Saints Row (2022)
I was in the mood to play one of the Saints Row games again and decided on number 3. As I was about to download it on Steam I noticed I had that "new" one. A Friend of mine gave me the key for it and said "it's a ♥♥♥♥ game" and I left it at that cause I know the game had a bad rep. Seeing how I have the game, I decided to give it a go - after some research, of course. How bad could it really be?
First and foremost, this game was a Epic Games exclusive for a year on pc. I recall hearing about it and basically just ignored it cause I don't use Epic Games. I think I also heard about the game being absolutely broken on launch with plenty of bugs, glitches and missing things. So things did not go well on launch day on pc, and many people on Steam will just never support Epic or even buy it on Steam after the exclusivity deal ends. This was a hard knock for the game. After this I forgot about the game, never heard anything about content being added or fixes rolling out. Time just marched on.
Let's jump to 2026. I now have the game on Steam and tried it. It runs great and any small glitches or problems I encountered I just contributed it to "Saints Row whackiness". I noticed there were free dlcs and a few you had to pay for. I only completed the base game. As for the game itself, it's much shorter than Number 3. I only played up until 4, I never played Gat out of Hell or Agents of Mayhem (both games that performed poorly from what I can see).
Your player character is considered to be the Boss, but your friends hardly call you that. They don't even try to call you anything, really. You are just there mostly. Your character has some traits, its not all bad. You are disturbingly obsessed with murdering people, that is your whole trait. I get that its done for humour, but good lord that's all your character thinks of. Speaking of your friends - There's Eli - the guy who later runs the logistics of your criminal empire, a real smart nerd. Kevin - the guy who always walk arounds without a shirt, drink smoothies and exercises a lot and Neenah, the girl who likes cars. That's her entire personality. Now when it comes to all these characters - they are all basically kids who one day decide to run their own crime empire because they do not want to pay rent anymore. That's the main plot of the game. "These gangs can all do it, so can we." This is where many people dislike the game. "These are not the true Saints, the OG Saints from number 2 will F these guys up". The characters as they are, are fine. True, these people are not the Saints from number 2 because people recall number 2 all the time for comparison because it's the best Saints Row game ever release. It was my first ever game on Steam actually, so I would know. People also say the dialog in cut scenes are cringy, I think that's mostly something you need to judge for yourself on a person to person basis. It's fine. Nothing amazing,
As for the rival gangs themselves they are nothing too fancy. The Los Panteros, weight lifting freaks with big cars who runs smuggling and protection operations and The Idols, anarchists who like to party and the night-life. The third faction is the military organised Marshall Defense Industries who has fancy tech. Compared to the gangs of number 3, these weren't anything special. Too similiar to like Stag, who was the military force in that game who showed up much later.
The city looks amazing and I loved to explore it, I feel that's the best part of the game. The desert backdrop was cool and it was nice to get away from the big cities to something a little more open. I noticed there were two small town sections added to the left and the right of the map at some point (as free dlc, I didn't check) as they do not show up on any of the game guides online if you are looking for colectables. I had the same type of problem with outdated websites with Middle-earth: Shadow of War - old online guides with outdated tips. These never get updated as the games get updated - They don't have to, but I have personal gripe with this but I can overlook it. Speaking of collectables - you need to travel around the map to mark them on the map for you to find - so if you find everything you see, you need to venture every piece of the map road for road to find the rest. Yeah, i'm not doing that. I can't remember if number 3 did this as well, but I do know it was easier to get everything there.
There are perks and abilities you unlock as you do challanges in game. The abilities are pretty fun and handy, I do wish you had more perk slots cause 2 minor, 2 major and 1 epic is just not enough for all the cool stuff you can unlock. I hoped there was a perk that showed all the collectables on the map, but oh well.
Ok so let's sum this up. This game plays like Saints Row 3 and the story tried to tone down the over the top humour of 3 and the games onward to make it more in line like number 2. The shooting is fun, bit spongey enemies but whatever. Cars drive well, choppers fly fine. Why did this game fail and company closed down? People did not see this game as true reboot of Saints Row. They did not like the characters and being released on Epic was a big no for many people. I read that Embracer group axed the company, and now Saints Row is done for. A real shame, it was one of the best games to ever take on Grand Theft Auto with a more light-hearted tone. Now GTA 6 will remain surpreme with no rival to parady the fun.
I enjoyed playing this game. I had fun with it. It's a game that's mostly just fine, great to kill of some time if you have nothing better to do. The old Saints Row games are still on Steam, feel free to give them a go over this one. Personally I would say to give it a go if it's on sale, but if you compare it to Saints 2 all the time, you will never enjoy it. I can say everybody loves a little bit of foreshadowing - at the start of the game your character gets buried in a grave - aka the end of Saints Row.
6/10
"... Fleeing The Area With A Large Metal Cow In Tow ..."
- Santo Ileso Police Officer
