I went into this experience fully expecting to hate it, based on the dumpster fire that was Saints Row IV. While I didn't love Gat Out of Hell, I can't exactly say that I hated it either.
Unfortunately that just leaves us in the middle ground of an ultimately forgettable game that I can tell will leave no lasting impact on me. This game is simultaneously laden with fan service, and yet also doesn't seem to understand why the Saints Row franchise has fans in the first place.
The flying mechanics are probably the stand out of the entire game, they are genuinely some of the best flight mechanics I've experienced in a video game, and it is really telling that Deep Silver clearly want to be making a different type of game entirely. So why do they continue to desecrate the good name of Saints Row when they're so obviously disinterested in the series?
Saints Row IV was a glorified DLC of The Third, which essentially makes Gat Out of Hell a glorified DLC of a glorified DLC. Gat Out of Hell also suffers an exacerbated issue that has plagued Saints Row for the last 3 instalments wherein many of the 'missions' are actually just optional open world activities. This issue has been growing with each instalment since Saints Row The Third and it has never been more apparent than with GOoH; you could likely count on one hand the amount of missions there are that are anything more than just an activity. Gat Out of Hell consequently can be summarised as an open world activity collection/flight simulator.
Yet another of the many issues that plague GOoH is the sheer repetitiveness of the gameplay, with challenges and achievements both geared towards performing the same actions tens and hundreds of times. This artificial stretching of the gameplay time leads to such severe tedium that I would be impressed by anybody with the patience to master this game 100%, achievements and all.
This has the potential to be a pretty okay game, which already isn't saying much - and additionally this is definitely not a true Saints Row game, which makes the disappointment so much worse. However, thanks to Games with Gold on Xbox, I got this game for free so I won't complain that much....y'know...apart from 90% of this review.
Unfortunately that just leaves us in the middle ground of an ultimately forgettable game that I can tell will leave no lasting impact on me. This game is simultaneously laden with fan service, and yet also doesn't seem to understand why the Saints Row franchise has fans in the first place.
The flying mechanics are probably the stand out of the entire game, they are genuinely some of the best flight mechanics I've experienced in a video game, and it is really telling that Deep Silver clearly want to be making a different type of game entirely. So why do they continue to desecrate the good name of Saints Row when they're so obviously disinterested in the series?
Saints Row IV was a glorified DLC of The Third, which essentially makes Gat Out of Hell a glorified DLC of a glorified DLC. Gat Out of Hell also suffers an exacerbated issue that has plagued Saints Row for the last 3 instalments wherein many of the 'missions' are actually just optional open world activities. This issue has been growing with each instalment since Saints Row The Third and it has never been more apparent than with GOoH; you could likely count on one hand the amount of missions there are that are anything more than just an activity. Gat Out of Hell consequently can be summarised as an open world activity collection/flight simulator.
Yet another of the many issues that plague GOoH is the sheer repetitiveness of the gameplay, with challenges and achievements both geared towards performing the same actions tens and hundreds of times. This artificial stretching of the gameplay time leads to such severe tedium that I would be impressed by anybody with the patience to master this game 100%, achievements and all.
This has the potential to be a pretty okay game, which already isn't saying much - and additionally this is definitely not a true Saints Row game, which makes the disappointment so much worse. However, thanks to Games with Gold on Xbox, I got this game for free so I won't complain that much....y'know...apart from 90% of this review.