On Monday at 3am, I decided to stay awake and get this platinum. It took me about 3 days of nothing but playing this.
Was it worth it? Is it really as bad as everyone says it is?
Here's my thoughts on the reboot of Saints Row:
Right off the back, Saints Row begins with an incredible character creator. I seriously adore the creator and the work that was put into it. You really can just be anything and anyone you'd like to be. The best part is that you can change yourself at any point in the game. Something I believe every game should offer. Sometimes I want to change my voice or my gender for the fun of it and this game lets you mix and match every bit of character at any point in the game. It manages to make one of the better custumisations into perfection in my opinion.
So my character looks good but does it look good in a good game? The answer is yeah, if you're nostalgic for older gen games.
The thing with this reboot is that it literally is just another Saints Row. It takes the first game and adds the insane whackiness that 3 has. It isn't serious AT ALL and that's what makes it a fun game. If you miss that feeling of being a kid playing a PS2 or 360 and you're down for a little more mature of game to laugh at, THIS is the game that gives that feeling.
It's an extremely fun video game. Walking around with my tits out and not censored as I flame punch enemies into a train and then fly away in a helicopter only to wingsuit out of it and land on a car.
This game isn't your oscar bait Sony experience. It's not your insane esports game.
Saints Row 2022 is a shut your brain off and have fun kind of game.
That being said, alllllll the issues that apply to those older gen games is all present here. The biggest issue with Saints Row is sadly exactly what it is. It's a PS3 game that looks like a PS5 game.
As it stands now, this game has awful bugs and glitches that can mess up save data, crash the game, make it so that you can't shoot or NPC's don't act as they should. It's a nightmare sometimes and I didn't even encounter half the amount people were reporting.
Even outside the glitches, Saints Row suffers from god awful side missions that litter the map. The platinum grind rears It's ugly head out when you realise the game is 10 hours story, 30 hours exhausting side missions that go for 2-5 minutes each and add NOTHING to the story. It is all just "we have an open world game and we needed you to have something to do"
The story is not very inspiring, however I liked the characters. I think the room-mates trying to make it in a city of crime is just dumb fun. It's cool to see them rise up as dorks to bad asses. Each of them really felt like friends. They may not be the original crew everyone loves but I think they fit the story really well even if they don't hit AS hard.
They're young adults making a name for themselves because why the fuck not and that is Saints Row to me.
Overall, Saints Row is a fun ass video game that is riddled with glitches and uninspiring side content that bore me to death. What is there in the story, the jokes, the character creator is extremely solid and a great foundation for the series to keep going.
It's 100% a wait for sale, wait for updates game but if you're looking to blow shit up and have enjoyable cringy jokes to back it all up, then check it out.
Not all games need to be serious but they do all need to work ❤

Saints Row is the latest entry in the action-adventure video game series created by Volition and published by THQ and Deep Silver. This game was released in 2022. and due to negative reviews Volition shut down in August 2023. and the IP was transferred to Plaion.
You are taking control of the boss to create a new criminal empire led by The Saints in Santo Ileso. Along with that, you have three other companions (Neenah, Kev and Eli) to help you achieve that.

*Note: Since this is the first Saints Row game I've played, I will not be able to compare it to previous titles nor I don't know what is the set standard for a Saints Row game.
Also, I won't be able to say anything about the coop features this game offers since I didn't have the possibility to try them.

I already knew about all the backlash towards this game, but I wanted to try it anyway, having low expectations. At first, I was amazed by the game, but the more I played it, the more issues, bugs and unrealistic features I encountered.
Vehicles having a health bar is okay, but somehow you don't take any damage except visual when you crash into a vehicle on purpose, you take damage only if you're crashing into the environment or when someone else crashes into you.
The traffic system is great, but if you're standing, waiting for a green light, the vehicles behind you think that you're obstructing traffic on purpose and they will try to surpass you even though the light is still red (I know no one will be obeying the traffic laws, but since this is an open-world with traffic, I wanted to try to see how realistic the game is).
The story overall was funny at times and unrealistic at others, especially when you're hijacking the Panteros' convoy and Marshall's train and while doing that, the convoy and train are driving in an infinitely long straight map.
The difficulty options are adjustable along the way, which is great, since the more I was upgrading my weapons, the easier the chosen difficulty seemed to be.
You have the possibility to upgrade both cars and weapons up to three times with money, cars also have a few other upgrade options, but all of them have a Signature Ability which is unlocked after completing a certain challenge for that car/weapon.
The best part of the game is the customisation, cars, weapons and you (the boss) can be customised in many ways. You have many options to customise the appearance of your boss. You can get clothes in shops found around town. It is worth noting that there is a bug when adjusting the colours of clothes. Many of the clothes will not give you the possibility to change the colours at first, especially clothes with some brands and underwear. To be able to change them you just have to switch back and forth a bit until you get the option since all clothes can change colours.
The physics in this game are also unrealistic at times, but nothing too severe to disrupt the gameplay.
The city of Santo Ileso is in my opinion quite deserted, there aren't as many people wandering or driving around the city as someone would expect.

Unfortunately, this game pays more attention to venture missions rather than story missions since you're building a criminal empire and by doing that, the game has many repetitive missions. Well, you don't have to do them, but if you want to earn as much money as possible to be able to build the last building as soon as possible, you will have to do them. The game also contains several types of side hustles (side missions) which are also repetitive and not required to complete. The story itself wasn't quite long and you will spend more time doing side activities.

All in all, wherever there was a good feature not far a bug or something unrealistic would be hidden to make the game less enjoyable. The game in its current state (April 2024.) is still filled with various minor bugs that do not affect the gameplay much, but they do make the game less amusing, it's probably much better than what it was when it was released.
To sum up, this game is good, but there is much that needs to be done to make it a more pleasurable experience.