If anyone could point to a franchise that has had the greatest peaks and valleys in gaming history, Saints Row would rank among the highest. This was a game that came out in the height of Grand Theft Auto's popularity, during the fourth entry's close advent, and surprised everyone. Those who looked at it for just a moment merely passed it off as a GTA clone, but it had a great deal to offer in terms of story, gameplay and interesting characters from the very beginning. From ever changing gameplay to a finish that crashed and burned so spectacularly, this sweeps the spectrum of quality in every facet.
Saints Row
The first game came out in the era of the Xbox 360, as a PS3 port was never released. This game had you starting as a nameless man who was caught in the middle of a gang war by chance. When you help a gangster survive a deadly encounter, they take you under their wing and bring you on as a prospect. Through various different activities and crimes you need to commit, you start to rise the ranks of the Saints and you eventually become the gang leader. With characters like Johnny Gat, Julius Little and other gangster leaders stirring the pot, the story is actually quite engaging. While some of it is played tongue-in-cheek, there are still some very heart-felt moments where the game goes quite hard and is surprising it its depths.
The game is a lot of fun, and while it didn't really bring its A game quite yet, the first installment can be seen as a good time all around. There are a lot of glitches here and there. Through my first playthrough of this, there were times when I couldn't proceed because the obstacles became impossible. One mission where we're destroying homeless people's stations in a building, the little stations became indestructible here and there. Though, a quick restart of the level fixed the problem.
While the first one did not really blow Grand Theft Auto 3 out of the water in terms of style and gameplay, it showed that the franchise was not infallible. It was passed off as a fluke of its time, but it still holds a special place in gaming history. I was never able to play the online version, but it was said to be something of an experience all its own. If you have a chance to get this game, it's not a terrible idea to give it a try.
Saints Row 2
Often considered the highest peak of the series for a myriad of reasons. The action is more bombastic, the missions are crazier and the story gets rather ridiculous while sticking to the core of the first one. The first thing people usually notice about this game is that the character maker is better in every way. You can choose your own gender and the customization has reached a lot of new heights.
The action and the fighting in this entry is on point, and the missions involve everything from screwing over rival gang leaders to covering entire buildings in crap! You can get gatling guns, kill anyone that stands in your way and even activate some cheats that are miles of fun. This game introduces characters that become staples of the series and it is even more free-roaming than before as Steelport is a vast area of a metropolis that can be explored. The easter eggs and mini-games you encounter are just icings on a very delicious cake. Even the story becomes more engaging because you feel like you already know the characters that survived the first game and you yourself must bring the Saints back to their former glory.
As you dominate more and more of the city and cast the other gangs out, you can clearly see the influence you have on the streets. Your gangs clash over and over again until you bring down your enemies and complete their coinciding missions to undermine their operations. As you do, your gang starts to conquer the streets and you can visibly see how you grow in power. You can steal cars, keep them in your garage for later use and customize them to be stronger and more advanced. There are hours of content to enjoy and elongate your playthrough if you don't want to go through the story too fast.
There is a reason why this is widely considered the top of the series. Even for its time and limitations on the X360, this is still widely considered one of the greatest games. The world is massive and the characters are very well rounded. There are a few things that the third installment does better, but the overall feel and scope of this game still shines through in many ways.
Saints Row the Third
The Third Street Saints come back in a much more insane and comical way with this ridiculous entry. While some will consider it a steer away from the core greatest of the series, there is a lot to enjoy. Your character customization takes another leap in quality and they crank the madness up to a million! You're fighting mascots, taking part in death game shows, death wrestling matches and taking down titanic gangster clones! This game goes hard and does not stop going hard as you're calling in air strikes and firing some of the most ridiculous weapons ever known!
This entry does deviate from the first two in many ways, and yes, it can be seen as a bit tedious if you want to conquer every activity and take complete control. It brings back old favorite games like insurance fraud, which is just running yourself into cars to get money. It also goes even crazier when you get all of the DLC's and star in a science fiction movie and need to take down aliens. Aliens? In a sandbox gangster game? Surely not!
In terms of story, it does take a bit of a hit because it doesn't take itself quite so seriously anymore. Characters have changed, and not always for the better, and they stupidly kill off one of the main characters in the first of the game, only to retcon it later. At the end of the game, you also have a choice of whether you want to take down the main badguy or save your own friend from being executed. Of course, they go back on that very quickly as well. There's also an annoying zombie plot that has you going through part of the city to knock machines into the bay while also dodging annoying zombie hordes. At the end, you're even taking down a gangster leader that got away in a very tacked on good ending that the devs apparently felt they needed to put in. It's kind of a mess in terms of plot.
