms with going absolutely insane with the stakes and ridiculous scenarios throughout the story.

Yeah... this definitely was not in the whole foolproof "rob the bank vault" plan.

When you're not tackling story missions, there's a host of side hustles and activities to partake in--from purchasing properties, to clearing gang operations strategically sprinkled around Steelport, each piece of side content slowly gives the Saints more of the city to take over. These side hustles also provide the Saints with an hourly cash flow which can be accessed from a helpful phone, which is also used to select missions, assassination targets, vehicle theft targets, as well as to access a map of Steelport. It's a handy and dandy phone, which makes a lot of the work in Saints Row: The Third less tedious to do.

Speaking of tedium, the side activities in Saints Row: The Third - Remastered range from fun to utterly obnoxious with a mix of boring within. It's certainly a blast both figuratively and literally to commandeer a tank and unleash as much destruction and property damage as possible in a set amount of time, while it's more agonizing to deal with a dimwitted AI who seems suicidal in both their driving and their moving about when it concerns the Trafficking missions. Then, there's the Heli Assault side activity, which thankfully there are but two, and these drag on a little too long and can see the health of the AI character you're meant to protect as they proceed to make various deals around Steelport, dwindle to absolutely nothing in a flash. This results in multiple minutes of playtime wasted in a frustrating fashion.

Side activities are mostly optional affairs, offering various rewards for completing them.

Still, there are far more fun moments in Saints Row: The Third - Remastered than there are frustrating or yawn-inducing ones. Laying the smack down in a ring full of Luchadores, taking on the appearance of a villain via plastic surgery to infiltrate an enemy base, and saving the day after an ultimate, ultra-important, in-game choice as the song "I Need A Hero" by Bonnie Tyler blares show just some of the crazy silliness that Saints Row: The Third - Remastered exudes. These are the entertaining and enjoyable moments that the game produces on a frequent basis.

Saints Row: The Third - Remastered may not have evolved too much in the gameplay department, but what it has done is more than market itself well as a remaster, looking phenomenal at times. Much of the humor is dated and beyond juvenile, but there is some good stuff that gave me a giggle here and there. If you're sick of Steelport and the Saints' adventures therein, this remaster is not going to do anything to sweeten your opinion on the fictional city, but for those who want to jump in for a first, second, or--like me--a third time, then Saints Row: The Third - Remastered is a great game and excellent effort.

[SPC Says: B]

Saints Row IV: Re-Elected (NSW) Review

We're deep in the month of April, and there was no sign of the month's first review. Until NOW, that is! Saints Row IV: Re-Elected launched on the Nintendo Switch at the end of March, and now I have my full review right here on SuperPhillip Central.

The infamous Saints crack down on an otherworldly threat

In 2013, Saints Row IV took the Grand Theft Auto-inspired series and changed things up considerably, taking the wackiness dial, turning it up past 11, and essentially ripping that dial off in the process. Now, Saints Row: The Third already was off the wall as it was, but Saints Row IV somehow went even further down the rabbit hole. I mean, what else you can say about a game that starts with the Saints leader as the President of the United States, an alien invasion, and being abducted by said aliens and placed into a horrific simulation of the city of Steelport?

Make no mistake--this is certainly the Saints Row series at its most insane. (Until perhaps Saints Row V!)

In this simulation of Steelport (yes, the same map from Saints Row: The Third is used in this sequel, though with some obvious and not-so-obvious alterations), you are not bound by the laws of the real world. After all, it's virtual, so as you gain new powers and abilities through story progression, you're able to kick alien ass and anyone else who gets in your way with style and just all-around flat-out awesomeness. I'm talking about powers like the ability to sprint with insane speed, fly in the sky, as well as unleash bursts of ice to freeze foes and fire to conjure up some explosive results. Then, there's my personal favorite of the bunch: telekinesis, offering the ability to pick up enemies and objects and launch them into the air with reckless abandon.

The various superpowers the Boss acquires make traveling around Steelport quite entertaining.

