Saints Row (2022) Review: ‘Back to Basics With Little Innovation’

SAINTS ROW (2022) REVIEW FOR PC, PS5, PS4, XBOX SERIES X|S, AND XBOX ONE.

After pumping the previous game full of superpowers and aliens, developer Deep Silver Volition is winding things back considerably with Saints Row (2022). This franchise reboot promises a new story focusing on new characters in a new open world, all the while injecting plenty of what made the original series so compelling: over-the-top combat, wacky missions with big blockbuster moments, and a simple yet effective co-op mode. Unfortunately, while there is a lot to like with this refresh, there is also a sense of unfulfilled potential in this first current-gen Saints Row experience.

Saint the town red

The first Saints Row game from 2006 introduced players to an already established street gang and tasked them with working their way up to the top. Things then escalated rather swiftly into the Saints becoming a brand-obsessed megacorporation with the leader — who then also became the President of the United States — getting abducted by aliens and forced into a Matrix-esque world where they learned superpowers. Needless to say, things got a little out of hand, though it certainly made for a lot of variety from sequel to sequel.

This reboot for 2022 tells the story of the founding members of a new Saints gang. Starting out with a crew of four, the Saints must make a name for themselves in the fictional Santo Ileso to convince others to join their cause. Players take on the role of the charismatic leader of the Saints, named “The Boss.” This highly-customizable protagonist is sympathetic to the millennial/Gen-Z way of life and wants to change the world in big ways. However, with little in the way of a moral compass, this protagonist and their followers are similar to the merciless main characters of previous games, killing without remorse and shooting their way to solutions.

Are we the bad guys?

The lawless land of Santo Ileso is populated by multiple competing factions: the Los Panteros, a gang of melee-heavy muscleheads; the Marshall PMC, fuelled by the latest weapon tech; and the Idols, an influential group that can easily convince others to join them mid-battle.

As the Saints deal with their enemies, their hold on the territory expands, just as it did in past games. There are various Criminal Ventures to set up and benefit from, like the Shady Oaks medical clinic and Bright Future toxic waste disposal, which accrue passive income that can be used to purchase a ridiculous number of weapons, vehicles, clothes, and more. There’s always something new to unlock and play with.

The story plays out rather predictably and leaves room for a potential sequel. The plot offers nothing groundbreaking, merely acting as the thread that ties the satisfying shooting and car chases together. It has its quirks, as all Saints Row games do, but aims more towards Saints Row 2 in overall zaniness.

Explode all of the things

Saints Row’s visuals are stuck in the past, with character models lacking the current-gen sheen that is now expected from modern AAA open-world games. The environments fair a little better, combining realistic textures with some solid lighting, especially at night. The only times I was really wowed by the presentation was when things started exploding, which they often did. Ever since playing the original Saints Row, I’ve always loved how explosions look in these games, and that’s no different with this reboot.

Despite my desire to cause as many explosions as possible, performance on PC was solid. I opted for Ultra settings at 1440p with a Ryzen 3700X and RTX 3080 combo and didn’t feel any need to drop things down. The only glitches and bugs I noticed were during takedowns where my character would often be nowhere near the enemy that they were executing. Still, the takedown did its job in eliminating the foe, but it looked janky and happened way too often.

Talking heads

The voice acting, when you ignore the faithful-to-the-franchise forced humor of the dialogue, is well done and it’s once again impressive to have a fully voiced protagonist with a good variety of voices to choose from. There’s no Nolan North, however, so veterans will want to measure their expectations and prepare for a change.

Music is solid, too, especially on the radio stations which can be customized with the player’s own choice of tracks. Considering how much game time is spent in vehicles, this extra functionality is very much appreciated.

That Saint way of life

Those familiar with the previous Saints Row games will feel right at home with the 2022 release. Main missions push the story forward, often featuring the biggest and best set-piece moments. When they aren’t chock-full of explosions, story missions can shake things up with quirky mechanics like non-lethal weapons in a citywide LARP session, complete with cringe-worthy medieval dialogue. These missions hit more than they miss, and even the bad ones are over quickly. Completing all of the mandatory missions will take around 10-12 hours on Normal difficulty.

The overflowing arsenal of side content will please completionists and those looking for a lengthier game. Achieving 100% will demand a decent grind through classic diversions like Insurance Fraud and Mayhem, some new additions like Pony Express and @tcha, but also some less-imaginative activities like searching through dumpsters and photographing objects for the base.

Target acquired

These main and side missions will have players navigating the biggest Saints Row map yet, inspired by the southwestern region of the US. It’s clear that the developers have invested a lot of time and thought into creating this new game world.

Navigating between missions is made more fun by the rewards for driving dangerously and, a little later into the story, players can unlock some super-speedy vehicles that can rampage through traffic. There is fast travel, but I found it was frustratingly limited during missions. Thankfully, I quickly learned that I could just kill myself to bypass the long journey to the next waypoint.

Once you reach the objective, it’s time to start blasting. I’m happy to say that combat is where this game shines the brightest, which is good when you consider the sheer number of enemies that appear in each area. While there are your conventional weapons to shoot folks with, there’s also a “Flow Meter” that rewards accurate shooting with instakill takedowns, grenade throws, and other lethal actions.

A perfect shootout will feature a series of accurate headshots, the brutal execution of a more dangerous threat, followed by sticking a grenade down the pants of a foe and sending them flying back at their allies. The different abilities pair with the various weapons to keep combat fresh.

Bare minimum multiplayer

Co-op is back, but unfortunately not in a big way. Disappointingly, it’s still limited to just two players, something that I wanted to see expanded upon and had optimistically felt was teased by the four founding members of the Saints being flaunted in trailers.

Unfortunately, on the online side, this Saints Row game does the bare minimum. Sure, the co-op will still be fun to play with a friend and the new world will be a hoot to explore while bantering with a buddy, but I was hoping for something more out of this current-gen installment.

Perhaps the forced parity for PS4 and Xbox One has limited innovation in this area, or maybe it’s just not part of the developer’s overall vision. However, an evolution in the online component would have gone a huge way into justifying this game’s existence in a world where the often discounted Saints Row: The Third Remastered is already scratching many of the same itches.

Saints Row (2022) Review: The final verdict

The Saints Row (2022) reboot takes things back to basics but with very little push for innovation. It still gets a lot right, but that success is in areas where it was already strong, and little effort has been invested in strengthening the weaker aspects. A reboot should offer a chance at a clean slate, at cutting ties with what held you back in the past, but Saints Row (2022) fails to do this in any meaningful way.

After beating the game, I was left asking: “What was the point?” This doesn’t feel like a reboot that needs to exist, as it’s just more of the same. It’s a safe release that almost offends with just how similar it is to previous installments. If there is a sequel, and the story’s ending and amount of effort put into the open world map certainly suggest so, I want to see something more than what simply came before.

Saints Row (2022) was reviewed on PC with code provided by the publisher.