When I first came into contact with the "Saints Row" series, I was an innocent junior high school student. Although I had been exposed to works such as "Sin City" in elementary school, the first time I played "Saints Row 3", it still opened my eyes. The game's simple and mindless controls, as well as its weird and playful style, left a deep impression on me. Carrying various weapons and doing evil on the streets is the greatest joy I can get from this game.
Maybe it’s because I’m getting older, but by the fourth generation in 2013, I no longer paid attention to this game because of its stiff action modules and slightly boring plot.
The return of "Saints Row Reboot" is 9 years after the previous generation of the main story. But what is reassuring is that the new work is still produced by the editor, and Shenyin is responsible for the sale. Of course, this was what I was thinking when I just learned that the game was going to be released.
After playing the game, my peace of mind about this combination has dissipated, and my worries about the fate of the series of games are hanging in my mind. The playing experience of "Saints Row: Rebooted Edition" to me is like chewing an old piece of rubber, it smells bad and is difficult to swallow.
But before I criticize the reboot, I have to say that this game is not without its merits. During the more than ten hours of playing, the game still brought me some joy.
Maybe it’s because there have been fewer large-scale open world works with modern settings in recent years. I have forgotten the last time I robbed a car on the street. Even the simple interaction of driving and smashing all the green buildings and plants on the roadside to pieces makes me very interested.
It’s still very exciting to be racing like lightning. I suddenly realized that I haven’t been like this in a game for a long time.
Of course, there is also Shushuoer who can be hit.
In addition, some interesting challenges have also been continued in the reboot version, such as the challenge of "Falsely Claiming Insurance Money", which is exactly the same as the "Porcelain Master" of the fourth generation. All require the character to constantly dive and be ravaged by traffic. The harder the fall, the higher the score.
In addition, the experience of individual levels of the game is also good, such as the part where you pick up a car.
The custom face-squeezing system that was much promoted on the eve of the game’s release is indeed extraordinary. If you search on the self-media platform, you will find that all the ancient gods have come together. Only you can't imagine it, and you can't do it. Such a funny face-squeezing system is indeed in line with the series' consistent mischievous style, and it also made me look forward to it before entering the game, thinking about what interesting things it would bring us this time.
There is also an emoji mosaic system
However, the interesting experience that the game gave me gradually dissipated in the first two hours of experience. Due to the overall poor quality and various outdated frameworks of this work, it is really difficult for people to be interested in other places.
[]
Shoddy and shoddy, beyond words
To be honest, when I watched the trailer for the remake, I felt that the actual graphics of the game were too rough. But after playing it, I discovered that the overall performance of the game can only be described as a disaster. The production team did not polish this so-called reboot at all, but simply and playfully threw this work out like a character in the game jokingly promoting the plot.
The first thing that bears the brunt is the optimization of the game. 5600x and such a configuration cannot run games smoothly at medium and low image quality. The various bugs interspersed in the game that made me feel uncomfortable also show that the game has not been polished repeatedly. The character will fall into an endless loop of endless reloading, or directly levitate outside the car and drive.
The low technical capabilities are not only reflected in numerous optimization problems. The textures of cutscenes are always delayed in loading; the shadows on the ground do not start to refresh until they get closer. These technical problems that often appeared in past games can still be seen in 2022's "Saints Row: Reboot Edition" .
You can see that the textures are not fully loaded. This situation abounds in the plot.
The distance at which this shadow is generated is too close.
In terms of sound and picture performance, there is even more to talk about. The game's cheap picture quality and rough character movements make it hard for me to imagine that this is the work that amazed me back then, but some of the same bad flaws in the game keep reminding me of this. The game still has no achievements in terms of action. The character falls from a high altitude, the camera does not shake at all, and there is not even any landing sound effect. This has been criticized as early as the fourth generation. Nine years later, there has been no change in the reboot version. Not to mention the single melee action in the game, which sometimes misses the target even if it's close to the face.
In addition to melee combat, the game's shooting also cuts corners. A single shooting action makes it impossible to attack the desired target when there is a bunker blocking the front. The game doesn't even bother to do an extra action and have the character lean out of cover to attack.
As you can imagine, the protagonist's various dodges, running, melee combat, and car grabbing all make people feel unnatural. The corresponding NPC performance is even more disastrous, with all kinds of bizarre performances presented one by one. When you point a gun at the people in the car, they will drive the car around and when you steal their car, they sometimes have no reaction. These passers-by do not bring me the slightest pleasure, they can only make me happy. I was dumbfounded.
After talking about the graphics, sound effects and music, the game also has no achievements. The repetitive drum beat in the first mission at the beginning of the game was almost inaudible, so much so that I only discovered that the game actually had BGM after watching the recorded video.
In terms of voice acting, the characters are very readable, and the shouts when teammates die have no emotional fluctuations, so much so that I had the illusion that this was a narration that broke the third wall.
The only thing I'm slightly satisfied with is the sound effects of the shooting. The meaty feeling when the gun hits the enemy and the crisp sound effect after the headshot support my biggest motivation to play this game. In some cases, sound effects will be lost, such as detonating oil barrels and landing at high altitude. Various low-level errors greatly reduced the quality of the game, making me feel that what I was playing was not the work of a well-known company, but the practice work of a newcomer.
And an operation design in the game that almost made me break my defense made me even more convinced of this.
In the operation of the game, clicking the left button while driving is to shoot. This is one of the few offensive methods while driving.
In a main mission called "Get a Share of the Pie", the player needs to drive a container and tow it away. During this process, a grapple hook is required to connect the container. The operation is also done by left-clicking in the car. At the same time, the perspective of reversing will be forced to change at this moment, allowing the player to reverse the vehicle and approach the container.
