Like Tomb Raider and Grand Theft Auto Five (12-31-14 release date) Volition is bringing their shining star to next-gen consoles. Saints Row IV Re-Elected has been announced and is coming to next gen consoles January the 27th in the Americas, and January 30th internationally.
For $49.99, you get the original Saints Row IV and all the previous DLC, including the newest Gat Out of Hell released the same day. The next gen version will have had the expected graphical face-lift that coincides with a next gen re-release. The game will also have additional capabilities such as game play recording and voice commands.
In Gat Out of Hell, your created character is dragged into hell where the Devil is trying to force you to marry his daughter. You take over as Johnny Gat, and go to hell to rescue your crew member. With some help hopefully you can succeed and stop the hellacious nuptials.
For those unfamiliar with Saints Row IV, it is a sandbox game like the Grand Theft Auto and Crackdown series. You are sort of bad guy like in Grand Theft Auto, but the game play is a bit over the top like Crackdown. You are a member of the Third Street Saints, a street gang who has grown in popularity and power over the first three titles in the series.
By the fourth in the series your agonist is elected president and the Earth has been invaded by aliens. You cannot really call your character good or bad, but they are a sociopath.
Saints Row IV does everything it can to earn its M for mature rating, often even pushes the envelope on that. This game contains violence, blood, censored nudity, drug and alcohol use, foul language, giant sex toys as weapons, and plenty of other adult subject matter. One of the DLCs is even titled “Enter the Dominatrix”. So no, this is not for kids.
The game seems to start out normal enough and then you find out your character is in a computer simulation, and your crew is helping you escape. If this doesn’t sound familiar yet then just keep reading. In order to escape, part of the time spent as a toilet, you must cause chaos and disrupt the program. Once you do, you emerge into the real world naked, but censored.
You discuss with your crew about the simulation and decide you have to go back in to save everyone. Once back inside the simulation you unlock superpowers that no one else can do. I kept waiting for and “I know Kung Fu” but didn’t get it. So yes, the story is a ridiculous spoof on The Matrix.
While the superpowers are fun for a while, you eventually build your character up enough that guns and cars are underpowered by comparison. This is where the game seems to go wrong as you have no need to try and find better weapons or vehicles. Repetitiveness sets in since nearly everything you are fighting is grossly underpowered by comparison. There is not a point in getting a car since you can run faster and have better control than you can drive. With super strength and energy blasts, guns just kill enemies too slowly.
The controls and game build are as solid as any of the other top notch sandbox games. You can find glitches but they are few and far between. The story and characters continue to be entertaining and funny, if you are into frat boy humor that is. Both are completely over the top in every way. Once the tedium of the game play sets in, they are only reason to keep playing. If just so you can see what they do or say next.
If you don’t mind adult content, play Grand Theft Auto just to run around and cause chaos, and you thought a maxed out agent in Crackdown was too weak then this is a game built entirely for you. If you have never played this series and you still have a last gen console then I recommend the third in the series first. The game play stays more grounded and it loses none of its absurdity.