Easy, but enjoyable game.
Previous players of the Saints Row franchise should take care: this is not the same Saints Row game as the previous entries in the franchise. This is not the same gang-war driven gameplay you may have loved long ago. If you try to judge the game based on that criteria, then this game will undoubtedly fail your expectations. If one can get past this, you might enjoy what you find.
Playing as superhero/heroine in a matrix-like simulation, players gracefully leap, glide, and smash their way through an alien infested city of Steelport. Players may play as a premade character provided by the game, but it is most delightful when you make your own creation. Jump into combat as a superhero themed avenger, or jump in as a crazed gimp wearing a mascot head. The power is yours to decide, and you can change it up at any point in the game.
The game does a good job of introducing new powers and guns as you play the game, thus gameplay generally doesn't become too stale (so long as you continuously make an effort to experiment around with various combinations). The city glows with hordes of glowing data nodes just waiting to be collected so players can further upgrade their incredible powers. It is an utter delight to scamper about the city collecting items and killing aliens as you go.
There are plenty of missions to do in the game that have you doing a variety of chaotic activities including vehicle theft, property damage (mayhem), speed running (blazing), precision platform jumping, or my personal favorite, jumping into traffic. The main story mission has you typically killing and rampaging around in a similar fashion. What really sets the main missions apart from the side missions though is the humor.
Playing the game can be hilarious enough with your abilities and customizations...but the main mission is where the true humor is at, and where the game truly shines. To go into details would spoil a lot of the parodies and references made throughout the game. Just remember that there is a good chance you will be grinning when various jokes do arise!
Visually, the game is fine. Characters look good, and the visuals are fitting for digitized alien conquered city. Nothing crazy in terms of variety; simply functional. The game ran smoothly enough for me on my PC, though I know that varies computer to computer. I noticed on my friends Xbox playthrough that there would be occasional slowdown, but nothing to really worry about.
Controls feel great on PC with a mouse and keyboard. Moving around was very simple and fluid, combat was easy enough to navigate through, and quick motions during blazing runs were precise and sound with just the flick of the wrist.
While there are many pros going for this game, there are unfortunately some shortcomings as well. Perhaps the most severe would be the occasional moments where the game either fails to load a sequence in a mission (essentially breaking the mission until you reload it) or the game flat out freezes. Fortunately this doesn't occur that often and the game does a fairly good job of autosaving, but it might take you off guard at a sour moment (say, the right before finishing a long mission as was in my case).
The next unfortunate shortcoming would be the difficulty of the game. The enemies don't really vary much as you play the game, nor do their tactics in trying to bring you down. Even with a bunch of powers at your disposal, it can and probably will get a little dull as you progress (even if you do make an effort to change up your abilities/weapons). It's still fun, but probably not for as long as it potentially could be.
Lastly, the game felt relatively short. At about 20hrs of game time, I was able to collect nearly everything and complete literally every mission with gold medals. Was it fun? Certainly, though it left me yearning for more. DLC is planned for the future, so my thirst for more will hopefully be quenched.
So, should you get this game? If you want to embark on a simple superhero sandbox game chock-full of vulgarity and ridiculous antics, then the answer is yes. Definitely yes.