Saints Row IV - Re-Elected - Review

When it comes to open world games, there are usually two types, grand open worlds and Grand Theft Auto style worlds, Saints Row was developed initially to dethrone GTA and in the years since it has found its own place and with the recent release it has gone even further.

Saints Row IV was released back in 2013 for the previous generation of consoles and was received very well, it told the tale of the Saints, who have risen up from a street gang, through to pop culture stars and as the game starts special agents. After a very well done opening, you are given your chance to define your character and then you are let loose as the President of the United States, but that is short lived as the world is invaded by aliens. Yep, Aliens.

You then do what you can to defend the White Crib, before you are eventually captured as well and thrown into a virtual world, based around the 1950’s, which you promptly escape, before you end up in a virtual recreation of Steelport, the same world from the last game. If you have played Saints Row The Third, then getting around will be something you should get straight away, the core games mechanics are intact here, the big change is that you can unlock super powers.

These super powers make the need for cars a little redundant, as you can run and jump faster than the cars can drive, but the guns are still useful. The overall gameplay takes most of its cues from the last game, but tweaks enough to feel different. The missions on offer here are also pretty similar to the last game, if it’s not go to place A and kill everything, its going and get something. What changes it up is that we now have a virtual world, so enemies and guns can spawn nearby, which means it’s a lot faster paced. You won’t get time to prepare for an attack as they can just spawn near you, rather than having to drive in.

The Re-Elected edition of the game is obviously a port of the last generation version and it shows, the game runs smooth enough, don’t get me wrong, but the game has quite a problem with textures and it looks dated as a whole. But that is not surprising, Volition the original developer made the game on the same engine from the third title and it had limitations then, it is a shame that the port seems to have brought them across as well. There are times when the game gets really busy, with loads of enemies and such that things run better than they did last generation, but visually that is about the only plus. The audio is the one area that has come across with more of a nicer, cleaner sound, in fact the audio logs were more fun to collect this time around than last.

If you have never played Saints Row VI you will get a kick out of playing it now, it has done the super power thing really well and the game itself is just pure fun. If you have previously played the game, the added DLC may provide some new challenges for you, but it is pretty much the same game, but boy what a game.

The Score

7.5

Review code provided by Koch Media

The Pros

+Great open world game that lets you have fun

+Super powers can make you feel amazing

The Cons

-Visual bugs to draw you out of the experience

-Same game from the last generation