Saints Row IV is the pure, unbound realization of the open-world genre and the new king of the sandbox.

User Rating: 9.5 | Saints Row IV PS3
Many adults remember the sandbox they had as a child. It might've been in a local playground or simply in their backyard. They remember imagining their toy army men on a desert mission or loading up sand in their plastic dump trucks before moving them across the lawn. It was a time where the playfulness and freedom of pretending drove enjoyment, where imagination destroyed the creative barriers that reality constructed. It was a time where you felt like you really could do anything.

This idea isn't something limited to the innocence of childhood. Even the most mature adult has that underlying desire to break free of the monotony and restriction of reality and experience their life through the eyes of someone who simply isn't bound by its rules. It's a dream that brought about the open-world video game genre, a class that prided itself on a structure that eliminated linear patterns in favor of branching freedom. We've seen successful open-world franchises, especially the iconic open-world pioneer Grand Theft Auto. That series has had its share of imitators, including Volition's Saints Row series. After two crime-based games and a third game that killed off the drama in favor of goofy humor, the fourth installment of the Saints Row series was pushed as the most over-the-top open-world game ever, one that simply didn't give a crap about drama, structure or realism.

With Saints Row IV, not only has the series truly come into its own, but it's also surpassed any of its peers in quality, creativity and freedom that was originally promised in the coining of the term "sandbox game." Restrictions be damned: this is the true realization of the open-world game.

Saints Row IV picks up after The Third, with the Third Street Saints infiltrating an armed complex run by Cyrus Temple, the military leader who's defeat by The Saints in The Third moved him to align with terrorists and launch a nuclear missile at Washington D.C. After Temple's immediate assassination, The Boss (the long-time leader of The Saints) is able to disarm the missile and conveniently appear in the Oval Office. The over-the-top act of heroism nets The Boss the presidency, with the player controlling The Boss after setting up their initial character design. During a press conference, Washington D.C. is attacked by a space armada run by Zinyak, leader of the alien race The Zin. After being defeated by Zinyak and witnessing his cabinet members being abducted, The Boss awakens in a humble town reminiscent of a 1950's family sitcom. After breaking the laws of the town that forbid violence and profanity, The Boss is contacted by his press secretary, the scathingly cynical techhead Kinzie, who reveals that the town is actually a computer simulation. With Kinzie's help, The Boss is able to escape from the simulation (seriously, this is The Matrix 101) and escape imprisonment on a Zin ship, only to witness the entire Earth being destroyed. The Boss and his cabinet make it their mission to rescue the rest of The Saints from their simulated prison and get revenge on Zinyak. It's almost surreal knowing that Saints Row was originally an open-world crime-life game in the vein of Grand Theft Auto, because nothing about the game's story sounds even remotely like the Rockstar standard of open-world action games. From the "action-movie stupid" mid-air disarming of the nuke to the corny-as-all-hell "Leave it to Beaver" style prison simulation, Saints Row IV dismisses any sense of seriousness from its DNA. It's simply not in the same class as GTA anymore.

Being in a computer simulation opens many doors for the characters in Saints Row IV to bend their reality to their will. The most apparent addition is the introduction of superpowers. Ripping pages straight from a Wachowski production, the digitized world of Steelport instantly allows for the characters to perform feats that are impossible in the real world. These range from jumping tremendous heights, running at Mach speeds and shooting energy blasts, to name a few. The jumping and running mechanics take cues from superhero games like the Radical-developed The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction and Prototype (the glide animation is a carbon copy of Alex Mercer's). These traversal mechanics are incredibly refreshing inclusions to an open-world game. Unlike others in the genre that only allow for slow vehicle transportation to move about, Saints Row IV keeps traversal lively and exciting. Leaping over buildings, gliding over rivers and dashing down highways is simply exhilarating and makes getting from Point A to Point B a joy instead of a chore. You will find yourself spending hours simply leaping throughout Steelport without a care in the world. With traversal being such a blast, this makes finding different missions and objectives much more interesting. It's very easy to find yourself going out of your way to get a pickup or mission since traversal is so fast and fluid.

