Disarming nukes, becoming the President of the United States of America, and fighting off an alien invasion are only but a fraction of what you can do in the newest installment of the Saints Row franchise.  Saints Rows IV is the fourth in the series made by Volition Inc. and published by Deep Silver, available for PC, Xbox 360, and PS3. This game is infamously known for their wild, crazy, and hilarious game play, as well as its crude missions and storyline. Think of Grand Theft Auto super charged.

You play as the boss of a gang that now runs the United States of America, and then out of nowhere there is alien invasion by the Zynyak Empire, an alien race.  Since the Zynyak took over, you must fight off the aliens and save your friends one at a time. There are multiple of missions in this game where you might have to fight alongside a pro wrestler, or travel back to the 60’s where every curse word you say is bleeped out, or perhaps even fight a gigantic can of “Saints Flow” energy drink. There are also tons movie and videogame references, from “Metal Gear Solid” to the Matrix to Star War. Basically, there is a hidden reference in every mission; in fact some of the achievements you earn from missions are references as well. Throughout the game your character is constantly making jokes or breaking the forth wall, keeping you entertained all the time.

There are 30 different weapons to choose from, ranging from the “Inflato-ray” which gives people bobble heads, to an “energy sword” which is a light saber, or even a “Black Hole Launcher” which sucks anything and everything in its range and makes it disappear.  My favorite weapon is the “Dubstep Gun” because it kills people with waves of Dubstep( for those who are not familiar with Dubstep, it is a genre  of music with many bass drops and electronic beats). In the game you are allowed to upgrade your weapons whether it is increasing the clip size, ammo capacity, damage, or fire rate at the nearest gun shop. You are also allowed to customize the gun such as adding pink polka dots to your assault rifle or adding a different track on the “Dubstep Gun”, and a “mech” which is awesome, just imagine punching walls out of your way, hovering around aliens were you rain missiles and bullets upon them.

I played the game on the PC, so for me lag or loading was not an issue nor were graphics ,graphics on PC platform are amazing and beautiful as long as you have a good graphics card, but for PS3 and Xbox 360 they were not a big improvement from Saints Row the Third, but if it is not broken don’t try to fix it. The cut-scenes at times seem somewhat choppy, such as an item looking as if it’s hovering on a person’s hand  or a character’s audio out of sync with his/her mouth movement for both PC and consoles, also for consoles the rendering takes a while, the view distance is short and you might get short loading bits.

But I would not let the graphics discourage you because this game reminds you of what video games are all about, which is having fun. This game will give endless hours of fun whether you are doing main missions, side missions, or simply going on a civilian killing frenzy with an alien tentacle. If you focus only on the campaign missions it takes around 15 hours to complete, that is not including side missions, random events going on, or the random things you will find yourself doing. Another fun and very important aspect about this game is the multi player / Co-op. This feature makes the game much more fun were both you and a friend/random can either choose to roam the city and cause havoc or play the campaign together.

Saints Row IV has one of the best, if not the best, character customization engines you have the option to choose your characters’; gender, hair style, body type, skin tone, makeup, sex appeal, tattoos, voice, wardrobe, and much more making your character unique, or you can choose from a selection of premade characters. I believe that it is the best character customization because is gives you much more options than any other game, some being silly, and others really amazing such as choosing your character voice and distorting it to sound different , the closest another game can come to compete against it would be Skyrim’s character customization.

Now the game is very explicit with your character cursing through out the whole game and some of the missions are plain crude, but very enjoyable, which is why it earned an M rating.

So, for those who have both the means and are old enough to play this game, I suggest you buy the game as it is quite the bang for your buck. I would rate the game an 8.5/10 for PS3 and Xbox360 and a 9/10 for PC for its amazing graphics, because this game is just so much fun.

If you are looking for a game different from all the mainstream first person shooters, such as “Call of Duty”, or “Halo”, then I suggest buying this game.  It is an open world game that will make you laugh many, many times. Warning: buying this game might deprive you of a social life and both your parents and friends will wonder if you are still alive.