Maybe that's an unfair comparison given players are already very familiar with them, but even when the game tries to create a few tender moments with some of the new characters, it falls flat and comes across as forced. While some characters shine more than others, no one comes close to the levels of Johnny Gat and Shaundi from the original series. By the end, Saints Row is asking you to really care about these characters and it doesn't feel like the game has given you a reason to. There are roughly 20 or so main missions required to get to the ending with some worthy side missions that can pad out the runtime, but ultimately, it doesn't help the narrative feel better paced. Nothing about the ending lands because it feels like it's missing hours of build-up and it's rather jarring. It feels like Saints Row is missing its entire second or third act as the Saints have one of their first true victories and then it jumps to an unearned finale. Once it actually kicks into gear, the game feels like it ends not too long after.
Broadly, it took longer than I had hoped to get into the meat and potatoes of building a criminal empire. It took hours of playing before I started to become even mildly interested in what was going on. The actual story of Saints Row isn't very remarkable. In some ways, it's meant to be empowering, in other ways, it's a cautionary tale of power and greed. It's up to you to build something from the ground up, become leaders of the Las Vegas-esque city known as Santo Ileso, and more. It's not a game about people not wanting to work, it's about people who want to be properly rewarded for their work and they do so by taking matters into their own hands. Eventually, The Boss and their three roommates – who all work for various crime families – have enough of working for crappy bosses and decide to make their own business: a criminal empire known as The Saints.
As is tradition, you play as an unnamed character typically referred to as The Boss who is down on their luck working for a group of mercenaries at the start of the game. That's not to say it doesn't have problems, because it has plenty, but this game feels in line with the IP it is rebooting. This game blends the tones of Saints Row 2 and Saints Row: The Third quite well, creating a story with a variety of bombastic set pieces that feel right at home for this series.
Saints Row is a reboot of the beloved crime franchise and while its initial unveiling had many worried that this was going to be something that they didn't feel was true to the brand, that's not the case at all.
0 kommentar(er)
