The crazier then ever latest entry in the Saints Row Franchise. In this installment, you're character becomes the President of the United States as the world is attacked by aliens known as the Zin Empire, led by Emperor Zinyak. After being abducted by Zinyak and shoved into a simulation meant to "break" you, you must find a way to break free of the simulation and beat Zinyak at his own game.
I began the Saints Row series with Saints Row 2. I thought it was a great mix of humor, craziness, and drama with some rather heavy moments in it. There was a ton to do, customization was sick, it was one of the funnest games I ever played. Saints Row 1 was also very good. It had a good story, good writing, and it was a a lot of fun, but there was nothing wholly remarkable about it. Saints Row 3, I was really disappointed with. I hated the new direction it was going in, it stopped being a good mixture of seriousness and craziness and just tried to go full on crazy and the story was less than thrilling. It was fun, and it brought in some great new mechanics as well, but I'm a guy who prefers to have a game with a good story and good writing. I mostly see gameplay as just a means to an end more than anything. And now the fourth game was going to have aliens, super powers and you becoming the President of the United States. I was less than thrilled. I was prepared to hate this game a lot. But dammit, it won me over.
Although maybe not on Saints Row 2's level, the story and the writing in Saints 4 is actually very good. The ridiculous concepts that I loathed when I first heard about them actually somehow worked. I think it's because the writing is so good, and the characters are so fleshed out and realized, that I just said "Fuck it! I'll buy whatever this game is throwing at me!". And, there's also quite a bit of serious dramatic moments as well. While still completely ridiculous and asinine, there was some high stakes, and some really clever twists. It's almost as if they decided to bring some of Saints 2 back, and they pulled it off stupendously. The small moments like the return to Stilwater, or Johnny Gat's (yes, he's back) loyalty mission where you and Gat discuss the past fill me with Nostalgia, and are just great character moments and callbacks to the previous games, and they pretty much make the game for me. Zinyak, the big baddie alien, is a really fun villian and he's freakin' hilarious. Gathering the text adventures that explained his back-story was a real treat. Gathering all the audio recordings of your homie's back-story's also provided some great character development.
And as for the gameplay, there is plenty for you to do. There are tonnes of side quests, and activity's, and distractions that are a ton of fun. Although, they might get a bit repetitive after a while, but honestly, they're different enough to keep them from feeling repetitive. The combat is rather simple, you pretty much aim and shoot and the AI isn't too smart. I actually found the game decently challenging, but that was because I didn't spend much time trying to upgrade. I did upgrade, but I just didn't use it that often. Although if I were to get all the upgrade's, the game would be pretty easy. I never found it to be too easy. But then again, even if it was, the game is mostly about doing crazy shit , blowing shit up and just generally providing stupid, unadulterated fun. And the game really delivers on this front. I don't think there was any major changes in gameplay from Saints 3, but that's fine. Saints 3's gameplay was what saved it for me, and why fix what ain't broke ya know. And as for super powers, they were fun to use. Though, I never really used them all that much (Except for the super jump and sprint which I always used, which actually made cars and car customization kinda pointless). I only really used them when I needed them, or when I wanted to get creative with my kills. Aside from that, I mostly just saw them as a means to an end.
As a fan of the first two game's, I love this one. It brought back the good writing and seriousness that Saints Row 2 had, and it maintained Saints 3's great gameplay and mechanics and the ability to just play with the world in whatever way you want.
Final Verdict: 9.5
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