Thursday, September 5, 2013

Saint's Row IV


By: Robert Murphy

Well it finally happened, I finally stopped laughing enough to write the review for my play through of Saints Row 4 and I’ve had an absolute blast with the game as you’ll soon find out. Now through the years the Saints Row games have specialized in the ridiculousness and downright laughable but at the same time providing a story and enjoyable gameplay for players and the latest entry into the series doesn’t disappoint either. You have come a long way since being the leader of the Saints, now you’re the leader of the free world as President of the USA and you’re doing a crack up job of it, at least in my opinion because I’ve always said that the White House could do with a lot more stripper poles. After passing a few bills and punching out a few non supporters of your regime, out of nowhere an alien attack occurs and take captive almost all of your favorite Saints. And after a frankly badass attempt to save everybody and take out the aliens, you yourself are captured and put into a virtual containment area, don’t worry though you don’t have to wear skin tight leather in this world. This free roam area is a copy of good old Steelport and from here we dig into the meat of most of your gameplay for Saints Row 4.


From here we are introduced to a whole new kind of Saints Row and that is one with super natural type powers right out of your favorite comic books. Almost immediately into the game players are introduce to our new super powers that bend the rules of this virtual world and allow you to jump to sky scraper heights, glide across the skies and sprint through the streets so fast that you leave mayhem in your wake. And these are just the first basic powers that you are given in the game, as you progress you gain new abilities to be upgraded and used to tear down this phony world and take down the alien scum from the inside. Unfortunately, we don’t receive super human healing abilities but hey if everything was super charged then the game would be very boring. Enemies in the game and if you adjust the settings even pedestrians drop health for you in the form of little blue health signs which seems a bit childish and ridiculous…..and I loved it. Enemies however do come in large groups most of the time so if you aren’t being tactful in the beginning of the game (especially on higher difficulties) you will find yourself full of holes. If you’re smart however and buy a few health upgrades, things become much easier on you, even more so when you take a look at the impressive store of weaponry that comes with any Saints Row game. There are of course the standard human weapons like SMG’s and pistols but the real fun comes from the alien weaponry like the Disintegrator or the Black-hole gun that make for a devastating amount of fun. But if you like using the classics, I’ve got good news for you, your standard weapons come with a great amount of upgrades and skins to make them just as fun and powerful and at the same time goofy and awesome.


As for the city itself, you don’t really spend much time appreciating it rather you spend most of your time zooming through it or soaring over top of it with your super natural powers which makes all the work and funny things that were put into the city seem a little irrelevant. The thing that brings you down to Earth is all the various side quests sprinkled throughout the area and the collectibles that are quite literally inches from each other. These side quests include various things such as fighting through waves of enemies to completing races using your super sprint and other tasks meant to thwart the evil aliens that are holding your crew and humanity hostage. As for the collectibles  they are anything but hidden, in one super jump you’ll gaze at about 15 of the 1,400 collectible glowing blue nods that are used to upgrade your super powers to more destructive levels. These things were so easy to collect though and at first it was fun and entertaining but it quickly became mind numbing and a bit of a letdown to easily get all these nods and rapidly upgrade my abilities so early in the game. Other collectibles are a bit more scattered and harder to find like the alien statues and audio logs from your crew but these didn't really pull me out of soaring through the skies either but it’s just so much fun.


Of course, what would a Saints Row game be without a bit of co-op fun for you and your mates to enjoy along the way, you can either choose to play through missions or free roam with your friends across virtual Steelport. All the while enjoying the ridiculous outfits you two may have on, which in previous games and in Saints Row 4 is truly a fun and enjoyable experience to behold. You can literally be just about any type of character you want to be, the number of customizations in the game is endless, ludicrous and an absolute riot to behold, not just in co-op but in single play as well. I myself am dressed as a super saiyan badass with a British accent that is auto tuned to a higher pitch and it makes me laugh every time my character opens his mouth.


Overall, I love this game, it is everything that I was looking forward to in Saints Row 4, things are even more over the top and the good old fashioned Saints Row humor is back and better than ever providing me with hours of amusement. With the added ability of super natural powers, the game becomes an even bigger riot and way to make mayhem, it’s like using cheat codes without using cheat codes and I find that pretty cool. It is upsetting though that you are able to upgrade your abilities so quickly in the game which leads you to ignoring a great deal of virtual Steelport and makes the ability to drive cars pretty pointless, why drive when you can sprint there or glide. But with all the guns, laughs and massively customizable character pallet, Saints Row 4 makes for an awesome experience for fans and new comers to the game.

Good:

-Great and ridiculous humor

-A destructive weapon and ability selection for massive chaos

-Super powers are fun and make you feel like a little kid with all that power

-Solid story and follows in the footsteps of previous games

Bad:

-You’ll find yourself ignoring Steelport city aside from getting collectables and doing missions, you end up sprinting by it all with super speed or soaring over it jumping from rooftop to rooftop


-Upgrading your abilities comes far too early and is way too easy to do


Scully Rating: 9.0 out of 10

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