DLC, before evolving into a standalone release that was eventually snapped up by Deep Silver after the demise of THQ.

Typically when an open-world sandbox game has both a story and squishy pixel people to potentially torment, it never comes together as well as it should. "Ludo-narrative dissonance" is what all the cool kids are calling it nowadays, and essentially what this means is that a character's personality...

Indulges the player with a set of unique toys; City traversal is a joy; Excellent use of licensed soundtrack; Series fanservice; Player freedom and story allign

Mission objectives are often mundane

This makes Saints Row IV a contrast to itself. There's a case to be made that it's just a blown-out expansion of Saints Row: The Third. The forced story, technical problems, and identical city don't help matters.

Superpowers are irresponsibly fun; Laugh-out-loud from start to finish; Meaningful upgrades

Hit-or-miss Activities; Freezes and framerate; Half of this game is Saints Row: The Third

After Saints Row: The Third , it was hard to imagine how this series of increasingly zany open-world crime games could possibly get any zanier. Rather than attempting to tackle that challenge head-on, Saints Row IV sidesteps it by being an almost completely different type of open-world game.

Fun movement and combat abilities; Wild story missions; Some very funny writing

Combat grows dull despite your varied powers; Monotonous setting

When you've made one of the silliest games in existence, there's not a lot of places you can take a sequel.

The 3rd Street Saints are much more than a bunch of purple-flecked gangbangers these days. In fact, they're running the country, and you, as the Boss, now answer to the name of Mr. President.

Everything is better with superpowers; Story missions are diverse; engaging; and often hilariously referential; Huge content package; all of which ties into the game's narrative; Swathes of customisation options; Loads of things to unlock; It's really funny; It's really FUN

Some occasionally framerate issues; The nature of your role as President is rather superficial

Since the very beginning, the Saints Row series has always been a unique, fun, and over-the-top experience. Focusing fun and interesting missions, instead of crafting an overall story, Saints Row has garnered a loyal fan base and each instalment in the series just gets crazier than the last.

Review copy provided by publisher.

Super powers are a ton of fun to use in the open world setting; Superb writing and voice acting for some hilarious moments; Tons of parodies and homages; Over-the-top ridiculousness at every turn..; ...and Nolan North...

A number of freezes and other small bugs; Game seemed to be fairly short with few varied side missions; A lot of assets reused from Saint's Row: The Third

As a critic who has reviewed games professionally for over six years, I have on more than one occasion wanted nothing more than to tell the reviewing process to fuck off. Unsurprisingly, nearly all those moments came when I played a title from Saints Row .

Damn awesome; Love letter to all of gaming; Solid sandbox design; Fantastic soundtrack; Superpowers are incredible

Game-freezing glitches.; but should be fixed with the Day 1 patch

Saints Row IV picks up where ‘The Third' left off, sort of. It's set a few years after ‘The Third' and after a very daring stunt to disarm a nuke in the prologue mission, you go from the most powerful gang member to the most powerful man in the world, thus becoming the President of the United States...

Super weapons are fun to use; Always something to do in the open world; Game doesn't take itself too seriously; Nostalgic quests are superb; Audio logs give an insight in to characters; Sometimes feels like it could have been an expansion; Some small glitches here and there