At the beginning of Saints Row IV, you'll be utilizing vehicular modes of transportation to get around and weak weapons with limited ammo. However, as you progress the story and clear side mission, you'll unlock those previously mentioned super-powered mobility options, and a sizable amount of money that can be spent on new guns and upgrades for those guns--great for gearing them up increased firepower, ammo size, and reload speed, for example. Cars become irrelevant rather quickly and a bit of a nuisance when you're forced to drive them in certain missions since running around at super speeds and leaping high up into the air to descend across the skies of Steelport is a much more enjoyable way to get around the simulation. This is especially so when you get the ability to spend money on upgrades for your character and their powers.

When you're able to soar across great expanses, somehow a car doesn't have the same level of fun to it.

Like previous Saints Row games, you get the ability to spend money to unlock upgrades. These come in the form of increased stamina, higher health, faster health recovery, invulnerability to fire and explosions, and on, and when it comes to superpowers, greater range of abilities and faster cooldown times so you can unleash your attack-oriented superpowers with greater speed or with mobility-oriented superpowers, jump higher and run faster. Thus, you can naturally see why riding around in a car isn't as exciting as perhaps picking up that car with telekinesis and plowing it directly into one of alien leader Zinyak's extraterrestrial goons.

The perpetually dark tones of the Steelport simulation grow tiring after a couple dozen hours of playing.

Similar to upgrading your fully customizable character, Saints Row IV's menu also offers the means to select missions. Most of the story-related missions revolve around reassembling the Saints crew from simulations based on their own personal nightmares. While Pierce's has you fending off killer Saints-branded soda can mascots, including a Godzilla-sized one, newcomer Asha's nightmarish simulation plays out like a mission of Metal Gear Solid, complete with hiding in cardboard boxes to slip past dim-witted soldiers. When you're not completing missions centered on the story, you're tasked with completing side missions, but unfortunately, most of these simply task you with completing side activities like Mayhem-style demolition fests, timed checkpoint races using your super sprint and other mobility-concentrated superpowers, and assassination-based missions.

It's a parade of mass-murdering Genki mascots. Just your typical evening inside the simulation.

To be fair, though, from the many (and I do mean MANY) side activities available to you from the ones mentioned and others like finding and destroying Zinyak's statues of his narcissistic self, hacking stores in a "Pipe Dream" video game-like fashion, and retrieving vehicles and getting them back to a chop shop in one piece, they do give fun rewards. From killer mechs (excuse me--"power suits") that you can add to your arsenal to guns that bounce bullets from one target to the next as well as guns that spawn black holes, sucking up anything and everything in their paths (including you), the unlockables on display in Saints Row IV are just as wacky as the premise and concept of the game itself.

Yes, there's still some Grand Theft Auto-like aspects to the simulation of Steelport, but overall, Saints Row IV plays more like Sony's Infamous series or Microsoft's Crackdown series than a typical GTA clone, which could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how much of a fan you are of either style. What I can say is that Saints Row IV is definitely a drastic departure compared to the more classic, grounded era seen in Saints Row and Saints Row 2. Though, that's not to see it's a total departure story-wise, as Saints Row IV makes myriad references and allusions to past games, including story missions that take some classic missions from past games and puts a unique twist on them.

In the immortal words of Steve Urkel... "Did I do that?"

I can't say that Saints Row IV isn't dated as a game, but I don't mean in the most obvious of departments--its gameplay. Yes, of course, shooting still feels sloppy--which isn't helped by the Switch controller's smaller analog sticks (though gyro support does assist a little)--and lots of other elements of the game's design come off as relics of a bygone era in 2020. For me, though, it's all the movies references and a fair portion of the humor that I couldn't help but give a cold shoulder. At its worst, the crude humor and blatant immaturity were greeted with nothing but an eye roll from me instead of what the writers wanted from me, a laugh or even a smile. However, that's not to say there aren't elements of Saints Row IV's humor that kept me straight faced. When the game lets loose and gets at its most self-deprecating, it's legitimately a funny game. There's just all that other nonsense you have to sit through to get to it.

