Saints Row IV: Re-Elected (Nintendo Switch) Review

If Grand Theft Auto is the Neiman Marcus of open-world crime video games, then Saints Row is the Walmart of the genre. It has never exactly carried itself with much class, and was designed for the lowest common denominator - every entry becoming more gaudy and uglier as a desperate attempt to be completely different from its contemporaries. By the time Saints Row IV was released, the previous game had set the bar absurdly high in terms of absurdity and freedom of customization. The only route the developers could go was to take the crazy train off the rails and shoot it into space. Saints Row IV: Re-Elected does not take long to distance itself from the shackles of being an open-world crime game...

This is a full-on superhero game like Hulk: Ultimate Destruction or Crackdown. It is hard to believe that this is set in the same universe of the previous games, but many characters are present and are often referenced. The only continuity that is ignored is the tone. Not that the tone was crucial to the Saints Row experience, but this series does make a case for how cut-scenes in games can be an effective vehicle for comedy and how they serve as a reward for pressing on.

After a botched mission, the player-character becomes the President of the United States of America. The complete careless and absurd way it all happens is what makes it funny, and this style of comedy is throughout the entirety of Re-Elected. When very video gamey looking aliens show up, they put everyone in a virtual world, including the protagonist who basically becomes Neo from the Matrix movies. This premise is actually much too clever for Saints Row IV, since the meta aspect of characters within a game that are within a virtual environment is a concept that is pregnant with so many possibilities. There are even moments in scenes where the writers are very obviously aware of some of the deeper ramifications of the themes, but no matter what, jokes are always centre stage.

Whether it is some kind of player choice that has to be made, or the hilarious use of music, comedy is why Re-Elected can keep people playing it. It does get exhausting pretty quickly, and the artificiality of the virtual world that makes up the setting is supposed to feel disposable, but it also comes at the cost of caring about anything. The game is so nihilistic and out of its mind with how much destruction is at the player's disposal that nothing matters anymore. The constant barrage of violence and disregard for human life trivializes the action, and spectacle stops impressing because when everything is always set to 11, it becomes hard to get invested in anything because there is no consequence. The explosions just cause eyes to glaze over while the poor devils who play this will begin to drool, going from mission to mission.

Like most open-world action games, Re-Elected uses the typical control scheme that almost every third-person shooter utilizes. There is a dedicated car-jacking button that is totally worthless a few hours in when cars

are ultimately proven to be too slow compared to the ridiculous mobility that gets unlocked. This is where the flaws in Saints Row IV become further apparent, since this couldn't be a simple car-jacking open-world game. The super-powers that are granted trivialize the driving to a point that most of the game is spent running faster than the vehicles and leaping over traffic. This applies to guns too. If it weren't for the over-the-top "gangsta" style, this could have easily been mistaken for a "good" The Matrix video game.

The writing and humour in Saints Row IV: Re-Elected is shockingly hilarious, and dialogue is delivered with gusto. It is really apparent that the voice actors were relishing their roles and having a lot of fun reading their lines. Re-Elected comes with bonus voice choices that were originally DLC, and one of them is cheekily just called "Nolan North," and it is exactly what it says on the tin. There is no universe where this choice should not be picked when customizing the player avatar, because North brings the goods and is utterly electric in as the protagonist.

Re-Elected was never much of a looker, and that stays true on the Nintendo Switch. This game looks very much of its era; a time when video games were all trying to look alike and at the same time Saints Row IV is also trying to be a parody. Character designs are unappealing and bulky in their modelling. This means it has to embrace its generic look and tropes, so it looks garish most of the time. Re-Elected also does not run particularly well, and is generally a sub-30fps experience. Impressively, there is a co-op mode for the campaign, and can be done via system link or online. This feature was not tested for the review, but it is worth mentioning.