Saints Row is a series that has, ever more over time, revelled in ridiculousness. It has moved from the serious story of a street gang in the first two titles to a looser, fun-oriented game with Saints Row: The Third. Two years later, with Saints Row IV, the anachronistically numbered sequel threw out all pretence and dropped us into the Matrix – er, the Simulation – in an underdog battle against alien invaders.
This year saw the re-release of Saints Row IV on current-gen consoles as part of the Re-Elected edition. This sees the 2013 game gain a new coat of paint for the home console market, and combines all the original release’s DLC into a singular package – including all the costumes, guns and vehicles added to the game, as well as the Enter the Dominatrix and How the Saints Saved Christmas expansions.
Realistically, not much has changed in the original game – it’s the same thing we played two years ago, but shinier and with a smoother framerate. It does seem like some minor issues have been tweaked here and there, but some core problems remain. Animations can be a bit wooden, which is only made more obvious in comparison to other games on the PS4 and Xbox One. It’s still a lot of fun of course, and having all additional content included from the start gives you a lot more to play with in this great sandbox from the get-go. The more exciting part of this bundle of course, is what’s new in the Re-Elected edition. The latest instalment in the series, “Gat out of Hell”, throws caution even further into the wind and drops you down into the abyss.
That’s right. The Saints are going to Hell.
Set after the events of Saints Row IV, the story concept is simple: The Saints are celebrating Kinzie’s birthday aboard their new spaceship home and decide to do that thing we all do as part of a traditional birthday party – pull out the Ouija board. Unfortunately, the Saints make a real connection with their party game; the Devil himself pulls the President — represented by your actual player character if you have a Saints Row IV save on the system — down to Hell to marry his daughter. Without a second thought, Johnny Gat decides to follow them down to save the Commander in Chief. Gat’s accompanied by Kinzie, who decides she gets to go ‘because it’s her birthday’. Sure, why not.
What follows is an all-new city area that makes no small use of its demonic setting. Floating platforms in the sky hover over buildings, pits of hellfire and the eternally trudging souls of the damned. Rather than chatting amongst themselves, crowd NPCs moan and howl as you pass them, and drive their ruined and battered vehicles down streets paved with sinners (we assume). Cops have been replaced with demons in monster trucks… and that’s not even the best part. This time around, you don’t just glide around with your simulation-induced superpowers. You get to FLY.
Almost immediately after landing in the game world, you’re granted a pair of fallen angel’s wings that allow you to zip around the hellscape with great ease. While the wings do rely on a stamina bar to limit your airtime, it’s easy enough to upgrade this ability to make it much more useful. Much like in Saints Row IV, you’ll find glowing balls (‘soul clusters’, this time around) dotted about the map that allow you to upgrade your demonic superpowers. Dashing, super-jumping and flight make it incredibly easy to move about, but sadly vehicles still feel obsolete by comparison. Any time you step into a car (or monster truck) it just feels like moving through molasses, compared to zipping up and between buildings under your own power.
While it’s nice to explore a different game world than the Steelport and Digi-Steelport of the last two titles, the game is not without its flaws. Kinzie exists as a playable character throughout the game, but there’s nothing about her that sets her apart from Johnny Gat. Cutscenes will still feature Gat, and they have identical loadouts of super-powers and weaponry. Essentially, Kinzie is a reskin of Johnny and nothing more.
On top of this, the game does not have the strong narrative of its predecessors. The overall story is that you need to amass an army to take on the Devil and rescue the President. This involves seeking out powerful souls in Hell and convincing them to fight alongside you. There are some familiar faces from the series such as the DeWynter twins from Saints Row: The Third, as well as historical faces like Blackbeard and Shakespeare. All this adds up to a great opportunity for creative missions – in the same way that Saints Row IV had rescue missions for your crew revolving around their character and fears, “Gat out of Hell” could have created loyalty missions themed on who you’re trying to recruit. Blackbeard could force you to fight at hell-sea against the navy of the damned, the DeWynters could have you take revenge for their unjust deaths, Shakespeare could do… well, something literary. Instead, recruiting each of these big, possibility-laden personalities boils down to ‘do this many of these sub-mission types’. Complete enough Hell-themed versions of the previous games’ Diversions and bing! Suddenly, Bill Shakespeare is your BFF. It’s a crying shame that more wasn’t done with these characters, given the fantastical setting they’ve been placed in.
All in all, it’s still a decent Saints Row game. It’s fun, has a ridiculous setting and escalates the stakes and story beyond what should have been possible after the fourth title. If you like the series, you’ll like this game. Same-y it may be, but flying is still a lot of fun and the series’ brand of humour and style is once again on display. It’s a… HECK… of a good time. It’s really up to you to decide if you need this new current-gen offering, or simply the new DLC on last-gen.
Saints Row IV: Re-Elected was reviewed using a promotional copy on PS4, as provided by the publisher.
Review: Saints Row IV: Re-Elected
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