This alien should have thought twice before going to the Boss for his spine realignment.

You might be wondering why throughout this review of Saints Row IV: Re-Elected that I've just now called the game out by its full name instead of just "Saints Row IV". Well, there's a very good reason for that. The "Re-Elected" part of Saints Row IV is meant to feature DLC. However, thanks to a bug/glitch/error/whatever, the Switch version currently cannot access all of the DLC owners of Nintendo's hybrid system and this game were promised. Oopsy-daisy! Thus, really, all the Nintendo Switch has is the vanilla version of Saints Row IV with modest improvements and the occasional software crash. Not optimal.

Still, there's no denying that while some aspects of Saints Row IV are indeed dated, it remains a blast to speed through Steelport's streets, running up walls, leaping over tall buildings in a single bound like Superman, soaring through the sky, and unleashing your superpowers all over Zinyak's intergalactic army. It's some of the most fun I've had moving around an open-world setting. Though the currently MIA DLC is a drag and a downer, the devs are currently looking into a fix. Saints Row IV: Re-Elected was a pleasing power fantasy, but it won't be earning a second term on my Nintendo Switch any time soon.

[SPC Says: C+]

Saints Row: The Third - The Full Package (NSW) Review

Saints Row: The Third - The Full Package launched a little bit ago on the Nintendo Switch, giving Nintendo players a taste of the Saints Row series for the first time. A Nintendo 3DS game was in development early in the system's life, but that game never did live to see the light of day. Now, after all this time, Saints Row is on a Nintendo platform, and here's the SuperPhillip Central review of the third installment's Switch version.

The Saints go marching in onto the Nintendo Switch.

Up until Saints Row: The Third, the Saints Row series and Rockstar's own Grand Theft Auto games took a slightly serious approach to the open world, crime story formula. With the third installment of Saints Row, developer Volition opted to diverge from the serious route, going with a decidedly zanier and more ridiculous approach. No longer was the series rooted in reality--quite the opposite, in fact. Now, Saints Row: The Third reaches the Nintendo Switch with all of its previous separate DLC included right on the cartridge with Saints Row: The Third - The Full Package. You get everything you could ever want out of Saints Row's third entry, including some added problems.

You play as the fully customizable leader of the Saints gang, who since Saints Row 2, are now a gang of fame, literal celebrities in crime. They have their own comic book, their own series of clothing stores, and even a sports drink! The city of Steelport is the new setting for Saints Row: The Third, and every gang in the area wants to dominate it for themselves--from a highly computer-literate gang of Goths to a gang of steroid-crazed Luchadores. 

When the Third Street Saints go marching in, you know things are about to go down.

Starting out in Saints Row: The Third, the Saints are at a disadvantage. Streets are full of unfriendly faces, and the Saints' claim to Steelport is limited at best--and that's putting it nicely. Through completing missions--both story-related and optional--as well as purchasing properties with hard-earned money, the Saints slowly can stake claim in more of Steelport. It's pretty cool to chart the Saints' progress of claiming Steelport, with the gang just having a meager crib to work with at first, and then by the end of the game being able to control all of the bustling metropolis. 

Whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do when they come for you?
Apparently start a shootout with Steelport's finest!

Saints Row: The Third - The Full Package comes packed with content, as its secondary subtitle alludes. In the base game alone, there is plenty of activities to participate in and enjoy. There's, of course, the story-related missions, but there's also the immense lineup of side activities. I'm talking about activities where you destroy as much as possible on foot or in a friggin' tank, escorting a capable AI partner to their various drug deals, assassination missions, vehicle thefts, running into traffic to commit insurance fraud, destroying gang operations, finding money pallets, blow-up dolls, and drugs scatted around Steelport, and even an activity where you carefully drive around in a convertible with a very hungry tiger in the passenger seat. 

That laser beam is a bit too close for the leader of the Saints' liking.

