Saints Row: Gat out of Hell

In 2016, I bought this game as part of a Humble Bundle, and at a very steep discount. My favorite game in the bundle was Saints Row the Third, with more than 80 hours of play time logged. Saints Row IV was also a great game, but it had some major flaws, as the new feature added (superpowers) made other features obsolete. Now, eight years later, I finally decided to play the next game in the series, Saints Row Gat Out of Hell. This review is from that point of view -- a game purchased eight years ago, at a steep discount, where the third game was my favorite in the series. Saints Row IV added superpowers to the game. These superpowers continued with this game. With IV, the powers were due to being in a Matrix like simulation; while with Gat, it is due to an artifact provided in Hell. With IV, the superpowers made cars (and all the cool customization) and gang (along with their upgrades/weapons) obsolete. After all, why do you need cars, if you can run (or fly) faster than any vehicle in the game? Why do you need a gang, when you can do more damage than any gang member? With Gat, the developers seems to agree with this, as these features have been removed (mostly) from the game. With Saints Row IV, you play as the boss. With Gat, the boss gets kidnapped to hell -- while you get to play as either Johnny Gat or Kinzie Kensington. Character customization is not available in this game. You don't get to choose your features, clothing, taints, etc. You get to be either Gat or Kinzie (and can switch between them), with no customization at all. While I believe that cars and gang members are obsolete, I don't agree that they should have been removed. And I certainly don't believe that player customization should have been removed, as this was the feature that the Saints Row series was best known for. Regarding the gunplay, it feels somewhat weak (while serviceable). Sometimes, I don't feel like it is having any impact. At first, I thought that something was wrong with the settings -- then I realized that it may be like this with the other older SR games as well. It has been many years since I last played Saints Row, so I could just have been remembering it with a lot of nostalgia. Also, playing more current games, with really good gunplay, may be having an effect on this opinion. Regardless, this is an older game, and from that lens, it is acceptable (graphics, lighting, sound, controls, etc.). Regarding the missions/tasks, it may not have aged very well -- or perhaps, years later, my tastes has become more demanding. With Saints Row IV, I got every cluster, audio log, and completed every loyalty mission for everyone. With this game, when looking at the tasks, I see it as somewhat tedious work. It may be related to the lack of an interesting main story, or even due to the progression system. Regardless, there is definitely little desire to get all the clusters, and/or upgrade all the weapons/powers. The progression in this game isn't great (or even very good). Just like previous Saints Row games, there is the main mission, side missions, and activities on the map. The main mission spawns side missions, which in turn, spawns activities on the map. However, unlike previous games, most of the side missions are just doing activities. In other words, the side missions and activities are the same. If you complete an activity that is related to a side mission, the side mission will be marked as completed too. Also, the main mission is progressed by the amount of "wrath" (from Satan) -- meaning you have to do enough activities to trigger the next story scene. Heck, even Johnny Gat had an issue with the arbitrary wait time, and went to Volition's offices to discuss it (in one of the cutscenes). Regarding the story, the "cutscenes" are done mostly with drawings and narration. In the beginning, this feels like a very interesting artistic choice, and does grow on you somewhat. However, as the story moves along, you start to get the feeling that this was done due to a lower budget. The transitions to/from the "cut scenes" sometimes feel jarring -- meaning they don't fit correctly. Heck, even if you use Kinzie on a mission, the narrator will mention "Johnny" when moving the story along. Also, sometimes the story feels like you are just going through the motions. Interestingly, you get to choose the ending -- and you can repeat the battle with Satan, if you want to see more than one ending (although, you can only use Gat for the battle). Also, one (or two) of the choices could have been used to reboot the series -- resetting all the characters into new positions. Regardless, as we know now, the reboot(s) weren't successful. First, Volition just used one of the endings as a way to explain the alternate universe for a spin off game (which didn't sell well), and then, tried to do another reboot (which also, didn't sell well). Since Volition has been sold off, we can say that it is unlikely that we will ever see another Saints Row game (with these characters) again. To conclude, I would recommend this game. Arguably, it is a good game (in moderation). The main story is just a bit too short -- without the progression system forcing you to play more activities, this game could have been completed in a few hours. Since, it is very unlikely that we will ever see a Saints Row game this extreme (or crazy) again, this game is definitely worth a play, even if it is just to get a bit of nostalgia.