Saints Row review: Explosive fun that’s rough around the edges

As the last major title in the series was released in 2015, Saints Row has had a lot to prove compared with other openworld games that have been released in the past seven years.

But even as the series has decided to retain its focus after an extended period away, not all of its bigger ideas are able to be articulated properly.

Despite that, Deep Silver and Volition have managed to recapture what has come to define the series while managing to shed Saints Row’s cruder elements that haven’t aged as well.

It’s certainly less juvenile but even as it manages to rein in the absurdity, Saints Row is still able to keep its foot firmly on the accelerator.

Our review of Saints Row is based on the Xbox series X/S version of the game. We were able to take part in criminal enterprise missions, kit out our characters and complete the game’s story.

Online co-op is available but our experience with Saints Row is based on the game’s single-player mode.

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Players return as “The Boss” as they start out as a low-level mercenary for a paramilitary group before going on to found their own criminal enterprise known as “The Saints” along with three roommates, Neenah, Kevin and Eli.

Players are able to build their own characters, as in previous Saints Row titles, to their heart’s content. There’s a broad myriad of customisation options to choose from, with body type, build and even prosthetics being fully customisable.

Custom character designs can also be uploaded and shared with other players, helping to showcase the huge wealth of different assets available and presets can easily be saved and swapped between. In our playthrough, we were able to select between eerily accurate models of Shaggy from Scooby Doo as well as “Handsome Squidward”.

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While Saints Row does as much as it can to provide each character with enough of a compelling narrative to warrant spending more time with them, they can still feel one-sided in their reflection of millennial culture. While it doesn’t take itself so seriously, it does help to guide a thread for acting as a backdrop to various missions and game modes.

As a self-proclaimed “one-man murder party”, The Boss will spend the majority of their time in Saints Row with an arsenal of weapons bordering on ludicrous but reassuredly without the series’s past penchant for luridity.

Weapons can range from the futuristic, with an explosive payload, to toy hammers and bone clubs. Players can unlock new abilities, such as throwing enemies into crowds as makeshift grenades or laying down proximity mines but beyond a crouch button to avoid incoming fire and dodge rolls, combat remains rudimentary, with little variation.

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Along with main story missions, players can also complete “side hustles” and “criminal ventures” by building different operations around the city of Santo Ileso. Side hustles can range from assisting getaway drivers to taking on bounties, While they can be limited in their variety, they can provide enough distraction from Saints Row’s campaign before repetition begins to set in.

The same can be said for criminal ventures, which can provide more variety but still boil down to taking part in repetitive missions. Some may require players to ragdoll themselves into oncoming traffic to commit insurance fraud or even take part in Larp (live-action roleplay) tournaments, which is a particular highlight.

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But while these missions can take place around different parts of the city, choosing where to situate the hub of each has little bearing upon where these activities take place.

While Santo Ileso acts as an interesting enough backdrop to take part in these activities, it’s hard not to think of the more densely populated areas as empty. Streets can often blend together without much visual identity and, even in busier districts, the world can feel particularly sparse with little footfall or even traffic to break up these areas.

While most of Saints Row’s transit will take place in road, sea or sky vehicles, walking around doesn’t provide a lot of stimulus. Even the wingsuit, which can be used to clear large gaps over high distances, is under utilised, as Santo Ileso rarely features high enough vantage points to make good use of it.

Like any other sandbox game, Saints Row is also prone to a profound level of clunkiness, with truly chaotic energy. Often these moments can be hilarious in their spontaneity, such as witnessing two cars erupt into a fireball after a minor fender bender but, while mostly harmless, some of its faults were difficult to overlook.

On more than one occasion, our playthrough of the game was met with several soft-lock states that would require missions to be restarted. Various enemies can also stop dead in their tracks, locking eyes with the wall, only to regain their composure once the bullets start hitting them or they begin to phase out of existence entirely.

Despite all its flaws (and there are more than a few), Saints Row is undoubtedly fun and explosive in its over-the-top presentation. While its punctuated with memorable moments, they are often diminished by the repetitive nature of its side content, which makes up a significant portion of what Saints Row has to offer.

If you’ve been a longtime fan of the series’s previous entries, you will find plenty to enjoy with this latest installment – just don’t expect much in the way of innovation.