Saints Row IV
The Saints become superpowered presidents fighting an alien empire.
Saints Row IV is a 2013 action-adventure game developed by Volition and published by Deep Silver. It is the sequel to Saints Row: The Third and the fourth main installment in the Saints Row series, serving as the final original entry before a 2022 reboot. The game was notable for being the first Volition title developed after the studio's acquisition by Koch Media following THQ's bankruptcy.
Quick Facts
- Developer
- Volition
- Publisher
- Deep Silver
- Producer
- Jim Boone
- Designer
- Scott Phillips
- Programmer
- Ryan Spencer
- Artist
- Stephen Quirk
- Writer
- Jason L. Blair
- Jeffrey Bielawski
- Tony Bedard
- Composer
- Malcolm Kirby, Jr.
Facts from the source article.
Plot
Months after Saints Row: The Third, the 3rd Street Saints assist MI6 agent Asha Odekar and former Deckers leader Matt Miller in stopping a terrorist plot by former S.T.A.G. leader Cyrus Temple. The Boss and lieutenants Shaundi and Pierce Washington breach Cyrus' base, kill him, and prevent a nuclear missile from hitting Washington, D.C. Five years later, the Boss has been elected President of the United States, with actor Keith David as Vice President and fellow Saints, Asha, Matt, and former Vice Kings leader Benjamin King in Cabinet roles.
During a press conference, Earth is invaded by the alien Zin empire led by Zinyak, who destroys the White House and abducts the Boss, Keith, and most of the Cabinet. The Boss is trapped in a computer simulation based on a 1950s sitcom but escapes to a Steelport simulation with help from hacker Kinzie Kensington. After leaving the simulation and reuniting with Kinzie and Keith on a stolen Zin ship, Zinyak destroys Earth. The Boss re-enters the Steelport simulation to rescue abducted Saints from simulations based on their nightmares.
Zinyak floods the simulation with replicas of past gang members, leading Kinzie to suspect he draws them from another person's memories. The Boss deduces that Johnny Gat, supposedly killed years ago, was abducted by Zinyak. Despite allies' concerns, the Boss enters Gat's nightmare—a recreation of Aisha's murder—and helps him escape. Gat explains Zinyak captured him years before the invasion, believing Gat could have thwarted it alone, and rejoins the Saints.
Development
A standalone expansion called Enter the Dominatrix, announced as an April Fool's joke in 2012, entered development with a concept involving a superpowered player-character trapped by Zinyak in a Steelport simulation. As THQ faced financial difficulties, president Jason Rubin encouraged Volition to expand the expansion into a full game. In June 2012, Volition cancelled Saints Row: Part Four and expanded Enter the Dominatrix into Saints Row IV. The strategy aimed to avoid sales issues by releasing before next-generation console rumors circulated.
Volition was sold to Koch Media in early 2013 after THQ filed for bankruptcy, becoming Koch's first internal studio. The game was officially announced two months later, published by Koch Media brand Deep Silver. Volition's new goals focused on connected open-world games where the player is an agent of mayhem. While earlier games built on outlandishness and irreverence, the fourth focused on the supernatural and superpowers.
Senior producer Jim Boone noted reviewers asking if the company could be more over-the-top than Saints Row: The Third, which they took as a challenge. The team prioritized fun over being over-the-top and felt superpowers improved navigation and combat. They removed the previous game's mobile phone-based navigation, replacing it with a quest log structure. The team chose not to devote much time to graphics improvements due to impending next-generation platforms. The game spent less time in development than prior series games.
Release
Saints Row IV launched on Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 in North America on August 20, 2013, with a worldwide release following three days later. Those who preordered got a patriotic DLC pack containing a flamethrower, a dubstep gun, a rocket launcher, a bald eagle jet, and an Uncle Sam outfit. A limited edition came with a replica dubstep gun, a doomsday button, and a Johnny Gat figurine, while the Game of the Generation Edition added a display case.
Australia initially banned the game over its content, but it was approved after edits; later, the PlayStation 4 version was recalled due to a classification mistake. Two summative editions followed: the Game of the Century edition on May 9, 2014, bundling 20 DLC sets, and the National Treasure Edition on July 8, 2014, with 29 DLC sets. High Voltage Software handled the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One port, titled Saints Row IV: Re-Elected, announced in late August 2014 alongside the standalone expansion Saints Row: Gat out of Hell.
Both arrived in North America on January 20, 2015, and worldwide three days later, sold separately or together, adding voice commands. A Linux port came in December 2015, and Re-Elected hit the Nintendo Switch on March 27, 2020.
Reception
Saints Row IV received generally positive reviews on PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and Xbox 360 according to Metacritic, with mixed reviews on Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. Critics praised its over-the-top humor and character customization options but criticized its lack of challenge. Several reviewers noted its even-handed treatment of gender, particularly female characters, and highlighted Kinzie Kensington's performance. The game sold over one million copies in its first week; Volition has not released total sales figures as of 2013.
Polygon's Danielle Riendeau described the game as big, goofy, self-referential fun that accomplished its goal of being an outrageous player power fantasy. She praised the freedom around character identity, the narrative, and transitions between sequences, noting that Volition trimmed the fat from previous games and that superpowers blew constraints off the genre. She found the story funny and obvious but characters well-realized, praising the treatment of gender while finding the association between women and sex workers problematic.
Eurogamer's Chris Schilling said the game reinvented the series with superpowers replacing vehicles, comparing exploration to Crackdown and superpowers to Infamous and Prototype. He noted the need to restock at ammo shops as a jarring holdover but appreciated recurring elements like GPS navigation and side missions. He regarded the game as artful but gloriously dumb, like the Sistine Chapel ceiling of stupidity, and found it wearying over long sessions.
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