Saints Row is back after a seven year break, a proper 2022 series reboot from developer Volition that reinvents the series on several fronts – and I’m overwhelmed. Not because of the game itself – it’s good chaotic fun – but because of Volition’s approach to PS5 and Xbox Series X support. There are five different graphics modes – two at 1080p, two at 1440p and one at 4K – plus toggles for ray-traced ambient occlusion (RTAO) on the high quality 1080p and 1440p modes. That’s seven permutations in all, perhaps a record for a major console release, yet Series S has no settings to change at all. On the surface, the level of customisability on PS5 and Series X is amazing stuff, offering tons of flexibility – but it also requires a ton of testing, both on our side and in the Volition QA department. It hasn’t been long since we last saw Saints Row in action either – exactly one month since we ran our PC preview. Have the developers had enough time to produce a polished release?
Before we get into the issues – and there are issues – let’s cover the positives. Many of the visual highlights we discovered in the PC version have made it to the current-gen console versions on PS5, and Series X. Ray-traced ambient occlusion is a superb extra that adds more realistic shading, especially noticeable in dark interiors, without any of the artefacting we’d see in a screen-space solution. Saints Row’s lighting and volumetric effects are also spectacular, from the sand whirling behind cars in desert chases at dusk or the way smoke billows in front of headlights. Outside of story missions though, the city sandbox is the focus – the high vehicle count, destruction physics and AI provide potential for real carnage.
Despite these highlights, too often technical issues detract from the experience. Some of these appear to be design choices – like NPCs with low frame-rate animation at range that unfortunately stick out like a sore thumb on PS5 and Series X. Others present as more obvious bugs, little moments of oddness, like broken finishing moves that play out with noticeable gaps between your character model and that of the enemy.
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