Saints Row (2022) Review

Saints Row had turn out to be well-known for its whacky gameplay and weird missions, and, fairly frankly, it’s what I beloved most in regards to the collection. Whenever you dwell in a world filled with Grand Theft Auto clones, Volition’s tenacity so as to add their very own spin on an overdone system was like a breath of recent air.

Like lots of the earlier Saints Row video games, the 2022 reboot is all about constructing your felony enterprise from the bottom up. This implies muscling your approach right into a base of operations, constructing a crew, opening numerous drug and cash laundering ventures across the metropolis, and simply typically changing into a self-made badass.

So you’ll suppose that changing into a felony entrepreneur and constructing your individual empire could be a blast, however Saints Row in some way manages to make it a fairly lacklustre and forgettable journey. Which is actually saying one thing once you bear in mind that Scarface: The World Is Yours was doing a greater job of the idea all the best way again in 2006.

Contemplating video video games give us all the chance to dwell out our wildest imaginations with no penalties, how did Saints Row take such a loopy enjoyable idea and make it really feel like a chore? Properly, by unimaginative gameplay, repetitive missions, a uninteresting metropolis, and a number of the most grinding online game dialogue in historical past – that’s how.

My expertise of Saints Row instantly acquired off to a nasty begin once I tried to switch my created character from the Boss Manufacturing facility app to the total sport, solely to understand that the clothes and niknaks I had used weren’t truly obtainable firstly of the sport. Though that is fairly customary apply, it felt like a sheer waste of time to create a personality earlier than launch, simply to make use of a default one anyway as a result of nothing I chosen was obtainable to make use of but. A bit of indication that sure clothes objects could be unavailable wouldn’t have gone amiss.

However, with that being mentioned, the customization choices inside Saints Row are extremely expansive. This isn’t simply tied to your character both, each weapons and autos have quite a lot of choices to select from. Though it was disappointing to find that there wasn’t a solution to buy automobiles and motorbikes, as the one solution to acquire them was by finishing missions or stealing them.

After re-creating my character, I used to be prepared to leap into town of Santo Ileso and be immersed in all the things it needed to supply. Sadly, it rapidly turned clear that Saints Row’s open world didn’t have loads to supply when it comes to immersion… or the rest for that matter. I truly turned borderline uncomfortable at simply how quiet town was once you’d traverse by the streets; the shortage of atmospheric audio made Santo Ileso really feel lifeless. By way of measurement, there was loads of distance to cowl, however a majority of it was simply sepia-toned desert and spread-apart buildings that had been largely inaccessible.

Regardless of a lacklustre metropolis, there’s undoubtedly enjoyable available with Saints Row, even whether it is basically a stripped-back model of the collection. Though Volition wished to take gamers again to the roots of the collection, you’ll be able to nonetheless anticipate some over-the-top motion all through. However these moments do appear to be scattered few and much between, with lots of the predominant storyline missions being extremely repetitive and outright pointless.

I’m all for foolish missions to have enjoyable with, however an excellent share of Saints Row’s missions had goals corresponding to “accumulate the parcels stolen out of your doorstep” and “wait in line for donuts”. Not precisely the type of goals you need to see in an action-adventure sport like Saints Row. A sub-par try was made at making these missions tie again into the story, however they felt as if they served no actual function while taking on a copious quantity of playtime.

There’s, nonetheless, an odd allure to Saints Row, one thing I wasn’t fairly in a position to put my finger on. Regardless of the unimaginative gameplay, I discovered myself coming again for increasingly more (and never simply because I wanted to finish it for this overview). The story of a rising felony enterprise isn’t something authentic, however I turned oddly invested within the Saints’ story, even when their dialogue is extremely cringey and infrequently onerous to hearken to.

Sadly, regardless of the odd allure that saved me coming again for extra, Saints Row is only a watered-down model of what was as soon as an over-the-top and thrilling collection. Graphically, the sport may have most likely been launched on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. I watched buildings and automobiles render round me and infrequently discovered myself taking a look at character fashions questioning the place the definition or element was. For a next-gen title, it was simply extremely disappointing.

I reviewed Saints Row on a PlayStation 5, and each next-gen sport I’ve ever performed has made use of the DualSense controller’s capabilities, such because the adaptive triggers and enhanced haptic suggestions. For some cause, Saints Row made use of none of those options.

As for the precise gameplay, capturing and driving felt clunky and outdated. However, there have been some components that had been refreshing, corresponding to executing a takedown on an enemy. Not solely did it refill your well being, nevertheless it was additionally extremely satisfying to observe. Sadly, this wasn’t sufficient to remedy the boredom of most missions revolving round killing hordes of enemies. Out of roughly 30+ predominant missions, solely a handful felt like they supplied a spread in gameplay.

Saints Row sadly takes away a number of the most iconic elements of the franchise, and as an alternative of changing these stripped-away components with new and refreshing concepts, you’re left with what appears like a sport that ought to have been launched between 5 to 10 years in the past.