Saints Row

The result feels deeply compromised, falling between the Saints Row of old and the series it became

Developer Volition

Publisher Deep Silver

Format PC, PS4, PS5 (tested), Stadia, Xbox One, Xbox Series

Release Out now

The Saints' boss sighs deeply, as her plans for a team-bonding day are spoiled yet again by a rival gang. "How many motherfuckers do we have to kill to have a goddamn day off?" she growls. Our thoughts precisely. The shootout that follows is, like almost every other encounter in Volition's misguided reboot, aggressively protracted: one more bout of effortful but numbingly repetitive carnage involving waves of moronic but frustratingly hardy enemies. This one is complicated slightly in this instance by your AI teammates' unfortunate habit of walking into explosions, but at least when one perishes we're not forced to sit through the introductory preamble we usually get when restarting a mission. Nor, on this occasion, have our skill shortcuts inexplicably disappeared, though our ability to fast-travel appears to have been disabled. We've grown accustomed to that during missions as well as the map screen being out of commission - but not outside of them.