The game's open world nature allows players to freely explore a simulation of the fictional city of Steelport while completing main and side missions at their leisure. It incorporates science fiction elements, and continues the series' reputation for over-the-top parody. The single-player story follows the same player-created character from the previous games, who is elected President of the United States after thwarting a terrorist threat. Five years into their governance, they find themselves trapped in the Steelport simulation along with members of their gang, the 3rd Street Saints, after an alien empire known as the Zin attack the Earth and capture them. With help from some Saints who managed to escape and hacked the simulation to give them superpowers, the player attempts to rescue their captured friends, escape the simulation, and defeat the Zin.
Saints Row IV was the first game developed by Volition following its acquisition by Koch Media in early 2013. The supernatural and superpower concept for the game started in Enter the Dominatrix, a cancelled expansion planned for Saints Row: The Third, which the team expanded into Saints Row IV. Volition later released a "director's cut" of Enter the Dominatrix as downloadable content for Saints Row IV alongside another expansion, How the Saints Saved Christmas, as well as various weapons, costumes, and vehicle packs. A standalone expansion, Saints Row: Gat out of Hell, was released in January 2015, serving as an epilogue to the base game.
The game received several limited and summative edition releases, and was briefly banned in Australia. It received positive reviews from critics, who praised its humor and character customization options, but criticized its lack of challenge. It sold over one million units in its first week. The next game in the series, a reboot, titled Saints Row, was released in August 2022.
Gameplay
Similar to previous Saints Row games,[2]Saints Row IV is an open worldaction game with third-person shooter elements wherein the player is free to explore the environment and, at their leisure, play story or side missions.[3] As the leader of the Saints, a street gang that has become the world's most "powerful and popular" organization, the player is elected President of the United States, receives superpowers, and fends off an alien invasion.[3] Most often the player will engage in shooting and racing activities, though other activities vary from fighting crowds of zombies, shoot-outs in tanks,[3]side-scrollingbrawlers, fights against supersized, daikaijuenergy drink cans, and using a dubstep gun to interrupt 1950s Americana.[4] The player-character receives elemental powers and superpowers that greatly increase their jump height and running speed, such that the player can hop over buildings and outrun vehicles.[3] The elemental powers include abilities to shoot fire and ice projectiles, telekinetically toss things, and create shockwaves upon landing jumps.[4] As the player progresses through the game, they can optionally upgrade their abilities and weapons skill tree[3] by using collectible "data clusters" scattered around town.[4] If the player becomes too rowdy, the alien race's police analogue will intervene.[4] As in previous games, the player-character's look and feel is entirely customizable via a robust character editor feature.[2]
The game is set in a nearly identical[2] simulation of Steelport, the fictional city setting from Saints Row: The Third,[4] though individual story missions have new, custom-designed levels.[2]Saints Row IV's story parodies science fiction video games, mostly Mass Effect 2, as well as films like The Matrix and Zero Dark Thirty, and other "nerd culture".[3] Some story missions are propelled by individual characters' existential crises,[3] as each Saint character is stuck in a personal simulation of their own hell, and must be rescued by the player.[4] Other elements borrowed from video game culture include BioWare-style character romances and a Metal Gear-style mission with an unhelpful partner.[4]
City districts are "liberated" from alien occupation as the player completes side missions in occupied districts.[4] Liberated districts increase the player's hourly income, which can be spent on weapons, skills, and perks. Side missions include Insurance Fraud (where the player jumps into traffic to collect insurance money),[4]demolition derby-style Mayhem, and superpowered foot races. Saints Row IV has a two-player cooperative mode.[2]
After the Boss escapes from a computer simulation based on a 1950s sitcom environment with the help of the Saints' hacker specialist Kinzie Kensington (Natalie Lander), they find themselves brought into a virtual recreation of Steelport. Working to manipulate the environment with special powers, they eventually reunite with Kinzie and Keith in a stolen Zin ship. When the group try to contact other Saints for help, Zinyak stops them by destroying the Earth. Enraged, the Boss re-enters the Steelport simulation to find the others that the Zin abducted, rescuing each from simulations based on their personal nightmares. Zinyak responds by having the Steelport simulation flooded with copies of gang members the Boss faced in the past, which causes Kinzie to suspect he is drawing them from the memories of someone else who has fought them. The Boss quickly deduces that the Zin abducted Johnny Gat (Daniel Dae Kim), the only Saint who has been with the gang longer than them, and who was supposedly killed years ago. After rescuing Gat from his own simulation, he explains that Zinyak captured him years ahead of Earth's invasion because he was the only one who could have thwarted it, and officially rejoins the Saints.
