Saints Row IV is a power fantasy, pure and simple. You have to give it credit for not pretending to be anything else. Story-wise, don't expect much depth or substance. The writing is often witty, mostly silly, and always entertaining; but don't expect characters to deliver insightful soliloquies or engage in intellectually-charged discourses that will make you reflect upon the meaning of life's various subtleties. If that's what you’re looking for, leave this game on the shelf and take your search elsewhere.
But if you want to have a crazy, amazing time just smashing and blowing things up, and laughing real hard while you're at it, then look no further.
Remember this year's Saints Row(opens in new tab)? Volition would probably prefer that you didn't, which might go some way to explaining why the studio recently decided to upgrade everyone's copy of Saints Row 4(opens in new tab) to its full-fat Re-elected Edition, containing all the game's story and cosmetic DLC and even introducing cross-play between Steam, Epic, and GOG versions of the game.
Unfortunately, that upgrade seems to have backfired, and players now report a myriad of bugs with their new version of SR4. Both the Saints Row Steam forums(opens in new tab) and subreddit(opens in new tab) are filled with players complaining of broken saves, crashes, and mods failing to function. It's also received a few hundred negative Steam reviews(opens in new tab) since the update. If it's succeeded in washing the taste of Saints Row (2022) out of players' mouths, it's only because it tastes even worse.
I wonder if Volition's getting reorged under Gearbox impacted the quality of their release.
When it comes ranking the Saints Row games, there are a couple of weird ones you have to consider, though this is Saints Row after all.
Juan at SwitchWatchTV got his hands on Saints Row 4 Re-elected for Nintendo Switch. Check out his review here and see what he thinks.
