Perks are passive buffs you unlock for completing certain challenges, while skills give you different combat abilities you can assign to one of four slots. You have a selection of perks and skills now, too. The result: Saints Row encourages you to play more aggressively and ramps up the difficulty, resulting in combat thatвЂ™s closer to Control than a traditional cover shooter. Your finish meter builds up over time, but you can speed up the process by killing some enemies. You now have access to a finisher move that will give you back some health. Where the game does see some evolution is combat. ThereвЂ™s a lot to do in Santo Illeso, even if there isnвЂ™t a ton to explore (more on that later). Immediately after my demo, I wanted to dive back in to check off points on the map, customize my hideout, and start building my criminal enterprise. ThereвЂ™s nothing here you havenвЂ™t seen before, but thereвЂ™s a lot of it.

In the four hours I had with the game, I didnвЂ™t touch Criminal Ventures like Insurance Fraud, and my demo ended right as I was placing my first collectible in The Saints hideout. I was able to experience a bit of each, but what surprised me is how much I didnвЂ™t see. Outside of the 25 main missions, you have 10 side missions, several Side Hustles, and dozens of points of interest that unlock collectibles, skins, money, and fast travel points. These missions are mostly linear in the beginning, taking you to locations you canвЂ™t explore in the open world and punishing you for getting sidetracked (a bit like Red Dead Redemption 2). I went through about 10 main missions, spending some of my time tackling side objectives and exploring as well. The reboot doesnвЂ™t do anything new - it simply gives you a list of objectives of varying severity to tackle across the wide map of Santo Illeso. If youвЂ™re looking for cutting-edge open-world gameplay, you wonвЂ™t find it in Saints Row. Saints Row doesnвЂ™t evolve the series, but after spending four hours with the game at a preview event, I realize it never needed to. It takes sparse influences from more recent open-world sandboxes, but still focuses on the core of the series: a cast of cartoonish characters, blockbuster action, and an open world that just begs for you to cause mayhem within it.

Saints Row, the 2022 reboot, doesnвЂ™t break the mold either.

Bringing Saints Row into back down to earth.

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