Saints Row IV
Saints Row started out as a GTA parody (which in itself is supposed to be a parody of real life) but has grown into something beyond that… way beyond that! Although I haven’t played the first Saints Row game (which I believe only came out on the consoles) I have played every game from Saints Row 2 and up. In Saints Row 2 you are the leader of a street gang and are fighting all the other gangs for control of the city. In SR3 you are fighting an evil megacorp for control of the city (again). Well in 4 you skip the scale of trying to take over a state or a country by saving the world from nuclear Armageddon and becoming the president of the United States of America. That’s not all but very quickly after the game starts Aliens attack Earth, the humans lose, you and your friends get abducted and placed in a virtual jail.
So, right from the start the game skips being a GTA clone and quickly becomes something like the game Prototype, and that’s a VERY good thing. Imagine the movie Chronicle meets the Matrix except that instead of being a pussy like Neo you go around trying to break the rules of reality and morality by doing a bunch of crazy shit! You gain super powers that completely change the game around the more powers you gain, as well as upgrade them to be even more metapowerful. Effectively you are the comic book character The Flash mixed with the main character from Prototype as well as a mage… basically you are a God. 😀
Now think of how awesome it would be to be a God in a universe with little or no consequence as well as being inside of Saints Row a game with some of the best humor ever found in video games. This is a winning combination!
You will find all sorts of references in this game to TRON, the Matrix, Dark City, Chronicle, most super hero comics you ever read, something like Highlander and Buffy, text adventure games, 90s side scroller games, 80s-90s arcade games, every previous Saints Row game, the Commodore 64, space operas, Mass Effect, Inception, pop culture, Pleasantville, Shadowrun, Warhammer 40k, Keith David, They Live, Roddy Piper, and so on.
Graphics: 10 out of 10
The Havok engine is simply beautiful and is efficient!
Music: 9 out of 10
Holy shit they put real songs in this game such as music from Aerosmith and Paula Abdul and others. Some of the game’s score is a remix of SR3 music and that’s amazing!
Fun Factor: 10 out of 10
It’s fun telepathically picking up a flaming garbage truck and flinging it into a stack of aliens. Most of the game involves going around doing mini games which often results in a lot of explosions. It took me a long time to get bored of it.
Difficulty: 5 out of 10
I found the game easy even on hard. Yes, there are a few parts that are freaking hard on hard but it doesn’t take many retries to finally beat them. Since you can summon allies the more you hack the simulation it becomes easy (at least for me).
Value: 10 out of 10
I would say buy it at any price, especially if you have a friend that has it, you can play the co-op campaign.
Overall score: 10 out of 10
Stop reading this and go play it. The universe needs you to save it from an evil alien overlord.
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