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Saints Row IV is a 2013 open world, action-adventure video game in the Saints Row series developed by Volition and published by Deep Silver. The player-character is the leader of the Saints, a street gang that has now become the world's most powerful and popular organization, and must fend off an alien invasion after becoming President of the United States and receiving superpowers. The player is free to explore the city environment while completing main and side missions at their leisure. The game and series are known for their use of over-the-top parody, and incorporate elements from science fiction video games and films. It was released on August 20, 2013, for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360, and was later ported to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, with a Linux release planned.

The game was Volition's first after its sale to Koch Media in early 2013. The supernatural and superpower concept for the game started in Enter the Dominatrix, then an expansion planned for Saints Row: The Third, which the team expanded into a full release. Volition later released Enter the Dominatrix as downloadable content for Saints Row IV alongside other weapon, costume, and vehicle packs, and a standalone expansion, Gat Out of Hell. Saints Row IV received several limited and summative edition releases, and was briefly banned in Australia.

Reviewers praised Saints Row IV's humor and character customization options, and criticized its lack of challenge. Some reviewers noted its improved treatment of female characters. It sold over one million copies in its first week, though cumulative sales figures have not been released.

Gameplay

Similar to previous Saints Row series games, Saints Row 4 is an open world, action game with third-person shooter elements wherein the player is free to explore the environment and, at their leisure, play story or side missions. As the leader of the Saints, a street gang that has become the world's most "powerful and popular" organization, the player is elected President of the United States, receives superpowers, and fends off an alien invasion. Most often the player will engage in shooting and racing activities, though other activities vary from fighting crowds of zombies, shoot-outs in tanks, side-scrolling brawlers, fights against supersized, daikaiju energy drink cans, and using a dubstep gun to interrupt 1950s Americana. The player-character receives elemental powers and superpowers that greatly increase their jump height and running speed, such that the player can hop over buildings and outrun vehicles. The elemental powers include abilities to shoot fire and ice projectiles, telekinetically toss things, and create shockwaves upon landing jumps. As the player progresses through the game, they can optionally upgrade their abilities and weapons skill tree by using collectible "data clusters" scattered around town. If the player becomes too rowdy, the alien race's police analogue will intervene. As in previous games, the player-character's look and feel is entirely customizable via a robust character editor feature.

The game is set in a nearly identical simulation of Steelport, the fictional city setting from the game's predecessor, though individual story missions have new, custom-designed levels. Saints Row 4's story parodies science fiction video games, especially Mass Effect 2, as well as films like The Matrix and Zero Dark Thirty, and other "nerd culture". Some story missions are propelled by individual characters' existential crises, as each Saint character is stuck in a personal simulation of their own hell, and must be rescued by the player. Other elements borrowed from video game culture include BioWare-style character romances games and a Metal Gear-style mission with an unhelpful partner.

City districts are "liberated" from alien occupation as the player completes side missions in occupied districts. Liberating districts also increases the player's hourly income, which can be spent on weapons, skills, and perks. Side missions include Insurance Fraud (where the player jumps into traffic to collect insurance money), demolition derby-style Mayhem, and superpowered foot races. Saints Row 4 also has a two-player cooperative mode.

Development

Saints Row: The Third Enter the Dominatrix was first announced as a 2012 April Fool's joke, but went into development. The expansion pack's basic conceit included a superpowered player-character trapped by alien commander Zinyak in a simulation of Steelport. THQ president Jason Rubin encouraged company subsidiary and Saints Row series developer Volition to grow some elements from the expansion into a full game. The company announced this change in direction in June 2012, and postponed Enter the Dominatrix into downloadable content for the full sequel, Saints Row 4. The company's strategy was partly to avoid sales issues by releasing the game in August 2013, prior to the circulation of rumors about next generation video game consoles. Volition was sold to Koch Media in early 2013 when its parent company, THQ, filed for bankruptcy. It became Koch's first internal video game studio. The studio officially announced Saints Row 4 two months later, which was published by Koch Media brand Deep Silver. Acquired without rights to their Red Faction series, Volition's new goals were to make connected, open world games where "the player is an agent of mayhem". The entire company worked on the one game.

Each of the Saints Row series games had a core intent, and while the first three games built on the first's "outlandishness and irreverence", the fourth focused on "the supernatural and superpowers". Senior producer Jim Boone recalled reviewers that asked whether the company could be "more over-the-top" than Saints Row: The Third, which they took as a challenge. The team focused more on making the game "fun" than "for the sake of being over the top", and felt that superpowers helped the game's basic navigation and combat. They also chose to remove the previous game's in-game mobile phone-based navigation, which hindered its narration, and replaced it with a "quest log structure". The team chose not to devote as much time improving the game's graphics, considering the impending release of next generation platforms. The game spent less time in development than prior series games.

In August 2014, Volition announced that they would be releasing a development kit for the Windows version of the game, which lets players modify game assets and create new weapons.

The in-game radio has seven pre-programmed radio stations and 109 licensed tracks. The game's original soundtrack is composed by Malcolm Kirby Jr., who also composed the previous game's soundtrack.

