After being released in several episodes which were rather well received by the press and players between 2008 and 2013 on previous generations of home consoles (Xbox 360 and PS3), the Saints Row series is doing a clean slate of the past and offering itself a complete reboot in 2022. The new game from the Volition studio still promises players to find all the action and humor that can be expected from the franchise. Available since August 23, 2022 on most existing game media (PlayStation / Xbox and PC), it's time for us to give you a verdict on this revival of the Saints Row series after spending dozens of hours surveying the streets of Santo Ileso in an attempt to build a veritable criminal empire. Game that we tested on an Xbox Series X!
How to become "the boss" of a large criminal enterprise:
The game starts with a big party which is organized at the HQ of the “Saints”. As the party is in full swing, a guy with a briefcase shows up at the door to meet you. You then discover that you are "the Boss" of the place, and suddenly, you are thrown into a hole and buried alive. The story then takes a big leap into the past to show you how you got there, from a simple employee in a corrupt military corporation taking your first steps, "the rookie of the team", to manager of a real criminal empire. The starting pitch is good, the characters have a really goofy and fun side to them, and there's something really special about your character that makes the game totally crazy.
You're a rookie, it's your first day in the field with Marshall (the famous military company) and you're already on top of a fighter jet trying to apprehend a dangerous highly wanted criminal when even your superiors who have experience in the field are not foolish enough to take such reckless risks. Your character is not really aware of it, but he has extraordinary abilities and his friends Kevin, Neenah and Eli will understand this very quickly since together they will form the "Saints". Except that initially, this band is a bit broke with student credit on the back and rent to pay.
Regardless, crime is not a taboo subject in this collocation since Kevin and Neenah are already members of a well-known gang in the city of Santo Ileso. After robbing two or three stores to make cash and committing a few other thefts, the group will end up having an idea that they consider "brilliant", setting up a company specializing in crime. Here you are with a HQ (an old church that you extorted from the mayor of the city), a name and a logo, a team… The scene is set, all you have to do is leave your mark on Santo Ileso.
The main quest is completed in around 10-12 hours, but there are so many side activities and secrets (like windmills scattered all over Santo Ileso) that the story is only a small piece of the cake. Focusing too much on the main quests and forgetting the extras means missing out on a good part of the game. the map or when you check signs around town to hear a narrator tell you the story of the place you are visiting. Best of all are the corporations you create in town to grow the criminal empire you seek to build. You can plant businesses that will serve as a cover for your illegal activities at the Saints HQ operations table. You choose the location of your new company and when it's done, a new activity becomes available on the map. It's up to you to take part in it to increase the benefits you can derive from it.
Totally crazy and supercharged gameplay:
Right from the start, you can create your own boss with a highly advanced character editor that lets your imagination run wild. The game offers a very high level of customization and not just for your “boss”. Appearance of weapons can be changed, game vehicles, you can decorate your HQ. Saints Row is rich in customization options and the best part is that you can change your visual choices at any time, even for the main character that you created from scratch without having to restart a game (note that the character fits really well with the rest of the band, you can also choose a voice for him).
GTA-style, this reboot of Saints Row lets you do just about anything, hijack cars and helicopters, wreak havoc on the streets of Santo Ileso, buy weapons, modify crates that you have stolen, provoke the opposing gangs, chase after the cops and many others.
Where it is different from a GTA, almost like a parody, is that everything is more crazy with sometimes absurd situations that make it really fun. The game of Volition is highly playful without a doubt. Santo Ileso is a huge and pleasant city to explore, the region in which the game takes place offers very diverse landscapes. However, something is wrong...
A real festival of bugs and problems of all kinds…
The strength of this new Saints Row certainly lies in its gameplay, but also the diversity of activities it offers. All main quest missions are radically different. What spoils this Saints Row is the myriad of bugs it suffers from, the game can crash at any time, there are animation problems when you steal a vehicle, cars crash into each other to avoid train more than one model, some missions have blocking elements that require you to restart the game… Weapons sometimes disappear from the character selection wheel, we have had cases where the controller simply refuses to work with the game or that certain keys no longer work… Vehicles disappear and reappear before your eyes… Sometimes your allies' AI is brain dead, just waiting in the heat of the moment… Saints Row has such a bad level of finish that it ends up being exhausting…
The game's initial setting is really unclear on console either, we played the game on Xbox Series X and struggled to find the right settings to get the game to display anything decent. What we mean, the game does not lack options (which is a good thing), but nothing is quite explicit. Another flaw is also the speed at which the subtitles scroll… The characters speak so quickly to each other that you don't have time to read and understand what they are saying. There is an option to slow down the pace, but there is such a gap forming that you don't even know who said what! This new Saints Row would have benefited from a French dubbing.
On the graphics side, there are several options available to you, but on the medium we played on it seemed to us that only the high framerate 1440p mode worked. For the rest, the frame rate per second was too low or the graphics too runny... The 1440p mode offers a good compromise on an "Xbox Series X", but unfortunately, the definition takes quite a beating when there is has too much on the screen or you're in an area that the game deems too heavy to maintain an acceptable framerate. The quality of the graphics drops accordingly, something which is for example often visible when a scene is played within the HQ of the Saints.
★ In the end, should you play the reboot of Saints Row:
The new Saints Row could have been at the top of the basket if it didn't suffer from so many bugs that totally ruin the immersion in the adventure. The game also straddles two generations graphically, however, on Microsoft's latest console (the highest model), it has a hard time offering a visual up to what one could hope for while maintaining a acceptable frame rate per second… Besides that, we are on a very playful production with a totally uninhibited concept which gives players the opportunity to do just about anything and everything without the slightest headache causing you to lose in passing, the notion of time. The reboot of Saints Row, we have fun there, but we come out of it all the same with a mixed opinion for a whole bunch of reasons. To see if the game will improve over time with updates or if things will only get worse or stay as they are now...
Saints Row (2022)
Game rating
6.5 
