Review — Saints Row IV: Re-Elected

Saints Row IV: Re-Elected

We Sit Down And Review Saints Row IV: Re-Elected. Do the better graphics and hardware give the game new life? Here’s Our Review

Here we go again with another HD remastered title in the way of the Saints Row IV: Re-Elected edition. We rather enjoyed our first trip through Saints Row IV but seeing as it released a few months before the next gen consoles launched it kind of missed that whole audience and technological advances. I guess that is why Deep Silver and Volition wanted to make sure we all got a chance to fully experience the game they wanted to make. Well, we gave it a try and we’ll see if Saints Row IV: Re-Elected is worth the money for the latest edition and new audience; also if there is something early adopters missed out on the first time in 2013.

Story

For those who missed it the first time, we pick up with the Third Street Saints in after a few events lead to The Boss, your character, being elected into the presidency. This is a short term as the champagne bottles aren’t even fully empty and the strippers paid before an invading alien race, the Zin, destroy the planet and enslave the survivors in a computer simulation to keep them all complacent. The Boss and others realize this and now we have the Third Street Saints in their own twisted version of the Matrix to bring down Zinyak and those who destroyed the planet.

Hated

When I crack open a remastered version of a game like Saints Row IV: Re-Elected I expect all of the kinks and bugs to be fully worked out. Especially when Volition had time to also perfect them when working on Gat Out Of Hell. I also get that being a computer simulation based world for the game there are going to be some crazy things left in just to give it the feel. All of that would have been great had some of these things not caused game resetting issues on my end. I’m talking walls vanishing or cameras getting stuck in the environment kind of issues. There were a few times that it worked for the game given the premise but during my play I had to fully shut down and start over at least seven times because the camera, character, or object became stuck in one of these issues. This quickly felt like the Q/A team found bugs but then the developers thought “we should leave it as the game’s world would have this bug” instead of fixing them. In some cases it felt like bad design more than fun feature.

Outside of those issues the only other real gripe I really have for Saints Row IV: Re-Elected is that the control scheme didn’t get the same fixes that the expansion for the game received. Using the Super Run and Falling With Style modes of transportation didn’t seem to feel the same across both and it was a bit tricky to navigate around the huge map of the game. I actually found it easier, although longer, to just use the access points between the worlds to jump around the map. This would require the character leaving the virtual world then coming back just so I didn’t have to run and pretty much die because of some of the flaws in the navigation. This was of course fixed as I progressed through as the character no longer took damage from outside effects but again I shouldn’t have to wait for “cheats” in the system to do the basic of actions needed from the start of the game.

Loved

With all of the glitches and navigation troubles I had with Saints Row IV: Re-Elected I will not ignore the fact that there was so much to do in the game, especially with the added DLC, that I was able to ignore most of those things. I know I said that felt like one of the problems in GTAV but it feels like a nice little balance here. It’s kind of bit hard to go into all of this as it is kind of a rehash on things but Saints Row IV: Re-Elected will quickly consume most of your gaming life in a good way with how much is going on in the game. In fact it has been my go to game now when I just want to murder some time and furries in Steelport.

Also, and I was teetering on this one, just as with other titles Deep Silver has helped bring out with the new and shiny visuals for the next gen consoles, Saints Row IV: Re-Elected looks completely superior over the previous version and could be mistaken for a title that was meant to launch after the console releases. We do have a different developer to thank for this here but none the less they have managed to impress and truly make the game look and sound next gen. With all of the other HD remasters of titles coming out Saints Row IV: Re-Elected stands a part here and that is completely one of the things I love about the edition. It looks like more than just textures were added and upgraded is what I’m saying here.

Overall

Should you shell out the cash for Saints Row IV: Re-Elected? Do you like open world, hilarious, action-adventure video games? Those answers will be the same then in my opinion. At least for those who can purchase Saints Row IV: Re-Elected and be able to play it. Even if you picked up Saints Row IV on the last gen systems it is worth the price if you have not picked up the DLC for the game yet. It is a fun title to have in-between all of the other games we are still waiting for to come out. Sadly though I don’t think that the upgraded visuals and all that jazz are fully worth the price if you already own all things Saints Row IV on the PS3 or Xbox 360. Mainly because most of the gameplay bugs made the jump as well and that kind of ruins the upgrade for those who don’t have the extra cash to just throw around.

Saints Row IV: Re-Elected was remastered by High Voltage Software and published by Deep Silver for the PS4 and Xbox One. Saints Row IV: Re-Elected was released on January 20^th, 2015. A PS4 copy of the game was provided by the publisher for reviewing purposes.