I Hope Saints Row Hasn't Dug Its Own Grave

thegamer.com:

Stakes were high for the Saints Row reboot. The newest game was said to be a highly-anticipated return to the tone of 2 and 3 for Volition after we had space-fairing Matrix aliens, a trip to Satan’s domain, and alternate reality superheroes in a futuristic South Korea, but it’s not doing well. Burdened with an average of 63 on Metacritic and even lower scores from users, the fated return has fallen flat on its ass with no car hood to bounce it back up.

We thought Gat out of Hell and Agents of Mayhem were the nail in the coffin too, but we were wrong - Saints Row came back with a big budget and lots of initial fanfare. The series still has - or had - a cultural cachet. It could’ve used that to make a bombastic return, kickstarting sequel after sequel, and finally reviving a beloved but dormant property. Instead, it pulled a Crackdown 3, and I’m worried that Saints Row has finally run out of lives.

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Saints Row was always the alt-GTA, its weird cousin that showed up to family gatherings in a corny t-shirt emblazoned with a gay cowboy riding a tiger. While GTA pushed the envelope for open-world games, Saints Row always went in a different direction with its constantly developing world and in-depth customisation. You take charge of the story and The Boss in ways GTA never facilitates, so while it often gets called an uninspired knock-off, it was always the perfect antidote to the big dog. That’s less prevalent these days with development times growing and budgets inflating, meaning we’re still playing the same GTA almost a decade after it came out, but Saints Row could have adapted to this new landscape. It could’ve offered something new.

I remember the anxious wait