The Saints soon rally inside the simulation to confront Zinyak, only for Kinzie to be captured in the real world by Zin forces. Discovering that Keith betrayed them, the Boss confronts him and learns he did so in exchange for the Zin restoring Earth. After pursuing him through his own personal nightmare, the Boss reveals to Keith that he was tricked, and convinces him to rejoin the Saints. Learning where Kinzie was taken, the Boss rescues her from her personal nightmare. With the group back in operations, Kinzie formulates a plan to board Zinyak's ship by overloading the Steelport simulation to create an opening. Upon the Saints achieving this, the Boss boards Zinyak's ship, steals power armor that emulates their powers from the simulation, and uses it to kill Zinyak in front of the Zin, seizing control of their empire.
The game's ending depends on the number of optional "Loyalty" missions completed. If any of them were omitted, the Boss plans for the Saints to conquer a new homeworld, starting the "Saints Empire." Otherwise, the Saints learn they can restore the Earth using time-travel, after discovering that Zinyak has captured several historical figures and placed them in suspended animation. The Boss decides to awaken one of them from stasis, namely 19th-century writer Jane Austen (Eden Riegel), whom they are a fan of, and who reveals herself as the game's narrator once she awakens.
Development
After the release of Saints Row: The Third, preliminary work on a game called Saints Row: Part Four began. The game would take place after the events of The Third in a new city and feature gameplay similar to The Third.[5] Meanwhile, a standalone expansion to The Third called Enter the Dominatrix was first announced as a 2012 April Fool's joke,[6] but still went into development. The expansion pack's basic concept included a superpowered player-character trapped by alien commander Zinyak in a simulation of Steelport.[7] With THQ suffering financially, its president Jason Rubin encouraged company subsidiary and Saints Row series developer Volition to grow elements from the expansion into a full game.[8] The company announced this change in direction in June 2012,[9] cancelling Saints Row: Part Four and expanding Enter the Dominatrix into a full sequel, Saints Row IV.[8] The company's strategy was partly to avoid sales issues by releasing the game in August 2013, prior to the circulation of rumors about next generation video game consoles.[8] Volition was sold to Koch Media in early 2013 when its parent company, THQ, filed for bankruptcy. It became Koch's first internal video game studio. The studio officially announced Saints Row IV two months later, which was published by Koch Media brand Deep Silver. Acquired without rights to their Red Faction series, Volition's new goals were to make connected, open world games where "the player is an agent of mayhem". The entire company worked on the one game.[8]
Each of the Saints Row series games had a core intent, and while the first three games built on the first's "outlandishness and irreverence", the fourth focused on "the supernatural and superpowers".[10] Senior producer Jim Boone recalled reviewers that asked whether the company could be "more over-the-top" than Saints Row: The Third, which they took as a challenge.[8] The team focused more on making the game "fun" than "for the sake of being over the top", and felt that superpowers helped the game's basic navigation and combat.[8] They also chose to remove the previous game's in-game mobile phone-based navigation, which hindered its narration, and replaced it with a "quest log structure".[8] The team chose not to devote as much time improving the game's graphics, considering the impending release of next generation platforms. The game spent less time in development than prior series games.[8]
In August 2014, Volition announced that they would be releasing a development kit for the Windows version of the game, which lets players modify game assets[11] and create new weapons.[12] Support for modding via Steam Workshop integration was added in November 2016.
