After coming out of the Deep Silver/Volition hands-off demo of Saints Row 4, I have to say, I’m quite impressed. The demo started with a quick catch up of what has happened to The Saints after the end of the third game. You became the president of the United States only to have an alien invasion force abduct you and your entire cabinet into a virtual world.
After that quick update, we got a chance to look at some of the new melee options available to you, along with two new weapons. The first weapon that we got to see is the Inflate-O-Ray, a comical cannon that will blow up people’s heads like a balloon popping. The second weapon that we got to see is the Dubstep cannon, a mystical device that will shoot out dope beats and awesome bass drops to destroy your enemies in colorful lights and sounds. The reaction of enemies exploding into music and then more enemies dancing in lieu of their death was pretty great.
After a look at the weapons we got to see a new addition to weapon customization: weapon skins. This allows you shoot a rocket out of an RPG that looks like a guitar case. Next we saw a new vehicle customization (Saints Row monster truck), which then ended the intro of the demo. After that there was a demo of one of the side games which was called MechAssault: it’s exactly what you think. You drive a mech around causing mass destruction, racking up points, and gaining a bronze, silver, or gold medal, which allows you to unlock more weapons and vehicles.
Finally, to top off the demo, we saw some crazy super powers that you can get (presumably) later in the game. You have the power of super speed and super strength (ala punching real hard). You also have the power of T.K. (telekinesis), allowing you to lift and push people across the map, along with vehicles. On top of that, you can jump insanely high and fly around the city at ease.
As the demo came to a close, they showed the Saints new enemy: The Zen, an alien race that is trying to take over the minds of the human race.
I walked away from the demo very impressed. I’m definitely looking forward to Saints Row 4, launching on August 20, 2013 in the United States.
This preview is based off a hands-off demo which was shown to a group of other media as well.
