Saints Row grasps hold of insanity and plunges into the abnormal and on 23 August we can expect a lot more silliness, slickness and confusion as Saints Row IV takes the weirdness up a few notches and gamers take centre stage as the President of the free world.
Saints Row –The Third allowed gamers to customise and design until their character and accessories became made of imagination. Customisation is a feature that has grown and become continually important to what the game wants to achieve. Saints Row IV now offers weapon customisation. The Third allowed gamers to upgrade their weapon, but now they can change the appearance. A rocket launcher can become a guitar case, a pistol a hand-bag and so on. This allows more opportunities to enhance the look of your character.
Unlike the realism in GTA, Saints Row offers gamers no bounds. Although death is inescapable when provoking the enemy, guns such as the new ‘Inflatoray’ which inflates and explodes people, certify how bizarre this game is. The Saints have made it to the top and have become the leaders of the free world. However the world has endured a catastrophic alien invasion which has left the Saints fighting for survival and freedom in the Steelport simulation.
The word simulation probes through the game like the Dub-step gun. A vast dream like state which makes almost anything impossible. Now imagine that but in the Saints Row world, impossible reaches new extremes and the creators continue to tantalise their audiences by impressing, then discarding what you thought was nuts and replacing it with something more extreme, more daring.
Super powers. The Saints have always been macho, heavy armoured titans, willing and earning success with their insane stupidity. This is a game which will endeavour into craziness and triumph with wackiness. The supers powers the Saints now process, allows them to jump swiftly on top of skyscrapers and tear viciously through the world at top speed. There is also an excellent combat mode for the super powers for fighting the alien army. However, it doesn’t stop there. There is a ‘blast’ mode, which sends currents of ice, freezing anything it comes into contact with. But, by far the best is the TK (telekinesis) which allows you to pick up objects and throw them violently causing destruction and mayhem.
The great thing about Saints Row is that you can hop in and out of the main story at any time. You can complete side missions and roam the world, exploring territory, fun activities and hide-outs, but the main story never fades from sight. The wonderful thing about The Third was that gamers couldn’t run and hide anywhere, they had to locate their territory and flee there. Saints Row allows gamers unbelievable freedom, but keeps them vulnerable. A new add-on which the producers thought they were lacking, but seems to be another way to impress, is a Mech Suit. A massive steel built robot that shoots lasers and rockets. The Mech Suit ability allows gamers to fight those over-powering battles and just adds to the world of chaos.
The brilliance of Saints Row IV lies with the alien enemy. Cyborgs are great, but aliens, they are nasty, gritty and above all terrifying. The alien race really makes a challenging enemy for the saints, along with different species within the race such as their super hero version – The Warden. The Saints are kept all their toes and must defeat the vast alien army and claim back their world, in a game of mayhem with masses of chaotic class.