Saints Row IV: First Hour Gameplay & Impressions

Today we’re bringing you another 1st hour impression for one of the numerous titles that came out yesterday, this time my personal favorite of the group, Saints Row IV.

Now while the Saints Row series initially started as a sort of slightly offbeat GTA competitor for sandbox gang warfare, we saw a number of changes in the third installment that pushed the series in a more all out whacky and ridiculous direction, featuring the likes of Burt Reynolds versus an army of zombies.

Saints Row IV looks to be fully embracing these changes and taking it a step further, while there is some initial flavor that the lead characters belonged to a gang at some point, the overall emphasis now is just having as much power as possible to literally break the world around you.

To accomplish this next step of insanity, IV has shifted the setting from the real world to what basically amount to the matrix, with the lead characters knowing it’s fake and utilizing this knowledge to break the rules of physics, like summoning cars from thin air or running and jumping at super human levels.

This set’s it apart immediately from it’s predecessors, adding new dynamics to the game and opening up a whole new level of free roam shenanigans for players to participate in.

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Did I forget to mention how incoherent and zany the story has been thus far? The game does its best to mock several different genre’s of games at once, and quickly sends you through numerous odd plot movements in it’s opening before getting to it’s sandbox core, including an opening reminiscent of most popular military FPS shooters, followed by being president and making “important” decisions, then dealing with an alien assault and being trapped in your own personal hell, in the protagonists case being a suburban lifestyle modeled after something out of a 1950’s tv show.

It’s also worth noting that the games character creator features just as many option and freedom as the Third, if not even more with some particularly ridiculous additions. One of my particular favorites being that there are 3 male voice options, 3 female voice options, and one self titled after it’s actor: Nolan North. While on the subject of voice actors, I can’t help but also mention the inclusion of one of my favorites starring as himself within the games supporting cast as your vice president: Keith David.

Now all of this is just after playing the game for a little over an hour, and I’ve only begun to barely experience all the multitudes of insanity this game has to offer, so keep your eyes open in the coming week for my full review once I’ve soaked enough time into it. If you guys want to see some actual gameplay along side my thoughts, make sure to check out my 1st impressions video here.