Saints Row 2022: The death of a studio.
After dropping a sandbox classic in Saints Row 4, what happened?? We pour out a 40oz in respect over the death of Volition, a damn good studio.
You couldn’t reach any higher than Saints Row 4, it was the perfect mix of Saints Row 1 and 2, but also the insanity of Saints Row 3. No fan was left behind. You were fighting the Zin Empire as the President of the United States as a big breasted girl with long twin tails or a lad with Nolan North’s voice lending the game credence (up to you) or something else. For the knocks it gave Mass Effect 3, it was what Mass Effect 3 could have been. The epic crescendo at the end of a symphony bringing together two disparate styles that had zero right meshing the way it did, but Saints Row 2022 ended up being the lesser Andromeda instead of what the potential of Mass Effect 4 might be. (Bioware is also dead, I think. I have no faith in ME4 nor DA4: Dreadwolf)
Immediately you are thrown into a cut scene, I liked how you get to customize your character instantly and didn’t have to see a weird scene where an obvious default male skin was used and then TA-DA you are a girl.
Then suddenly you are beat up and dropped into a grave and buried alive even though you look OK and are immediately sent back before this all happened. OK. You are then shown your life as this game’s version of a Blackwater group merc. It’s not really fun for your MC and you are pretty much the only survivor. The game tells you that your in-game superiors think you are cannon fodder. You manage to help capture a dangerous guy despite the odds and some Saints Row-esque scenes that could have been nicer in other games (including SR3) and you get little to show for it. I should say I took a minute to explore, because the game doesn’t seem to want you to. It’s like mission ready, go do it. “YOU HAVEN’T LEFT OUR TUTORIAL YET!” I went exploring regardless and found it really wasn’t worth the time, but the radio was nice minus ONE issue. The positives were their partnership with Nuclear Blast Records. They also had a synthwave station and I had fun free roaming with Mushuggah’s Bleed blasting away or Synthwave playing. However, they really lay it thick on you with the “YOU’RE A MILLENNIAL NOW, SAINT!” including a part on a talk station that really lays into it in an annoying and pandering way that you hear without the chance to avoid early in the story. Also, we are all about the phone and living on it. One side quest you find nearby in sightseeing, snap a pic of something and done. Even the banal voice logs found in Saints Row 4 have greater value in their existence.
Meanwhile, sidequests in Saints Row 2022 involve sightseeing and dumpster diving. Not shown, is finding drugs all about San Illeso or whatever the drab SR2022 map was called. (Santa Ileso for fact’s sake)
Worst of all, is the voice over for the sightseeing tours feels like he didn’t want to show up for work. Was this the case? You tell me. An Example. I am not sure, but I believe so.
There was also this that happened when I went to fly on the amusing Harry Potter-like flying broom.
This was weird.
Was this the case truly?? Were the devs pushed aside for corpo nonsense?
We will never know. I look at SR2022 as a funeral dirge for the franchise. A sad tune played on a church organ before something is laid to rest. It has it’s good points but do I want to play in another Ubisoft-like sandbox in 2022 when they are all tired and stale?
Answer: No. But it’s Sarah MacLaughlin’s “I will remember you” played over a generic sandbox. Excuse me while I pour a 40 on the concrete for this franchise.
-TMG.