At one point in Saints Row IV, your character, the Boss, tells series veteran Shaundi that it’s been “one helluva ride”, perhaps inadvertently summarizing developer Volition’s latest title. What started out as little more than a franchise looking to piggyback on the success of Grand Theft Auto has travelled an awful long way to realise the parody-filled guise that it represents today. And although the Saints’ latest outing often shamelessly borrows gameplay mechanics from numerous other titles, it finally feels like something that it can call its own.
Conveniently, your own simulation takes place within a digital version of Steel port – almost an exact copy of the city from Saints Row: The Third. When you’re originally thrown into the now oppressively lit sandbox, there’s an undeniable feeling of disappointment. Apart from a few static neon towers that float ominously in the sky, these are the same streets and bridges that you’ve already driven around in the previous game.
However, once you gain access to super powers, Steelport takes on an entirely new guise, where verticality plays a key role when it comes to exploration. Traversal initially takes some getting used to, but soon you’ll be leaping over office blocks, dashing up the sides of sky scrapers, and gliding from one side of the map to another. Because of how fast you can run and how much distance you can cover in just one jump, gameplay adopts a far faster pace than series fans will be used to. No longer will you be speeding from one objective marker to the next in the best sports car that you can lay your hands on – instead, you’ll be hopping from one rooftop to the next with a huge grin on your face.
You won’t need money when it comes to evolving your powers, though, as they require you to spend certain amounts of collectible clusters to develop. These glowing blue chunks of data are spread across virtual Steel port, and you’d be forgiven for thinking that the act of gathering them would be a horribly tedious one, as it is with many other open world games. But because traversal becomes so effortless and enjoyable, snapping up every cluster that you see makes for a painless and even satisfying experience.
As you can imagine, super powers play a substantial role in keeping the game feeling fresh – although they’re perhaps not quite as prevalent as the title’s promotional material would have you believe. While there’s certainly a sense of variety when it comes to the abilities at your disposal, you’ll still need to rely on your weaponry during combat. That’s because powers tend to act as support attacks, giving you windows of opportunity to riddle your foes with bullets.
For example, the simplistic ‘blast’ technique comes in three forms: freeze, which unsurprisingly freezes your targets solid, flame, which sets opponents ablaze, and mind control, which forces affected enemies to fight by your side. Out of these three, flame alone causes noticeable damage, while the other two grant you the perfect opportunity to go on the offensive with a rifle or a baseball bat. Powers, therefore, are best utilised as go-to attacks when you find yourself having to deal with particularly burly adversaries or groups of foes.
That’s not to say that they’re not immensely fun to use, however. Super powers in Saints Row IV do a fantastic job of making you feel gloriously overpowered, especially when you start chaining different attacks together to create an unstoppable onslaught. Imagine being completely outnumbered by alien troops, as reinforcements speed onto the scene in hover cars. You vault into the air, tap left on the directional pad to quickly equip your freeze blast, and rain icy carnage on the unsuspecting foes. You then switch to the ‘stomp’ ability, and come down on the enemy with the force of an atomic bomb, shattering dozens of frozen minions into tiny pieces.
You’ll need to use powers to knock out their shields, then open fire on them until a button-mashing quick time event is triggered, in which you dive inside of their body, causing them to explode. However, the appearance of these brutish adversaries causes all other enemies to vanish, and when you’re eventually strong enough to kill them in a matter of seconds, they soon become a source of great annoyance, particularly when you’re busy causing unadulterated chaos. It wouldn’t be so bad if the monsters scaled in power with the player, but as it stands, they do little more than interrupt gameplay.
Wardens aren’t the only boss-like enemies that you’ll have to face, either. In fact, it’s relatively difficult to be killed at all during your time with the game, and the lack of challenge may put a few people off. That said, you are playing as a super hero, and the title does a great job of making you feel like one.
At least, when the game feels like it. There are many points throughout the campaign where you're unable to use the powers at your disposal, whether it's due to the fact that you're outside of the simulation, or inside of someone else's. Later on though, when a block is enforced upon your abilities, it begins to grate.
In terms of content, the release is packed full of things to do. The map itself is absolutely covered in various icons, and at first, it’s a daunting sight. Several activities from Saints Row: The Third make a return, such as the brilliant insurance fraud, where you’ll need to ragdoll into vehicles in order to rack up money – and the process is even better this time around since you can leap into the sky and come crashing down into traffic with a tap of a button. s.
The sole activity that doesn't provide necessary respite from the open world insanity is store hacking. If you're looking to pimp out a ride, buy weapons or ammo, get plastic surgery, or kit your character out in new clothes, you'll have to complete an extremely uncharacteristic mini game where you're tasked with placing different shapes that link together on a grid. Not only is it jarringly boring in contrast with the rest of the game, but it's also timed, and once the counter reaches zero, you'll be locked out and aliens will flock to your position.
You’ll be told to go here, kill them, race this, steal that, but at least they provide a clear-cut structure for those looking to see everything that the game has to offer.
Strangely enough, the structure of the main story is heavily inspired by BioWare’s sci-fi trilogy, specifically Mass Effect 2. Since your allies are all stuck inside their own personal hell, you’ll be recruiting them one by one so that they can return to the real world – which just happens to be on a space ship inhabited by your crew.
Without a doubt, the plot of Saints Row IV goes far beyond the poorly paced story of the last title, providing a series of events that are certain to keep you interested, with plenty of suitably stupid twists and turns that spice things up just as you’re beginning to adapt to the flow of things.
Visually, the release suffers from the fact that Steel port has been taken directly from the last game, but the neon lights that adorn the streets and buildings change from a menacing red to a calming blue as you take control of the territory, which gives the world a surreal atmosphere. Other strange effects are used, like the pixelation of people and vehicles as if they’re loading or glitching into being, and while it’s sometimes a little jarring to see up close, it cements the feel of the virtual world.
The voice acting is top notch, as is the comedic timing of each performance. The Boss’ voice in particular is masterfully acted, regardless of gender, with big names like Troy Baker, Nolan North, and Laura Bailey putting in superb performances. And of course, who could forget Robin Atkin Downes’ stunning portrayal of a cockney geezer.
The ambient music that changes depending on your current scenario is surprisingly well realized too, and provides some catchy back beats to certain missions.
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