A Disappointing Cash-In On The Saints Row Popularity
Is It The Same Saint’s Row I Know And Love?
The core tenants of the “Saints Row” experience are kind of present; they take matters into their own hands and have the same carefree approach to their problems as ever, even when confronted with the prospect of taking down Satan. But if you thought where Saints Row 3 and 4 excelled was the writing, and you’re looking for more of that, then, sadly, you’re looking in the wrong place.
The main cause for this, is there’s barely any plot; you’re basically given a meter to fill by causing “chaos”, with little notches that basically indicate “you’ll get plot when you reach this marker”. The first thing you’ll notice about it; there aren’t that many. There is almost no plot to the game, and because of this, extremely limited character interaction, resulting in almost no dialogue. There is a memorable musical number in the game, but it’s pretty much the highlight of the game. While the ending feels like it pokes fun at the pattern of it’s contemporaries using the “choose an ending” approach, it isn’t exactly funny and just as with the games it feels it's trying to parody, it’s not a fulfilling end to the game.
So What Do You Do?
The game is as sandbox as ever in that you’re essentially given the powers and let loose. In order to draw Satan’s ire, they’ve continued to litter the map with mini-games, but I didn’t really need a third version of Insurance Fraud… The new additions don’t really add much to the game, but highlight more than ever that it is essentially; “Saints Row : The Minigame Collection”.
Aside from that, your options are to just going around shooting demons until your “wanted” level reaches a peak and an “Arch Duke” spawns for you to take down (or randomly, a Professor Genki), which then upon defeating it, resets your wanted level… Rinse and repeat.
More Powers, More Fun?
In addition to the powers made available in Saints Row 4, you now receive 12 “Arcane” abilities to play with, each with their own upgrade paths. While a couple of kind of fun to play around with, most feel like filler, like they were committed to having 3 abilities per “type” of arcane, without really debating whether they added anything to the game.
The other issue is the trickle pace at which you’re given the abilities. For as short as the game is, you can’t even unlock most the abilities until about halfway through, and by that point, you’re basically free to finish the game at your leisure, it’s only your desire to carry on playing the game that prevents you from leaving… The issue is, game itself really doesn’t offer any reason for you to stick around.
Let’s Summarise
It’s a standalone DLC, a runtime of a few hours is probably to be expected, however, pretty much all you do from start to end is grind out repetitive missions until the “you can now finish the game” gauge is filled. The game offers “challenges” for you to complete, but one of these is the game’s biggest slap in the face in that it expects you to play the game for 20 hours to finish it…
I don’t feel I found the game fun for even one of those.
Recommended? No
