Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell is a standalone expansion of Saints Row IV. This time, instead of being the president of the united states plugged into the matrix by aliens, you play as an established character saving the custom protagonist of the previous games from being married off to Satan's daughter. This is achieved by doing things to annoy Satan until you've sufficiently ticked them off to open the final boss. I do appreciate a game that doesn't force you to do anything specific. You could recruit all the side characters and do their missions, or maybe you'll just get into sandbox hijinks for 6 hours. Engaging with the content gets you extra powers and weapons, but you don't actually need any of them to do the final battle. Not as much freedom as Breath of the Wild for speed-running the plot, but at least it makes sure you've got the basics down before the final showdown. This is the kind of sandbox game I miss. A story that doesn't take itself too seriously, a good movement system (you're basically superman) and an assortment of fun powers and weapons. For someone who remembers the PS3 generation, it's like a mixture of Infamous: Festival of Blood and Just Cause 2. Only real detractor is it doing that thing where you pick you're ending from a list and if you're anything like me the first thing you'll do on finishing is look up the alternate endings on YouTube. If you liked the cathartic experience of GTA Vice City/San Andreas and haven't tried Saints Row, it's worth trying For anyone who hasn't played before and wants the full experience, I'd recommend going back to Saints Row II and starting from there (The game titled "Saints Row" on most stores is actually a franchise reboot and doesn't tie into the other games. The developer doesn't seem to include the original in bundles maybe there's a license issue?) but finishing IV would be bare minimum to get what's going on since Gat Out of Hell doesn't spend any time on recapping.
Firstly, if you get a warning about the game not being able to save, you'll need to manually run the game in admin mode otherwise it won't save. The story is a tad predictable, but it's got decent worldbuilding. I enjoy the industrial revoluition based around whaling; it gives it a bioshock esque vibe. Not as refined an experience as Prey but that's to be expected. Got the impression that the fantastical elements relating to the Outsider were a late addition to the game since the core story is politics and it's rarely brought up as part of that. Overall I'd say a nice contained experience like this is far more worth your time than a game where the majority of the map has something instead of big swathes of nothing like Cyberpunk
I played this as a child and it's good to see that it seems to have held up relatively well. It's very polished for its time with multiple well known actors. The comedy largely still holds up and there's a couple sexual jokes that I definitely didn't get as a child. By today's standards, the story's pacing takes a bit of a dip in the second half and the iconic spooky clown used in most of the art isn't actually that important a character. I would have liked to have seen where they went with this but my understanding is that they gave this a hollywood blockbuster level budget which it definitely wasn't going to make back in the time it was released.
While Prey could be summarised as Bioshock in Space, that doesn't really do it justice. Exploration is far more open than what Bioshock achieved and between the small details, side quests and audiologs it's really easy to get immersed in this world. Kinda makes me wish it was a book so I can find out what was supposed to happen next. The game is really good at giving you tough moral decisions, some of which affect the outcome but some are there just to make you think. I wasn't keen on the way the game handles its upgrade tree since it implied you might lock yourself out of an ending by playing with all the fun toys and I'm not typically one for replaying games I've finished. Overall, it's definitely a recommend if you're into science fiction.
An entertaining rogue-lite with a fairly light magical tone. I find most of the spells to be creative and I appreciate that potions recharge over time otherwise I absolutely would be hoarding and forgetting I had it. Only real gripe is that I wish there was more effort put into the story and worldbuilding. It's possible I'm not far enough in yet but it feels like we didn't really set the scene properly before starting the adventure and the hints given by fellow classmates don't feel like natural conversation.
