Let me start off by saying this. I created this reddit account just for sh*ts and giggles, but after watching a bunch of YouTube videos around this fiasco and having played the reboot on top of the REAL Saints Row games (1&2). Overall, when I saw the reveal trailer after waiting YEARS for a new sequel that would retcon the disasters of 3 & 4 and refocus to what the first two games set up thematically and plot wise. Well, when I saw that trailer last year, I was laughing at how much of a disaster this would turn out to be since it seemed like it initially. Well, after hearing what Mrsaintsgodzilla and others had to say about the beta gameplay they got to try, I decided that when the game came out, I'd give it a fair chance, ignore the story, and try to look at it from a pure gameplay perspective. When release day rolled around, I was stressed out from personal stuff, I was looking for something to end my summer on before resuming college, and that day had the time to go out, buy it and play it on day one. Well, a few weeks after completing the main story, nearly every side activity and collectible strand, here are my thoughts as a die-hard fan of the originals.

First off, the initial intro wasn't bad opening with Marshall & the Nahwalli (I think that's how his name is spelled, truth be told I don't care enough to look for the correct spelling). I did the first 2-3 story missions, and felt such a disinterest in these characters that I decided to explore the world, get collectibles and whatever else squared away before continuing. Santo Ileso wasn't a bad location for an open world game, yes the graphics look reminiscent of the SR3 and 4 style, but as someone who prefers retro games most times due to the craftsmanship, lack of microtransactions and overall better creativity and ideas, I let that slide rather quickly. This game is NO Red Dead 2 or GTA V in terms of graphics or detail. I liked the tour guide sections introducing special world locations and the rewards for completing them, I wanted to learn and explore the entire city before diving in. Pedestrian traffic is too light when driving, however on foot I've tended to notice more pedestrian activity. Overall, compared to Steelport, which was a bland, "copy and paste" feeling city besides the main section, I actually feel like Santo Ileso is closer to Stilwater in feel, especially when on foot with greater pedestrian volume. So overall, the city actually won me over a bit compared to the past two entries.

Headed back to the main story when I was done with everything you can do early on, this is where I have A LOT of mixed commentary. Overall, the concept that Volition decided to go with around "student debt" and "paying for rent" was DEFINITLEY intended seriously, however, this felt more like the opening of SR4 in the 50s simulation where everything was just straight up parody. Yes, these are real world problems, but this wouldn't manifest into people with no real criminal past or experience entering this gang world. If you take it seriously as intended, you'll hate this game. If you look at it in the unintended parody, so bad that its good way, the story is at the bottom of average at best with a few cool moments scattered throughout. Going to these "gangs", the Panteros are just a reskin, dollar store imitation between the Westside Rollerz from SR1 & The Brotherhood from SR2, with no Donnie like character to be found unfortunately. I don't recall Sergio even having a speaking line besides the "Marshall" comment when on that mission where you meet Jim Rob. We get it, "they like trucks and tattoos" as Carlos would say. Besides some cool looking vehicles, this gang was by far the blandest to me by the end of the game, the only arc they have are 2-3 missions revolving around Nina's destroyed car and taking revenge for that. Gee, compared to Carlos being dragged around, Jessica getting crushed by her own boyfriend in SR2, this really felt low. The Idols were middle of the road for me, Kev has that cool moment where he realizes he's being followed out of the gym, goes for his Glock, takes one Idol down but still gets kidnapped. This was a pretty cool scene, but overall this gang just felt like an anarchist cringe group, they make the real anti-capitalists look like total badasses by comparison. Blowing up the boat was cool, other than that its much the same as the Panteros, if anything The Collective was even more faceless and divided than Sergio. As for the Marshall arc, this is the best of all 3 opposition forces here. You were already canned by them for saving that Star woman's life, Atticus was a real force that you wanted to take care of, and this arc provides some of the best this game has on offer. Sure, they're a knock-off Stag mixed in with a little bit of that Vegas native redneck type thing from Casino (look up the office scene with DeNiro and the guy trying to get his nephew's job back, add some aggression plus a paramilitary force and you get Atticus), but this was the only gang that really stuck out during the story, the board room meeting decision if you kill Atticus feels like something ripped straight out of SR2, it reminded me of when the Playa shoots Julius during the final secret mission cutscene, just a bit toned down. Since I mentioned the two characters who are "gang" affiliated here already, I'll also mention Eli and the LARPing sections; probably one of the most original and fun parts of the game, but NOT Saints Row. So for gangs, my main problem is that the arcs are too short, there's a massive shortage of motivation to take them out, and overall they just feel far more watered down than past entries. Not great there.

