Saints Row

First off, I am a long time fan since the second game came out. And it's been one of my favourite open world games since.

I wasn't a huge fan of the fourth game in the series, but at least that game ran smoothly.

The reboot however removes every character I'd grown to like, and replaces them with uninteresting characters that I don't give two s**ts about.

This would have been fine and dandy, if it wasn't for the insane amount of bugs that ruins the game.

The driving is smooth as silk, the shooting starts of a bit clunky, but gets better with some upgrades. The world is interesting and filled with fun gags and awesome statues and locations. But that's where the fun ends.

The story is sub-par, and both the main missions, and side-missions are a mixed bag. But I'd forgive them for all of this, if it wasn't for the bugs.

I ran around most of the game with pistols strapped to my hands, that I couln't remove. My vehicle delivery service rarely worked. After a mission my clothes swould be changed, and also my weapons inventory. And this doesn't even compare to all the times the game would crash during a mission. Which made me have to do it all over again.

If the bugs were fixed, I'd rate it a 7/10. It is fun and all, but the mediocre story and bugs just makes it more frustrating than it needs to be...

Plot

Reboot of the Saints Row game series, starring a new cast of characters.

Cast

Made by Volition who brought us the Saints Row series dating back to 2006 and Agents of Mayhem. Curiously not familiar with any of the voice cast.

Verdict

Let's get it out the way, Saints Row (2022) killed developer Volition dead. I think Agents of Mayhem had put them on the ropes and Saints Row truly finished them off. But was it deserved? Not exactly no in this guys opinion (Not that anyone deserves to lose their job over such a thing).

Now I never played the original Saints Row, the second I didn't mind but was too invested in GTA but the 3rd? Now that's when I truly fell in love with the series. Saints Row 3 to me was a manic masterpiece of take your brain out entertainment. 4 was enjoyable but felt like a Saints Row 3 expansion pack and Gat Out of Hell was a passable companion piece to the series.

Naturally I was excited for this 2022 game but I was concerned about it being a reboot rather than a new game. I mean, why?! I became further concerned when the first trailer dropped, this looked hokey, lacking the charm and humor that the games had become known for and where was all the craziness!?

Well the reviews came in and it became universally panned. Watching videos I could kind of see why but regardless I ventured in to see for myself and what I found was heartbreaking but not to the extent that everyone was making out.

So let's break it down.

The story? Mediocre and wafer thin. Sure Saints Row isn't exactly known for deep story telling but there was at least something going on and motivation behind the things you were doing. There barely is here at all.

Visuals? Ugly, why does it look so ugly? It looks worse than Saints Row which was released in 2011 and two gaming generations ago. Absolutely unforgivable, ugly and full of screen tears.

Soundtrack? I keep forgetting there is one. Saints Row games have never had the same budget as the likes of GTA but they've still had something. Here? Not so much.

Playability? Cars handle okay, gunplay is adequate but the options are minimal and upgrades really don't feel like they make a difference. Combine that with dreadful skills and weak melee combat and it doesn't feel like it does very well the thing that arguably is most important!

Open world? Now this is the sad one, yes there is an open world as you'd expect but it's pretty darn awful. First of all it's basically just one big desert with a couple of towns and a few small outposts dotted around so it has little character. But what is unforgivable is that it feels lifeless, it doesn't feel like a living breathing environment. The civilians are sparse and feel hollow and empty, the enemies are bland and repetitive, there's no life in this open world and feels more like an oil painting than a 3D city.

Saints Row is a disappointing mess, drowning in flaws and is an insult to everything that came before it. But worst game ever and Volition deserved to go under because of it? Absolutely not and those who believe so need to a) Play more games and b) Not wish ill on others such as people losing their livelihoods!

Rants

Saints Row was a victim of the pessimistic, negative, hate train culture sadly that's damaging the video game, television and movie industry. This one is especially bad due to it killing its developer. Upcoming ones will include the new Assassins Creed and Dragon Age titles which even before release have extensive hate campaigns and for the most absurd reasons. And don't even get me started on Concord. The lunatic accusations of "Wokeness", the moronic misogyny and the hilarious belief that it should be free because there are other comparable games that are! Yeah sure, let's make this £300 million game free! That's logical, tell me how will they make their money back? Micro-transactions? Well a) That wouldn't come close and b) Gamers are supposed to hate them, right? Stop with all the hate, calm your lil selves down and stop being so negative and ridiculously entitled.

The Good

Has its moments Character creation is still excellent

The Bad

Lifeless open world Graphically oddly poor Some logistics are terrible Never really gets going Doesn't feel like a Saints Row Game.