Additionally, the DLC missions that come included in The Full Package feature three different side stories, such as following the trail of a cloned, hulking Johnny Gat, starring in a movie shoot with real life dangers, and participating in a murder-friendly game show where you perform dangerous tasks like rolling a giant ball of yarn while causing as much destruction as possible and blazing through the sky as you pass through rings and murder costumed mascots for money. 

Yes, those are zombies. (I told you this third installment got quite a bit zany.)

The Full Package on the Nintendo Switch offers two more modes for players as well--the game's version of a Horde mode ("cleverly" called Whored Mode), where you try to survive as many waves of enemies as possible, in addition to co-operative play for the campaign. The latter is available for online or local play, which requires each player to have their own Switch (unfortunately, there's no split-screen option to speak of). 

This luchador just got dunked on.

Saints Row: The Third - The Full Package received a "Day One" patch (I put that in quotation marks because the patch was delayed to a week after release), which made a buggy and near broken Nintendo Switch version of the game much more playable. I'm pleased with the overall quality of the game post-patch. The frame-rate is passable, but it can very much fluctuates in a noticeable manner at times--particularly when the action picks up and the screen is overloaded with enemies and explosions. The video capture function of the Switch for Saints Row: The Third is pretty useless as well, because it takes the footage of the game and turns it into a slide show frame-rate-wise. It's honestly much worse than what you have in the actual game.

Steelport has seen nicer nights, as evident by the billboard
 on the right not fully loading in until you approach it closely.

The controls of Saints Row: The Third work well enough save for one issue I've picked up on. Trying to sprint by holding down the R button doesn't always work. It seems eight times out of ten your character will actually starting running, but the other two times nothing will happen. It's pretty frustrating when you're at dangerously low health and the game won't register that you're hitting the sprint button. Other than that, vehicles take some getting used to and don't have the tightness of control that I would like--but that was an issue with the original Saints Row: The Third and not a new issue with this Switch version.

G...Gah. I-I'm sorry I called you "Baldy McSteroids."

In many ways, Saints Row: The Third is a product of its name, quite dated. This isn't just relegated to some design, presentation, or control-related features either. Perhaps now that I'm older and wiser, I find some of the humor and content in the game just reprehensible and juvenile when back when the original game released I found it amusing and entertaining. There are just flat out many moments in this Nintendo Switch run of Saints Row: The Third that I was just embarrassed and sometimes simply uncomfortable to be playing through them. 

And yes, those are guys in gimp gear pulling carriages in this chase sequence.
...No further comment.

That aside, as long as you know that Saints Row: The Third is very dated in many gameplay ways as well as some cultural aspects, you'll find that it's a really enjoyable GTA clone. It's one that's not afraid of having fun and not taking itself so seriously. (Though, again, some moments shine brighter than others.) With Saints Row: The Third - The Full Package, Nintendo Switch owners have a game that can fill that open world city-based void in the system's library--just so they also know that the level of polish and presentation isn't exactly of the highest caliber. Still, for the amount of off-the-wall fun one can get out of Saints Row's debut on a Nintendo system, The Full Package is worth taking to the streets of Steelport for, warts and all.

[SPC Says: B-]

Mighty No. 9 (Multi) Review

Before we close out the month of July, two more reviews are coming. The first of which is for Mighty No. 9, a game which has a development story that I would pay to read about because of how many controversies plagued it. Regardless, the game ended up being rather fun overall. Check out the SuperPhillip Central opinion with my in-depth review.

Totally NOT a Mega Man Clone

One of the most infamous Kickstarter projects started out so innocently and with a lot of hope. Keiji Inafune, one of main minds behind the Mega Man franchise of old, put a lot of passion behind a Mega Man-like game called Mighty No. 9. With a beautiful piece of concept art, fans quickly backed the project, contributing more than four million dollars total.

Following this was a lot of controversy, from Inafune asking for even more money, multiple delays, the launch of a second Kickstarter before Mighty No. 9 even released, and community manager mishaps. While the final product of Mighty No. 9 is hardly what I'd say awful, for a four million dollar Kickstarter-backed game, most of us can easily expect more from this project.