The same key design means that the player cannot attack the enemy while reversing to approach the container, but after hooking the container, the player can drag the container and drive freely. But what is unexpected is that when the left button is pressed again at this time, the character's operation is to release the hook lock, and submitting the task does not require this operation at all.
This means that players cannot shoot in self-defense during the entire process of transporting containers, and can only be blasted by the enemy.
It’s been a long time since I’ve encountered such a smart and exciting operation design. Which genius designer came up with it?
You can only be hit by the enemy, and you have to reverse the car accurately.
In addition, the physical effect of this container is the same as that of waste paper. It flies away when touched.
I won’t go into details about game-related camera movement issues here. To use the protagonist's skills, you have to switch the camera to play a 3 or 4 second animation, which is really confusing. When today's efforts to maintain immersion generally focus on the smooth connection of shots, this kind of reversing performance really makes me dumbfounded. You should also put some effort into hiding the UI, and at least pay attention to the camera connections.
Epic Split Mirror
The overall audio-visual aspect is stretched, making it difficult for people to immerse themselves in it today. The various battles and explorations in the game are hardly captivating based on their own audio and visual performance. Moreover, within the existing framework of the game, all kinds of cutting corners often cause trouble.
There are too many similar situations that are not careless: barbed wire that cannot penetrate bullets, televisions that cannot be broken, clothes that cannot be soaked, beer bottles that are broken into pieces… These counter-intuitive features all show that , the reboot is just a gimmick, not an attempt to add another layer to the series.
One shot and three shots
Swimming in the water, but the clothes are still dry. .
[]
Cliched open world
And if you have made the above evaluation of this game through its appearance, you should not be surprised by the mediocre system framework of this game. The internal system design of "Saints Row: Rebooted Edition" is no different from its predecessor, and some outdated settings remain unchanged even today, nearly ten years later.
As an original serious gangster game, the main line of "Saints Row" has always been the story of several gang members starting a business together and becoming bigger and stronger. On this basis, players eliminate other gang forces and become bigger and stronger. Complete a series of escort, robbery, and assassination missions for various gangs to increase the gang's influence on the region, which can help players get more benefits from it.
Such an overall framework can indeed give players enough motivation to work hard for the gang when many things have not been unlocked in the early stage. But in the later stages, when you have enough money and the equipment and vehicles are at their best, it is easy for people to get tired. What's more, most of the missions in the game are canned and have no plot. Coupled with the fact that the map is full of collection elements, I really have no interest in doing such repetitive work. Often after playing with some interesting props, they naturally give up.
This generation is the same, they conquer the country and collect money
Having said that, the ancestral method of "Saints Row" was directly copied into the reboot version. Not long after the game starts, players can view the entire large map, which is filled with dense collection of items. Although it was novel to rummage through the golden trash cans, after increasing the money and experience points but nothing happened, I looked at the trash can icons all over the map and fell into deep thought.
I quickly fell into thinking about a life question: Why should I work hard to make money?
In Saints Row 3, this question is easy to answer. Of course, making money is to buy those cool vehicles and weird weapons! This answer has remained the same for me, but when I walked into the gun shop with the same expectations, I was extremely disappointed. The few realistic firearms even made me feel like I was playing the wrong game.
More than one million, where should I spend it?
This is not a problem of too few guns unlocked in the early stage. Until 40% of the progress in the middle stage, I still held weapons that could be found in other games. In all the missions, I could only kill enemies with an assault rifle or a troll, and the piranha guns and alien rays I was looking forward to were completely missing in the reboot version.
The loss of combat fun is simply the biggest failure of the reboot. To me, "Saints Row" is like "Dead Rising". It loses the fun of weapons and vehicles, and the game loses almost all the fun.
After all, I was attracted to the third generation precisely because of the game's various strange vehicles and weapons. Although "Saints Row 4" is controversial, the overall style of the game is not distorted. Whether it is the setting of super powers or the plot, it is all about fighting. Interesting enough. Today's reboot is so conservative and boring in terms of firearms and vehicles that it seems a little out of place with the evil deeds of the saints.
The third generation shark gun and octopus rocket launcher are my source of joy
Moreover, the canned taste of the reboot version is too strong. When the NPC called me to cover him in stealing data during a gang mission, there was no progress bar and only enemies kept spawning for me. And during the entire ten minutes of struggling with the enemy, the NPC didn't say a word. I drove away without looking back and never did any related tasks again.
Who likes to eat expired cans from ten years ago?
There are even popular science spots like this on the surface. Come on, you are a "Saints Row"
Because of this, I just felt bored in the second half of the game. The experience of killing and killing was boring, and the result was nothing more than an improvement in the number in my account. The plot of the game is certainly not very attractive. The various functions that are gradually unlocked along with the main line are not attractive to me, and most of them are clothing and other things.
In this case, those old challenges become the only fun in the late game.
In addition, I have no intention to criticize the game's character creation here.But with such a rich pinching system in the game, the few people in the protagonist group look too mediocre. Let’s add some weird ones.
[]
Summarize
This time, "Saints Row: Reboot" is a huge disappointment, both in terms of production and design.
Poor optimization and tuning make the gameplay unsmooth, and outdated graphics and crude action modules also make people frustrated from time to time. From a production perspective, this is a work full of flaws.
While the production team was shoddy, they even lost the core of the series – the nonsensical and funny style, and began to move closer to real life. Although this change is not complete, and the plot still unfolds in a joke, this has caused a fragmentation of the game style. The game system that traveled back ten years ago seems downright boring under such changes. The "face pinching system" that the game vigorously promoted now seems to be the biggest improvement. It seems that the developers also know their own shortcomings.
Considering the poor production and mediocre design, it is not surprising that this game has become the lowest-rated series in history. If you really want to experience the charm of the series, in my opinion, "Saints Row 3 Remastered" is your best choice.
