Saints Row Reboot review: Far from the roots

Saints Row the open world series developed by Volition has got its latest entry in the series after a long 7-year break. As a fan of the previous games in the series, it was quite exciting for me to try this one out. The developers at Volition eyed for an origin story setup here that has nothing to do with the old “Saints” and builds something completely of its own. This seems like an exciting prospect on paper but the new direction doesn’t do any wonders as we’ll see in this Saints Row Reboot review.

Saints Row Reboot characters lack actual personality

The cast of characters you encounter and interact with throughout the story sadly lacks personality and seems to depend on one single character trait. The group of friends or the gang consists of Neenah, Kevin, and Ell who aren’t particularly interesting.

The city of Santo Ileso is also pretty lifeless and lacks activities. The rival gangs however are distinctive and well thought out and kept us interested for long enough.

The sandbox experience is actually pretty good

The open world and the environmental chaos that these games are known for are actually really enjoyable here. The moment-to-moment gameplay when you create your own fun is where Saints Row Reboot shines the most. The variety of weapons although not too versatile combined with the reactive and partially destructive environment kept us engaged for quite some time.

The driving on the other hand isn’t as arcady. The handling is almost on the stiff side making for a not-so-fun experience. There is a dash button that lets the car slide like a toy but is rather annoying when you just want to get around to finish a mission.

Shooting is casually fun but lacks that punch

Shooting in these arcade-style open-world games has always been a plus which wasn’t an exception for the old Saints Row games either but it’s just not the same here. The firing of the bullets lacks the punch due to poor sound design, it almost sounds and feels like a nerf gun.

One of the most important aspects of action games is the enemy hit registration which is a bit hit or miss here sometimes they react accordingly and sometimes they just don’t react until the health bar goes down. This particular problem brings down the fun of an otherwise pretty enjoyable sandbox.

Saints Row Reboot skill tree and the performance is also a plus

The game has some pretty good skills to unlock although they aren’t too in-depth but are nice shiny moves. The skills naturally unlock just by upgrading character levels. To use them you’ll need flow which fills itself when damaging enemies.

Every skill can require from 1 to 3 flow bars (you’ll have 5 at max), so it’s pretty similar to the skill moves system in Yakuza Zero though not nearly as expansive, detailed, in-depth, or engaging. We have Some favorites here as well The “Pineapple Express” lets you put a grenade on an enemy and throw them to a bunch of others and the “Death Blow” where You enter a matrix-style killing spree (automatic and not in slow-mo). You’ll also gain health bars as upgrades and it can grow to a certain level where Saints Row Reboot won’t be a challenge for you in lower difficulties.

As for the performance the game runs on both PC and PS4 at an almost steady fps with shiny rock solid gameplay. It does have some bugs which aren’t game-breaking and will probably be fixed by the next couple of updates as the devs are working on it.

It Takes New Blood

As the promotional videos said it’s an origin story with a youth cast and lingo which can be forced at times with average humor which can be corny most of the time but it does the job. Just don’t expect too much on the dialogue and humor front.

Verdict

As this Saints Row Reboot review suggests, it is an average 2010s-style open-world third-person shooter, so if you’re missing one of those or you’re a Saints Row fan like me, you can wait for a sale. If you’re not into this old school open world game and don’t have anything for Saints Row it won’t hurt to skip this one.

Hope this review helps you to understand if Saints Row Reboot is the game for you, Let us know in the comment section!

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