Saints Row

The Saints Row (2022) reboot features chaotic action so absurd that it's borderline parody. Sadly, it isn't as funny as its predecessors.

I can understand Volition wanting to reboot the Saints Row series given the original launched all the way back in 2006. The performance issues are less forgivable, as I’ve experienced a number of glitches throughout the campaign. Also, the city of Santo Ileso feels lifeless, which is a shame for an open-world game of this scale. And while the lack of any character development or growth is forgivable for a game of this nature, his inability to make me laugh is a crime that can’t be tolerated. Stealing or purchasing vehicles will also allow you to summon them in your base’s garage, providing a satisfying sense of progression as you expand your empire. You’ll get a small window of time where you can revive your allies, but it can be difficult to notice the small notification icon when there’s so much carnage on-screen. Saints Row (2022) is a third-person shooter with an abundance of weapons, ranging from pistols to rocket launchers. Everyone loves a good train heist and prison breakout, but such missions have been done to death, and there’s nothing new here to make the experience more memorable than previous games. The Saints Row (2022) reboot attempts to take a similar approach to its predecessors, with chaotic action so absurd that it’s borderline parody. Neenah is my favourite of the trio; she’s a realistic character who can actually hold a normal conversation, offering a grounded respite from the mindless action – but even she failed to make a lasting impression. Saints Row (2022) represents a reboot for the series, dialling back on the iconic satirical and wacky tone – but, arguably, this feels like a backwards step. Instead, Saints Row (2022) revolves around a group of four young adults, who have resorted to organised crime in order to pay rent.

With its wonky sets, dodgy cameras and bizarre plotlines, this reboot of the gangster adventure series is haphazard but joyful.

To me that is a far more interesting set of stablemates than the last couple of Saints Row titles. Now, everyone is in on the joke – and the joke is about trying to exist as a young person in the post-capitalist hellzone of the 21st century. You can just wander the map, getting into fights, testing the technical boundaries and knowing that you’re not going to run into any of the foghorn satire or braying misogyny of the GTA series. You earn cash by taking on missions and use it to open new bases, buy guns and customise the vehicles you steal, and everything is managed through a smartphone interface. When the Saints want to find out what a rival group is planning, they don’t send in a spy, they check the gang’s official social media feed. When the trailer to this reboot of the long-running gangster adventure series arrived last year, gaming’s gutter world of gatekeeping nerd misanthropes swung straight into action – and by that I mean a lot of angry boys whined online about Saints Row going “woke”.

Volition's Saints Row reboot won't set the world alight, but there's a punchy game here with some pleasant surprises.

Yes, the story is trite at times and yes, much of where that story takes you can feel a touch ridiculous, but it's to the team's credit that this deftly side-steps the issues of its predecessors and rarely feels gratuitous or malicious. Become a supporter of Eurogamer and you can view the site completely ad-free, as well as gaining exclusive access to articles, podcasts and conversations that will bring you closer to the team, the stories, and the games we all love. In true Saints Row fashion, this ranges from the normal - say, extend your health bar - to the nonsensical - how about magic powers that enable you to throw a pack of enemies into the air before slamming them into the ground? Vegas-inspired, it boasts all the landmarks you'd expect and plenty of Points of Interest to explore, from the sun-soaked waterfront of Marina Del Lago to the gleaming skyscrapers of the Financial District. Unto the Breach, a mission wherein you and your pals once again LARP up and take a break from all that murdering by pretending to murder people instead, is currently unplayable - it crashes to the dash every single time I attempt it on PS5 - and on numerous occasions, I had to reload a checkpoint because the mission didn't progress. Admittedly, the auto-target is a little sticky (I experimented with it both on and off and definitely preferred the latter), but shooting stuff never gets old in Saints Row, and the more weapons you amass in your cache, the more enjoyable your combat sequences - of which there are many - will be. Each weapon feels and plays a little differently, and the individual weapon challenges - which, I'm delighted to report, buck a recent industry trend by being quickly and easily attainable - encourage diversity in your combat style. And for a series that spent a lot of time making sex jokes, the character creation options are curiously liberating. For the most part, you'll breeze through the story and main missions with delicious speed, building up your criminal ventures and recruits whilst simultaneously customising your HQ and your good self with the profits of your illicit deeds. No, it's not a staggeringly novel concept, but it's not a bad one, either, helped in no small part by the game's admirably diverse mission types that keep the fight fresh and exciting. For as much as the rebooted Saints Row retains much of its core DNA - there are plenty of guns and explosions and vehicular combat and an unhealthy dollop of curse words - its wackiness has been dialled down. So whilst I enjoyed Saints Row and its sequel, I didn't enjoy my stay with The Third, and side-stepped Saints Row IV altogether, which should give you some indication of my trepidation coming in, reboot or no reboot.