And the missions are worth it. Throughout the digital Steelport, you'll find an enormous amount of things to do. You can play through Horde-style combat missions where you're attacked by enemies ranging from aliens to people in fursuits to glitched-up citizens (enormous eyes and stringy limbs included), get vehicles in driving missions, run through the city in the superpowered time trial stages, take out alien bases or even hack local stores to make them available for your perusal (with a puzzle minigame). This is just the tip of the iceberg in Saints Row IV (don't even get me started on the 1255 Cluster pickups for superpower improvement), but it makes it perfectly clear that Volition wants you to get lost in Saints Row IV. The game prides itself on giving you a ton of things to do and they're all cleverly woven into its tapestry of distraction. It's so easy to ignore the story missions entirely and just explore the city's side quests. One hacking mission will lead to a Cluster, leading to another Cluster, leading to a Horde mission, leading to another Cluster, leading to a vehicle mission…etcetera, etcetera. This chain of side quests is brilliant; you will always have something to do in Saints Row IV. Even better is that you'll always have something FUN to do.

The long-time staples of the genre like weapon combat and vehicles are all still available, and while they are a bit less important this time around, they still have a whimsical essentiality to Saints Row IV. Weapons like the SMG and shotgun remain in the basic arsenal, but the goofier armaments like the classic phallic bludgeoning weapon The Penetrator, the tentacle-equipped bat The Violator and the ever-popular bass cannon The Dubstep Gun are just as fun to use in combat. Even better is that each weapon can be upgraded in weapon shops around Steelport for Cache (the currency of Saints Row IV). The variety of the arsenal combined with the superpowers allow for diverse approaches to combat, with player preference driving the encounters instead of unbalanced specs for each gun. Vehicles take the biggest hit from Saints Row IV's goofy vibe, since the superpowers make the vehicles nearly obsolete outside of specific missions. But Saints Row IV leaves every option open for approaching a fight. You can gun them down, run them over or simply beat them over the head with a giant sexually implied tentacle.

Cache can also be used to buy upgrades to your skills. Improving damage resistance, stamina, health, weapon damage and more can be bought anytime in the skill menu. Cache is earned by unlocking more of Steelport through hacking shops, completing missions and defeating enemies (all by gaining control of the city, Assassin's Creed style). For your superpowers, you'll find 1255 Clusters throughout Steelport, which can be used to upgrade skills like running speed, jump height and energy blast modifications. Cache and Clusters are very common, so you'll constantly have options (and incentive) to complete your combos of guns, skills and superpowers. Right when you start to get bored of something, something else brand new appears. Saints Row IV introduces so many elements to the player, while never shoving anything down the player's throat. It wants you to play your way and it wants you to have an absolute blast doing so.

The presentation remains familiar enough to Saints Row: The Third at first (this was originally planned as DLC for it, mind you), but with a digital world now being the stage, Volition brings everything out with a glowing shimmer perfectly reminiscent of Tron. You'll find a ton of amazing effects that really do hit the superhero idea home. Vast views from atop skyscrapers are only matched by the unbelievable sense of scope and freedom as you glide off them and toward the suburbs below. The combat animations are crazy. You'll be hurling aliens across a highway, making pedestrians' heads explode with super-strength kicks and punching gang members in the groin. Though some minor technical hitches can appear and the simulation's perpetual nighttime can feel a bit stale after a while, you'll find Saints Row IV to hold a flashy visual vibe unlike any other game, open-world or otherwise.

The audio is still amazing as ever. Voice acting is superb, with witty and hilarious writing driving the performances of cast members like Natalie Lander, Yuri Lowenthal and Keith David (who plays himself as the Vice President). The Boss can be voice by a number of actors and actresses like Laura Bailey, Troy Baker or Nolan North (who even gets a voice selection named after him). Music once again shines, offering a huge number of artists to choose from. Rap, rock, classical, retro, dubstep and reggae hit the airwaves. Pick your favorites and add them to your custom mixtape; there's nothing more satisfying than hurling an alien off a building with Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" playing in the background.

Saints Row IV isn't just a fun sandbox game with a bizarre sense of humor; it's also the most progressive open-world game released in years, one that does everything that the very concept of "sandbox" implies. You can approach combat in any way you feel. You can explore the city through any method you prefer. You can progress through the game however you want. The introduction of superpowers destroys the barriers proposed by its peers, offering a liberating sense of playfulness that was, until now, obstructed by an unnecessary desire to keep things realistic. With available mission, transport, weapon and skill options floating about constantly, you will always find something to accomplish, improve, refine, focus and enjoy. This is a landmark title in the open-world genre, one that challenges the stalwart giants of yesterday and punches them square in the groin.

Saints Row IV is the new king of the sandbox.