Saints Row

This game is terrible. It has the worst characters. I didn't like them. The game has many problems. I was bored throughout the experience. This may be the end of the franchise. I don't want to see these Saints again. The old saints from the other games would destroy these weak new saints. The people who made this game didn't care. They made something awful. There were moments during my playthrough when I was thinking "what is this garbage?" We want things to be entertaining and fun. We don't want this trash. It's time to wake up and learn. It's frustrating that there are games full of bugs these days. Finish the games when making them. We don't want something half finished.

Don't shoot the messenger but this is another bad review, I am a long time fan of the series and have played each title from Saints Row 2006 to the current Saints Row 2022. To other fans reading this. Do not bother with this title instead poor one out tonight because another beloved IP is dead. This game is sanitized charmless souless boring and buggy piece of malarkey. Every previous title is better. The prologue starts off after you customize the new boss. Quickly after the action takes off you start to see it, and feel it. Shooting is odd and just as quirky as your life is stange' + watch dog' style roommates. I swear each character was born strait out of twiter and reddit. The repetitive bullet sponge enemies have the worst AI in the series. The city is boring. At least the characters are relatable, well not so fast I would never talk like that and I myself am a genZer. No gangster ever would talk like that. Oh right this isn't a gangster game really. If the developers were really so fed up with the blatant honesty and crude humor and every other core Saints Row aspect and didn't want to be limited by the past of the previous franchise they should have opened a new IP. Not drop this piece of garbage and paint a beloved name on it. Even if they managed that amount of respect they clearly fail at every thing else. I wish I never bought this garbage and this lie. I bought 1 and two just days later. If you want to relive the glory days don't bother with 2022. There just isn't an aspect with praising in the game besides vehicle customization. The venture system was an empty and washed out way to revive more beloved activities that will just leave any one unimpressed. This game is begging you to drink the koolade and except mediocrity. This is a AAA game that a developer owned by 3 publishing company and ran by marketing teams. F this game. Its not worth 60 dollars and definetly not 70 or 100 dollars. Don't buy it borrow it maybe play it on game pass if you want to see what I mean.

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.

You can tell that the game came out unfinished. Everything is flooded with bugs. Story is okay but the bugs ruin it. I actually love the Saints Row series but this has ruined the whole good reputation. You can also see that Volition is closed. I also think that it only becomes fun after a certain part. But the $7 is worth it. Now that I've finished playing, I don't feel like continuing to play the game. Hope there's a new one coming soon Saints Row out which has fewer bugs and is also fun. One thing that has to be said though is that the character creation is very good. You can edit a lot. Like I said, they don't need to make a music app and use their time and money in better things.

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.