G'day there guys and gals!(Please note: Re-Elected and Gat Out Of Hell will be rated by my DLC rating system *A through F* and will not affect the overall score of the original review, found here)
*This review is 100% spoiler free!*
Overall, while Saints Row IV was a fun game, personally I found it tedious and quite dull at a lot of points throughout gameplay. I've never hidden my affection for the Saints Row series, my very first 360 title and one I spent countless hours playing. And while I do miss the serious plotline, the insane, crazy, fun gameplay is still a welcome one.
However, Re-Elected has made the same mistake Square Enix did with Sleeping Dogs; picking a recent title and moving it forward to current gen consoles. The game still includes the fun of super powers, kicking some alien arse and the witty dialogue but retains many bugs and glitches from the old game. This is not a HD remake, this is a port.
There isn't much I can't say that I didn't say in the original review; the gameplay is still simplistic and quite fluid, however of course the super powers make you completely OP once you upgrade them a few times but this is to be expected. DLC weapons make an appearance, much to my delight; with the inclusion of a heavy metal Dubstep gun, it was my go to weapon. Sadly the tune repeats over and over but again, this is expected. All old and new weapons do make a reappearance but it seems the Australian Classification Board has done some tweaks to rename the The Penetrator to The Dildo Bat.
Vehicles are there for you to enjoy but with unlimited sprint, flight and high jumping, there isn't much point to them at all. The voice acting is still excellent, the sound effects and musical score is still as good as ever. To the nugget of the point; with every port or HD remake, the main focus usually with older games brought back from the dead is the graphics. Sadly, this is where the main issues remains. High amounts of screen tearing (usually when accessing the main menus), several odd glitches with explosions distorting the screen, not to mention the four times the game froze and kicked me to dashboard, or twice how a dead controller swap deleted my autosave, my progress and unlocks.
By the end, the only saving grace is a cleaner, better Co-Op to enjoy with friends. At this point I wanted to give up, and that brings us to Gat Out Of Hell.
To be perfectly honest, I went in with low expectations and while in some areas they were met, the DLC itself is quite excellently done.
For those interesting in the storyline; with the voice of a familiar narrator, the Saints begin to celebrate Kinzie's birthday when a mishap with a Ouija Board brings Gat, Kinzie and the Boss down into hell. It's up to you to free the Boss and put a bullet in Satan's eyes.
The gameplay is excellent; while still more or less the same SR IV, the DLC features new powers, new abilities and some old ones, not to begin to mention the new weaponry, hellish monsters to battle and some familiar faces for you to see in the game itself.
Sound effects are quite well done although the musical score does suffer slightly in gameplay but is otherwise noticeable only in combat or cutscenes. Graphics look incredible and each area looks significantly different amongst the deep red lava.
Voice acting, at times, is quite well done by the main cast. At points it does sound quite monotone and dragging; the disappointing thing about this is these lie in the tutorials, the main commentary or the missions.
Speaking of missions, Gat Out of Hell takes a step back to Saints Row 3 style and makes 80% of the main storyline nothing BUT mini-games, which of course are nothing but rehashes of Saints Row IV games. There are plenty of twists on the classics and new ones to accommodate your new powers, but it's really disappointing to see this in this series continuously. While it is (sort of) explained as a pun mid-way through the game, it makes it abundantly clear what this port was made for. Don't get me wrong, the game modes are fun but many are too short, repeated too often in main missions and after a while, become too boring as your powers grow.
Other smaller mentions would be the change to Clusters (Although a better name would have been "Souls" or something, you are in Hell after all!) and your abilities make it WAY easier to collect them. Each Loyalty mission is basically the same; several mini-game, a take over mission and done. Last the loading times are incredibly fast so that is definitely a plus, not to mention the Deus Ex HR type ending. But I digress.
My main goal for this entire review was to determine whether or not Re-Elected was worth your time and the high asking price. And this is my summary:
Saints Row Re-Elected is perfect for old and new fans, achievement grinders and those looking for a wacky game to Co-Op in with friends. Otherwise I do advice caution in buying this game; this game is furthering the standard of shoddy console ports for a quick buck by companies and the addition of the DLC won't keep me on this title for much longer. There are plenty of hours to waste but too much old content or improvements for it to be truly called a HD Remake.
And while there is one major hint towards a sequel, the Gat Out Of Hell ending brings it into question; Saints Row IV was originally made as a April Fools joke. Hopefully this is the punchline and we can all move on.
A fun but disappointing start for 2015.
Saints Row Re-Elected: C-
Gat Out Of Hell DLC: C+
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