The story of Mighty No. 9 follows Beck, the ninth robot of a unit of warriors known as the Mighty Numbers. When an unknown virus infects numerous machines as well as the other Mighty Numbers, the unaffected Beck must combat against the threat by taking down each corrupted Mighty Number and discover the reason for the virus breakout.

Being a game created by former Mega Man mastermind Keiji Inafune, it only makes sense that Mighty No. 9 would take a lot of concepts and mechanics from his past works. This is seen throughout the gameplay, where you control Beck as he shoots, runs, jumps, and dashes through one of a dozen or so side-scrolling platforming levels. The levels don't have as much in the way of secrets, as they're linear just like many of the classic Mega Man series games. However, many levels do reward points for completing certain challenges, such as getting a Sprinter bonus for moving quickly through a specific area of a level, or a Quick Clear bonus for taking out a room full of enemies with swift timing.

Take out all of these foes within a fast enough amount of time to receive a Quick Clear bonus.

The majority of levels are decently designed, though there are numerous instances of bad design here and there. One level has a place where you are required to carefully floor dash underneath two purple spinning turbines. The timing here is so strict that failing to perform floor dashes with the correct precision results in immediate death. In another level, the goal is to pursue a far off sniper. Coming into contact with him results in the Mighty Number retreating to another area. This game of cat and mouse goes on for a ridiculously long time, and the fact that death results in you being forced to start the level from the beginning makes for a needlessly tedious time.

However, when Mighty No. 9's levels do shine, it's a lot of fun. I particularly enjoyed a level where Beck is moving across the tops of vehicles in a fast-paced highway level, though the frame-rate isn't always the smoothest, slightly diminishing some of the enjoyment I had. Another level has Beck scaling a radio tower to reach a Mighty Number to battle. The vertical nature of the level and the fierce winds make it one of the most interesting in Mighty No. 9.

The highway is one of the more interesting levels featured in Mighty No. 9.

Mighty No. 9 adds to the Mega Man formula with a dash mechanic that is put to use on weakened enemies. When a foe has been pelted with enough of Beck's bullets, they enter a weakened state where Beck can then dash into them, defeating them while gaining points. Depending on how fast Beck dashes into a baddie after they've been weakened, the enemy gives him a boost as well as the player a specific percentage. Keeping a combo going by dashing into weakened enemies while getting 100%'s is a lot of fun and is the main way of earning high scores in levels. This even goes into boss battles, where giving one of the Mighty Numbers enough damage will present them with a weakened state, allowing Beck to dash into them to not only deal permanent damage to their life bar, but also allow Beck to continue his combo, pending he's fast enough to dash into them when a boss has become weak.

The true enemy of Cryogen's level is that of the ice puns that will leave you out in the cold.

Speaking of the boss battles, Mighty No. 9 shines in this aspect, creating battles that are both memorable and challenging for the most part. Just like with normal enemies throughout the game, the Mighty Number bosses as well as other stronger enemies can be weakened when enough damage has been dished out to them. However, bosses will regain the health Beck just gave them if he doesn't dash into them while they're weakened within a relatively small window of time. Usually bosses add a more powerful attack and change to their patterns when their health has been lessened to about halfway, making these fights quite dynamic and quite fun.

Continuing to borrow from ideas from the Mega Man franchise, defeated Mighty Numbers give Beck their signature special weapon that he can use in levels and against other bosses to make for an easier time of things. While it's not as enjoyable as the Mega Man series to figure out which Mighty Number weapon works best against which boss, as the effects aren't nearly as drastic against a boss's health, it's still pretty fun all the same.

Alongside the main campaign, you can unlock new challenge missions for either solo or cooperative play. These missions have you doing everything from getting to the goal with various caveats such as one that has you being unable to use your dash or attack abilities, destroying all the targets as a particular character within the time limit, and the hardest of the hard challenges, playing through all of Mighty No. 9's stages without dying. Yeah, I don't think I'll be getting to that one any time soon! In addition to the challenge missions, once you initially beat Mighty No. 9, you unlock a boss rush, pitting you against all of the Mighty Numbers in succession.

