Isaac Wagner: "Saints Row IV doesn't have the spit and polish of other big open world franchises like Grand Theft Auto or Assassin's Creed, but it has more heart than all of those games put together. The Next Great Sequel in the Saints Row Franchise is the most exciting, enthusiastic and soulful game that I've played probably since Saints Row: The Third. It feels like a game that the developers had a blast making, and wanted to make sure you felt the same way while playing it. But there's just too many things in the game that got in the way of my fun which ultimately held it back from True Greatness."
Remember this year's Saints Row(opens in new tab)? Volition would probably prefer that you didn't, which might go some way to explaining why the studio recently decided to upgrade everyone's copy of Saints Row 4(opens in new tab) to its full-fat Re-elected Edition, containing all the game's story and cosmetic DLC and even introducing cross-play between Steam, Epic, and GOG versions of the game.
Unfortunately, that upgrade seems to have backfired, and players now report a myriad of bugs with their new version of SR4. Both the Saints Row Steam forums(opens in new tab) and subreddit(opens in new tab) are filled with players complaining of broken saves, crashes, and mods failing to function. It's also received a few hundred negative Steam reviews(opens in new tab) since the update. If it's succeeded in washing the taste of Saints Row (2022) out of players' mouths, it's only because it tastes even worse.
I wonder if Volition's getting reorged under Gearbox impacted the quality of their release.
When it comes ranking the Saints Row games, there are a couple of weird ones you have to consider, though this is Saints Row after all.
Juan at SwitchWatchTV got his hands on Saints Row 4 Re-elected for Nintendo Switch. Check out his review here and see what he thinks.