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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