The feel of controlling Beck is one of the highlights of Mighty No. 9 that the development team got right.

Mighty No. 9's budget certainly didn't go to its presentation... or if it did, then Inafune and his team certainly botched it considerably. The environments are sterile, bland, and mostly lacking personality. The characters in story sequences pantomime to one another, never moving their mouths, and talk so slowly that it's difficult to stay interested in the story, even with a vested interest like I started out with. The frame-rate also leaves something to be desired, sometimes sinking to embarrassing levels in more action-oriented sections of the game.

Watch out for those pink spikes. They will end your run if Beck even so much makes contact with them.

On the sound front, part of the Kickstarter budget went towards hiring voice actors to deliver the game's lines. The voice acting is generally very dull at best and incredibly grating at worst, especially Mighty No. 2, Cryogen's high pitched voice and ice puns that would give Arnold Schwarzenegger's Mister Freeze a headache. Musically, what is featured is hard to hear thanks to the repeated lines of dialogue that is featured in each level. Sometimes the dialogue boxes actually detract from the experience as they can cover up hazards in levels such as one-touch-and-Beck-is-dead floor spikes.

All in all, Mighty No. 9 isn't an absolutely horrid experience by any stretch of the imagination. It's, dare I say, a good deal of fun. However, some design decisions especially in some levels, dull environments, and unappealing voice acting make for a game that is good but not great. In total, Mighty No. 9 is an average platformer, but considering the game somehow took four million dollars to create, "average" is simply not good enough.

[SPC Says: C]

Mighty No. 9 (Multi) Gameplay Trailer

Mega Man is one of our households favorite video game franchises, so it's basically a given that we're excited for its spiritual successor, Mighty No. 9. It's due out September 15 for most gaming platforms, with the handheld versions appearing a bit later. Check out this 60 FPS trailer and enjoy!

Better Late Than Never Reviews: Saints Row IV (PS3, 360, PC) Review

Released last August, but just hitting Japan this past week, Saints Row IV is the latest in the series that started out as Grand Theft Auto Lite. Now, the series has come into its own, and this time the Saints have not only executive powers but superpowers as well. Here's our review of Saints Row IV.

The Superpowered Saints Go Marching In

Saints Row: The Third made plenty of steps to ensure that the series would step away from trying to become another Grand Theft Auto clone, which the game's previous two titles had been heavily compared to. Saints Row IV takes the craziness switch and pulls it into uncharted territory! With superpowers and a load of kooky missions, Saints Row IV is an open world game that feels more like Crackdown than Grand Theft Auto, and it's hard to deny that this change is good.

Beginning with a mission that ends with you riding a warhead into the night sky, trying to dismantle it, while Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" plays, Saints Row IV lays on the wackiness quite earlier. What follows five years later is info that the Saints have made it into the White House. The boss, the once silent and stoic main character from the original Saints Row, serves as President, and his cabinet-- rather your cabinet-- is made up of members from the Saints gang. Suddenly, during a press conference, an alien race known as the Zin invades the Earth and sends your character into a virtual simulation exactly like Steelport from the third game. However, this Steelport has depictions of the Zin leader Zinyak plastered all over, as well as signs mentioning the Saints' doom and futility of their actions.

Steelport sure is looking different these days.

The humor of Saints Row IV is always there, and that is due to some incredible writing. Sure, some of it is quite juvenile and dirty, but I couldn't help but laugh or have a stupid smile on my face playing the game regardless. How can you not laugh at real life actor Keith David serving on your cabinet? How about a scenario where you're riding in a car with Pierce and you both start singing to Biz Markie's "Just a Friend", only to become very pissed off when the always-watching antagonist Zinyak starts singing along to the rap song's chorus as if it were opera. Then there's having a voice for male characters literally titled "Nolan North", perhaps poking fun at Western studios putting his voice in nearly every game imaginable (some exaggeration may be present in the last statement). Case in point, Saints Row IV does not take itself seriously whatsoever, and that is without a doubt a good thing.

