It’s at once a funny take on adults who look back in shame on their youthful indiscretions and a sharp commentary on the Saints Row series itself. Present-day, bad-ass Shaundi meets past Shaundi and the older character despises the younger her for acting ditzy and crazy for pot. The rescue and loyalty missions are both hilarious and revealing.įor example, to rescue Shaundi - a long-time member of the Saints gang - the President must help her escape her worst memory, which is a flashback to her role in Saints Row 2 as a college burnout hippie. After you rescue an individual, you can go on “loyalty” missions with them. Once you have them, they spend most of their time on a spaceship (where you can also “romance” them, which is an incredibly weak euphemism for boning down). Saints Row IV’s story structure actually closely mirrors that of BioWare’s Mass Effect 2. Yes, this is the dumbest game I’ve ever played (in a good way), but the developers obviously love the universe it built. I can’t believe I’m even writing this, but I actually care about the characters in Saints Row IV. Smart, legitimately affecting character moments It’s impossible to pick a favorite moment. Whether it’s participating in amateur strip night at Technically Legal, running around as a toilet made out of ASCII graphics, or watching as a character realizes she hates her past self, Saints Row IV is relentlessly entertaining. I typically love causing chaos and futzing around in open-world games, but I couldn’t stop jumping into the next mission because each one does something funnier than the last.

The joke took an unexpected turn and surprised me.Īnd that’s the best way to describe Saints Row IV: Even when it does go back for the cheap gags, it nails them because it is almost always going to take an unexpected turn and surprise you. I nodded along knowingly and chuckled, but I was also disappointed that the developer was trying to cash in on a cheap throwback … but somehow, by the end of their second karaoke routine, I was in stitches.

I don’t want to give it away, but it involves a sing-a-long between a couple of characters. Three top investment pros open up about what it takes to get your video game funded.ĭeep into Saints Row IV, I already knew I was playing a very funny game, but I muttered a soft “uh, oh” as I came to a moment where I thought the writers were going to try to get away with repeating a joke from Saints Row: The Third.

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