Saints Row review: This open-world reboot is Grand Theft Adequate

digitaltrends.com:

Where do you take a series once it jumps the shark repeatedly? This is a question the creators of TV shows like Happy Days, The Simpsons, and The Office have asked themselves after years of constant escalation and is a question game developer Volition dealt with while crafting the new Saints Row. The Saints Row series became increasingly ridiculous over time until Saints Row IV capped things off with the addition of superpowers and a DLC set in Hell. While Volition needed to find a way to top itself once again with a reboot featuring a new story, cast, and city, it didn’t. Instead, it settled for making Saints Row perfectly adequate.

Despite innovating in small ways, Saints Row is a safe open-world game. While that’s perfectly fine for those looking for another sandbox adventure to sink time into, its quaintness feels antithetical to the series’ wacky reputation. Saints Row is known for being loud, bombastic, and unconventional. So why am I mostly stuck doing tedious action and open-world checklist objectives? Volition wanted to get in touch with the series’ roots, but after you’ve jumped the shark so many times and the industry has moved on, this reserved approach makes Saints Row feel like an antiquity.

Since the series began, Saints Row games have been crime-focused open-world action games with a comedic edge. Players customize their own character and explore a large city as they drive around and get in gunfights with enemies across bombastic set piece after bombastic set piece. Saints Row is no different. Linear story missions see players forming the Saints and leaving their mark by asserting dominance over all of the other factions in Santo Ileso.

Between missions, players can explore the open world, completing Side