Because just having one gun is for bustas. 

The humor and whimsy of Saints Row IV doesn't end with the writing, either. The story-related missions of the game, of which there are around 35, take you on a trip through sheer madness. From participating in a parody of Metal Gear Solid, complete with the infamous guard alert noise and hiding inside cardboard boxes, to fighting in a stone statue against a giant can of soda named Paul, Saints Row IV shows that the developers want players to have fun and they made a game that shows they had a lot of fun making it as well. After all, shouldn't fun be the most important part of a video game?

!

The fun factor is accentuated by the powers that you acquire through these missions in a way to hack the simulation and help bend it towards your will. Doing this enables various upgrade-able superpowers for your character to use. Early powers include the ability to leap high into the air, run at blazing fast speed, and freeze enemies temporarily, allowing enough time to shatter their frozen bodies. By collecting Clusters, scattered all around the simulated Steelport, you can upgrade these powers to allow for faster recharging, more stamina to use for running, among other things. Your character can have his or her abilities upgraded as well, whether that's immunity to fire, higher ammo capacity for the game's different guns, and much more.

It's a faster way of getting around Steelport,
which makes it difficult to want to drive.

The weapons of Saints Row IV are definitely otherworldly. What else can you say about a gun that launches black holes, sucking in nearby characters and objects, as well as a gun that emits a light that abducts whoever walks into it? These weapons are amazingly fun to use, though combat in general can sometimes get a bit repetitive, even with the superpowers involved. Like the superpowers and your character, weapons can be upgraded, also.

Girls' night out

Outside of Saints Row IV's story missions, the series' activities return, too. Standbys like Fraud and Mayhem return. Fraud has you making your body limp in front of cars, in hopes that they run into you, hurling your body into the air for points, while Mayhem requires you to cause a certain dollar amount of pure damage, whether it's with a tank, a UFO, robot armor, or just yourself.

Talk about a mech assault!

New activities have been included to make great use of your character's superpowers. One has you racing through the city streets, jumping on rooftops and speeding through alleyways from waypoint to waypoint. Another has you using your Telekinesis to pick up cars and people, and throwing them through the designated rings. Then there's fighting inside an arena, trying to kill your opponents before time runs out. All of these new activities in addition to new takes on classic ones and optional objectives like collecting all of the Clusters and audio logs, as well as destroying all Zinyak statues have it so this simulated version of Steelport has a large amount of things to do long after the credits have rolled.

For my next trick, I will turn
water into wine!

Steelport itself wasn't that memorable of an open world area in Saints Row: The Third, so it is a bit disappointing that Volition, the developer, decided to reuse it for Saints Row IV. This also makes it so Saints Row IV feels more like an expansion of Saints Row: The Third rather than a wholly original and fresh take on the series.

One of the optional things you can do
is traverse these tall towers.

Saints Row IV generally runs well, but there are occasional hiccups in the framerate, massive amounts of pop-in, and even some freezing that soil the experience slightly. Other than those issues, Saints Row IV plays admirably. When pertaining to sound, Saints Row IV hits all of the high notes with superb voice acting and a licensed soundtrack that spans 109 songs. From classical to alternative rock, there's most likely a station for any given player. I particularly found The Mix to be my personal favorite. You can even create a mixtape of selected songs you have chosen and hear them while moving around Steelport-- in and out of vehicles.

Let this be a lesson to you kids out there:
Always help out your homies.

Saints Row IV was pure fun and hilarity from beginning to end. While many games, particularly from the West, take themselves overly seriously to the point of near self-parody, Saints Row IV doesn't pretend it is anything but a game. It might not push the art form of gaming forward, or even make an actual argument for it, but it's hard to deny that you won't find an open world game as zany and insane from any developer. It's with this that makes me ready to see where the Saints will go next.

[SPC Says: 8.5/10]