The Saints Row games, in a way, are zanier versions of the Grand Theft Auto games, where anything goes. In Saints Row the Fourth, for instance, you play as the President, who is up against an invading alien force. You can, in all the games, fire the incredibly fun ‘Dubstep Gun’.
How is the reboot?
In short, it is a collage of several conflicting ideas, which is barely held together. You begin as a mercenary. Then, the story goes into a sitcom-like zone. Suddenly, you go on a crime spree... The narrative changes so often, it is hard to keep track of the people and the events in the story. Nothing sticks with you.
If you are a fan of the open world games, you must have played, or are familiar with, Mad Max, Rage and the GTA series. Sometimes, driving through Santo Ileso feels like you are driving through the wastelands of Max Max with vehicles from Rage. On other occasions, however, it feels like you are driving through the worlds in Mafia or GTA. Everything is so inconsistent. Driving around is fun but the cars feel like cardboard boxes.
Saints Row
The action gets on your nerves. Waves of enemies run at you mindlessly. Shooting them, after a point, gets repetitive and boring. There is no cover system or even the ability to switch your shoulder aim. If you die, the checkpoints are placed at inconvenient spots in the story. So, you have to frustratingly trudge through this messy storyline over and over again.
You can see the uncertainty in the style and presentation as well. It cannot make up its mind if it wants to look like Fortnite, Grand Theft Auto or the earlier Saints Row games.
Saints Row has several interesting ideas mashed together and many of them do not quite work. The addition of your friends as a comedic element evokes the occasional chuckle. The nifty gig economy app idea is somewhat interesting too. But the game never hooks you.
There are a lot better games out there worth your time than this one. But if you are keen on Saints Row, then you will be better off plying the first four games.
