Saints Row IV

While the Saints Row series could never have been considered serious, the developers really pushed the crazy boat out with the aptly named Saints Row: The Third. Going into the game I assumed the over-the-top playground humour was beneath me, but loved just about every second of it. While I could see the quality present in the Grand Theft Auto series Saint’s Row never really appealed. I have an overwhelming desire to mess about in any open world and while that is clearly possible in GTA the campaign missions always seemed a little restrictive. I get that I’m a minority here, saying I don’t like GTA is tantamount to someone claiming to be proud to have never seen Star Wars. Regardless, Saints Row: The Third was a game I ended up loving just about every second of, because it’s all just messing about, and anything that doesn’t entertain you is easy to ignore.

Saints Row IV picks up where The Third left off. Your character is still the leader of The Saints and, having been elevated from a simple street gang to a celebrity brand, they have now taken on the role of celebrity special forces squad. The game opens with you and your Saints on a mission to stop a terrorist group from launching a nuke. A simple enough premise realised through a series of the cheesiest action sequences ripped unceremoniously from various games and movies, and topped off with a superbly chosen piece of licensed music that I wouldn’t dare spoil for you. The payoff of this introduction sets up the game’s first core story element: you become the President of the USA.

This is quickly followed by a few more establishing scenes and once you’re an hour in you’ll start to see the whole picture. You’re the President, aliens have invaded earth, and humanity’s best are being kept prisoner in Matrix-like simulated worlds. It’s clearly ridiculous but from the few hours I had with the game I found it all immensely fun. The simulated world is simply a twisted clone of the prequel’s Steelport, with your character trying to hack the world and subsequently gaining super powers.

This game will most certainly be too lowbrow for some. It ends up playing like a fan mod that mashes up the best parts of Crackdown, Infamous and The Matrix. It then manages to support these over-the-top and disjointed changes with a farcical but entertaining plot. Once the world opens up and I’ve got some powers under my belt I can see myself pouring many hours into simply messing about. Add to that drop in co-op and this could easily top Saints Row: The Third in the farcical third-person action-adventure stakes.

It’s clear that Volition have no fear of jumping the shark. They’re holding tight and going for broke, and in this case that plan seems to be working.