Saints Row: The Third was a bizarre and hilariously over the top game about a street gang taking over a city. It left the question of what Saints Row IV could do to top its own madness but the sequel has overcome that challenge with ease. The Saints are now in the Whitehouse with their leader, you, the president of the United States of America. Alas the world has just been invaded by aliens and its most influential figures have been trapped in a ‘Matrix’ style virtual world that you have to take control of and escape in order to defeat the alien invasion.
The virtual world you’re trapped in is the same city from the third game, Steelport. The game looks and feels just like the previous entry, which isn’t really a good thing. Improvements are expected in a sequel and reusing the same city has given rise to complaints that the game feels like DLC for Saints Row The Third, the game froze on me at least four times too. Sometimes just by opening the menu, once in the middle of a mission forcing me to restart.
This time round you do have super powers though! Kenzie, the gang’s computer genius, has hacked the system giving you super speed and the power to jump over buildings very early on in the game. From here it only gets better and as you progress you gain telekinesis and the ability to shoot fire and ice from your hands. Super speed makes stealing a car feel redundant but the guns on offer still provide great amusement. The heavily advertised dub step gun is a new addition but old favourites like the giant purple dildo make a return.
The main story feels shorter than Saints Row: The Third which is a shame because it’s the interaction between your homies in the main missions that is the game’s best feature. You could be driving along with the radio on and your gang will start singing along and laughing to the song on the radio. It is enough to make you want to stop the car and listen rather than continue the mission and cut them short. The music stations on the radio don’t have a great selection but this is made up for by having the alien emperor be the host of the ‘classic fm’ station, hearing him recite Shakespeare in between songs was one of the moments that had me laughing out loud while playing the game. Saints Row IV unashamedly parodies other games too; a stealth level and a throwback to old side scrolling fighters were more fun to play than the normal missions.
Side missions are very similar to previous games, go to an area, kill all the enemies, go to an area, kill a set wave of enemies. You’d think classics like throwing yourself under cars to commit insurance fraud would never get old but most of the tasks are very repetitive and can become boring if you are playing for long periods at a time. New types of missions on offer are hacking shops which require you to solve short puzzles within a time limit, or jumping from platform to platform to reach the top of a tower.
There are homie missions as well. These are the most interesting story wise of these side quests since each one involves you helping one of your homies to deal with a personal issue for them. Once they come to terms with whatever they need to deal with, like finally getting to finish off an ex-boyfriend that tried to kill them, they will gain access to super powers too.
You are doing all this in order to disrupt the system, the more chaos you cause the more powerful you become. Sometimes you will leave the virtual reality and take the fight directly to the aliens, you won’t have super powers in the real world but you will have giant robots.
Saints Row is definitely a series that appreciates good voice acting, when creating your character you can select from several different male and female voices that have all recorded the entire script. This time round you also have the specific ‘Nolan North’ option. Special mention has to go to Keith David, an actor who has worked on screen in film and television as well as being a voice actor. I’m not sure how well known he is to the general public, honestly I didn’t think he was. The only reason I knew him is because of his voice work with Disney in the old animated television series Gargoyles and the film The Princess and the Frog. However maybe I’m mistaken in my assumption of how well known he was as here the actor plays himself and is chosen as the vice president of the United States. There are jokes and references made about him throughout the game; he voiced Julius Little in Saints Row 1 and 2 so the gang mention several times how he reminds them of him. While he is making a speech to the public one crowd member is holding up a sign saying ‘I heart Goliath’, Goliath was the character he voiced in the Gargoyles series. Putting this much effort into something so random is what I love about the Saints Row series; it’s just a shame the same level of effort couldn’t be put into improving the actual gameplay.
When it comes down to craziness Saints Row IV surpasses Saints Row: The Third and has also attempted to freshen up the repetitive gameplay with super powers. Unfortunately it just wasn’t as fun as its predecessor but it is definitely still enjoyable and if you’re already a fan of the series you should certainly give this entry a go.