Republished on Wednesday, thirteenth July, 2022: We’re bringing this assessment again from the archives following the announcement of July’s PS Plus Additional, Premium lineup. The unique textual content follows.
Saints Row IV is the definitive sandbox sport for anybody who’s a bit bored with the extra critical makes an attempt like Watch Canine, Grand Theft Auto V, and even inFAMOUS: Second Son. It is consistently in peril of breaking the fourth wall, its storyline is absurd, and its gameplay is totally over-the-top. You are the president of the USA of America, you wield horribly overpowered superhero skills, and also you struggle ugly aliens in a digital simulation with a view to get nearer to their chief, who blew the Earth to items together with its human inhabitants of about seven billion. It is truthful to say that you just both suppose all of this sounds wonderful, otherwise you suppose that it simply sounds far too silly to be pleasing.
Should you’re of the previous persuasion, likelihood is that you have already performed Saints Row IV on the PlayStation 3, however there’s little doubt that Saints Row IV: Re-Elected is the perfect console model of the discharge – largely as a result of it would not run at about 15 frames-per-second half of the time. Certainly, the fourth title in Volition’s wacky franchise actually struggled on Sony’s earlier machine at instances, and it is actually the one issue that we marked the in any other case extremely pleasing launch down for in our assessment.
Luckily, as alluded, Re-Elected is way extra steady performance-wise. You may hearth off your superpowers like a madman, and the sport will are likely to sustain properly. Unsurprisingly, it additionally appears to be like extra spectacular, though in all probability to not the extent that you just’d like. The draw distance is a lot better, and the lighting appears to be like far smoother, however the title continues to be coated in disappointingly muddy textures. Nonetheless, the sport is but to completely crash on us, so we suppose that reward is owed the place it is due.
Shifting briskly onto the gameplay, we dare say that the re-release is among the most enjoyable that you may have on the PS4. The digital rendition of the town of Steelport is ripe for sandbox mayhem, and the sport delivers this in spades. It offers you every part that you may probably need with regards to making your personal enjoyable, after which it enables you to unfastened on the populace and your alien oppressors. It could actually lack a little bit of problem, positive, however it’s a title that is way more fascinated about seeing you bend the principles, slightly than throwing tough duties at you.
Talking of duties, the map is peppered in non-obligatory goals so that you can deal with, from easy ‘kill each alien’ assignments to favourites like tremendous powered insurance coverage fraud and tank mayhem. All in all, there is not a single mission sort that outstays its welcome barring the still-dreadful retailer hacking minigame. In a launch that prides itself on the ridiculous, this extremely tame mix-and-match puzzle feels completely misplaced, and admittedly, we won’t consider it made it into the unique sport, not to mention its re-release.
It is the title’s fight, nonetheless, that steals the present. As beforehand talked about, you are virtually submerged in a stream of latest weaponry and superpowers, and the sport’s rewarding nature is what’ll preserve proceedings feeling contemporary. Murderous melee assaults, elemental blasts, telekinetic throws, and devastating aerial bombardments are the order of the day, and mixing all of those methods with a complete host of weapons proves to be a fluid and satisfying expertise – particularly while you come throughout a mix that actually gels along with your fashion of play.
If there’s one detrimental to return out of this, although, it is that some gamers might imagine that they are really given just a few too many choices. The sheer quantity of powers and armaments on supply, together with all of their subsequent upgrades, may be overwhelming at instances, however when you enable your self to take issues at a gradual tempo with out blowing all your digital cash on each development in sight at each alternative, you may discover that there is a good, rewarding character development system at work right here.
Which brings us properly to the matter of customisation. Not solely are you able to chop and alter your skills as you see match, however it’s also possible to construct your good president with the assistance of tons of of customisation choices. Male, feminine, green-skinned, fats, skinny, attractive, ugly – it actually would not matter who or what you determine to create, once more reinforcing the sense that the sport simply needs you to have enjoyable it doesn’t matter what your preferences are. It is price mentioning, nonetheless, that we failed to search out an choice to add our character from the PS3 model on the time of writing. Whether or not that is merely a case of Volition’s character servers not being matched up but, we’re unsure, however when you had been eager on importing your Boss into the next-gen version, it is perhaps price snooping round for solutions on-line.
Sadly, issues cannot all the time be about participant freedom with regards to being the final remnants of the human race. If you’re making waves in digital Steelport, it is liberating to leap over skyscrapers and glide throughout the map dressed like probably the most nightmarish Batman the world has ever seen, however when it is time to advance the plot, issues aren’t fairly as madcap.
In a Matrix-style twist, your superpowers do not carry over to the actual world, the place you are aboard a spaceship stolen out of your evil alien aggressors. Because of this throughout most of the primary quests, you may must rely purely upon your goal as you gun down your enemies slightly than freeze them strong and shatter them with a baseball bat. As such, plot development comes with a little bit of a downer, however fortunately, the story is entertaining regardless of just a few disappointingly transient cutscenes, the writing is usually comedic gold, and the missions themselves are diverse and customarily very pleasing to play by means of.
In fact, we won’t end this assessment with out mentioning the soundtrack, which continues to be arguably among the finest choices of music to be present in a sandbox title. Stan Bush’s ‘The Contact’ headlines a playlist that features Robert Palmer’s ‘Merely Irresistible’, Skinny Lizzy’s ‘The Boys are Again in City‘, and Haddaway’s ‘What’s Love’. If you’re busy bringing the ache to alien scum to the tune of Optimus Prime’s proudest second, there isn’t any doubt that you just’re actually beginning to respect the finer facet of gaming.
Conclusion
Adore it or hate it, Saints Row IV: Re-Elected’s obsession with the ridiculous is what units it aside from the remainder of the market, and the PS4 re-release is one of the best ways to expertise the insanity. Coupled with additional expansions (together with Gat Out of Hell when you purchase the bundle), there’s loads of worth to the bundle, even when it would not take the chance to construct upon the PS3 unique. A blast from begin to end, the president’s story of vengeance is the stupidest enjoyable that you may have on Sony’s latest console, and we imply that in the very best approach.
