Saints Row (2022) Review (2024)

Saints Row had become well-known for its whacky gameplay and bizarre missions, and, quite frankly, it's what I loved most about the series. When you live in a world full of Grand Theft Auto clones, Volition's tenacity to add their own spin on an overdone formula was like a breath of fresh air.

Like many of the previous Saints Row games, the 2022 reboot is all about building your criminal enterprise from the ground up. This means muscling your way into a base of operations, building a crew, opening various drug and money laundering ventures around the city, and just generally becoming a self-made badass.

So you would think that becoming a criminal entrepreneur and building your own empire would be a blast, but Saints Row somehow manages to make it a pretty lacklustre and forgettable adventure. Which is really saying something when you take into account that Scarface: The World Is Yours was doing a better job of the concept all the way back in 2006.

Considering video games give us all the opportunity to live out our wildest imaginations with no consequences, how did Saints Row take such a crazy fun concept and make it feel like a chore? Well, through unimaginative gameplay, repetitive missions, a dull city, and some of the most grinding video game dialogue in history - that's how.

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My experience of Saints Row immediately got off to a bad start when I attempted to transfer my created character from the Boss Factory app to the full game, only to realise that the clothing and accessories I had used weren't actually available at the beginning of the game. Although this is pretty standard practice, it felt like a sheer waste of time to create a character before launch, just to use a default one anyway because nothing I selected was available to use yet. A little indication that certain clothing items would be unavailable wouldn't have gone amiss.

But, with that being said, the customization options within Saints Row are incredibly expansive. This isn't just tied to your character either, both weapons and vehicles have a variety of options to choose from. Although it was disappointing to discover that there wasn't a way to purchase cars and motorbikes, as the only way to obtain them was through completing missions or stealing them.

After re-creating my character, I was ready to jump into the city of Santo Ileso and be immersed in everything it had to offer. Unfortunately, it quickly became clear that Saints Row's open world didn't have a lot to offer in terms of immersion... or anything else for that matter. I actually became borderline uncomfortable at just how quiet the city was when you'd traverse through the streets; the lack of atmospheric audio made Santo Ileso feel lifeless. In terms of size, there was plenty of distance to cover, but a majority of it was just sepia-toned desert and spread-apart buildings that were mostly inaccessible.

Despite a lacklustre city, there is definitely fun to be had with Saints Row, even if it is essentially a stripped-back version of the series. Although Volition wanted to take players back to the roots of the series, you can still expect some over-the-top action throughout. But these moments do seem to be scattered few and far between, with many of the main storyline missions being incredibly repetitive and outright pointless.

I'm all for silly missions to have fun with, but a good percentage of Saints Row's missions had objectives such as "collect the parcels stolen from your doorstep" and "wait in line for donuts". Not exactly the sort of objectives you want to see in an action-adventure game like Saints Row. A sub-par attempt was made at making these missions tie back into the story, but they felt as though they served no real purpose whilst taking up a copious amount of playtime.

There is, however, an odd charm to Saints Row, something I wasn't quite able to put my finger on. Despite the unimaginative gameplay, I found myself coming back for more and more (and not just because I needed to complete it for this review). The story of a rising criminal enterprise isn't anything original, but I became oddly invested in the Saints' story, even if their dialogue is incredibly cringey and often hard to listen to.

Unfortunately, despite the odd charm that kept me coming back for more, Saints Row is just a watered-down version of what was once an over-the-top and exciting series. Graphically, the game could have probably been released on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. I watched buildings and cars render around me and often found myself looking at character models wondering where the definition or detail was. For a next-gen title, it was just incredibly disappointing.

I reviewed Saints Row on a PlayStation 5, and every next-gen game I've ever played has made use of the DualSense controller's capabilities, such as the adaptive triggers and enhanced haptic feedback. For some reason, Saints Row made use of none of these features.

As for the actual gameplay, shooting and driving felt clunky and outdated. But, there were some elements that were refreshing, such as executing a takedown on an enemy. Not only did it refill your health, but it was also incredibly satisfying to watch. Sadly, this wasn't enough to cure the boredom of most missions revolving around killing hordes of enemies. Out of roughly 30+ main missions, only a handful felt like they offered a variety in gameplay.

Saints Row sadly takes away some of the most iconic parts of the franchise, and instead of replacing these stripped-away elements with new and refreshing ideas, you're left with what feels like a game that should have been released between 5 to 10 years ago.

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