Saints Row Criminal Custom Edition GameStop Exclusive - Xbox Series X

Product Description

The Saints Row Criminal Customs Edition includes:

• 2 specially adorned bonus items:
• The elaborately styled Saints Custom Convertible
• The equally signature Saints Custom Stab Jacket

Welcome to Santo Ileso, a vibrant fictional city in the heart of the American Southwest. In a world rife with crime, where lawless factions fight for power, a group of young friends embark on their own criminal venture, as they rise to the top in their bid to become Self Made.

As the future Boss, with Neenah, Kevin, and Eli by your side, you’ll form The Saints – and take on Los Panteros, The Idols, and Marshall as you build your empire across the streets of Santo Ileso and battle for control of the city. Ultimately Saints Row is the story of a start-up company, it’s just that the business The Saints are in happens to be crime.

Experience the biggest and best Saints Row playground ever created; the unique sprawling world of Santo Ileso is the backdrop for a wild, larger than life sandbox of thrilling side hustles, criminal ventures and blockbuster missions, as you shoot, drive, and wingsuit your way to the top.

Express yourself and unleash your inner Saint, with the most advanced suite of customization tools yet seen in an open-world game – make your character, your car and your crew your own.

Dive into epic gunfights and highspeed chases, and witness outrageous only-in-Saints-Row moments in an original story that charts the Saints’ remarkable rise to power. Enjoy the freedom of playing the entire campaign with a friend through seamless untethered co-op play, where you can both push the limits of your gang and create your own gameplay moments together.

Captivating Chaos

The Saints Row reboot features a new cast of characters and a different location to explore, but its heart and soul haven’t changed: Players can once again expect an exciting crime fest, giggle-worthy humor, purple splattered everywhere, and an open-world chock full of things to do and secrets to unearth. The game also has a knack for blowing everything up. In other words, it is great fun in that traditional Saints Row way and even better when experienced with a friend.

Saints Row establishes an exciting pulse from the outset of play that periodically palpitates with graphical glitches or can outright flatline when gameplay bugs halt progress. The rough edges are noticeable yet are minor nuisances in an otherwise outstanding game. Saints Row has never been better, but I wouldn’t call it the next evolution in the series – it feels like an alternate sequel to Saints Row 3. Take that as both a compliment and a minor complaint. The mission designs and co-op play creatively build off that formula, while the gunplay and animations haven’t shown much improvement and are well behind what we expect in games today.

This entry hits with silliness within minutes of play, with the lead character delivering what is likely the longest string of f-bombs in all of entertainment. This moment cements the game’s silly (and low brow) vibe, which hits more than it misses, and shows the protagonist can be a bit of a wild card. The player designs this character, determining their sex, voice, facial features, and even the size of their genitalia. This lead is nicely penned and blends seamlessly with a fantastic supporting cast that gives the game a legitimate team dynamic, both in the story and mission flow. Eli is the brains of the operation, and his love of LARPing rubs off on you. Neenah’s obsession with cars and art is contagious and represented in play. And then there’s Kev, who is always shirtless, loves tacos, and is one of the fathers to a fantastic cat (that actually plays a significant role in the plot).

The fictional world of Santa Ileso is just as colorful as this cast, stealing the eye with creative architectural designs like dinosaur statues and state-of-the-art skyscrapers backed by scenic deserts and mountains. I like how developer Deep Silver Volition encourages the player to stop to admire the architectural craftsmanship with photo opportunities. When photographed, some of these wonders transform into decorations for the Saints’ base. I don’t know how many hours I sunk trying to track these collectibles down. They reward you well for taking the time to explore.

I enjoyed every mission in the game. The critical path and side hustles are handled with care, delivering interesting or goofy objectives in locations that collectively give you a good look at most of the map’s significant landscapes and interiors. It wouldn’t be fair of me to spoil these setups, but I was particularly impressed by a prison mission that turns into a music video for Onyx’s “Slam.” These missions scale nicely for cooperative play, as do the mostly optional criminal ventures. Insurance Fraud sadly hasn’t evolved (yet is still dumb fun), but there’s a nice variety to them collectively. Most are short and sweet, and reward the player with much-needed new skills, cash, weapon crafting materials, and maybe even a new car or outfit.

New ventures unlock at a nice pace since they are tied to critical beats in the story, delivering something different to dive into even at the game’s end. The story progresses at a decent clip until around the third act, where it feels like an entire chapter of the game is missing. The Saints go from rags to riches in the blink of an eye, and the final act unfolds. It’s a jarring plot skip that delivers the sensation that I missed a big chunk of the Saints’ growth.

Combat is one of the biggest parts of the game, and it never truly finds its groove. Part of the problem is I felt bad for most of my opponents. They either charge haphazardly into most battles, getting riddled with each step, or perform an awkward dive roll, which leaves them vulnerable as they consider what to do next. The selection of firearms also disappoints both in feel and variety. The oddly named Thrustbuster is Saints Row’s greatest weapon to date (as it sends enemies into the stratosphere), but most machineguns and pistols feel unremarkable. The default lock-on targeting system strips excitement from the firefights and is something most games abandoned generations ago. All that said, blowing stuff up – which you do all the time – is incredibly rewarding given just how extensive most damage is. The rockets and grenades help give the combat system a pulse.

In my 30 hours of play, I experienced several glitches, the most severe being my weapons no longer firing, but most were of the visual variety, like my character’s head disappearing. The gameplay can be rough and may force you to reload a checkpoint. Thankfully, the game is liberal with them, so too much time isn’t lost, but it still stinks to have to repeat steps. Here’s hoping the game receives additional polish post-launch.

It may not push your new hardware to the limit and is a little rough around the edges, but the latest Saints Row is everything it needs to be, delivering a wonderful comedic experience with plenty of depth. While a little irritating, I was never bored and wanted to see where my team’s goofy antics would take them next. The payoffs are often worth the time investment, and just veering off the beaten path pays dividends. I’m glad the Saints are back, hopefully for another long haul.

Features

• Witness the Birth of The Saints – Play through an action blockbuster original story full of criminality, extraordinary scenes and signature surprises laced with humor.
• Discover the Weird, Wild, West – Dive in to Santo Ileso, the biggest and best Saints Row playground ever, spread across nine unique districts surrounded by the vast, majestic beauty of the Southwest Desert.
• Build Your Criminal Empire – Take over the city block by block, wage war against enemy factions and tighten your grip on the streets with ingenious criminal ventures.
• Fire Guns. LOTS of Guns – Shoot revolvers from the hip, fire and forget with a rocket launcher, or obliterate up close using melee heavyweights, complete with brutal takedowns. A vast variety of familiar and exotic weapons, all customizable, and all deadly fun.
• Take to the Streets and the Skies – Blast through urban and desert environments in any one of the cars, bikes, planes, helicopters, VTOLs, hoverbikes, hoverboards, go-karts or equip your wingsuit to swoop around.
• Unprecedented Customization – Create the Boss of your dreams, with the most extensive character customization suite ever seen in the series, then complete the look with incredible options for weapons and vehicles.
• Seamless Co-Op – Experience everything on offer with a friend at any time, via fully untethered drop-in / drop out co-op, skipping the need to take either of you out of the outlandish action. Play nice together, or play all new pranks on your team mate. After all, who’s the Boss now.

Specifications

General

Brand Name Deep Silver

GameStop Exclusive false

Gameplay

Number of Players 1 player

Genre Action

Interactive Elements No Interactive Elements

Fandom

Franchise Saints Row

Publisher Name Deep Silver

Developer Name Deep Silver / Volition

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