Saints Row IV Re-Elected & Gat Out of Hell Review

Saints Row IV Re-Elected & Gat out of Hell released simultaneously on January 20. Re-Elected is the next generation version of SRIV; for those of you who have already played it, then you won’t be missing much if you don’t plan on buying it again since the game is almost exactly the same except for the graphical and technical improvements. Gat Out of Hell, however, is a standalone expansion which features new playable characters and a new setting.

 

The series has always been known for its inappropriate jokes, its funny situations and its open-world madness and this installment is no different. Actually, this one may just be the most enjoyable in my opinion, both story-wise and gameplay-wise. Saints Row IV Re-Elected takes place after the events of Saints Row The Third; at the very beginning, Pierce, Shaundi and the Boss are sent on a mission to assassinate Cyrus Temple, the former leader of STAG, who plans to destroy Washington DC with a nuclear missile. The Boss successfully assassinates Cyrus but isn’t able to stop him from launching the missile, now headed for the city. He jumps onto the missile and disarms it in midair, saving Washington and earning the love of the American citizens.

Five years after this heroic incident, he gets voted as The President Of The United States and officially changes the name of the White House to the White Crib. He then gets warned of an alien invasion just before going on a press conference but while he is being warned, the aliens attack, kidnapping him and all of the Saints members around him. To make it short, you are on a mission to save the Earth from an alien invasion but in a very fun twist in which you need to overcome each Saints’ own fear as the aliens has put each Saint in a simulation to face their greatest fears and even past foes. The story missions may sometimes take away your ability to fully enjoy the super powers you have but the storyline is still pretty enjoyable.

 

Re-Elected for the PS4 already comes with both DLCs, How the Saints Save Christmas and Enter the Dominatrix, along with some additional costumes and character add-ons. How the Saints Save Christmas is briefly about you and the Saints helping Santa in his quest to defeat the evil Santa look-alike Santa Clawz, who is planning to rule the North Pole and destroy Christmas forever. While this may sound a bit silly for your average game, it fits Saints Row perfectly and it’s also pretty well made, with some moments where you really want to kick Clawz’s ass for trying to destroy Christmas. One of the most memorable moments to me was when I saw Santa’s reindeer heads mounted on poles and arranged in a circular pattern around a burning decorated Christmas tree. That scene hit me right in the heart as I saw Santa cry for poor little Red-nosed Rudolf. I knew I had to defeat that evil Clawz after that scene.

Enter the Dominatrix is a bit more shocking especially at the end, which of course I won’t spoil it for you, than How the Saints Save Christmas. This DLC had me laughing so much occasionally that I had to get up and get some water because my throat dried out from too many laughs. It’s an incredibly hilarious DLC, but the downside is that it’s not that long either and it also has some repeated encounters with the Dominatrix herself and beating her up along with her party of awkwardly-dressed three-quarters-nude army.

 

Saints Row IV’s open world has tons of activities to do after the main story is complete. I found these highly entertaining as they’re filled with a perfect blend of wacky and reasonably serious side-missions such as being able to kill every alien in a specific area, the good old Tank mayhem where all you have to do is blow everything to pieces and others where you need to take advantage of your brand new super powers in this installment.

The game’s graphics on PS4 are slightly better than on PS3 as you can experience higher resolution, smoother frame rates, more detailed character models and better overall lighting. Re-Elected still retains some flaws though, such as occasional menu freezes and game crashes. Also, there is no real addition to the original version other getting all the DLC and prettier graphics.

Moving on to Gat Outta Hell, this is a standalone expansion game where Kenzie and Johnny Gat finally get some time under the spotlight. Gat Outta Hell starts on Kenzie’s birthday where they play a game that Matt Miller suggested; this opens up a portal to Hell and sucks the President in, sentencing him to marry Satan’s daughter, Jezebel. Kenzie and Gat decide to follow the president and save him; they’ll have seek him in New Hades, which consists of five islands: Barrens, Shantytown, Downtown, Forge, and the Den.

The game’s cutscenes are narrated from a classical-looking book then switching to the real cutscene which often contain singing that I couldn’t resist but listen to each and every one of them because they were all done pretty well and the singing was surprisingly wonderful. You are given the choice to play with either one of them and can switch from Gat to Kenzie and vice versa from Dane’s Ultor building. As usual, you will need to rally some allies first before you can kill Satan and save the President; your allies are The Twins, Vlad the Impaler, the infamous pirate Blackbeard and Hell’s most famous DJ, William Shakespeare.

After rallying them all, it’s time to cause enough chaos (by completing missions in New Hades) for Satan to recognize your threat and come after you. Johnny will also get some help at sneaking into Satan’s castle on the wedding night by his own daughter Jezebel.

 

Satan will catch Gat and Jezebel as soon as you sneak in, but it turns out that Satan is impressed with your actions, as Gat knows how to cause chaos and kill everybody in his way just like him. As a result, Satan decides to make Gat marry his daughter instead of the President. Speeding up the story, Gat puts a bullet to Satan’s head on the wedding night but it isn’t enough to put Hell’s king to eternal sleep. You will fight Satan and afterwards, a portal opens taking Kenzie, The President alongside Jezebel to Earth while Gat is stuck on the way and meets God; at this point, the game offers five choices to choose how the game will end.

Gat Out of Hell sometimes suffers from an issue where your character gets thrown into mid-air for no apparent reason and you can’t control it at all, which can be frustrating while being on a mission. The camera may get stuck behind buildings or in weird angles. Your character may sometimes get stuck falling through floor while walking around, and this is just an example. To be fair, these things happen quite a few times while you are playing.