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Saints Row IV: Re-Elected

A criminally overlooked masterpiece!

Saints Row IV seems to get a bad rap from a lot of folks - understandably so, at least on the surface. Reusing the exact same city from the previous title while also completely upending the gameplay into something unexpected, SR4 can be quite divisive as it somehow manages to be both too similar and too different from its predecessor at the same time. Because of this, despite being a huge fan of the first three games, I never ended up playing this one until the beginning of last year; but, if I'd known how good it was, I would have gladly paid full price at release. The superpowers are amazing. Gliding around the city in a snazzy business jacket with no pants, blasting aliens with a chain-reaction explosive that hits every car within a mile-radius while making dudes fly across the map by punching them in the face never gets old. Jumping around the city to collect power-up orbs is much more enjoyable than finding all the hidden flags or pigeon droppings in other modern games and reminds me of my wasted youth spent playing Banjo-Kazooie and Jak & Daxter in the best way possible. The regenerating health mechanic of SR3 is replaced with a classic health-pickup system and combat is all the better for it. Even the mini-games are extremely fun. The writing is hilarious. Though there are many, many references to previous titles (even the Xbox-exclusive original), it's easy to get into and enjoy even for newcomers to the series. The humor manages to find a nice middle ground between Saints Row 2's too-dark mean-spirited gallows and The Third's try-hard over-the-top wackiness, producing a lot of wonderful character-based comedy and the best parodies I've seen in a video game. The whole cast is quite lovable, even the main villain, and I found myself feeling genuinely sad when the credits rolled over 40 hours in. Oh, and don't forget to check out the Christmas special DLC missions once you've finished the main game. They're so good they've become a holiday tradition for me!

51 gamers found this review helpful