" Saints Row IV: Re-elected & Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell" Does It Get Any Better?

 

    Look, my opinion on the Saints Row franchise are is not the consensus, which is understandable. In 2024, if you weren't present for when the games came out, or just have a general feeling of nostalgia for the series, there's no good way to appreciate what came before. Saints Row 1 isn't playable on PC without emulation, Saints Row 2 is running on a thread, and Saints Row III is is kind of boring if we're being honest. That being said, I liked Saints Row IV, and probably for the same reasons a lot of people liked the earlier games in the series, nostalgia. This was one of the first games I bought when I first acquired my Steam account, and frankly it shows. I think it's more apt to say that this game is a sandbox that makes references to the Saints Row universe, rather than an actual Saints Row game, but do I really enjoy it still.

    I know why people are mad at this game, it's basically the same map from Saints Row III, just this time they don't even try having a sky, which was annoying since I had just played it right before this one. Also, you barely do any of the gang stuff from the previous game, instead it's a ragtag group of people, including an MI6 agent who no one has even seen before, trying to fight what is seemingly the greatest empire in the known galaxy. In fact, while technically taking over neighborhoods is still a mechanic present in this game, they don't even acknowledge it, and it's basically just a way for players to keep track of what areas they should do more activities in. The game hardly pretends to try to stay grounded, and they don't even take their own lore that seriously in this game, and honestly, to me that's fine, because that's what made this series unique. One of the only things I remember from Saints Row 2 was the wacky activity where you shoot waste from a septic truck onto houses to lower their value. It sounds ridiculous, it plays ridiculously, but it was fun, and ultimately that was what's important. That's how I feel about all of these changes. Yes it's weird they brought Johnny Gat back, yes it's weird that Keith David is here, but also I never liked the story of Saints Row that much in the first place, so frankly I think it's a good thing they've stopped caring so much about it too.

    What I enjoyed about this game was just blowing stuff up and killing a bunch of different aliens while using all of these different superpowers. It was kind of nice playing a superpower-filled sandbox, even if I did miss having a sky, and yes it really does make that much of a difference. Because while I do understand lore-wise why it's not present, it just makes all of the scenes look so ugly when it's just some black ceiling, and they did the same thing for Gat Out of Hell, which makes hell look so ugly. I mean yes, all of the loyalty/side quests are basically you just going around doing the same 7ish quests, but who cares? In Saints Row 3 there was no reason to do the activities, at least this time they've tied it into sort of bonding with all your followers. To me this just felt like the developers didn't really know what to do and were just like "lets make this game as ridiculous as possible, as long as it makes it more fun than that's fine". And it works, for the most part. An easy argument could be made that it certainly feels very 2010's, when what was considered cool was having "stripper poles in the white house (which is called like the crib or something dumb it has not aged too well)" and having dubstep, but to me none of the games have aged particularly well anyways, so who cares if it's in the pursuit of fun?

    Which brings me to the other game I'm supposed to be reviewing, which I've tacked on because really it should have been a Saints Row 4 DLC. I mean they don't even try giving you story quests, it's literally like "just do random activities to make Satan mad". I'd say it was also pretty fun, I think the flying was a nice addition, and was one of the main superpowers Saints Row 4 did not have. My only wish was that they gave Johnny different powers, because that was basically his only new one, all of the other ones were just different skinned versions you had in Saints Row 4. Speaking of which, what was the point of letting you play as either Johnny or Kinzie, when it was very clear that it was supposed to be Johnny you were playing as? It was fine, and thankfully it was short enough to not really have it's flaws become grating, but it should have absolutely been a Saints Row 4 dlc. There isn't much to say about Gat Out of Hell, most of it's criticisms are basically the same criticisms as four, the stories flimsier, gameplays fun, the setting looks terrible due to the lack of a sky, but for about four hours of gameplay who cares?

Final Score: 65/100

    I thought playing through all of the Saints Row games would reveal some big secret to me, finally explain what makes this series so good that it got four games, plus a side one, plus a new reboot, that spectacularly flopped of course. But I've come out pretty much holding the same opinion I did 7 years ago when I played Saints Row IV, it's cool I guess? On a side note, I have to say that I absolutely hate that Epic Games and Epic Game Services have sunk their disgusting little fangs into this game. This game never crashed on me when I was younger, and it ran flawlessly. Somehow, in 2024 the game feels less stable, as my computer is much more powerful, yet the game still crashes more. Now, I had to spend the first twenty minutes figuring out why my game was lagging so much, only to realize it was my controller? For some reason Steam Input combined with Epic Games Services lags the game out to 5 fps no matter what settings you have? So to fix it just right click on the game in Steam, go to controller and disable Steam Input.