I got really bored playing this after just a few sessions. I had no interest in playing the main missions they just didn't appeal to me. Wasn't likeing the story arc, if you can call it that, it's not really feeling like a story anyways that's really going anywhere and the only character that's got much of a personality just plane sucks as a character and don't have any desire to see anymore dialog from her. At first I would say I enjoyed about the first couple hours of gameplay, but mostly playing with the character creation which isn't all that enjoyable to navagate, it's really confusing at times switching between menus and the menus go 3 maybe for levels deep sometimes. They could have got rid of the color swatches and just had the color wheel instead, a lot faster as I'm constantly adding colors just to get a better tone of the colors in the swatch. It's still a good character customization but I'm not going to play a game just for that, and they put a lot of effort into it so much so they have a separate app just for this part of the game. Overall what it comes down to and this is what made me think it deserves such a low score is that so many of the missions after just one go, I didn't want to do them again and you look at the map it's the same stuff on every single section of the entire map, some new ones pop up but once I've played them in one region, there is no reason to do the same thing somewhere else. Another thing that absolutely sucks is the vehicle control, it feels so awkward from the camera controls to just handling, you hardly feel like you're in control and when you steer you oversteer very easily and it's just a pain to drive around the map and take corners accurately, it's not fun to navigate and go places in this game. I've got maybe 10% completion and I'm feeling like I'm done, I don't want to play anymore.

One of the fastest modes of transport I found that was easy to drive was a jetski, but there is so little in the environment I felt very alone in this game, very little to do in such a large space. I was looking around and thinking, where are all the boats docked. I couldn't even find one yet there were sailboats on the water and a random encounter with another jetski. And when you hit the map boarder there is this annoying 10 second timer telling you to turn around, talk about an immersion breaking game feature. This just made me feel that this game obviously was incomplete when released and it will never be finished or realized to a degree that this could have been. I just had the feeling that whoever made this game, didn't play it. So why should I.

Putting so much work into non-critical gameplay is such a waste, and clearly it was meant to sell skins and cosmetics as this is advertised on the splash screen. Well you got to have a good playable game for people to care about stuff like that and this isn't all that playable at least not for any length of time.

I could go on and on about what I don't like but it's just not worth the time.

It's an origin story, that's great.

It's an open world, that's great.

It's repetitive, bland, humorless, quirk-less, powerless and a chore to work through the same tired side missions which end up being stripped down versions of previous versions of the same style activities.

I was so excited for a new Saints Row, by looking at the box art and watching the trailers it's a fast paced quirky game with the charm and humor of Saints Row 2, 3 and GooH, it's not that.

Combat is slow but twitchy getting stun locked or completely overrunning enemies after upgrading any weapons, the activities are just scavenger hunts with look through the area and click on the buttons or try to figure out what's a target and what's scenery.

Bad, in all things gameplay, story and character development.

I'm almost ashamed to admit it but I genuinely had some fun while playing Saints Row.

From huge YouTubers like Skill up to major companies like IGN, the reviews are almost entirely negative surrounding this game, and while I totally disagree on people giving this a 10/10 I also equally disagree with the 1/10 reviews. I'm going to break down what worked and what didn't for me and why I found myself enjoying it while still being fully aware of its glaring mistakes.

Bugs: This is the perfect topic to start with, most of the negativity surrounding Saints Row comes from the "overwhelming list of bugs" however most of these issues seem to stem from the PC version of the game while my time on Xbox Series X was relatively bug free. Let me say however the first bug I encountered was right at the start of the game when making your "boss". Upon trying to edit my character the game soft locked me and I could not exit, select or do anything apart from zoom in and out and spin my character. Not a good start at all. I had to resort to loading up the "boss factory" game which allows you to create your character and export them to the full game. This would easily put off the casual gamer who would request a refund. Not a good look to start with. Once the game loaded into the first mission however I progressed normally. The second and only other bug I encountered was a clothing bug which removed your color choices on your characters clothing whenever you purchased a new item. This was mildly frustrating as you had to redo your color choices for your characters outfits each time. Again this was patched in the first update for the game since launch. I was pleasantly surprised that all of the takedown animations showed normally as what I seen online was nonstop comically awkward buggy animations when PC users initiated takedowns.

Story: 5/10 Too short and the storyline is hampered by awful writing and even worse characters who make even the strongest person cringe up into a ball every time they speak. Story missions themselves were relatively fun with lots of action and some cool transitions where a variety of scenarios play out. Particularly like the feature that allows you to start a story mission from anywhere on the map simply by selecting it from your phone, this is an idea other open worlds should take note of.

Writing: 0/10 Probably the worst writing of any game I've ever played. Not only do they fall flat on their face when it comes to trying to tell "jokes" but the game is infected deeply by agenda pushing politically motivated writing that inserts corrupt real world views into a fictional game. This is slimey and manipulative on the highest of levels and every person who does so in all forms of media deserve to be called out for their twisted actions which only serve to fuel the flames of an already turbulent society. Phrases spoke by pedestrians such as "I'm not paying for a border wall" only act to divide and draw you out of the fictional game and leave you feeling anger at how this has became extremely common in modern media especially within video games and movies. Fortunately the media who push these agendas almost always fail and that's what we see with the backlash to this game.