Release and downloadable content

See also: Enter the Dominatrix and Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell

Saints Row 4 was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 in North America on August 20, 2013, and worldwide on three days later. Preorders included a patriot-themed downloadable content pack that included flamethrower, dubstep, and rocket launcher weapons, a bald eagle jet, and an Uncle Sam outfit. A limited edition release of the game included a replica of the game's dubstep gun, a doomsday button, and Johnny Gat statuette. Another limited edition release, the Game of the Generation Edition, included the previous items as well as a display case for the game. The game was originally refused ratings classification and effectively banned in Australia, but was later accepted when modified to remove an optional mission that involved an anal probe weapon and incentivized drug use. The country's PlayStation 4 release was later recalled due to a classification error.

The game received multiple downloadable content packs. A Season Pass, which features two new mission packs and the aforementioned anal probe weapon, was announced prior to the game's release. The first mission pack, Enter the Dominatrix, was released October 22, 2013. The pack was originally intended as a mission pack for Saints Row: The Third but evolved into the full sequel, Saints Row 4. The leftover content became the sequel's first mission pack. It tells an alternative story about the Zin invasion wherein the Steelport simulation is hijacked by a rogue artificial intelligence called the Dominatrix. The pack's storytelling frequently breaks the fourth wall and self-referentially acknowledges its own plot holes and incongruence with the larger Saints Row story. Some scenes end in concept art or videos of Volition employees acting out the drama so as to give the game an unfinished feel. The pack also casts characters from Saints Row: The Third who did not return in the sequel. There are five missions in total, new weapons, vehicles, and computer-controlled support characters ("homies"). The second and final mission pack, How the Saints Save Christmas, features new weapons and vehicles and a plot to save Santa Claus from the Steelport simulation. It was released in December 2013. Non-mission downloadable content packs include new costumes, vehicles, and weapons, e.g., face masks of United States Presidents George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama.

Saints Row 4 was released in several summative editions. The Game of the Century edition included 20 downloadable content sets and was released May 9, 2014. The National Treasure Edition included 29 downloadable content sets and was released on July 8, 2014. High Voltage Software ported the game to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One with all of its downloadable content as Saints Row 4: Re-Elected. It was announced in late August 2014 alongside Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell, a standalone Saints Row 4 expansion developed by Volition in conjunction with High Voltage. Both were released in North America on January 20, 2015, and worldwide three days later, both separately and bundled together. The release included new features such as voice commands. A Linux port is planned for release in 2015.

Reception

Reviewers praised the game's over-the-top humor and character customization options, and criticized its lack of challenge. Several also commented on its "even-handed treatment" of gender, particularly female characters, and spotlighted hacker and former FBI agent Kinzie Kensington's character performance. Saints Row 4 sold over one million copies in its first week, and as of 2013, Volition has not released total sales figures.

Polygon's Danielle Riendeau described the game as "big, goofy, and self-referential fun" and thought that the game accomplished what it set out to be: "an outrageous exercise in player power fantasy". She also praised the game's degree of freedom around character identity, its "dumb and lovable" narrative, and its transitions between varied sequences. Riendeau wrote that Volition "trimmed the fat" from previous games, and that their addition of superpowers "blew the constraints off a genre already known for player freedom". She considered the story funny and "as obvious as can be", but found its characters "well-realized". Riendeau particularly praised the game's "treatment of gender"—bold female characters who could pursue same-sex relationships or even switch their gender mid-game, and were not treated differently for being female—but found the game's continued association between women and sex workers "problematic" and a "vestige from the series' roots as a juvenile crime drama".

Reflecting on the series' progression, Eurogamer's Chris Schilling said that Saints Row 4 successfully reinvented the series yet again, with superpowers replacing the usefulness of in-game vehicles. He compared the game's exploration mechanics to that of Crackdown, and its superpowers to the Infamous and Prototype series, and added that the game's silliness fulfilled a specific niche in gaming. Schilling wrote that the need to restock at ammo shops was a "jarring holdover" from the previous games, but appreciated the recurrence of elements such as the GPS navigation system, side mission gameplay, and city district liberation. He regarded the game overall as artful but "gloriously dumb", like "the Sistine Chapel ceiling of stupidity". Schilling also commented on how he felt an urge to simply forgo the story to search for collectibles, though despite these options, the game became "wearying" over long play sessions.

Similarly, Dan Stapleton of IGN became bored when his superhero protagonist had little "to overcome", and ultimately likened the game to "enabling god-like cheat codes" in its predecessor. He wrote that it was very difficult to die, given the large amount of power-ups dropped by enemies, and that the otherwise praiseworthy features from Saints Row: The Third felt "vestigial" when outmoded by superpowers. Stapleton said the player received the powers too early, which let the player play without caring about the city, and thus removed the "sense of place and character it had in [the previous game]". He considered the game's large number of collectibles an acknowledgement of this hole, which while originally rewarding, quickly becomes a "chore". Stapleton praised the Red Faction-style Disintegrator and Abductor guns, though considered the dubstep gun an "ineffective disappointment". As a symbol, though, Polygon described the dubstep gun as "iconic" of Saints Row IV.