After months of criticism, 'Saints Row' (2022) won't impress its followers–but not for the reasons many weirdly hope for.

It’s okay when it’s being hilariously stupid, but when it actively gets in the way of simple tasks, it’s a problem–for a game that seems to use the exact same engine as SR3 Remastered, albeit with prettier lighting, it shouldn’t be this way. As with a lot of the Saints Row experience, there’s next-to-no exposition from the stories told, and little pay-off from completing them. Even though Saints Row IV was a purple-neon carbon copy of The Third, it still had heart, that trademark silliness, and a solid storyline. For Saints Row diehards and newcomers alike, one of the biggest disappointments comes with its playlist. While each front offers a different type of mission, the combination of a large cost to unlock them, and the further requirement to complete them to unlock story missions, essentially forces you to set one up and do every single repetitive mission back to back. It’s just as well, really–you’ll be driving all the time, and usually in a stolen car, which you hijack with the exact same animations as previous games. Gun shops have a limited selection of alternatives, but aside from the weapons you can unlock in missions and side quests, they generally lack the silliness of Saints Row’s past arsenals. Empire building is at the center of Saints Row, and it’s an interesting alternative take on the previous formula. Sure, there’s more character customization courtesy of more stores than ever, and you can change your look or gender at any time through your phone–no costly visit to Image as Designed required–but you can still be as cisgender and white and straight as you want to be, if you’re feeling threatened by the reality of multiculturalism. It still has its fun moments, niche appeal, third-person anarchy, and plenty to keep you distracted between missions, but this isn’t a reboot–it’s a reskin of a now-tired formula. In recent memory, it’s impossible to think of a game that people have wanted to fail as much as the 2022 Saints Row reboot. Ultimately, Saints Row 2022 is just painfully Saints Row–an experience that’s often exactly the same as it was over ten years ago with Saints Row the Third.

Saints Row is right around the corner, and to celebrate, the publisher has teamed up with street artist Captain Kris to make a mural.

Saints Row will launch 23rd August, 2022 on Xbox One and Xbox Series X We think Captain Kris has done a fantastic job of capturing the spirit, attitude and tone of Saints Row with his design.” To celebrate Leeds being crowned top of the league, PLAION commissioned street artist Captain Kris to design a Saints Row inspired mural.

While Saints Row relives its sandbox formula with an explosive return it's held back by a half-baked story and an empty open world – read our full review.

While its punctuated with memorable moments, they are often diminished by the repetitive nature of its side content, which makes up a significant portion of what Saints Row has to offer. On more than one occasion, our playthrough of the game was met with several soft-lock states that would require missions to be restarted. Like any other sandbox game, Saints Row is also prone to a profound level of clunkiness, with truly chaotic energy. While most of Saints Row’s transit will take place in road, sea or sky vehicles, walking around doesn’t provide a lot of stimulus. Streets can often blend together without much visual identity and, even in busier districts, the world can feel particularly sparse with little footfall or even traffic to break up these areas. The same can be said for criminal ventures, which can provide more variety but still boil down to taking part in repetitive missions. Along with main story missions, players can also complete “side hustles” and “criminal ventures” by building different operations around the city of Santo Ileso. Weapons can range from the futuristic, with an explosive payload, to toy hammers and bone clubs. While it doesn’t take itself so seriously, it does help to guide a thread for acting as a backdrop to various missions and game modes. In our playthrough, we were able to select between eerily accurate models of Shaggy from Scooby Doo as well as “ We were able to take part in criminal enterprise missions, kit out our characters and complete the game’s story. There’s a broad myriad of customisation options to choose from, with body type, build and even prosthetics being fully customisable.

Negative reviews of the new Saints Row video game are hitting at an awkward time for Swedish gaming giant Embracer Group, as it tries to prove itself a ...