The in-game radio has seven pre-programmed radio stations and 109 licensed tracks. The game's original soundtrack is composed by Malcolm Kirby Jr.,[13] who also composed the previous game's soundtrack.[14]
Release
Saints Row IV was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 in North America on August 20, 2013, and worldwide on three days later.[15] Preorders included a patriot-themed downloadable content pack that included flamethrower, dubstep, and rocket launcher weapons, a bald eagle jet, and an Uncle Sam outfit.[16] A limited edition release of the game included a replica of the game's dubstep gun, a doomsday button, and Johnny Gat statuette.[17] Another limited edition release, the Game of the Generation Edition, included the previous items as well as a display case for the game.[15] The game was originally refused ratings classification and effectively banned in Australia[18] but was later accepted when modified to remove the offending content.[19] The country's PlayStation 4 release was later recalled due to a classification error.[20]
Saints Row IV was released in several summative editions.[21] The Game of the Century edition included 20 downloadable content sets and was released May 9, 2014.[22] The National Treasure Edition included 29 downloadable content sets and was released on July 8, 2014.[21] High Voltage Software ported the game to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One with all of its downloadable content as Saints Row IV: Re-Elected. It was announced in late August 2014 alongside Saints Row: Gat out of Hell, a standalone Saints Row IV expansion developed by Volition in conjunction with High Voltage.[12] Both were released in North America on January 20, 2015, and worldwide three days later,[23] both separately and bundled together. The release included new features such as voice commands.[12] A Linux port was presented in December 2015. Re-Elected was released for the Nintendo Switch on March 27, 2020.[24]
The game received multiple downloadable content (DLC) packs after release. A Season Pass, which features two exclusive mission packs, was announced ahead to the game's launch.[citation needed] The first DLC, GAT V, which adds Johnny Gat-inspired weapons and character customization options, was released for free on 17 September 2013, to coincide with the release of the rival open world game Grand Theft Auto V (GTA V).[25] The first mission pack, Enter the Dominatrix,[26] was released October 22, 2013.[27] The pack was originally intended as a mission pack for Saints Row: The Third but evolved into the full sequel, Saints Row IV. The leftover content became the sequel's first mission pack.[28][29] It tells an alternative story about the Zin invasion wherein the Steelport simulation is hijacked by a rogue artificial intelligence called the Dominatrix. The pack's storytelling frequently breaks the fourth wall and self-referentially acknowledges its own plot holes and incongruence with the larger Saints Row story.[30] Some scenes end in concept art or videos of Volition employees acting out the drama so as to give the game an unfinished feel. The pack also casts characters from Saints Row: The Third who did not return in the sequel.[30] There are five missions in total,[31] new weapons, vehicles, and computer-controlled support characters ("homies").[30] The second and final mission pack, How the Saints Save Christmas, features new weapons and vehicles, and a three-mission storyline about the Saints rescuing Santa Claus from the Steelport simulation. It was released in December 2013.[32] Non-mission downloadable content packs include new costumes, vehicles, and weapons (e.g., face masks of United States Presidents George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama).[33]
Re-Elected Edition
On December 8, 2022, a free update to all existing Windows versions of the game on Steam and GOG brought it to a new "Re-Elected Edition" which includes all DLC released for the title; this was alongside a free giveaway offer for the game on the Epic Games Store. The Re-Elected Edition supports cross-play between the Steam, GOG and Epic editions of the game. Previous versions of Saints Row IV were subsequently removed from sale, but existing saves and achievements carried over into the new version.[34]
The game received generally positive reviews on PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and Xbox 360 according to video game review aggregatorMetacritic.[35][36][37][44] On Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, it received mixed reviews.[45][46] Reviewers praised its over-the-top humor and character customization options,[2][3] and criticized its lack of challenge.[2][4] Several also commented on its "even-handed treatment" of gender, particularly female characters,[3][4] and spotlighted hacker and former FBI agent Kinzie Kensington's character performance.[2][4]Saints Row IV sold over one million copies in its first week,[33] and as of 2013, Volition has not released total sales figures.[47]
Polygon's Danielle Riendeau described Saints Row IV as "big, goofy, and self-referential fun" and thought that the game accomplished what it set out to be: "an outrageous exercise in player power fantasy".[3] She also praised the game's degree of freedom around character identity, its "dumb and lovable" narrative, and its transitions between varied sequences. Riendeau wrote that Volition "trimmed the fat" from previous games, and that their addition of superpowers "blew the constraints off a genre already known for player freedom".[3] She considered the story funny and "as obvious as can be", but found its characters "well-realized".[3] Riendeau particularly praised the game's "treatment of gender"—bold female characters who could pursue same-sex relationships or even switch their gender mid-game, and were not treated differently for being female—but found the game's continued association between women and sex workers "problematic" and a "vestige from the series' roots as a juvenile crime drama".[3]
