Saints Row came out back in 2006 and while not being a giant fan of open world games I was interested in trying it out. I picked it up at launch and was playing through the game, and to my surprise, I was really enjoying it. The thing is I never finished the game, I only took down two of the three gangs, ‘The Westside Rollerz’ and Los Canarles’. You may be wondering why. It wasn’t because I became bored or I stopped enjoying it, I was playing a game online with some people and one of them decided that they would tell me how the game ended. After that I didn’t play the game, as I just felt it was totally spoiled for me, I guess I only really spited myself, but I just lost interest after that. I have returned to the game since many years ago I jumped on it and tried to go through the game finished off the ‘Vice Kings’ but left it after that.
Recently I decided to stream Saints Row and while I was enjoying it, it was a little archaic and getting used to it was tough. It has a good sense of humour, but nothing that compares to what comes later. I again didn’t finish it but this time it wasn’t for anything other than frustration, not at the game, but myself. I spent hours playing it on stream every Saturday and then I noticed all my “commentary” was missing from the VoDs, after that I just gave up on ever finishing Saints Row.
I Bought Saints Row 2 on release and played it for a while and loved it, it was so much more gripping than the first game for me, the sense of humour was, for me, hilarious and the game at the time improved many things from Saints Row, I didn’t finish this straight away as my Brother-in-Law started playing it on my Xbox 360 and he instantly fell in love with the game. He then bought his own Xbox 360 with Saints Row 2 and then we played the game in co-op. I started again from the beginning as did he and we played the game from start to finish doing pretty much all the Campaign missions and activities. The game was a blast and it’s my favourite game in the series to date. I think the fact that it just went over the top silly played a large part in that.
I recently played through this again while streaming to Twitch. I played through it in co-op again, this time with fellow streamer and friend Cumberdanes, while the game is largely great and is still a great laugh, it does have some drawbacks in that it’s somewhat archaic like the previous game and it’s a bit janky at times. I still had a blast and would happily play through the game again.
I bought Saints Row The Third on launch and played it straight away in co-op with my brother-in-law as I was super excited to see how they could top Saints Row 2 and well, while I still really enjoyed the game and the ending sequence is probably one of the biggest highlights of the series, it just didn’t land right for me, it still has the wackiness and over-the-top action, but there was something missing from it for me. Possibly Gat, or maybe how they made Shaundi shite. Pierce was still the same as in 2 so at least one thing didn’t get shat on.
The new characters added were all good, so it’s not like there weren’t fun/daft/crazy/serious people to interact with. I don’t really know why it didn’t appease me the same way Saints Row 2 did, but honestly, it’s still a great game. Like the previous two titles, I streamed this also. I played this again in co-op with Cumberdanes. We had a really good time, we stuck with the 360 version of the game and didn’t play the remastered version. It was also pretty janky but the controls and gameplay were a little more modern so it felt easier and better to play in some respects. I think Cumberdanes actually preferred ‘The Third over ‘2’ because of the gameplay modernisation. Oh, and the awesome button.
After being a little disappointed (though still enjoying it immensely) with Saints Row The Third I went into Saints Row IV a little weary, but I needn’t have been, the game starts off interesting enough with a mission to save the world (yeah, Saints Row and Saints Row 2 you are a gang out to be top dogs, in The Third you become celebrities.) Afterwords is where they shake it up a bit, you end up being taken by aliens, one particular Alien has an interest in you as you fight him to protect Earth. His name is Zinyak, the leader of the Zin race and ruler of the galaxy. Zinyak decides to put you into a computer-simulated world.
This is where it gets more balls to the wall crazy, you fight back and in doing so you are able to get super powers. You can run super fast, jump, super high, glide, use telekinesis and more. It’s totally wonderful. I originally played this in co-op with, yeah, you guessed it, my Brother-in-Law and we had a riot. It was kind of like they took the daftness of Saints Row, the abilities of Crackdown mashed them together added some more powers and made a special baby. Playing it recently with Cumberdanes has been a fun time. The powers changed the game up, it kept the sense of humour and most of all it was terrific fun.
I haven’t talked about any of the DLC, the DLC for Saints Row 2 tied up a few loose ends, but not dealing with Dex is a shame and I think that was the planned Saints Row 3 that never came. Saints Row The Third had some fun DLC with Gangstas in Space being the highlight, as you play a part movie and while you are an awful actor the director treats you like the sun shines out of your arse while treating you co-op star ‘Jenny Jaros’ like a piece of shit.
Which may or may not backfire in the end. Saints Row IV has great DLC, one detailing what Saint Row 4 would have been with characters who hadn’t been in the game since Saints Row 2 turning up, like Donnie. The other is How the Saints Saved Christmas which is brilliant. A future Shaundi comes back to the present to warn you about Santa Clawz. You embark on a mission to save Christmas with the help of the good Santa Clause and the spirit of goodwill.
There is one more piece of DLC for Saints Row IV, though it was also sold as a stand-alone title, it’s called Saints Row: Gat out of Hell. Gat out of Hell follows on with the powers from Saints Row IV but mixes them up a bit for example instead of an ice blast you get a stone blast that petrified people instead of freezing them, and you also get the ability to fly instead of glide, which is a nice addition and I prefer that to simply gliding.
You play as Gat and your co-op buddy plays as Kinzie, an ex-FBI agent who was introduced in Saints Row The Third. Originally I played this on the Xbox One with my Brother-in-Law and completed the game while doing the majority of the side stuff. I finished this in co-op with Cumberdanes just days before writing this and still really enjoyed it, it’s rather short in comparison to the previous game, but the switching up the powers and making Gat the main character was an excellent change as Gat is pretty great himself and has been in the games since the very first.
After playing through the series again (mostly, anyway) I still rate it as one of my favourites, and one of the few open-world games I adore. It’s a shame they remastered Saint’s Row The Third, but not Saints Row or Saints Row 2 though, they need the remastered treatment more than ‘The Third’ due to some archaic and difficult control/gameplay mechanics, whereas ‘The Third’ is a more playable game from the off. I’m excited about where the series will go from here…
Saints Row Rebooted. The new Saints Row is due on the 23rd of August 2022, just mere weeks away and I’m looking forward to it, It’ll be wonderful sinking my teeth into a new Saints Row after seven years. It’s kind of sad that returning characters from previous games won’t be returning, at least, I assume that’s the case. At the same time I can understand why they rebooted the series, they kind of wrote themselves into a corner with how 4 ended and unless they went on with a planetary exploration game I don’t think they’d be able to top it. Going back to their roots with the series seems like a smart move, I just hope they keep it whacky and most of all don’t cut back on the lewdness of previous games.