Saints Row Doesn’t Understand What Makes A Good Open World
Saints Row was once a genuine alternative to Grand Theft Auto. Even though it began as a relatively straight-laced tale of original gangsters on the streets of Stilwater, it grew into a unique collection of open world titles that so many of us remember fondly.
Its atmosphere, characters, mechanics, and more went down in history because of how silly and self-aware they managed to be, and now it feels like all of that has been abandoned with the underwhelming reboot. While I imagine its intent was admirable, Volition has created the very thing its predecessors sought to usurp, a shallow, predictable copycat of so many other experiences in the genre that doesn’t do nearly enough of its own to stand out. It’s ironic, and represents a deeper need for games to take a good look in the mirror.
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The majority of open world blockbusters nowadays do a good job of introducing us to the playground we’ll be calling home for the coming hours. Horizon: Forbidden West stresses the importance of hunting robotic dinosaurs and gathering resources to bolster Aloy’s arsenal, while Marvel’s Spider-Man teaches us the basics of fighting crime and swinging throughout Manhattan before we’re given a true taste of freedom.
For all its flaws, even Cyberpunk 2077 masters the gradual drip of content before giving us a taste of Night City at its most extravagant. Pacing is vitally important when holding a player’s interest, and Saints Row shows how badly something like this can go wrong.
Even with the release of subversive masterpieces like Breath of the Wild and Elden Ring, open world game design has remained largely unchanged since the release of Grand Theft Auto 3. Milestones like
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