Reviews
The Saints Row video game franchise started as a challenger to Grand Theft Auto. You are rising through the ranks of a street gang to become its leader. Then it went off the rails with crazy stuff like giant bats and ALIENS! The games have taken place in space and hell. Well, when they decided to create a new game, they returned to square one. Continue reading our review to learn why Saints Row Metacritic Score is below average
Back to Basics
You begin the game in trouble, down and out, having just been buried alive under a sheet of thinly spread dirt. Then, the game flashes back to your early days. In fairness to the game, most people refer to you as “they/them” anyway. Your roommates are in separate gangs, but don’t worry, you’re all buddy. You get to do some cool missions for a security company. Still, we know little about your backstory or how you got so awesome.
There are a few distinctive gangs in the game. One group hates money, but we are not sure why. The other is simply a good old security team. And one is just known for being Hispanic. Well, there are police as well, but those aren’t hard to handle.
The narrative is not revolutionary. First, you take a job, then get fired along the way, and lastly, decide to do your own thing. Trying to avoid the same path, this new Saints Row game is slightly different but doesn’t have that narrative depth.
The Poor Gameplay Was Behind The Low Saints Row Metacritic Score
Gameplay from the latest Saint Row game has been a hot-button issue. For some reason, the whole game seems outdated, as though you were playing an old Xbox 360 game. The shooting mechanics have evolved little since Saints Row 2, which would be fine if this were a cheap remaster. But it is not –it’s a new full-priced game.
The guns feel weak when shooting the enemies. Right from the outset, it takes many shots to kill them, which leads to ammo loss quickly. The weapons accuracy is also poor. Bullets appear to fail at hitting the enemies even from point-blank range, leading to unsatisfactory combat.
One of the newer additions is unlockable special moves. You push buttons to toss grenades, heal, or ask for help. There are also passive bonuses you can pick that best suit your playstyle. It’s straightforward and should work fine, although occasionally, you need to sit staring at the screen for longer than it ought to.
You can take out enemies in fancy ways to recover health. What is weird about it is that such enemies stand there and watch you do it instead of fighting back. Combat is largely the same, aside from there being stronger enemies now, and you need to break their armor before they start taking damage. This is partially because there aren’t many weapons for sale, and they’re typically not as off-the-wall crazy as you’ve seen in previous games.
Missions are straightforward. You don’t learn much about the characters, and the city you’re left in feels lifeless. There is some nice scenery, but mostly, it is a bunch of barren deserts. Also, you will drive a lot and can, with a little luck, come across secrets.
The game plays very safely without offering anything new or exciting in terms of story or gameplay.
Bugs and Glitches Also Contributed To A Low Saints Row Metacritic Score
The game has side missions, including some from previous games, like insurance fraud. However, several bugs ruined these experiences. The first issue was that all the cars would disappear during the Insurance Fraud mission, one of the first side missions. This bug persisted for about 5 different missions, as I tried the mission after each subsequent story mission.
Some missions that were included in the game were also not very fun. Some of them, for example, the robbery chases, are very clunky and unpleasant. The small selection of guns is quite limiting, especially since if you want to use bigger weapons, the only way to do so is to stand on top of a car, which is quite risky. Other, more powerful weapons were not present in the missions I tried.
Moreover, the game is just filled with glitches. Bullets do not hit, or if they do, enemies do not shoot back. Items sometimes simply disappear, like an item that was supposed to be right before me during the main story. There was also a game-breaking bug that made me restart a mission, which is not a very fun experience, to say the least. This game had more glitches than any major release I played over the past few years. This definitely contributed to a low Saints Row Metacritic Score.
Business Strategy In Saints Row
Building your empire is a core component of the new Saints Row game. It’s a new, surprisingly modern take on old favorites. You’d perform traditional mission types like Insurance Fraud or Mayhem. Because this is a Saints Row game, you can fight against rival gangs. Just know that you should use your cash to launch the missions after investing in the companies. This change will align with the game’s theme of creating a gang.
Each business offers a range of missions, however buy-in is expensive. Also, you have to complete them to even get access to the main story missions. This allows you to run a single mission type endlessly. Laundromat-type tasks are quick to finish. Others, like processing toxic waste, take a little more time. However, none of them are very enjoyable. They seem more like a form of ticking the boxes at a boring, old, and slow pace (even though there might be random people who disagree).
You’ll find yourself moving nuclear waste, crushing cars from crime scenes, stealing certain vehicles, or destroying property, all because your partners tell you to. None of these are especially difficult jobs. Even the ones that were hard and exciting, like Mayhem or Insurance Fraud, are now easy as pie.
Final Thoughts
The Saints Row reboot is a huge disappointment all around. The trailer from last time looked good, but playing the game is like eating a piece of burnt toast — dry and unsatisfying. Its characters, setting, world, and gameplay all leave much to be desired. That said, even if the gameplay wasn’t as flawed as it is, Saints Row suffers from many bugs and glitches.
Did you play this game? What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments.
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Images are from Saintsrow.com
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