Analysis of Saints Row for Xbox Series X

Saints Row, the most rogue open world license, is back

This year we have the return of Saints Row, one of the craziest, naughtiest and funniest open world licenses we’ve ever played. We had to wait a bit since the launch of his last opus (Saints Row IV), but ultimately the team of Volition did his thing again with a hilarious new adventure. We find there the characteristic humor that they print in their work, but also the same formula as always. Without further ado, we detail everything that the new opus of the saga offers us, which is aptly titled “Saints Row”.

Saints Row debuted in 2006 behind the shadow of Grand Theft Auto, one of the licenses with which it has been tried on several occasions to compare itself. These comparisons have only diminished the success of a franchise that today is well positioned and has a good community of players, despite the fact that in its early days it went somewhat unnoticed. In fact, it’s only Saints Row III that the license took on more strength and body, and that it always had better gameplay according to U.S.

Many companies have tried to create something like Saints Row; an engaging, entertaining, and fun open-world proposition that attempted to gain a foothold in the genre that GTA had cemented. And one thing is clear: there is no one to overthrow the king who created rock staralthough the merit it has cannot be denied Volition; Well, after all, it’s the only company that managed to come up with an alternative or derivative that continues to work today.

This new Saints Row returns to the origins of the saga, thus taking the elements that worked best in their previous installments. For this reason, the development team has maintained the basics and the formula that has always characterized the franchise, adding new mechanics, as well as modern elements that bring dynamism and freshness. Thus, priority was given to offering a large number of situations and activities rather than falling into easy and mocking humor. In this way, the studio has worked with the same resources that made it great, but this time it uses them in a more subtle, masterful and appropriate way; thus stopping resorting to the easy and repetitive gag that many people criticized in the fourth installment.

The principle of this new opus is simple and straightforward, but it works perfectly as a common thread for the entire framework. The objective will be to create our own crime gang and take absolute control of Santo Ileso, a city located in the southwestern United States. In this way we will embody a potential boss or boss of this gang, because together with our three other roommates we will start this whole project. Everyone will bring their own grain of sand with what they are really good at, such as business, violence, public relations, among other qualities…

Thus, the business of crime is our business and we will manage to control as much as we want to cover. However, this objective has a price, and that is that to achieve our goal we will have to face other factions installed in the city. In fact, it will not make things any easier for us, since there is even a private military force called Marshall; who has a lot of personal, military and economic power.

The beginnings will be difficult, but things will become favorable as we gain allies or forge alliances. We will experience this progression as players through different aspects of the game, such as: weapons, the city of Santo Ileso itself, our base or even our protagonists. As for the main characters, it must be said that in this episode worked a lot more on his personality and charisma. This way, the main group feels more organic than ever, as well as powerful. Therefore, the relationship between them is a very strong point which is supported by a comic dialogue base and a cohesive narrative.

On another side, our protagonist or avatar is fully customizable, offering a multitude of possibilities. This is one of the most promoted aspects of the title. In fact, the early demo of the game that was distributed was precisely that, the character editor we found in the final version of the work. In this way, we can freely customize the see or the appearance of our boss or boss, reaching designs as elaborate as our imagination is capable of creating. And no, we’re not exaggerating with this last entry; good the editor also has a shared database. Community designs, meaning designs that other players have uploaded to the server, can be found there. Well…here we will find genuine wonders, such as designs based on John Wick, Bob Esponja, Breaking Bad, among other popular characters or even their own creations.

Santo Ileso is a growing and content-rich open-world cityas well as activities. However, it doesn’t feel full of life or sparse in detail, rather it’s a town that simply serves as the stage for any events or missions that have been doled out there. However, that doesn’t mean it’s exactly bad, because The missions are varied and we find them very amusing for the most part. In fact, these allow us to intervene in the action in the same way as we would like to do, so it more than fulfills its functionality. To cite an example of this player predisposition, we describe a situation in a mission of the game itself: the last part of a mission leaves us chasing a convoy and there we are attacked by different bikers and cars, while we eliminate them we try not to let the convoy escape… but what we really want to do as players rode in this convoy to distribute waffles like breads; well, the game finally gives us this possibility and satisfies us properly

. And it doesn’t just happen once, or a few times, but it’s very frequent and therefore satisfying for the gaming experience itself.

The dimensions of the city are quite accurate, because it is neither huge nor seems small. It’s a place that will take us hours to explore in its entirety, but can be explored and walked in a few decent fractions of time. Likewise, there will be the possibility of unlocking new regions, as well as establishing our control with different premises that we will have to manage or protect with our gang. And also keep in mind that in this lawless city we will have our headquarters of evil, which ironically is an abandoned church. We can decorate it as we wish and improve it with new facilities and features for the group.

Change a little third, the gameplay distills the own identity that Volition has always marked in the saga. In that sense, it has been a jack, a horse, a king, because despite the polish and the introduction of some new aspects such as the flight suit, it is still the same formula as always; without risks. In this way, the shooting this seems correct to us, without being the best of third person titles, but functional. Perhaps we lack greater precision when aiming or shooting, although this aspect does not cause major problems. Again, the video game exudes originality in its forms, offering the most varied weapons and equipment. As we unlock our arsenal, we will earn points in this section. In the end, the grace lies in knowing how to properly combine the perks of each weapon to wreak havoc in style.

Regarding the available arsenal, we want to highlight a curious point in the decision of the management of explosives. These are not abundant, although they are the lords of chaos, to the point that hand, smoke or anti-personnel grenades are skills our protagonist acquires as they level up

. In this way, each new level we get will result in a skill point, and with these we can unlock the passive and active skills of our boss or boss. Among them we will have the grenades as we said, increases in health or anger, as well as special finishing techniques.

The action in the game is very frenetic and crazy and not only on foot but also motorized. The video game has a good fusion of vehicles to face the persecutions and the missions that are asked of us. The vehicles also have a novelty and that is that we have the possibility to attack the enemies with a button, so we’re going to take them out of their paths and inflict damage on them. On the other hand, there are also times when we have a magnetic hook to drag containers or different objects that we have to transport. As you can see, there are several options and actions both on foot and while driving any vehicle.

Volition has been smart in developing this new saints row, as he is aware that any drastic change could lead to another setback. For this reason, they left out some of the latest ideas seen in Agents of Mayhem or Saints Row IV. This results in a delivery, as we have reported, unambitious but which goes hand in hand with what it offers. In other words, the potential player of this job knows what he’s going to find, so he can’t feel cheated afterwards. Know what we’re gonna do Saints Row is a very fun and entertaining game that we can face alone or with other friends thanks to its cooperative mode.

The technical section offers us three performance configurations, among which we can choose to 1080p, 1440p or 4K resolutions, thus favoring the quality or the frame rate per second. On the other hand, the graphic section is not that it stands out in the visuals, because it is not a marvel. However, the video game is able to capture very striking images and environments thanks to its color palette and lighting. Also, it looks particularly good on explosions and particles. However, the same cannot be said for certain models or animations, as well as the variety of designs… Indeed, the enemies have the same design for a long time or during missions.

Ultimately, the sound section is of good quality with fairly consistent sound effects and a fairly well-chosen musical selection. As usual in this type of game, while we are driving in our vehicle we can select the radio station we want; thus having an option for almost all styles of music: heavy metal, rock, Latin pop, classical music, among others… Finally, regarding the placement of audio and texts, to say that the voices are in English and the texts are well localized in Spanish.