Characters: 1/10 Honestly laughable. Awkward and hysterically bad writing leaves these characters among the most hated in all of gaming based on the online feedback. I have seen nobody who enjoyed these characters or found them entertaining whatsoever.

Map: 8/10 Fantastic. A great sized map that's finds itself in the Goldilocks zone wherein it's big enough to explore and constantly find new areas while also being small enough to makes travelling from one side to the other relatively quick and not a 30 minutes drive like some other games.

The various zones are all unique and offer some great landmarks that really stand out and make the game feel very unique. Cool little features like NPC's setting off fireworks while you drive past especially at night is a nice little addition that I haven't seen in any other game. Nice weather such as sandstorms and was very impressed with the day/night cycle and how it looked with HDR on.

Graphics: 8/10 This is where I disagree with most reviews I've seen. Most say the graphics's aren't great but on Xbox Series X the visuals were very good in my opinion. Brilliant HDR effects and some of the most realistic nighttime scenes I've witnessed in a game. The neon world lights up beautifully and the detail in most of the world and characters is very high. Also the graphics options were brilliant, giving you full control of what mode you wanted to play with 5 different settings to chose from. Personally I went for 1440p Max Framerate as it offers great visuals while trying to also maintain 60fps.

Side missions: 7/10 Can totally see where people are coming from when they say these are repetitive and not fulfilling but from someone who is very OCD and simply has to complete every task in a game these offered the right blend of variety and challenge to keep me playing for a lot longer in-between main missions. Particularly liked the review bomb missions where you leave a bad review for a business and they send lots of bad guys to your location to take you out. These can be pretty difficult early on especially if you dive in at the deep end and leave a 1 star review.

Driving: 6/10 Marmite driving where some will absolutely hate it but I found myself pleasantly surprised. Very arcadey and floaty cars but the addition of the drift and "quick turn" mechanic made it fun to try and master drifting round corners and land the perfect turn. If done successfully you feel like Han from Tokyo drift but if done wrong you plow straight into a wall or off the road. I guess that progression and desire to improving my driving made me appreciate it overall but I do understand people who disliked it. One thing I didn't enjoy was off road driving and most cars instability on this surface.

Gunplay: 6/10 Very average gunplay but I found myself tweaking a few settings, specifically deadzones from 30 down to 10 which improved the shooting experience. I enjoyed the variety of weapons and each felt somewhat unique and having their own special ability adds another level of progression and gameplay. The addition of character perks allow you to experiment with different options such as nades, proximity mines, special takedowns or a health boost. This again adds a little bit more variety however like every games gunplay it does get repetitive when you've played long enough.

Customisation: 10/10 Easily the best part about Saints Row and some of the best customisation I've experienced in any game. Not only is there lots of clothing options for your character to choose from but you can fully change every little detail from color of specific regions of that shirt or pair of jeans but also add different materials. The variety of clothing is also amazing. The same is true for car customisation which is honestly better than most standalone racing games. The options are so large that I can't name them all here but you can change every single little detail of your car including things like rims and rim color, interior, window tint, decals, NoS, off road upgrades, tow attachments and so much more. The variety in paint options was superb and it truly felt like you were creating a totally unique car every time you modified your vehicle. Offering overall car upgrades which improves them in multiple areas such as armor, speed and handling is very nice to have and the option to turn your cars special ability on or off is something that works well. Weapon modifications was just as in depth with a fantastic set of sliders such as metallic which allows you to use the slider to make your weapon look like a nerf gun or like a realistic metal weapon. Particularly liked the option to make your guns gold right from the start without any nasty microtransactions like other games would do.

Music and sound: 4/10 Very poor choice of songs that consists mainly of lesser known artists and music that simply wasn't to my taste. When the radio isn't on the soundtrack that plays is acceptable and offers something other than silence which is nice. The sound itself is very poorly implemented and feels completely off. From vehicle engines sounding ultra quiet to guns sounding non impactful and poorly recorded the sound as a whole feels like it was added by someone who is triggered by loud noises. Certain game audio needs to be ramped up about 2 times especially when it comes to car engines. The character audio is laughably bad and it sounds like the voices belong in a different game. You can clearly hear that the audio was recorded in a sound booth even when the scene calls for speech while someone is outside or talking over ambient noise. Not great at all. 100% needs a patch to adjust levels.

Overall: 6/10 A wild variety of absolutely awful writing, a poor story, embarrassingly cringey characters, but a game that features some decent and fun gameplay, simply astounding customisation and a great map. This leaves Saints Row in such a unique place in my gaming library. A game that I hope fails miserably to stop the disgusting push of political views and agendas into fictional media, to stop companies from releasing a game early to make a quick buck even though it's not fully finished, and to hopefully push the team at Volition to go back to the drawing board and put their full effort into making a much improved Saints Row should they be given the chance. As much as I want to hate this game and everything it stands for I have to admit I found fun along the way and in the future if this game is heavily discounted and several updates have taken place to fix some annoyances and bugs then I would recommend this for some of the most casual base level fun you can have with a game. 6/10.