18 interim report to prove that most of the projects from those teams have had a solid return on investment. Why it matters: Since being ousted in April, Khan has been mobilizing huge crowds while railing against the government and breaking a long-standing taboo by criticizing the military. - This new Saints Row, from longtime studio Volition, was meant to revive the long-running, open-world interactive crime franchise of the same name. [page 24](https://embracer.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/EmbracerGroup-Q1FY2223.pdf) of its Aug. The stock price for Embracer Group AB dove right after. [turning](https://www.axios.com/2022/01/12/gaming-2021-record-setting-year-dealmakers) [heads](https://www.axios.com/2022/05/02/square-enix-embracer-eidos-tomb-raider)with its studio shopping sprees.

How to unlock The Collector Trophy - Looking for All Collectibles in Saints Row? Well then, you've come to the right place...

Collectibles become available after completing the main story mission 'Office Decor'. There are 115 Collectibles in total, so you don't need to get every single one to unlock the aforementioned Trophy. We've hunted down every Collectible in the game to bring you this guide, which contains pictures of the Collectibles themselves, alongside a screenshot of where they can be found on the map.

The Tuesday letters page is dubious about Sega's new cinematic plans, as one reader wishes Bungie would make Destiny 3.

It wasn’t very good but it was kind of a mix of a grand strategy game and role-player, where you controlled everything from a map of the whole country. I’m not very interested in the Gollum one just from the premise and I don’t think there’s any clue what the Take-Two one will be, but I’m going to assume some sort of third person open world game at least vaguely in the style of Shadow Of Mordor. But I’m thinking of something a bit grander, on the scale of Total War. Sega hasn’t made a game of it in over decade but they think people are going to queue up to see what would presumably be some kind of a Conan The Barbarian knock-off? It’s the obvious format for a modern movie tie-in but I hope they try something more imaginative too. Ignoring the fact that there already is a Yakuza movie, who’s going to turn up to see a movie of Golden Axe? As I understand there’s the Gollum game on its way, plus the unannounced game from Take-Two, and some kind of mobile app from EA. It’s on 63 at the moment on Metacritic and I can’t remember the last time a major game got that bad a score from everyone. I just have a quick question, I bought my PlayStation in Guildford, Surrey just as the PlayStation 4 dropped for retail back in 2013 and I have a PSN paid subscription, and in fact have purchased several games online from the UK in my almost 10 year ownership. I have severe doubts that any of these new video games are going to make it out. I know I shouldn’t have been surprised given GC’s preview (the only one I read that actually prepared you for how bad the game would be) but I’m still shocked at how badly Saints Row has reviewed. I currently reside in Spain, however my account is English, I’m billed in pounds sterling, I’m just not living in the UK.

Saints Row, the reboot of the beloved open world franchise, has arrived with relatively little marketing fanfare, and now, not very good review scores.

I’ve only played the intro for it so far, but I can immediately understand the complaints about it looking and feeling dated in the modern gaming landscape. It’s too soon to gauge how the characters and their script play, but so far things aren’t looking promising, in that department. There’s definitely no shortage of shallow shoot ‘em up thrills to be had here, but it’s a very familiar and uninspired brand of sandbox fun that’s unlikely to wow anybody who’s played a Saints Row game before, much less a GTA.” [ on Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-5/saints-row) and a 66 [on Open Critic](https://opencritic.com/game/11879/saints-row), but those will likely converge as more reviews arrive. I’m glad the Saints are back, hopefully for another long haul.” Probably not quite worth the price of admission.”

Almost one year to the day since being announced at Gamescom 2021, Volition's Saints Row reboot is ready for release. Here's the exact launch time.

The Series X version is the most reviewed at the time of writing and currently holds a 66 rating on Metacritic after 32 critic reviews. Given that the PlayStation versions of the game are between 50 and 60 Gigabytes in size, PC players should allow themselves plenty of time for the game to download, though exactly how much will obviously depend on their internet speeds. It's important to note that the timezone is locked to the region of a player's PS Plus, Xbox Live, or Epic Games Store account rather than their physical location, so those hoping to play

Thomas Morgan from Digital Foundry investigates the new Saints Row reboot on PS5 and Series X - how's performance and how well does the game play?

