Saint's Row: Gat out of Hell

[TheFeniX]

Spoilers ahoy, but let's face facts: there's not much of a story here. You also won't find a whole lot here you can't get from more than a few review sites as no one pulls punches for volition games.

Are you a bad enough dude to rescue the president? Did you like SR4? Would you like to fly around Hell with the best flight mechanics I've seen in a game while doing sidequests to unlock a few cutscenes? Then cough up $20. Otherwise, play something else.

Borderless window support which should be a thing... everywhere. The graphics are... there. They don't look bad, but there's nothing that will blow your skirt up.

The game has a lot of Quality of Life improvements that I hope to see expanded in future installments. The flight system is aces. Within a few minutes Kyle and I were flying through Hell like psychotic angels. With a few upgrades, you're pulling pin-point turns to snag collectibles, while Gat bitches about how contrived the whole thing is. Powers can and must be used mid-flight. For example, throwing your "new" Blast power than turns enemies to stone, for just one element. "Hover mode" is now a thing from the start, and can be used to line up better power attacks on enemies. However, you still cannot shoot or melee enemies while "parkouring." Volition still needs to find a way to integrate the gunplay with the superpowers (or ditch superpowers all together).

There's more than a few annoyances brought over from SR4. The difference in speed between your normal jog and super-sprint is still a major issue. Trying to get to something 20 feet in front of you is either a leisurely stroll or you tap SHIFT for a split second and over shoot it and end up just as far away as you were originally. Animations are still required to finish before you can perform other actions. Sprinting even for a second locks you out of shooting for maybe a second for just one example.

The game is literally a bunch of sidequests you do to build up enough of Satan's anger to start a cutscene. During these parts is when the story is moved (more like dragged) along.

The Matrix like simulation with all kinds of weird shennanigans is replaced with a lot of red, pretty much every NPC is a soulless husk using the same model/texture, and the cars are burned out (literally) shells offering very little variety. Not that it matters because there's no non-mission reason to even get in one. Volition wants you flying and everything seems to facilitate that.

The game brings some good stuff to the table, but it never comes together. Think about of all the cool things Jedi Academy added to Jedi-Outcast. Now imagine it was only 3 levels long and half the price. For a $20 expansion, I'm enjoying it a lot, but this is mostly due to co-op. If you were a fan of 4, this might tide you over for the inevitable SR5.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

How involved is the Boss? I admit, I got rather attached to my Boss playing through (most of) 2, 3, and then 4. I heard you can import your SR4 Boss for cutscenes, but I've been wary mostly because you don't even play your Boss in this installment.

I'm also not sure I care for the even further departure from the original GTA-style mechanics. SR3 was the strongest of the series because it managed to be goofy and wild without completely invalidating the whole "run around a city with guns and cars causing mayhem" formula.

[TheFeniX]

How involved is the Boss? I admit, I got rather attached to my Boss playing through (most of) 2, 3, and then 4. I heard you can import your SR4 Boss for cutscenes, but I've been wary mostly because you don't even play your Boss in this installment.

Wel.... about that..... He/she is in the opening cutscene. And... not much else, although we've unlocked the final boss, we haven't done it yet. At least you got your boss, I didn't back-up my SR4 save when I got my new PC and Steam Cloud failed in it's one task because it's a piece of shit.

I'm also not sure I care for the even further departure from the original GTA-style mechanics. SR3 was the strongest of the series because it managed to be goofy and wild without completely invalidating the whole "run around a city with guns and cars causing mayhem" formula.

Preaching to the choir. I'd honestly not be upset if the entirety of SR4 and GooH were some sort of Inception type simulation of a simulation and SR5 takes up after the events of SR3 after you kill whoever had you hooked up to the simulation. It would be a shame to lose the development of Miller and the rest of the cast, but it would be stupidly easy to make them all part of the simulation plot.

Though I am hoping the flight-mechanics stay in some shape or form. But preferably not in the standard game because I miss driving around Steelport in co-op.