I have to admit, I picked this one up shortly before finishing Saints Row IV because I was legit enjoying myself that much with the game. I already knew Agents of Mayhem was a severe departure not worth my time and the less we talk about the reboot, the better. But I was hoping to get just a little bit more of this formula and all the goodness of it out of this stand alone expansion. I will not tell you it was a waste of my time, because it wasn't. I did have fun with this one, but it just can't even begin to compare to what the previous games offered.
Story: Gat Out of Hell pretty much starts where Saints Row IV left off, so if you haven't played that one and wish to avoid spoilers, you might want to stop right here. If you are still with me, the Earth is still blown to smitheries and all that remains of mankind is onboard the invasion ships Emperor Zynyak brought for it. The guy himself, however, is very much dead with the Boss (your character in the previous game) declared the new emperor since it was by his hand. But all that doesn't matter on this day, simply because the crew has a birthday to celebrate among their own. One of the elite hackers of the group (Matt Miller) insists on all the party games, including a Juju spirit board... which proves the undoing of the festivities.
The man found the board on the ship among the relics Zynyak had collected before blowing Earth up... and it had once belonged to the one and only Aleister Crowley, so when they began asking it questions, someone reached back, opened a portal, and pulled the Boss into Hell. Not about to leave his best friend to his fate, Gat forced the board to send him there (along with a fellow team member Kinzie) to rescue him.
This is where you come in. Unlike the last game, you do not get to make Boss to play as, but rather choose between playing as Gat or Kinzie (swapping at will or having a second player take the other if playing with someone online) on this rather direct quest. There are no real twists and turns as there really isn't much more story then that. Don't get me wrong, it's delivered well (and even will get a few laughs on the way), but its all window dressing. The meat is really not there this time around... at all.
6/10
Graphics: What can I really say about the look of this game I haven't basically said twice already? On a technical level, Gat out of Hell is a stand alone expansion to Saints Row IV, which itself started life as an expansion to Saints Row The Third, and as such, you can expect the game to have the same level as tech. It looks clean enough when you get close to things but it's going to look dated.
As for what it shows, you will pretty much be in a city in Hell based on Steelport (again). Being Hell, you can expect the lava and brimstone littering the place, broken down buildings, and a general gritty feel of the land of the eternally damned. This is why I will say it looks clean only when you get close to things, however. Hell is a dirty dirty place, and in more ways then the city that gives it inspiration.
It is also populated with both demons and the souls of the damned, which this being down below, should make perfect sense and look exactly as you would expect. Souls tend to look like emaciated corpses bumbling around and actually look great for their place in this landscape, and the demons that will make up your enemy roster also look good, if cliché. Expect your normal red skinned horned guys, red cloudy outlines and robed cultists to make up the majority of what you face. Even Satan himself really didn't show a lot of creativity this time around.
Vehicles also take a huge hit compared to the other games this time around as well. Where the previous games had a fairly large variety of cars you could steal and summon later, I could probably count the types available to you this time on one hand. Add bikes a single tank and an ATC (which you don't get to keep, I might add.. they are only for a specific activity type) and you can still do it on just your fingers. There just isn't nearly as much variety as the series is known for.
It was also known for customization, as the last 2 entries both featured a detailed character creator, the results of which would even be in all the cutscenes. Having you play as Gat means that feature is also non-existent. Now the game did feature the ability to import your character from the previous titles, but when they changed the format of your saved games in Saints Row IV Re-Elected, it broke this function so you don't even get that much... for the two cutscenes he appears on.
So while it looks good enough, this is definitely a low point for the franchise due to how little it really does with it.
6/10
Sound: You can also expect a similar downturn in the sound department like the graphics. Gone is the ability to ever choose your music, replaced with mostly ambiance of Hell. There are occasional classical tunes playing in the background (and to make the multiple cutscenes sound more like a parody of Masterpiece Theater), but aside from that, expect to just be listening to the noises of the world around you. It is simply not half as inspired as the last two games were.
Voices, thankfully, fair much better though with each oozing the personality of it's owner. From Dane's sleezy corporate man to Gat's own "casually psycho", it all just feels so natural and works so well this game could swing with the best of them on that note. It even has some pretty descent singing (besides Gat... he still can't sing for shit).
As for the sound effects, there really isn't much I can say here. Everything sounds descent enough, but its all recycled from the game it's an expansion to, so there is literally nothing new, just new ways to use it.
7/10
Gameplay: If you've played Saints Row the 3rd or IV before, you already know what to expect. You will run around the city as an open world game with a selection of main missions to complete along side a city-wide plethora of activities you can take on at will. But this time, things will run a little different.
Where as completing all the story missions would progress things before, now you have a "wrath meter" to see how far along you are. In essence your goal is to disrupt Hell badly enough that Satan is pissed off with you enough to show up himself, and every mission or activity you complete will tack onto that meter. It should be technically possible (if not recommended) to complete the game without doing just about any of the "story bits" in between. I know I was able to push the story along to the point where Satan's minions were capturing my allies before I found them all, and as a result, only three were done by plot. The others I only brought on that mission by finding them after and SELECTING to do the rescue. Since these are the only story-driven missions the game ever forces you to do, I have to assume that only one of these is absolutely required to win, provided you don't collect any allies before that point.
So this time everything is basically up to you and once you've done enough of them, you can proceed just about regardless of what you chose. It's just a shame most of missions are just not great. You have some classics (mayhems, survival, and fraud), and these are fine (especially Fraud... it's just so broken but hilariously fun), but the new missions boil down to racing as you fly around, rescuing souls before Satan can literally drop them to their deaths, and taking over a handful of locations with direct force. There are a few others by name, but they mostly apply to these basic mechanics and I didn't find them particularly enthralling. If anything, I found flying tasks annoying at best, be it a race-track you only get to see in pieces as you get through it or the RND of where souls are falling when you have to catch them. It just didn't fit well.
But a big feature this time are the 7 deadly sins translated into weapons you can have... this was actually a really cool idea and I collected four of them before I was done... sadly I found most of them useless as well with the exception of Greed, but you had to make Greed good before it worked out. (Granted, Sloth is hilarious at least.)
And finally I have to point to the last boss of the game, and (no spoilers here) it's Satan himself... in a fight I found disgustingly easy, yet annoying to reach. It was just very unsatisfactory when you work so hard to physically get to where the battle is.
6/10
Bugs: No real issues while playing this game. Just like Saints Row IV, all cutscenes ran at a capped off 30 FPS, but that seems to be by design, not bug. Everything else just worked... well aside from the ability to import your version of the Boss into the game. But I can't knock too much for a feature around literally 2 cutscenes (one at the beginning and one at the end).
Score: After my time with the last two games in the set, this outing was just disappointing. Yeah there was definitely fun to be had, and I found myself enjoying a little extra time after the story was finished when I was showing it off for Extra Life, but it just pales in comparison to what we have had so far. I can honestly say it's descent in it's own right, but that is not much compliment for a follow-up to the highs that were the last two titles. If you need more Saints Row, it's worth playing, but you've already seen it at it's best. It's all down hill from here.
6/10
System Requirements:
- Intel Core 2 Quad 6600/AMD Athlon II x3
- 4 GB RAM
- NVidia GTX 260/AMD Radeaon HD 5800 series card
- 7 GB hard drive space
- Windows Vista
System Specs:
- Ryzen 7 (5700X) 3.4 Ghz
- 32 GB RAM
- AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT (8 GB VRAM)
- Windows 11 (64 Bit)
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