Still, with so much gameplay and extra gameplay, it's a great time. The car customization is awesome because you can still keep the cars. Obviously, it's far from perfect but there is a lot to love. Does it beat Saints Row 2? Not really, but it's not a far cry from it either. It's still got the style, even if its a bit overblown and bloated in some places. Though, believe it or not, this game seems tamed by comparison to the fourth and final true entry to the franchise.
Saints Row 4
Yes, we're all well aware of how far off the rails this title went. Not only did the entire planet get destroyed by aliens, but you spend the vast majority of this entire game inside a simulation. Being inside the simulation turned out to be an interesting twist because it enabled the player to gain super powers inside the computer program and was able to fight the system from within. It basically takes from the Matrix franchise and puts the Saints Row spin on it. This also enabled you to fight inside cyber simulations, glitches, wormholes and vast amounts of other, very strange settings.
This game has its ups and downs, I'm not going to lie. You became the President of the United States and you only were able to do anything with it at the very beginning, where you made maybe three decisions as such and then everything went straight to hell. After that, it's all about fighting the evil alien overlord and defeating him from inside his own simulated world. It goes completely catastrophic in its own gags and that is also a good and bad thing. This made the mayhem portions a lot more fun, but then it also was a crap shoot whether they were going to let you go into battles or missions with your super powers or they would take them away from you.
The way that they brought back characters and then replayed missions from the original games was interesting, but sometimes it was just a blatant slogfest. Sometimes, the missions are nothing but finishing random mini-games in it and acting like it's preparing you for the final battle or making your crewmates happy by performing these tasks. It's kind of a copout when all you're trying to do is get to the good ending rather than the "lonely leader" ending. The happy ending is just a weird part where you can create your own timeline with better people and then there's a dance number along with a few other strange parts where you win the hearts of the alien race.
When you remove it from the series as a whole, it stands a lot better on its own legs. When compared to its roots, it can get a little overly crazy. In a vaccuum, it's a solid game with some funny parts along with some cool collectathon missions. You get powerups by going and getting glitches in the system and you get new abilities through main story mode along with new homies and gang members on top of everything. It's a fun game all around, and it kind of helps that it's so far removed from the first two games. It's a large leap in craziness, for certain, but it's nothing compared to its expansion.
Gat Out of Hell
This game is not good. That's a very subjective view, but it's also very true in certain objective ways. The game itself was very glitchy and a broken mess upon release, and even after all of the fixes, it didn't get much better. You play Gat going through Hell to marry the devil's daughter and defeat the devil himself to take over the whole place. The gameplay is just mission after mission of fetch quests on top of everything that's already in every other game. It's so far removed to even Saints Row 4, and it sucked the life out of the franchise in every single way. The story was a joke, although the songs were rather catchy, and the devil's daughter is actually a decent character. Aside from a few fun segments here and there, this game was a drag to get through.
The sound continuously cut out, including the music, far more than once. Even with the core gameplay, it feels like an entirely different experience. Hell is an interesting backdrop, but it's pretty much nothing like Hell, other than a few lava pits and some backdrops. Gaining the wings and learning how to use them was some of the most dismal parts of the games... Finding the "Soul Clusters" is far worse than finding the glitches in SR4. You can get stupid powerful and awesome, but it makes the game entirely too easy. By the time you get to the devil, you may as well be Doomguy with how easily you spank him.
The glitches go far beyond the sound. You glitch through walls and the unfinished content is on display for everything. The fighting goes through floors and there are times getting hit doesn't do any damage to you. It's so easy that you basically go through entire armies of demons and you take minimal to no damage at all. This is also true for boss fights. The game is repetitive and it is a slog to get through. This was supposed to be nothing but a DLC and it should have been free but they ended up making it its own game that can be bought separately. Even when it's included with Saints Row 4 on PS4, it's really not worth your time.
The cut scenes, the song numbers and everything involving the story just serve to elongate the time. This title never should have been created, but that's where this takes another turn for the worse. As bad as this game is, it still pales in comparison to what came after it. The Saints Row franchise basically ended with this as a trip at the finishline, but then Volition decided, after some lackluster titles, that it couldn't live without some iteration of the Saints being put on the screen. I didn't play Agents of Mayhem.
There is another title in this franchise that has already basically been decanonized. When I review that game is up in the air but I do plan to review it at some point. Agents of Mayhem was nothing and is not worth the effort, but the game that killed the franchise and Volition needs to be further examined. That will be done at a later time, though. For now, let's be happy with the four titles of the main series that we all know and love, even the ones that were more divisive can be looked at as being better than the later titles that did nothing but harm to our beloved game titles. Until then, though, keep the Saints alive for as long as you can and remember to keep an eye on your turf. You don't want super powered plush cats to ruin it, believe that! Virtua Filibuster!
