A Very Late Look At: Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell

On a whim, I decided to give Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell a try. I loved Saints Row: the Third, I liked Saints Row 2 whenever it worked but I didn’t like Saints Row 4. I thought maybe Gat Out of Hell might be a bit of improvement.

I don’t know. It’s all just… strange.

I mean, right off the bat, you’re not playing as the Boss. You’re playing as Johnny Gat, the Boss’s long time best buddy who got killed off in Saints Row 3 and written back to life in Saints Row 4. Or you can play as Kinzie, the hacker girl from Saints Row 3. Rather than… any other female character. I know Saints Row 3 and 4 Shaundi was a horrible step back away from the amazing, laid back character Shaundi was in Saints Row 2, but are we really ditching her for Kinzie? Seems so weird having her as the secondary character when Shaundi was a much closer friend to the boss.

Actually, the whole plot pisses on the Boss character you’ve created in previous games. You’ve been stolen by the devil so you can marry his daughter. And Gat and Kinzie are off to save you. Although you’ll want to play as Johnny most of the time because the game is based around him and Kinzie feels like she was just thrown in for a hint of variety.

There’s quests to go with this plot. It’s all pretty flimsy. And very rushed. Everything is done via drawn cutscenes. One mission, I save Vlad the Impaler and ask him for help. After reviving him and killing some demons, I am TOLD that I led him back to his castle where we cleared it out and he gave me a hand. Most of the quests so far are either like this for feel like this. What worries me more is that after only 3-4 story quests (3 of which have been making allies), I’m at 31% completion. There are some cut scenes at major plot points BUT THE FIRST ONE IS A FUCKING MUSICAL! I am not sitting around watching people sing this shit. I’m playing as a badass who is so badass he pulled a fucking sword out of himself and kept on fighting. The plot… I really just don’t care. It’s got fuck all to do with anything aside from Saints Row 4.

Of course there’s mini-games and stuff. The mini missions cover way, way more areas of New Hades. Because there’s no properties to reclaim or anything like that. You just do jobs. Like an errand boy. They’re different in a way, to fit in with this game’s set of super powers and flight, but still.

Speaking of super powers, considering how early you get them, you feel insanely strong insanely quickly. Flight in particular is pretty cool, but this all makes the world of New Hades feel incredibly small.

The landscape is cool though, I’ll give you that. New Hades and all that is still somewhat like Steelport though, with similar islands and layout. It feels like they took the Saints Row 4 map and added more changes to it. But you have to remember that the Saints Row 4 map was the same as the Saints Row 3 map but with a sort of glitch effect to it. At the same time though, there’s… something off about the map. Somehow, despite being set in hell, it feels… drab. Boring. Yeah duh it’s not meant to be a pleasant place with nice things and cheerful skies, but somehow New Hades feels both cool and boring at the same time.

You know what pissed me off though, more than Kinzie? I’d been playing for about 20 minutes, including watching the intro videos and the tutorial flight mission, and Dane starts pestering me about doing quests. FUCK OFF. The whole fucking point of the Saints Row series was the freedom to do whatever the fuck you want.

Yeah sure it’s nice to see a return of old Saints Row 2 stuff, but not like this. A random Ultor in a hell based off Steelport. People from your past that you want to punch again. Yeah sure it’s like, whatever. But fuck off, Dane. I will do these quests WHEN I AM FUCKING READY.

I shouldn’t be so harsh. Gat out of Hell is basically a DLC for a DLC. But it feels so insanely stripped down. There’s no soul to it.

Haha, very funny, it’s set in hell, that’s a joke about hell and stuff.

But I mean it. The game sort of lacks in personality. Everything feels cliche. The world is well-made but hollow. There’s only a handful of cars. There is literally nothing on the streets but enemies and random ‘husks’ with no variation at all. Most of the little quests are similar to those in previous Saints Row games. The powers feel just like Saints Row 4. The world feels boring and cliche like Saints Row 3. The whole gangster mentality from the earlier games is absolutely gone.

Everything feels dead and hollow, while Johnny Gat struts around being his normal badass self. This game is completely lacking the mixture of quirkiness that the previous games had.

That being said, Gat out of Hell is definitely an upgrade from Saints Row 4, aside from the story. The flight and powers are better, the controls are better and you have a world that IS designed with flight in mind. Everything feels like a step up from Saints Row 4. Actually, I’d say this is better, since you actually have a more unique world. It’s not just Saints Row 3 with glitches, aliens and holograms.

If Saints Row: Gat out of Hell is your first SR game, or your second SR game after Saints Row 4, you will like it. Otherwise… I don’t know. This is not a game for old-school fans, but if you like missions and diversions and don’t give two shits about the plot, then this will do.