It's a shame to not see much better squeezed from the machine, and the best route forward there might be to cap it at 30fps. Performance between PS5 and Series X is interesting too - in 1440p high quality with RTAO, there is a consistent 3-6fps advantage for PS5, with a higher differential in dense grassy areas and a lower differential during (more CPU-dependent) rapid driving scenarios. Finally, you can opt for a native 4K, 3840x2160, but this comes at the cost to other visual settings with drops to shadow quality, world draw and foliage density. At 1440p, you also three settings options: 1440p high FPS mode, 1440p high quality mode and 1440p high quality with RTAO. The bigger issue is that 1080p just doesn't look great compared to the higher resolution modes when scaled to a 4K set. There is a hit to fidelity, but it's not as radical as you'd expect - at least compared to the other 1080p modes. We noted no visual differences between PS5 and Series X in terms of settings or resolution, so let's instead cover these five modes in more detail - what's the best way to experience Saints Row? This means you extract the maximum amount of performance available in every scene, but the 'dynamic frame-rate' can be distracting if you don't have a VRR display to smooth things out. Some of these appear to be design choices - like NPCs with low frame-rate animation at range that unfortunately stick out like a sore thumb on PS5 and Series X. Not because of the game itself - it's good chaotic fun - but because of Volition's approach to PS5 and Xbox Series X support. On the surface, the level of customisability on PS5 and Series X is amazing stuff, offering tons of flexibility - but it also requires a ton of testing, both on our side and in the Volition QA department. Before we get into the issues - and there are issues - let's cover the positives.

Volition has always been known for pushing technology, with its game Decent even beating the revolutionary Quake to a full 3D engine. In this Saints Row ...

The current gen consoles run many of the settings at High or the highest and achieves a close match for the PC in many areas. The Series S has a single 1080p mode and its performance is worse than the Series X and PS5 consoles in the 1440 High Quality mode. At 1440p the High FPS mode is close to the 1080p Ultra mode levels of performance, with again both machines being almost identical on the points and levels of dips below 60fps. It does not look that far removed from the best on PC and console and in fact, looks visually better than the Series S due to the higher resolution and almost identical visual settings. As such the 1440p/maximum is my recommendation for this level of GPU, based on the launch day build, and 1080p/maximum for mid-range level GPUs such as the RX 6700 or RTX 2070 and below. In fact, the 1080p Ultra mode on consoles does appear to be almost identical to the PC’s best, aside from shadows which, although still noisy at times even on Ultra, can be a little cleaner and less dithered on the PC’s best at higher resolutions. Finally, the 4K mode, which believe it or not, still targets 60fps is almost never out of the 40s and can even dip just below the 30s in very brief moments. The 4K mode does offer the best image quality and clarity of the lot, sadly with no ray tracing present, which is true on both consoles. It increases the pixel coverage/resolution of the effect as you scale up from 1080p to 1440p, however the setting itself drops from the PC Ultra setting when at 1080p to closer to the PC High setting when at 1440p. With these specs, we can push these options to the max and see how much the PC and game engine can scale.The Ray Traced ambient occlusion operates within screen space and is only available in the 1080p and 1440p modes on the PS5 and Series X. The Series S makes do with a single 1080p mode, as does the Xbox One X, albeit at a higher resolution of 2560x1440p. Due to the number of modes, it would also suggest the engine does not currently offer a dynamic resolution scaling solution.

Fortunately, money comes easily in Saints Row, handed out liberally for doing virtually everything in the game, from story missions to gunning down rival gang ...

That’s a wrap on our guide to making money in Saints Row. Each one comes with a chunky cash reward, usually in the tens of thousands and much higher as you progress through the game. Each district of Santo Ileso has five threats, though you’ll need to establish a criminal venture in the area to unlock them on the map. There’s a hard limit to how much money you can have sitting in the app. To make the most of these ventures, complete venture-specific missions along with the Threats in the local vicinity to increase the hourly rate of return. Fortunately, money comes easily in Saints Row, handed out liberally for doing virtually everything in the game, from story missions to gunning down rival gang members.

With a 64 Metascore, that's one of the lowest rated major releases of the year, and miles below where you want your game to land. Even if you're grading on a ...

