Saints Row IV Review
"Kennedy said we could put a man on the moon in 10 years. I say we can have sexy robots that can pour a perfect dirty Martini in six." - Your character
WARNING: This review contains spoilers from the outset and throughout, so if you're thinking about playing this game or Saints Row The Third, then it is strongly recommend that you don't read this.
Oh, and I've spoilered the plot summary - it covers all of the basic details throughout and is quite long.
Oh, and I've spoilered the plot summary - it covers all of the basic details throughout and is quite long.
So, Saints Row IV - the next game in the Saints Row franchise. It follows on from the events in Saints Row The Third (i.e. the rise of the Saints in Steelport, their elimination of the Morningstar, the Luchadores and the Deckers and their repulsion of the STAG invasion). As soon as you start, you're dropped into a terrorist HQ with Pierce, Shaundi, and Asha Odekar, an MI6 operative, with orders to assassinate Cyrus Temple, STAG's former commander. After fighting your way through waves of terrorists, this level ends with you killing him and disabling a nuke he launched that's heading for Washington D.C.
You're then thrust into the prestigious job of President of the United States (after creating your character first, of course), and presented with a list of problems by Ben King (you may remember him from Stilwater) and Pierce Washington on your way to a press conference. On your way to said conference you interact with a few different people before arriving. However, when you arrive, the roof is suddenly torn off the White "Crib" and a battle scene is revealed.
It is at this point that you're introduced to the game's main antagonist - an alien who goes by the name of "Zinyak", leader of the Zin Empire. The Zin abduct your homies and you're left to defend the White House by yourself. Your character then quarrels with Zinyak, but fails to kill him, and wakes up in a peaceful "simulation" reminiscent of a 1950s sitcom. You greet the people in the town, but once it starts glitching your character goes on a rampage in an attempt to break out and ends up being placed into another simulation (this time depicting Steelport controlled by the Zin) and is told, by Zinyak, that if they try to break out again, he will destroy Earth.
You do break out from the simulation with help of Kinzie Kensington, and steal a ship along with Kinzie and your Vice President, Keith David. On your way back to Earth, you try to make contact with your homies but after failing to do so, Earth suddenly explodes. You then have to re-enter the simulation, with the hope of bringing it down so you can distract the Zin long enough to kill Zinyak outside of the sim.
You go through main and side quests to learn more about the simulation, take control of different areas of Steelport and also rescue your homies from their simulations. There's also "Wardens" who attack you, which you can absorb into you when they're defeated to gain their powers, which include telekinesis, super speed, super jumps and more. You can take down Hotspots and Flashpoints as well as partaking in traditional activities such as Fraud and Mayhem.
One of the most notable events in the entire game, though, is the return of Johnny Gat. Saints Row 3 led us to believe he got shot by the Morningstar on a cargo plane, but it is revealed once he gets to the ship that he held off the Morningstar thugs, after which Zinyak appeared to him and took him prisoner.
After you've completed all of the quests and rescued all of your homies, you take your first shot at overloading the simulation, resulting in a colossal Zin attack on Kinzie's hideout. This turns out to be a distraction, however, during which the Zin kidnap Kinzie from the ship. You then enter her simulation (the same as the one you wake up in near the start) and try to find her. This quest ends with you killing a simulated version of Cyrus Temple, the Mayor in the simulation.
Once Kinzie is rescued, you begin work on overloading your simulation and attacking Zinyak on the Zin mothership. Using separate teams (Pierce and Shaundi, Asha and Matt Miller, and Johnny and Ben King), you upload a key to start the overload, then open portals to bring in various monsters and machines to help with the overload, and after overloading the simulation, you break into the Zin armory with the help of the remaining team, in which you find power armour which will help you defeat Zinyak.
You then have to dodge lasers and the like before reaching Zinyak's throne room, at which point the final boss battle of the game begins. Zinyak enters a giant cyborg which you have to take down. Once down to half health, he puts a forcefield around him and have to use your various powers (mainly telekinesis) to destroy the forcefield and him.
When the cyborg is destroyed, Zinyak exits it and engages in hand-to-hand fighting with you. Eventually, you tear off Zinyak's head and subsequently take control of the Zin Empire, at which point the game "ends". Of course, you can still wreak havoc in the simulation afterwards.
You're then thrust into the prestigious job of President of the United States (after creating your character first, of course), and presented with a list of problems by Ben King (you may remember him from Stilwater) and Pierce Washington on your way to a press conference. On your way to said conference you interact with a few different people before arriving. However, when you arrive, the roof is suddenly torn off the White "Crib" and a battle scene is revealed.
