Saints Row IV: Re-Elected Review

I was a huge lover of the Saints Row franchises, well the second and third game. I remember playing them back in 2008 and 2011 and just loving how wacky and outrageous some of the gameplay was. However, it dawned on me after playing about an hour of Saints IV that I never actually played this instalment in the series before and this was my first time playing through the game. I must have forgotten about it back in 2013 when it first came out and again in 2015 when it got released onto the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Linux, thankfully I didn’t miss out this time as five years later I was able to get my paws onto a copy of it on the Nintendo Switch.

In this instalment you find yourself playing as the boss of the Saints who has been elected as the President of the United States of America, if this wasn’t crazy enough a catastrophic alien invasion led by an evil overload called Zinyak destroys the earth and captures the Saints inside various simulations on his ship, it is up to your character and a few homies to fight against Zinyak and his forces to save humanity from Zinyak’s mental grasp. The brilliant addition that comes with the Re-Elected version that includes 25 DLC Packs, which is made up of a few extra story expansions, the Dubstep Gun (remix Pack) and a few other bits. It’s everything you’d expect from a Saint’s game but with the added madness of Super powers as your character is inside a simulator and can manipulate the system to give super human strength as well as an array of other cool things like, super speed, super jump and Telekinesis to name a few. Personally I felt like I was playing a Crackdown game rather than a Saints Row game but I like both of these games so it doesn’t bother me but I can see why people might feel that they have gone overboard with the Saints Row franchise when they start throwing in super human powers and aliens.

The game offers a third person perceptive like the previous ones and allows the player to customise their own characters look right at the beginning, there are plenty of customisation in Saints Row IV and allows the player to make their main character their own. As you progress through the story you unlock new quests that in turn unlock new upgrades and powers for your character. Personally, I find that with Saints Row IV doing the side quests are just as important as the main ones because they help you level up and unlock new power variance. You’ll find that to get the better upgrades for guns and vehicles it costs a lot of caches so doing quests and mini games helps you make cache quickly as well as hacking the different stores and completing the challenges. I like how the driving works in Saints Row but some people find it too unrealistic and clunky, the only problems I have with the vehicles are the ones that have two modes, the fly options and hover option in the mini games and story quests they can be hard to use when flying through the city. The upgrade cost cache and are locked behind levels so levelling up in the game is important if you want to make your life easier in the late game and the powers offer a diverse game play style that we haven’t seen in a Saints Row game before as running really fast, jumping up buildings and shooting fire blasts are all something that you’d expect to find in a super hero game, though these added addition really add to this instalment and make it even more wacky and memorable, I mean who doesn’t love picking up cars with your mind and throwing them at alien space ships. The one thing that I have to praise Saints Row IV for is that its so easy to pick up and play and learn all the mechanics, you get tutorials that are fun to play as well as the ability to just mess around for times when you don’t feel like playing the story. The game caters for new fans and old and to be honest makes me wonder when or if we’ll see another Saints Row game.

Graphically the game looked dated but to be honest felt a home on the Nintendo Switch console. There was the odd bug here and there with major clipping of character models and the odd glitch through things but ultimately, I just continued playing and carried on enjoying myself. It performed better docked and was how I spent most of my time playing the game, it just felt more naturally to me, don’t get me wrong when playing it handheld I still enjoyed it but it just looked smoother and clearer on a bigger screen. Audio from the game was brilliant, memorable and addictive soundtrack with the added bonus of good voice acting to bring the best out of the character and the game’s story.

As always there is plenty to sink your teeth into when it comes to Saints Row. There are loads of mini games, collectables and locations to hack into that help you liberate the map but at the same time you also get to customise all your weapons and vehicles with wacky designs and awesome mechanics like the hover alien bike and the massive alien space ships that can be added to your garage. Not to mentions all the crazy weapons like the Alien RPG, Dubstep gun and the tentacle bat. If you’re like me and want to make the most of Saints Row IV you’ll drift from the main storyline to complete the side quests so that you can unlock more things and extend your play time.

Docked Vs Undocked

Personally I preferred playing Saints Row IV on the Switch while it was docked, there is nothing better than having all the carnage on the big screen and also I found it a lot more comfortable playing it using my pro controller rather than the joy cons. While undocked I experienced a few performance issues but for the most part it was nice to be able to play it on my lunch break at work as well as in the garden with this nice weather we’re having at the moment, it reminded me of the days when I used to play Grand Theft Auto on my PSP and Vita. It’s also really nice to have another port come over to the Nintendo Switch to add to the growing list of games available and it also shows that Nintendo are willing to provide more mature games for its console.

Closing Statement

Saints Row sadly disappeared seven years ago, and we got left with games like GTA and Crackdown that kind of filled the gap, but for me nothing was able to match that over the top and crazy gameplay that was the Saints Row series. After a long wait the franchise has made a strong return with this Nintendo Switch ports and has relighting a flame that I thought had gone out, but nothing makes this gamer more excited than playing a game that gave him a huge nostalgic feeling. For the asking price of £34.99 you could say that it is a bit steep seeing as the game was originally released back in 2013 but at the same time it is technically a new release for the Nintendo Switch. For fans of the series you’d be silly not to pick it up just to play through it again or if you were like me to play it for the first time, with the re-release of Saints Row The Third as well around the corner this might be a sign that another game might be on the horizon for us Saints Row Fans. I have been eagerly waiting for the franchises next instalment but in the meantime, I can happily play the old games again as they are just as amazing as they were back in the day. There were a few graphical bugs and the odd gameplay niggle but overall, I truly enjoyed Saints Row IV Re-Elected though in terms of the other games in the franchise  I would have to say it’s wasn’t my favourites one, that would have to be Saint Row two. To get another good port come to the Nintendo Switch I can honestly say that I’m enjoying this console more than the last one that they released as the game available already is miles better and more accommodating to a wider gaming audience, that’s why I’m more than happy to give this game a rating of 8 out of 10.

You can get Saints Row IV: Re-Elected on the Nintendo Switch as well as Xbox One, PC and PlayStation 4

You can purchase this version of the game here – https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch/Saints-Row-IV-Re-Elected–1716184.html

This review is based upon the Nintendo Switch Version of the game.

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