Saints Row 4 Review

Saints Row 4 is a game I would definately understand why someone wouldn't consider to be very good at all. The game is a mess in many ways and is clearly an unfocused game too but at the sametime the game is so dedicated to remaining a wacky and fun over the top comfort food adventure that I can't help but admire it for that. 

The best way of describing Saints Row 4 is what if Prototype, Jak 3 and Saints Row 3 had a baby but it grew up to be an over the top edgy teeanger with an over the top and wild sense of humor? You get SR4. The game is as big of a mess as I described it and the game does have it's fair share of detractors for it but at the sametime, the game being the way it is makes it a very memorable time. 

No furthur to how much Volition was just going full blown crazy mode is with the opening, you start the game off with a Predator style helicoptor ride, where the player character is killing terrorists in an over the top way while the game is mocking modern military shooters(speaking as someone who can't stand those games, this parody was a joy for me), stops a missile from being launched, becomes the President of the United States, and then gets attacked by aliens where humanity gets wiped out and the only surviving members are a street gang. 

If I played Saints Row 2 back in 2008 and someone from the future told me this would be how the opening and premise of the 4th game would go, I would legit tell that future person that he was losing it. That's what sums up SR4 in general, it feels like Volition was just losing it and for a series that started off as a grounded crime sandbox turning into a Matrix inspired superhero game is something I can't help but respect Volition for trying to do even if it is jumping the shark. 

SR4 doesn't even end with that intial sequence of events either, it does game genre parodies like stealth, twin stick shooters, and 2d beat em ups. Has a Star Fox style on rails sequence with Haddaway's "What is Love" is playing in the background, has Keith David playing himself as a fictional character while parodying himself in a "They Live" parody, you fight a giant soda monster, the game world takes place in the Matrix while having an on the nose Matrix refrence, you go back to the first two SRs open world, and having a Tron style light cycle sequence. The whole game feels like it finds new ways to be an over the drop fever dream and I can't my eyes off it. 

Some people strongly dislike the over the top meta humor and while I get why some wouldn't, I can't help but respect SR4 for always find new and inventive ways for being silly and over the top. I think, "there's no way the game can get dumber" and then it does. 

It's a game I would never call "forgettable" by any means. 

However, with all that said, the game is still is an unfocused mess. 

The game has one driving mission and then you get the abilities you get in the Hulk Ultimate Destruction and Prototype series like being able to run super fast and charge up jumps. You eventually get the abilities to dash, glide and run up buildings a be it to my dismay where you have to unlock them in a skill tree. 

To the game's credit all this feels smooth and good to use and an SR game where it has SR3's combat with the superpowers sounds great on paper, right? 

Well, this is where my Jak 3 comparison comes in, SR4 gives you lots, and I mean lots of superpowers many of which the game will just give you one tutorial for, is never challenging enough to get you to want to actively use, the thing is, you only get access to the powers maybe about 45-50% of the time, there are many main missions in the game where your superpowers are taken away from you and it just starts to play more like SR3, so the game not only gives you these powers that you are never forced to use, you don't even have access to them for a lot of the game unless if you stay in the open world and only do side missions, if you do decide to go back to the beaten path, your powers being taken away is all the more jarring. Much like Jak 3, SR4 throws in something random like mech sections, shooting galleries, set pieces and so on. 

As a result the game feels extremely unfocused and can't decide on what it even wants to be from a gameplay perspective. Does it want to be Prototype meet SR3? Does it want to be a traditional Saints Row? Does it want to be a mini game compliation with so many different styles of game? I can't tell. Unlike Jak 3, SR4's lack of focus can add to the game's charm but it can still be jarring all the same. 

There's other issues with the game like the health pick ups system not being super consistent or enemies giving enough health drops, the game getting way too over the top and chaotic at times with so many enemies all over the place, which can also lead to some occasional annoying deaths. Then there is also the fact that enemies that during the out of the Matrix section you are back to regen health when in the Matrix, you had health pick ups which like I said before can be jarring. 

Overall, Saints Row 4 is such a messy, crazy and over the top game that I can't help but like the game for that even if the overall game design can be confused as a result. It's a game that feels incredibly murky in it's structure and story but SR4 does it all with a smile.