TEST Saints Row (2022): a reboot that does not know where to turn

Born as a response to license Grand Theft Auto who was carding, Saints Row started in 2006 with a rather serious opus, plunging players into a gang war. Several other sections have emerged, always eyeing a little more towards the wacky and the great nonsense, until the spin off Agents of Mayhem to forget. But here it is Volition and Deep Silver are back with a rebootsoberly titled Saints Row. Was it necessary?

Main characters without charisma or unbearable, and very soft writing.

Saints Row takes us to Santo Ileso, in the southwestern United States. A fictional city very inspired by Las Vegas with its main street full of hotels and casinos, and its desert surroundings. A vast playing field where already clash Los Panterosthem Idols and Marshall Defense Industriesthree factions that will have to face a new group: the Saints. Yes, this album is a reboot which makes us experience the birth of Saints, a band of unemployed broken arms deciding to start their own business of criminals. The scenario of Saints Row is completely anecdotal, the fault of main characters without charisma or unbearable, and a very weak writing. Never in the adventure the dialogues do fly and no mission manages to stand out to really leave its mark. It’s not bad, but it smacks of déjà vu, it’s sometimes bland, often banal and it pretty much sums up the game as a whole…

Before starting the adventure, the player is invited to create his Boss, the playable character at the heart of the game, with a whole host of customization options. It must be recognized that Volition got loose, with settings for just about everythingthere is obviously nudity and the crazy and unrealistic side goes perfectly with the inclusion, to create a Boss unique. For the less inspired, it is even possible to import creations from other players, it’s fun and nothing is final, you can modify the character during the adventure and dress it with a lot of clothes and accessories, to buy in the many shops of the city. But we are mainly here for the gang war.

The goal of Saints Row is once again to take control of the city, by placing businesses in the different districts of Santo Ileso and making them fruitful. For that it is necessary succeed in side missions related to said trade, it ranges from towing vehicles across town to collecting truckloads of chemicals, to insurance fraud. An activity that requires you to throw yourself under the wheels of cars to generate as many dollars as possible, with a combo system, it is strongly reminiscent of the mode Crash of the Burnoutbut as a pedestrian. The activities are varied and stick well to the identity of the business, but are quickly repetitive and the player must 100% complete a handful of these missions to advance in the story, which is never fun. Imagine spending an hour driving 14 chemical trucks to complete the trade building and finally get to the next main mission, that is a dated and frustrating mechanic. Fortunately, the pill goes better when the player engages in these side missions in parallel with the main campaign.

This campaign, as we have already said, is neither very exciting nor very long. Saints Row can fold in less than 8 hours, it’s not much, even if the interest of the game lies in its open world, but there… Well, the title quickly shows that it is a few years behind.

A decent GTA-like, the devs had some great ideas.

We are entitled to a lot of activities (very secondary missions, photography, assassinations, personalization of the HQ of the Saints, etc.), but nothing really exciting or fun. Again, it gets repetitive quickly, we feel like we’re dealing with a carefully crafted map (the cityscapes and desert landscapes are really cool to explore), but filled out in a very conventional way to boost overall lifespan. . You will have to really hang on to the game to aim for 100%, but above all, Saints Row don’t know which foot to dance on. The tone oscillates awkwardly between the serious and the wacky, without ever succeeding in hitting the mark in either category. The game ends up with the ass between two chairs and it never works perfectly, always poorly.

Although the humor of Saints Row IV divided, it was at least clearly stated and assumed to the end. Here, well, the customization is free, but the dialogues are never irreverent or really funny, the arsenal is quite basic (no dildo-shaped truncheons here), nothing is remarkable, nothing is great, everything is classic. For a reboot of such a big franchise, which comes out in 2022, it’s still average. Well, some elements manage to make people smile, like these side missions plunging us into a life-size role-playing game with literally cardboard weapons, where the inhabitants of Santo Ileso having fun like big children (reminding a little South Park: The Stick of Truthwith guns).

Side gameplay, Saints Row is… banal. Yes, this word comes up far too often, but it perfectly suits the game of Volition. If you’re ever unfamiliar with the franchise, here we have a third-person shooter-oriented game, allowing you to carry several weapons and venture into the city to indulge in various missions, which often go down in peanuts and against the law. A GTA-like ok, the devs had some good ideas like the wingsuit to be deployed at any time in the air, skills to be activated during combat for destructive effects, or even varied and particularly violent hand-to-hand executions, so John Wick. Many vehicles are available to move around the city, with cars using the classic archetypes (compact, sedan, SUV, muscle car). Fortunately, gang vehicles and those unlocked after certain missions come to raise the level, otherwise, it is possible to modify the standard cars as you wish in a garage, with again a lot of options, up to the mirrors!

Driving is also classic, the cars are easy to drive, with the possibility of controlling its fall in the air to land better or even to give side blows, a pity that the game has decided that you need a 4×4 kit to get off the beaten track, otherwise the car slips at the slightest blow of flying. For an ultra arcade game, it’s still surprising, but it gives funny situations with drifts involuntary. Note in passing the possibility of climbing on the roof of his vehicle to shoot his pursuers with a bunch of weapons, a mechanism that works very well in cooperation, with a pilot and a shooter. Because yes, Saints Row is fully playable for twowhich is much more fun.

Finally, let’s finish with the graphic and sound design. Tested on PC Gamer Cybertek Level 9, Saints Row is visually correct, the textures are quite nice, but nothing dazzles the retina, and effects like explosions or smoke are far from modern technologies. The game could have been sublime a few years ago, today it is… banal. At least he’s not ugly, that’s already it, even ifhe is not stingy with small more or less annoying bugs. This ranges from cars appearing or disappearing a few feet away from you, to a finicky HUD showing the wrong aim or icon, issues that resolve themselves after relaunching the game, but it’s annoying. Ditto for the AI ​​of the enemies, necessarily buggy as the opponents are stupid, rushing on the player without trying too hard to hide or bypass him. “It’s a bug, isn’t it?” Nope ? Ah…” For the voices, there is nothing transcendent, they are all in English and of rather good quality, but we will especially remember the different radios to listen to in the car, with very varied styles to please everyone. the world (except streamers).

Saints Row is a run-of-the-mill open-world game. This reboot is clearly not going to overshadow the competition, even if the open-world of this genre are not legion, and it obviously has its audience. The title of Volition is never bad, in any way, but it never manages to stand out either with a slightly exceptional mission or a really endearing character. Everything is average, with filling on the map, decent graphics, a classic arsenal, and a few bugs. At least, those who didn’t like the overly delirious tone of Saints Row IV find here a more “realistic” game, but which oscillates between humor and seriousness without ever finding the right balance, or choosing its edge. A Saints Row 2022 edition which is clearly not going to make an impression and which is above all a few years behind on all points.

You can find Saints Row in Day One Edition at €44.73 on Amazon.

Clint008 Writer – Tester