I also respect that a good amount of work and detail has gone into Saints Row here. By the end there, the series was starting to be in pretty rough shape, and I’d argue that this reboot feels a lot more polished than 4 did at the time, and is closer to be on par with Saints Row the Third. It’s not brilliant by any means (I mean, were Saints Row scripts ever?), but it’s passable, and I’ve even genuinely laughed a few times (when teaching a friend to shoot, my boss: “I just like to imagine there’s a little white crosshair on my target when I fire”). And as a Saints Row fan, I really do think this game has gotten a good amount of the formula right. If we are judging on the overall scale of AAA games these days, sure, there’s a lot about Saints Row that feels dated and unpolished. Even if you’re grading on a curve and expecting a bit less from Saints Row as a series, mid-70s would have been considered much closer to a win.

How to unlock The Collector Trophy - Looking for All Collectibles in Saints Row? Well then, you've come to the right place...

The Collectibles app is always worth a look if you're completely stumped on where a Collectible is hiding (although this guide will hopefully stop that from happening in the first place!). If you're only just starting your Collectibles spree, then this is the easiest way to spot a bunch of objects quite quickly. Collectibles become available after completing the main story mission 'Office Decor'. Collecting them still counts towards the Collector Trophy. There are 115 Collectibles in total, so you don't need to get every single one to unlock the aforementioned Trophy. We've hunted down every Collectible in the game to bring you this guide, which contains pictures of the Collectibles themselves, alongside a screenshot of where they can be found on the map.

The RPG crime series returns with a back-to-basics reboot packed with bugs. Read the Empire review.

Once you have unlocked them, you can't use fast travel in a mission, requiring you to either drive to wherever you're being pointed or abandon mission, fast travel nearby, and then start the mission again just to save time. Worse still, what potential there is in Saints Row's setting and humour is undone by how unforgivably buggy the game is. There are a dozen of these waste missions to check off and they are not, by any definition, "fun". Drive too fast, or have too many crashes, and the waste barrels explode, so you'll just be driving slowly from one side of the map to the other at a snail's pace. Saints Row is so rote that it actively undermines its own impressive setting – unless you force yourself to stop and take in the splendour and detail of Santo Ileso, you'll fall into a habit of just following markers to tasks, opening the map, selecting the next one, and repeating. There's no choice in which skills to unlock or when, or how to grow and develop your character, with only minor modification available in terms of which perks and skills you have active.

Disappointing Saints Row reviews have hit publisher Embracer's stock price. Today's launch of the Saints Row reboot has…

Become a supporter of Eurogamer and you can view the site completely ad-free, as well as gaining exclusive access to articles, podcasts and conversations that will bring you closer to the team, the stories, and the games we all love. Originally set for launch in February, the game was later delayed by six months, to ultimately arrive this week. We want to make Eurogamer better, and that means better for our readers - not for algorithms. [indeed moved its struggling Knights of the Old Republic remake to another internal studio](https://www.eurogamer.net/embracer-confirms-aaa-project-has-switched-studios-following-report-of-kotor-trouble) following production problems. [Embracer announced it intended to purchase the rights to make video games based on Tolkien's Middle-earth](https://www.eurogamer.net/eurogamer-newscast-what-does-embracers-lord-of-the-rings-buyout-mean-for-middle-earth-games), including The Lord of the Rings, for what many saw as a surprisingly low amount. [spree of acquisitions](https://www.eurogamer.net/embracer-group-gobbles-eight-more-developers-including-3d-realms) over the past couple of years.

Saints Row players are bumping into all sorts of nasty bugs, some merely visual and some ending the fun entirely. It doesn't seem to run on the Steam Deck, ...

You could consider this less of an outright failing than all the bugs and glitches, since Saints Row was never intended to run on the Linux-based SteamOS in the first place (and a lot of games that are actually on Steam, and thus don’t require any further tweaking with launchers, are incompatible with the Deck as well). [Steam Deck](https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/topics/steam-deck). Right now it’s only available via the Epic Games Launcher, which I have installed on SteamOS [via this method](https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/how-to-install-epic-games-launcher-on-steam-deck) and Liam uses through the [Heroic Games Launcher](https://heroicgameslauncher.com/), but neither of us can get past the DirectX version selection screen on the game’s own launcher. [Saints Row](https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/games/saints-row-2022) at the moment. Although I spent the latter half of last week playing and [performance testing](https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/saints-row-pc-requirements-performance-and-the-best-settings-to-use) it, the worst I saw in terms of bugs, glitches and unintentional chicanery was one temporarily floating pedestrian and a few de-synced execution animations. Even so, hopefully a patch or three is in the works, as clearly not all of these issues are as harmless as Liam capping his own windows.