Tweet
Remember when Saints Row was all about colour-coded street gangs? How long ago it seems, with bombing through the netherworld in Gat Out of Hell now a natural enough progression from alien invasions and virtual reality shooting galleries. If there's a problem with the setting, it's that it's far too grand for a game perched right between DLC and full release, and much of the potential is almost inevitably left on the table - some bits more unfortunately than others.The premise is typically fine Saints Row insanity, with the President/Boss/Emperor/Etc. falling afoul of a ouija board that sucks them into Hell, where Satan plans to marry them off to his daughter Jezebel. Walking apocalypse Johnny Gat and team hacker Kinzie Kensington give chase, him to 'put one in Satan's head' and her because, well, it's her birthday and she really wants to go. Soon, both are in the city of New Hades, on a quest to get the Boss back by both raising and razing Hell. "It kinda reminds me of Steelport," Kinzie comments - and that sums things up pretty well. As bizarre as the new location is in theory, most of this new adventure is extremely familiar throughout.
There's often a split in mid-price games between what would be ideal and what's reasonable to expect. For that reason, Gat Out Of Hell's limitations can't really be called disappointments, since they shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. New Hades, for instance, has some fun visual flourishes and a decrepit look, but it isn't a huge jump from Virtual Steelport. The cars are still regular beaten-up cars, and most of the weapons are familiar firearms. At the same time though, it's done with enough details, twists and welcome additions that it doesn't feel like a simple cash-in. There are new minigames. A new flight mechanic. It's a game that all but apologetically resorts to largely illustrated cutscenes instead of fully choreographed and acted ones, but which still takes time to do multiple endings and a complex Disney style musical number spoiled only by it having been sacrificed to the gods of marketing last year.
Read more…
More...