Why is Saints Row Getting SO MUCH HATE?

Saints Row (PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S/One) has received some backlash from fans and critics. Let's take a look at what's going on.

[Creamada_Crop]

I think the issue with most games and movies nowadays is that they're trying to set up franchises and set up opportunities for sequels instead of just making a solid standalone piece of work

[tremerefury]

Games like Saints Row, GTA, Yakuza and Mafia should NEVER be politically correct. They are games that need to be offensive. Criminals aren't politically correct. They do not care about your feelings, except as far as it benefits them. The push for Saints Row and GTA 6 to be more politically correct is bad for both franchises.

[kaneaquino]

I think you're more focused on if the comedy hits or not and not the other reason for the hate being it's story. The fact you're commiting crimes to make rent and pay student debts is why people really seem to hate it, especially since the new Saints don't even look like gangsters, but folks you'd see at Starbucks

[blueninjanoname]

One thing that sticks out for me in the older saints was how they nailed the player character. You had history, you had real motive that was often a mystery and the other players know it and have their own relationship with you. The story didn't exist just to serve the gameplay characters had their own charm and motive which was great, it was about brotherhood and establishing the Saints in the world.

[Doom_Guy__]

To be honest with you, I'm just tired of my beloved game franchises getting shitty, unfinished, out of touch sequels. All we wanted was something as good or better than saints row 1 and 2. What makes it worse is some people excuse these buggy messes, which I find baffling.

[Unikornis]

The way the team treated their original fans during the development time, their reaction to their critique...all the hate is well deserved

[mesousagaby]

I think the real problem is that Volition seems to kinda have lost it as a studio overall. Remember how disappointing Agents Of Mayhem was? I think the developers just kinda gave up at making fun games and instead just plain recycle stuff from the Saints Row games and give it some sort of "coating", and it also happened here, too. It just feels like the team never really wanted to try something insanely new, just lazily rehash it in a way cause from the gameplay I'm seeing on this, it feels insanely recycled and lazy. The gameplay style is sorta the same, they didn't bother to really make it feel fresh and why it was such a good GTA alternative for some of their games.

[Ieowo]

"And if you try to please everybody, you're gonna end up pleasing nobody" I love Falcon so much

[bharv]

It’s not “hate”. It’s legitimate criticism.

[sirlink]

I think the one thing that really annoyed me was the fact that when you were fighting against the other "gangs", there was no actual ending to them. Yeah you killed their leader, but it doesn't even feel like you did anything in the city. With previous games, most of the time it actually felt like something happened. I loved 2-4 (didn't have an Xbox to play 1), and I loved the franchise. But even coming into this game with low expectations, I was very disappointed with how they handled this game. They didn't even take what they learned from the previous games and try to expand with some of their systems. For the first time in a Saints game, I was bored doing side activities and nothing really stood out in the main missions

[tonyseccia]

This is my first Saints Row game, a friend bought it, luckily for me. I'm a sucker for a good story, but the story in this game is absolutely non-existent and horrible. The gameplay is sort of fun, especially in co-op (the co-op bug where you can't join your friends is annoying as hell). The shooting mechanics are nothing to write home about but they aren't bad, it is a good boredom reliever.

The missions feel lazy AF, the developers are abhorrent for thinking this was acceptable to give to all y'all who were looking forward to this game. The 'fetch this and that' style main missions make me feel personally violated. There is no flare, nothing interesting or engaging in pretty much ANY of the missions. The characters are flat, forgettable, and boring. Not to mention you're forced to grind repetitive mind numbing tasks, for a LONG time, to save up some money to upgrade your weapons, cars, person, or buy ventures. The grind for money isn't as bad as the other aspects of the game though, and can be sorta tolerable if you're playing with a friend.

Overall, I mean the combat is decently fun, again, IF, you're playing with a friend. The driving is alright, drifting is pretty fun. Upgrading your cars and weapons is somewhat amusing. Nothing else in the game is noteworthy.

This is an honest unbiased take as a first time player. If someone truly claims to love this game (which I haven't seen), I would question their taste in media. If you don't got anything else to play, and a friend to play with, go for it, it's decent enough to enjoy. If you're alone I wouldn't bother tbh. The developers really dropped the ball.

[PershingOfficial]

As someone in brand strategy, it’s pain to see gaming companies fail so HARD at properly researching their consumer base and combine it properly with their own game flare. I almost can’t believe gaming companies have such lack of judgement

[Nicole-xduj]

I think you're right about people just being sick of buying broken games....I'm at the point where I won't buy a game until it's been out for at least a year and been patched.

[marianrucareanu]

it's kinda sad that when a company becomes bigger with time it also becomes more soulless.

[FalloutFan]

I think people including myself were more tolerant when it came to games like Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas and Skyrim being buggy because of how good they were and you’d expect some bugs here and there with how big those games actually are. Most of those bugs/crashes can be countered by just saving the game regularly.
Whereas it seems more and more games that are just plain bad come out with a lot more bugs then they deserve to have. People will be more tolerant for the occasional bug if the game is good overall but devs releasing mediocre games riddled with bugs and just expecting to be praised isn’t right.

[dylanandino]

Aside from bugs what really irks me is the story. I thought reviewers were being dramatic when they said the story kinda just ends out of nowhere but they weren't kidding it really just does end. There's no real pay off to any gangs other than the LARPing missions. There's also no real explanation for the "main" villains motive, it kinda just happens and then you're on the last mission.

[Speculaas]

I remember after Saints Row 4 ended, the big speculation at the time was that the Saints would build a time machine and you had to start your empirium in different time periods. I kinda wish we got that game.

[zachevans]

This game was supposed to be as stated “a step forward, not a step back. They didn’t need to reinvent the wheel”. As a longtime saints row fan, what I enjoy about 1 and 2 was different than what I enjoyed about 3 and 4. In 1 and 2 it was about growth and perseverance and growing the saints into what they were in 3 and 4. The 3rd and 4th games in enjoyed the absolute chaos you could create and the parody of other games including itself had become. This reboot is none of those. I do find it enjoying to play and the rewards for missions and challenges… well rewarding. But the characters were nothing like the original characters. Shaundi, Johnny, Pierce, Julius, Troy, and even the enemy gangs and their leaders for the originals. The story in each original game had a sense of closure on each rival gang, not in this one. The new gang members have no skin in this. They haven’t lost the love of their life, you didn’t have to chase a truck down to only gather the remains of one of them, none of these characters were mentors, none of these characters had any real danger or sense of importance to the new saints.

[GameFoxYT]

It also didnt help that devs hinted in earlier
promos that they were going back to their roots,
and then they showed us this. and said the
gang is a 'group of people we'd love to invite to
our living room". Not the best words to describe
the next Saints Row ganbanger characters.
So far the only ones who seem passable are
Neena and the recent 'newest' older crew
member.

[GeneralGrievousCIS]

I absolutely loved SR2! SR3 was probably my second favorite, and it was close. I liked SR4 for what it was... I knew it was going to be ridiculous before it was released and so didn't try to take it seriously... just had fun with it and enjoyed the characters.

I feel like part of the problem here is that the one general consistency (the characters and character development) are gone. It takes away a lot of the nostalgia factor, and inherent acceptance fans are willing to provide, when the cast of ridiculous characters we've been following up to now aren't there to be that one reliable constant. You're left to have to try to enjoy the game, which isn't really nailing either SR style consistently, without the tried and tested characters there to help sell it to you. You're not invested by default, because it's a reboot, and there isn't a lot to get you into it when it's not nailing the style of either SR2 or SR3 (most people seem to like one or the other, I liked both). It's a shame... I had high hopes for this :/