Reflecting on the series' progression, Eurogamer's Chris Schilling said that Saints Row IV successfully reinvented the series yet again, with superpowers replacing the usefulness of in-game vehicles. He compared the game's exploration mechanics to that of Crackdown, and its superpowers to the Infamous and Prototype series, and added that the game's silliness fulfilled a specific niche in gaming. Schilling wrote that the need to restock at ammo shops was a "jarring holdover" from the previous games, but appreciated the recurrence of elements such as the GPS navigation system, side mission gameplay, and city district liberation.[4] He regarded the game overall as artful but "gloriously dumb", like "the Sistine Chapel ceiling of stupidity".[4] Schilling also commented on how he felt an urge to simply forgo the story to search for collectibles, though despite these options, the game became "wearying" over long play sessions.[4]
Similarly, Dan Stapleton of IGN became bored when his superhero protagonist had little "to overcome", and ultimately likened the game to "enabling god-likecheat codes" in its predecessor.[2] He wrote that it was very difficult to die, given the large amount of power-ups dropped by enemies, and that the otherwise praiseworthy features from Saints Row: The Third felt "vestigial" when outmoded by superpowers.[2] Stapleton said the player received the powers too early, which let the player play without caring about the city, and thus removed the "sense of place and character it had in the previous game".[2] He considered the game's large number of collectibles an acknowledgement of this hole, which while originally rewarding, quickly becomes a "chore".[2] Stapleton praised the Red Faction-style Disintegrator and Abductor guns, though considered the dubstep gun an "ineffective disappointment".[2] As a symbol, though, Polygon described the dubstep gun as "iconic" of Saints Row IV.[48]
In August 2019, a new Saints Row game was hinted to be "deep in development" by Volition.[49] As of late 2020, it was still in development.[50] In August 2021, the new game was confirmed to be a reboot to the franchise. Titled simply Saints Row, it was released for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Windows on August 23, 2022.[51]
Grand Theft Auto (GTA) is a series of action-adventure games created by David Jones and Mike Dailly. Later titles were developed under the oversight of brothers Dan and Sam Houser, Leslie Benzies and Aaron Garbut. It is primarily developed by British development house Rockstar North, and published by its American parent company, Rockstar Games. The name of the series is a term for motor vehicle theft in the United States.
Deep Silver Volition, LLC was an American video game developer based in Champaign, Illinois. Mike Kulas and Matt Toschlog founded the company as Parallax Software in June 1993, developing Descent and Descent II. By the time the sequel was completed, Toschlog had relocated to Ann Arbor, Michigan, with some employees to operate a satellite studio for Parallax. Kulas and Toschlog decided to split up the company, with Toschlog establishing Outrage Entertainment and Kulas staying with Parallax, which was renamed Volition in November 1996. With publisher Interplay Entertainment, Volition created Descent: FreeSpace – The Great War and its sequel, FreeSpace 2. The two companies parted ways during the development of Summoner.
Saints Row is a 2006 action-adventure game developed by Volition and published by THQ for the Xbox 360. It was released in North America on August 29, 2006, followed by an Australian release two days later and a European release on September 1, 2006. Set within the fictional city of Stilwater, the single-player story follows a player-created character who joins the 3rd Street Saints gang after they save his life, and helps them rise to prominence by undermining enemy criminal syndicates, while slowly building up his own reputation within the gang. The storyline is non-linear, and divided into three separate story arcs for each rival gang that the player must defeat.
Saints Row 2 is a 2008 action-adventure game developed by Volition and published by THQ. It is the sequel to 2006's Saints Row and the second installment in the Saints Row series. The game was released in October 2008 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, January 2009 for Microsoft Windows, and April 2016 for Linux. A mobile tie-in game was developed by G5 Entertainment and also released in October 2008. Saints Row 2 directly follows from the events of the first game, as the player's custom character awakens from a coma after five years to find that their gang, the 3rd Street Saints, has been disbanded, and their former territories taken over by newly-formed criminal syndicates and a corrupt corporation. With the help of new and old allies, the player attempts to rebuild the Saints and take back Stilwater from their rivals.
Saints Row is a series of action-adventure video games created by Volition and published by THQ and Deep Silver. The series follows the 3rd Street Saints, a fictional street gang originally operating out of the Saints Row district, hence the series' title.
Saints Row: The Third is a 2011 action-adventure game developed by Volition and published by THQ. It is the sequel to 2008's Saints Row 2 and the third installment in the Saints Row series. It was released on November 15, 2011 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360, and May 10, 2019 for the Nintendo Switch. A remastered version of Saints Row: The Third, titled Saints Row: The Third Remastered, was released by Deep Silver on May 22, 2020 for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One, March 5, 2021 for Stadia, May 25, 2021 for PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S, and July 29, 2021 for Luna.
Red Faction is a series of shooter video games developed by Volition and owned by Plaion. Originating in 2001, the Red Faction games have spanned Microsoft Windows, macOS and consoles, including the PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Original developers Volition have retained the rights to the series since 2020, with no updates provided on whether a future fifth game is in the works or may be so in the future.
