You would be better off waiting a little bit longer if you were expecting Saints Row would satisfy your desire in between GTA re-re-re-releases. The open-world crime game, created by Volition, has received reviews thus far, and they are not good. It launches tomorrow for consoles and PC.
Saints Row is a complete reboot of Volition’s long-running GTA clone series, which has not seen a new installment since 2013’s Saints Row IV. It was first mentioned last summer. Originally scheduled for release in February 2022 among games like Horizon Forbidden West, Dying Light 2, Sifu, and Elden Ring, Saints Row was postponed to August by Volition due to a lack of polish.
Saints Row Reviews Aren’t Exciting
However, no amount of refinement can fix a game that, by many accounts, is inherently flawed. It now has a Metacritic score of 63, which is a rather low score for a critical beat that typically treats 7/10s as the absolute minimum.
Certain aspects of the game have received positive reviews, such as its new environment, the fictitious Santo Ileso, and its character creator, which was introduced earlier this summer and is capable of quickly turning gamers into mini-monster factories. The writing was deemed “witty” and “compelling” by NPR. However, the majority of reviews were unfavorable. Saints Row was described as “dull,” “buggy,” and having “flashy concepts [but] very little ideas on how to implement [them]” by our AV Club colleagues. It was dubbed “painfully generic” by VGC. It was rated as a “middling experience” by Inverse. According to Ars Technica, it is “beyond redemption.”
The Saints Row reboot from this year offers a bright sandbox brimming with heists, capers, and funny dialogue. The series has always been overshadowed by Grand Theft Auto, but when it does what it does best—exchanging GTA’s cynicism for outrageous humor and heartfelt character studies—it shines.
