Next-Gen Reviews

It's hard to wonder where Volition will go from here though, because Saints Row IV's kitchen-sink approach will inevitably become exhausting after a while. Saints Row: The Third started out light and daft but slowly turned into one of the maddest games ever made. It was a slow-burn descent into ribald mania, whereas Saints Row IV starts in the loony bin and only goes deeper. So is there a way back from this? Will Saints Row V imply that everything that came before it was all a dream, or will it attempt to out-do its forbear for outright lunacy? If Volition plump for the latter approach, they've truly got their work cut out.

 

There are too many laughs and too many brilliant WTF moments in Saints Row IV to be able to list even one tenth of them here… but we wouldn't dream of spoiling them anyway. This is a game to leap into with both feet, and if you've managed to avoid any or all information on the game up until now… our advice is to keep your head in the sand until the thing is in your disc drive and ready to go.

 

Here are the basics: your character is now the President of the USA, and in the opening few minutes he or she is thrown face-first into an alien invasion. This occupation of earth involves forcing the population into a Matrix-style alternate universe, in which you're able - with the help of some of your fellow Saints as well as a few old enemies - to manipulate your attributes in order to become an mixture of about six or seven of the world's greatest super heroes. The first batch of skills that you learn are nothing too exciting - you can jump quite high and fire projectiles at your enemies - but the rest of them are often ludicrous and always a joy to pull off. No spoilers.

 

The main problem with having all of these super powers at your disposal is that one of the most fundamental (and enjoyable) aspects of Saints Row is now rendered pointless: the driving. Running and jumping around Steelport is frankly untold amounts of fun, but it's no substitute for executing the perfect drift in a souped-up sports car. The loose (and rather lovely) driving mechanics have always been one of the best things about the series, and now the only way you'll get to drive a car is when the game explicitly asks you to… which it does on only a small handful of occasions. And if you choose to get in a car of your own accord you'll soon get restless, if only because driving somewhere will take you more than twice as long as simply sprinting there.

 

The core gameplay owes a huge debt to Realtime Worlds' 2007 gem Crackdown. As in Crackdown, once you've levelled up enough you'll find yourself bouncing aimlessly around the city like it's a giant trampoline, and both games have a level-up structure that involves the discovery of bright blue orbs, scattered liberally around your environment. Collecting these balls of blue light initially seems like it'll become tedious very quickly, when in fact it becomes quite unbelievably moreish; and the game's smart enough not to force you into collecting them all. If you want to collect only the collectibles that you see on your travels (without once deviating from your path) you almost certainly won't have to forgo any of the games cooler unlocks.

 

Almost all of Saints Row's classic selection of side digressions make a return here - Tank Mayhem and Insurance Fraud to name just two - and they're available either as standalone activities, or alternatively can be completed as a favour to the other members of your team. A couple of Professor Genki's brilliant mini-games from SR: The Third return here too and some classics have been re-tuned to allow you to use your powers instead of guns…. so as you'd expect, there is simply loads and loads to do here, and none of it is boring. 

 

All of this applies to everything in Saints Row IV with the obvious exception the final few missions. We have it on excellent authority that the game goes out with the most fantastic bang, and that the final levels demonstrate the game operating at its absolute peak. It's a shame that we can't clarify this, and it's a little shocking that a bug this drastic managed to make it into the final retail build of a blockbuster title like this. Hopefully it'll be patched as soon as it physically can be, and that it affects as few people as possible.

 

Despite all of its problems though, and despite the depressing fact that we haven't even had the opportunity to finish the bloody thing, Saints Row IV comes staunchly recommended. You'll laugh a lot and will be ceaselessly engaged… hopefully until the campaign draws its final breaths. Bring on the fix.

 

 

8/10