It is at this point that you're introduced to the game's main antagonist - an alien who goes by the name of "Zinyak", leader of the Zin Empire. The Zin abduct your homies and you're left to defend the White House by yourself. Your character then quarrels with Zinyak, but fails to kill him, and wakes up in a peaceful "simulation" reminiscent of a 1950s sitcom. You greet the people in the town, but once it starts glitching your character goes on a rampage in an attempt to break out and ends up being placed into another simulation (this time depicting Steelport controlled by the Zin) and is told, by Zinyak, that if they try to break out again, he will destroy Earth.
You do break out from the simulation with help of Kinzie Kensington, and steal a ship along with Kinzie and your Vice President, Keith David. On your way back to Earth, you try to make contact with your homies but after failing to do so, Earth suddenly explodes. You then have to re-enter the simulation, with the hope of bringing it down so you can distract the Zin long enough to kill Zinyak outside of the sim.
You go through main and side quests to learn more about the simulation, take control of different areas of Steelport and also rescue your homies from their simulations. There's also "Wardens" who attack you, which you can absorb into you when they're defeated to gain their powers, which include telekinesis, super speed, super jumps and more. You can take down Hotspots and Flashpoints as well as partaking in traditional activities such as Fraud and Mayhem.
One of the most notable events in the entire game, though, is the return of Johnny Gat. Saints Row 3 led us to believe he got shot by the Morningstar on a cargo plane, but it is revealed once he gets to the ship that he held off the Morningstar thugs, after which Zinyak appeared to him and took him prisoner.
After you've completed all of the quests and rescued all of your homies, you take your first shot at overloading the simulation, resulting in a colossal Zin attack on Kinzie's hideout. This turns out to be a distraction, however, during which the Zin kidnap Kinzie from the ship. You then enter her simulation (the same as the one you wake up in near the start) and try to find her. This quest ends with you killing a simulated version of Cyrus Temple, the Mayor in the simulation.
Once Kinzie is rescued, you begin work on overloading your simulation and attacking Zinyak on the Zin mothership. Using separate teams (Pierce and Shaundi, Asha and Matt Miller, and Johnny and Ben King), you upload a key to start the overload, then open portals to bring in various monsters and machines to help with the overload, and after overloading the simulation, you break into the Zin armory with the help of the remaining team, in which you find power armour which will help you defeat Zinyak.
You then have to dodge lasers and the like before reaching Zinyak's throne room, at which point the final boss battle of the game begins. Zinyak enters a giant cyborg which you have to take down. Once down to half health, he puts a forcefield around him and have to use your various powers (mainly telekinesis) to destroy the forcefield and him.
When the cyborg is destroyed, Zinyak exits it and engages in hand-to-hand fighting with you. Eventually, you tear off Zinyak's head and subsequently take control of the Zin Empire, at which point the game "ends". Of course, you can still wreak havoc in the simulation afterwards.
Of course, I haven't gone into great detail about the plot because I don't want to spoil it even more for those who haven't played it and want to, and are reading this, so, yes, there is more to the game than that, if you're wondering.
What do I think of it? Well, first of all, you get the trademark Saints Row craziness, the over-the-top weapons and the humour, yet the game is able to maintain a decent plot and storyline at the same time, which, in that sense, makes it no different to the previous Saints Row games.
However, I think that the side quests in particular start to get a little repetitive and boring since they generally involve the same activities. You can talk to and engage in romance with your homies for variety, but even that can get a bit boring after a while.
If you just stick to doing the main quests, then I doubt it would be boring, but if you complete all the side quests you have before moving onto the next main quest (which is what I did), it could become boring. And if you do that, it means you haven't got much left to do, once you complete the game, other than killing people and similar things.
I would have thought that, like Saints Row The Third, there'd still be stuff to do, but I was wrong, though that's probably because Saints Row The Third has DLC to spruce things up, whereas Saints Row IV is yet to get any DLC apart from what you get if you pre-ordered the game like I did.
Ah, yes, about that. With the Commander-in-Chief Edition (in the UK, at least) you get the 'Merica Gun (lots of guns, a flamethrower and a rocket launcher combined into one weapon), an Uncle Sam outfit and the Screaming Eagle Jet (a jet shaped and painted like an eagle), which adds a patriotic (to the Americans), personal touch to the game and makes it that little bit more enjoyable due to its exclusivity.
I was also hoping that you'd have more time in which you play as President, i.e. improving the White House Crib and causing mayhem in Washington D.C., so personally, I was slightly disappointed by that also, as you're just thrust into an alien invasion soon after you become President. A prequel to Saints Row IV which covers their rise to the Presidency and allows you to play as President with the White House as a crib once completed would probably satisfy me, though that idea is unlikely to go ahead.
Despite its faults, I'd still recommend Saints Row IV, and overall, I'd give it an 8/10.
Written by Matthew Vinage