Moving on to the empire building system. This is where I have a lot more positives than the last few paragraphs. This entire section feels like an advanced version of the property / mission assets from GTA Vice City, mixed with the freedom of placement from Vice City Stories. I genuinely had the most fun sculpting the city of Santo Ileso however I saw fit, that was AWESOME freedom to truly design the city as I wanted and I think that developers should emulate this idea. The mission strands for these empire ventures are a mixed bag, some feel like reskinned fetch quests and the others are a genuine blast to play. My only issue is that it feels like they couldn't decide between original side activities or the empire building, IMO every activity should've been saved for building more businesses or vice versa. The biggest insult of the game is the Let's Pretend strand, which just allows you to take pictures for the robberies but not carry them out other than being the getaway driver. I DID enjoy the various pop culture references, and in some cases they were this game's only saving grace for me continuing to play. There's an obvious Point Break reference with the robbery masks for Let's Pretend, there's an obvious Pulp Fiction, Winston Wolf feel to the crime scene cleanup missions, and right as I was thinking that, I get a mission where Melvin (AKA Marvin) gets shot in the face and you have to handle the cleanup. My favorite, and probably the most obvious, was the hoverboard during the thinktank startup strand, you get that Hoverboard from Back To The Future 2, and the garage even has a paint scheme for it with the correct pink color from the movie. Little touches like these put a smile on my face as a fan of older films, and I haven't heard many people mention them, either because they haven't played the game in its entirety or are far too young to pick up on these references. Overall, mixed bag here but more of a positive lean for me.

I guess in closing, I'll loop back to where I started and discuss the final arc / conclusion for anyone who didn't have the time or patience to push through and finish this controversial mess. Breaking the Nawhalli out for the train robbery, seeing the ONLY SR2 style character react to these wanna-be corporate "gangsters" was absolutely hilarious, and IMO a reflection of how many of us OG fans felt watching this mess unfold. Even funnier, he somehow LIKES these characters, enough at the end to literally ATTEMPT TO KILL YOU WITH YOUR OWN PRESENT KNIFE, bury you in a toned down Shogo Akugi style, and kidnap these wet rags called supporting characters to take your place and recreate your life. By this point, especially with the out of body board game / death experience, I was dying laughing at the sheer stupidity of the turn this seemingly badass character took. Friend stealing to the extreme, and these friends aren't even worth stealing. The hidden ending with the Love Shack cutscene was really something, especially when you contrast this more than likely final moment Saints Row will ever have or see to how this series started; an all-out conflict and shootout on a street corner where you nearly get killed for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, only to be saved by Julius and Troy. Think about that for a second, we went from full blown street warfare with Xzibit blasting in the background to a campy Love Shack karaoke singalong. What. The. F**k.

The moment where this game REALLY let me down was with the garage. As someone who loves car customization, sometimes I want to build a vehicle without saving it to my garage, screw around and dump it for something new. Well... EVERY SINGLE CAR you customize is added to your garage, there is currently NO WAY to customize a vehicle without storing it. Not to mention, there is only ONE car customization shop, otherwise you have the Saints HQ or other main safehouse and that's it. Want to customize a car on the other side of the map? Or save a vehicle during a mission? Too bad. The only reason to really come back to this game for me, driving around newly customized stuff for fun, is now null and void. Let alone the various other glitches, on Xbox One X, I was fortunate enough to only have one issue with a crash, one mission glitch with a guy on an overpass I had to kill who was too far back to take a shot at (I've seen various other reports of this one), and I believe one save glitch on one of my slots along with another that would add an additional save file which I did not save.

This is not only the death croak of this series, but of Volition themselves as a company. Not to be political, but I'm on the left, I keep seeing commentators say this is "woke" and all sorts of other stuff. Well, you have at least one person on the left who DOES NOT endorse this, I just played it out of sheer boredom and curiosity as an old fan who despised the last two entries. If anything, this isn't woke, its an SJW, homogenized corporate project that had no understanding of its fanbase that built this company after the Red Faction franchise. I have NO problem with artistic freedom and pushing the limits, as many on the REAL left also endorse. So IMO politics has no role in this, it was just a bunch of corporate hacks targeting the entirely wrong base with an old IP, killing it in the process. Even RDR2 has some progressive ideals and values within Dutch's gang considering the social climate of 1899, just look at the all white O'Driscoll and Lemoyne Raiders gangs, then look at the multiracial, even LGBTQ accepting (if Bill is really gay within the game's lore, many clues indicating this) Van Der Linde Gang. That was a masterpiece, pulled NO punches and Volition really could've learned something from that game and promoting positive values even among criminals. SR1 was branded as a GTA clone, but overall they knew what they wanted to do for that game and it was a fantastic stuff that arguably did some things BETTER than GTA. 2 took it to a whole new level AND still managed to give Grand Theft "Cousin" (one of my personal favorites) some serious competition, 3 was a sub-par letdown to me, 4 isn't even a Saints Row game besides the few fan service moments we had woven in. And now this. Wow, what the hell happened up there? And this DeadlySteph stuff is just hitting a new height of ridiculousness. Hell, I was kinder in this analysis than a lot of people online, I actually gave solid examples of what I liked, disliked, even what I think other developers should emulate from this with the good parts. I swear, this will go down as one of the greatest missteps in gaming history, I wouldn't be surprised if Volition is a ghost within the next few years, gone forever all because of this.

Overall, as a REAL OG fan, I'm going to give this game two grades. Why? Because it depends on how you decide to look at the narrative, either as Volition intended it, or the "so bad of a trainwreck it's good" feel that it gives off.

Through Volition's lens; 2/10

Through the unintended parody lense; 5-5.5/10

My best advice; go play 1 or 2, wait until this thing hits the bargain bin or used market where Volition will make next to nothing off it and see the franchise you loved turned into this just for a laugh.

RIP to the REAL Saints Row. It was nice knowin' ya!

I'd also love to hear what everyone else who played it has to say, responses even criticisms to this I'm all for!