REVIEW : Saints Row (XBOX Series X)
Saints Row returns after a lengthy hiatus with promises of a grandiose revamp that retains the series’ jovial sense of humour and penchant for mayhem. Unfortunately, it falls short of that purpose. I’m not even convinced it set out to do that.
Reboots must revitalise and improve gameplay while rejuvenating and modernising as they introduce something new. Saints Row, on the other hand, feels like a direct successor to Saints Row 4 from 2013 – with gameplay that feels even older. It’s more of a plot and tone reset than a true reboot.
It succeeds in this aspect by dialling back the ludicrous madness that erupted in Saints Row 4, but this isn’t the semi-serious gang conflicts of 2006’s original Saints Row, or even its highly appreciated sequel. Instead, it settles somewhere in the centre, trying to keep its silliness in control while not taking itself seriously or intruding on GTA’s remit.
Yes, you can change the size of your Ken-doll gentleman’s bulge or liberate the nipple and choose your cup size (including man boobs). Consider this to be the best example of Saints Row’s sense of comedy and how it portrays itself as a giant parody of any gang or street violence story you’ve ever seen.
While there is some cringe, I don’t mind it. Saints Row is designed to be outrageous and ludicrous. It relied too heavily on that in its previous excursion, to the point of damage. This Saints Row strikes a better balance, and the revolving door of playable characters frames much of the fun.
You’ll begin by selecting and customising from a set of pre-made characters known as Bosses. You take on the role of the leader of your new gang, simply known as the Saints, as they attempt to gain control of the fictional southwest American city of Santo Ileso from several competing gangs.
These characters have dramatically varied appearances and can be switched at any time.
What you make of it is up to you. In my case, that meant hot swapping between a British woman, a portly American bloke, and unofficially Keanu Reeves as John Wick and Bryan Cranston as Heisenberg, all of whom were taken from community creations. The story presents you as if you’re always the same person, but the juxtaposition of a dry British woman and John Wick cause two otherwise identical scenarios to play out very differently.
When you start playing Saints Row, the difficulties begin. Simply said, this game isn’t finished. It’s filled with flaws and problems that go beyond the usual gaffes. I’ve had multiple crashes, absurd AI encounters, and mysterious explosions that abruptly finish missions.
Coupled with flaws with collision detection, co-op, and auto-saves deleting itself, Saints Row would have benefited from entering the 2022 class of delays.
Whatever the setup is, if you give a doughnut shop a negative rating, you’ll need to slaughter 35 generic enemies to complete the assignment.
Had the combat been revitalised, it would have been a predictable retooling of earlier games. However, it feels terribly out of date, with combat components popular in the mid-2000s and even earlier; shooting mechanics feel ripped straight from 2007. There is no way to take cover, and the bullet sponge AI is atrocious. Hordes of opponents fire in open passageways, duplicating each other’s movements, with the occasional sideways summersault reminiscent of GoldenEye on the N64.
Some skills and perks break up the boredom for a while, but they don’t always trigger correctly or have janky animations that take much too long with so much murdering required. There’s even a task that mocks itself by offering a “murder-free day” for team bonding. But, of course, there’s a lot of murder in there.
The gameplay is ancient, buggy, and out of date, and the graphics aren’t far behind. Saints Row appears to be a remade Xbox 360 game from 2014. While I enjoy the variety of character customization and the ability to switch between them, they all appear to be dead on the inside. Keanu may have discovered the fountain of youth in real life, but his unauthorised cameo in Saints Row has aged him horribly, as has everyone else. It is not breathtaking.
The world appears to be improving, but it still feels lifeless and uninteresting. It’s been a critique of previous Saints Row games, and it hasn’t been addressed much here, in line with the notion of a reboot in need of more rebooting. There are some clever parody references hidden within, but overall it feels like a very lifeless sandbox, which isn’t helped by automobiles and pedestrians suddenly appearing and leaving.
On current-gen consoles, Saints Row allows tonnes of customising beyond your character. You’ll be able to choose between 1080p, 1440p, and 4K resolutions, as well as modes that prioritise frame rate or quality. Choose a framerate; no matter how you spin it, this isn’t a looker.
Saints Row: The Third supports drop-in and drop-out co-ops after the first few missions. We had a lot of difficulties playing pre-release because the game crashed multiple times and then either didn’t save or wouldn’t let us reconnect, as if the crash had broken an in-game connection between us. When it did work, there were some game-breaking errors, such as both of us appearing in the same car to one player but in two distinct vehicles to the other, resulting in mission failure.
Even if these kinks are worked out, I doubt I’ll return to the co-op. It simply does not make sense in such a single-player-centric system.
Saints Row is a textbook example of co-op for the sake of co-op, and it commits the cardinal error of not enabling both players to continue their progress; only the host advances. If you’re going to create a 25-hour+ mission-based game with co-op, you need a means for both players to keep their progress aside from the XP or gold acquired. Or even a mission deferment.
Simply said, among the two Saints Row games published for current-gen platforms, Saints Row (2022) falls short in every way of Saints Row The Third Remastered.
That was previously a 2011 game that has improved combat and vehicle control, looks similar with more detailed character models, has a larger range of gameplay variety, and isn’t hampered by the same major flaws.
Despite all of the bugs and insane mission failures beyond my control, the most annoying aspect is repeatedly getting caught on a loading screen that never loads. This has happened several times after significant, lengthy missions. Every time I had to restart, I discovered that all of my recent autosaves vanished and I had reverted to an earlier version. It’s difficult to generate the motivation to retry the same section of goon slaying, not knowing if it’ll just get stuck again. Hot tip: save manually and frequently.
Despite its flaws, Saints Row has provided me with moments of mindless, if old and repetitive, mayhem. It’s like a direct-to-video film that could and should have been so much more but still manages to entertain.
REVIEW : Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands: Chaotic Great Edition (PC)