Metro: Last Light is a 2013 first-person shooter video game developed by 4A Games and published by Deep Silver. A sequel to the video game Metro 2033 and the second installment in the Metro series, its story follows Artyom, a young soldier living in the Moscow Metro after a devastating nuclear war. Tasked with finding the mysterious Dark Ones, Artyom must venture to different parts of the metro system, and the surface filled with radiated gases, and fight against different factions and mutated monsters. The game improves on various gameplay mechanics of 2033, and introduces elements such as weapon customization.
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag is a 2013 action-adventure video game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It is the sixth major installment in the Assassin's Creed series. Its historical timeframe precedes that of Assassin's Creed III (2012), but its modern-day sequences succeed III's own. Black Flag was originally released for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii U in October 2013 and a month later for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One. It was later ported to the Nintendo Switch as part of The Rebel Collection alongside Assassin's Creed Rogue in December 2019. The game was released for Google Stadia in September 2021.
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Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare is a 2014 multiplayer third-person shooter and tower defense video game developed by PopCap Games and published by Electronic Arts. The third game in the Plants vs. Zombies franchise, the basic premise revolves around plants defending humankind from a zombie invasion. In the game, players assume control of either the Plants or the Zombies, as they fight in various cooperative and competitive multiplayer modes. Upon completing matches and finishing objectives, players earn coins to acquire stickers that unlock customization items and character variants.
Lego The Hobbit is a Lego-themed action-adventure video game developed by Traveller's Tales. The game was released by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment on 8 April 2014 in North America, and 11 April in Europe. The game is a follow-up to Lego The Lord of the Rings based on the first two Hobbit films; An Unexpected Journey and The Desolation of Smaug. It was released on PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii U, Nintendo 3DS, OS X and Microsoft Windows.
Downloadable content for Saints Row: The Third was announced before the game's November 2011 release along with a commitment from publisher THQ to support 40 weeks of content. Among smaller upgrades, three main content packs were released: Genkibowl VII, Gangstas in Space, and The Trouble with Clones. Reviewers found all three packs short—around an hour in length—and considered The Trouble with Clones the best of the bunch.
Saints Row IV: Enter the Dominatrix is a downloadable content pack for the 2013 video game Saints Row IV that includes an alternate story of the alien Zin invasion. The dialogue often breaks the fourth wall and its style is self-referential in nature. Enter the Dominatrix draws on its history as originally produced as downloadable content for the game's predecessor, Saints Row: The Third. It was first announced on April Fool's Day in 2012, later confirmed, and then cancelled to be incorporated into Saints Row IV, which drew on some aspects of the original idea and left the rest for this downloadable content. It was released on October 22, 2013 to mixed or average reviews. Critics appreciated the pack's treatment of its own history, what Eurogamer's Chris Schilling called a "very postmodern conceit".
Saints Row: Gat out of Hell is a 2015 action-adventure game developed by Volition and High Voltage Software, published by Deep Silver and distributed by Square Enix in North America. It was released for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Linux. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game were released both physically and digitally; so were the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions, although the latter two also saw a release bundled alongside Saints Row IV: Re-Elected.
Johnny Gat is a fictional character from Volition's Saints Row series of action-adventure video games. Voiced by American actor Daniel Dae Kim, the character was originally introduced in 2006's Saints Row as a lieutenant of the Third Street Saints, a street gang operating out of the Saint's Row district in the fictional city of Stilwater. He continued to make recurring appearances in the series as the loyal though trigger-happy right-hand man and best friend of the gang's leader, the player character. In 2015, Gat received the leading role for the first time in the series in Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell, a standalone expansion to 2013's Saints Row IV.
Agents of Mayhem is an open world action-adventure video game developed by Volition and published by Deep Silver. The game was released in August 2017 for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One. The game's themes are based on Saturday-morning cartoons and superhero films. It is set in a parallel universe of Volition's Saints Row series, and includes several plot and character crossovers. Agents of Mayhem received mixed reviews; it was generally praised for its humor, characters and combat, but criticized for its repetitiveness. It was a commercial disappointment, which lead to layoffs at Volition.
Saints Row is an action-adventure game developed by Volition and published by Deep Silver. It is a reboot of the Saints Row series, and the fifth main installment, following 2013's Saints Row IV. It was released on August 23, 2022 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Microsoft Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S, and Google Stadia. Set within the fictional city of Santo Ileso, loosely based on Las Vegas, the single-player story follows a group of four friends who start their own outlaw gang called the Saints, which they subsequently expand by seizing power from other criminal organizations in the city.
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