Saints Row games have always been the most based of sandboxes. Coolness personified thanks to a devil-may-care attitude and a finger jammed right up the pulse-hole of pop culture, a great Saints Row game is the stuff of legend when compared to the more dour and somber tone of bigger sandboxes such as Grand Theft Auto. The last couple of years, though, have admittedly seen Saints Row drift towards more cringe-worthy territory.

From its glory days when it threw you into a final mission set to Bonnie Tyler’s Holding out for a Hero, to downright goofy sequels that saw you become president of America while fending off an alien invasion, the last couple of Saints Row games jumped the shark and flipped it off before they fumbled the landing. Fast-forward to right now, and Saints Row is back and ready to return to its roots.

As such, the new Saints Row reboot feels archaic when compared to the modern sandbox of today, a less complicated beast of mayhem and destruction that doesn’t dive into obtuse and dense RPG systems that have become all the rage. Saints Row 2022 might be old-fashioned with its approach to fun and it has nothing to offer that you haven’t seen before, but that old-school charm is wrapped in a few layers of modern graphical polish and useful gameplay upgrades that make its patented brand of nostalgia hit you right in the sweet spot.

The first hour of the game though? It’s admittedly clunky and nonsensical as you find yourself inhabiting the bottom rung of society in the new stomping ground of Santo Ileso. A mix of glitzy glamour on par with Las Vegas and the grime of New Mexico working-class cities, Santo Ileso is run by three primary factions: the muscle-headed Panteros who can absorb a stupid amount of bullets thanks to all of the Creatine running through their blood; the rich-as-hell private military company Marshall and its bleeding edge arsenal of weapons; and the Idols, stylish anarchists who basically resemble Robin Hood and his Merry Men if they were into dubstep.

Enter the Saints, a new start-up gang made up of you and your three closest friends. Fed up with social inequality and being stepped on, the Saints hit the scene with attitude, swagger, and a talent for chaos as they establish themselves as the new bosses of Santa Ileso. That’s where you come into play, as you’ll be leading the charge in an adventure that’s more grounded than previous games, but still revels in being absurd, over-the-top, and wackier than a Looney Tunes cartoon if it was directed by Michael Bay.

Saints Row is about as subtle as root canal surgery with a jackhammer when it comes to addressing themes of student debt, a cutthroat job market, and being used as cannon fodder by the wealthy. That said, it absolutely delights in giving you a sandbox in which to make your mark on the world, as you find fame and fortune.

Want to throw yourself in front of traffic so that you can pick up broken bones and quick cash with insurance fraud? You can do that. Want to collect toxic waste and dump it right next to a casino so that corporations can save a few bucks because screw the environment? My friend, do I have a truck filled with volatile and glowing green liquids for you. It’s that outlandishness that makes Saints Row so charming, as you find yourself going from rags to riches while growing a criminal empire and fighting back against a corrupt system in an unrestrained power fantasy.

As the new kid on the block, you’re once again given a very detailed set of tools with which to craft your Saints boss, allowing you to create an avatar that could be your long-lost twin, a handsome fashion model, or whatever the hell it is that I created when I hit the randomizer button with my build. I kind of look like Tom Cruise. The one from Spitting Image. You can change your appearance at any time, though, and there’s no shortage of cosmetic shops out there where you can spend cash and upgrade your character with fly threads.

Heck, you can even share your boss online, if you want to gift the world with a character that has a face that looks like it was driven face-first into a forest of ugly trees. On top of that, Saints Row does have some RPG elements but they never detract from the core gunplay and anarchy that you’re capable of. Leveling up unlocks permanent upgrades for your health bar, but you can also throw in added abilities such as an overshield to soak up bullets, a skill that allows you to shove a live grenade up someone’s butt and then hurl them away from you, or even a mighty flaming punch attack that sends an opponent flying.

Why? Because shut up that’s why.

Additional perks can be unlocked for the right amount of cash, and if you find yourself low on health, a takedown system provides a glorious and demented onslaught of blows that you can pull off to pump your vitals back to full. In its moment-to-moment gameplay, Saints Row is a metaphorical and literal blast, as you mix it up in combat with a selection of upgradeable guns, abilities, and well-timed dodge rolls to brilliant effect.

Driving also feels better than in previous franchise entries, as each vehicle in your garage is pretty much another deadly weapon for you to collect. In battle, you can side-swipe enemies off the road, or you can jump onto the roof and get a 360-degree view of the sandbox while pumping other cars full of hot lead. It might leave you more vulnerable, but it’s another small change to the Saints Row formula that has a huge impact. This is a game that makes you feel like an action movie star from the 1980s, an almost unstoppable juggernaut dressed in the latest fashion, and one who is equipped to drop-kick enemies with reckless abandon.

Progression from street thug to head of a criminal syndicate does cost money though, but with a number of side-hustles, enterprises, and general mayhem, you’ll soon be drowning in dollars as the story progresses. There’s no getting away from the fact that Saints Row has a “been there, done that” energy to it, but that sense of familiarity is welcome for anyone looking to get their hands on a game that feels like pure comfort junk food.

The new Saints Row also makes terrific strides with its story, as you’re introduced to a cast of characters that feel like genuine partners-in-crime, friends who have each other’s back and are more than willing to tag along for a hair-brained scheme if it promises a good time. This is where Saints Row has always been at its very best and most ridiculous, as it throws you into stories that start with a quick scheme and always have an explosive ending.

It’s that cavalier attitude and a blatant disregard for the rules that makes the latest Saints Row stand out from the pack, as this game prioritizes fun over everything else. In a world racked with bad news on an hourly basis, Saints Row feels liberating to play. Sure, there’s no getting around the fact that it doesn’t break new ground at all, but when you want a game that plays loose and fast with the sandbox genre, and knows just where it needs to shake up the open-world formula with well-placed explosions and extortion rackets, Saints Row is the place to be.

While some games are excellent, Saints Row is what you’d call good. But it’s so good at being good, that it becomes a masterpiece of mayhem that you can comfortably slip into whenever the fancy strikes for some absurd, but terrifically enjoyable, havoc.

Saints Row is out 23 August for PC (via Epic Games Store), and Xbox and PlayStation consoles, along with Google Stadia.


Saints Row review

The core gameplay might feel very familiar, but it’s also polished to a chaotic shine and enhanced by handy upgrades that gives this reboot plenty of heart, charm, and anarchistic energy that makes it a blast to play.

 8.5
Saints Row was reviewed on PS5