Recent reviews by ShadowsofYesterday

Yeah, so the physics and handling were a bit botched this time around, but this game nails the "spectacle" aspect of Sonic games better than any other Sonic game, the music is great, the game is longer than the past few games in the series, and the story is a rather amusing parody of the types of super edgy, fanfictiony stories that for some reason a lot of fans want the series to return to. Even then, the story finely balances the line between being silly and being something you can actually take somewhat seriously (just not TOO seriously). All in all, I think this is definitely worth the purchase for a Sonic fan.

Was this worth my $20? Long story short, no. Do I regret buying it though? Also no. The game has its flaws, and I feel it doesn't really measure up to Saints Row IV or its Christmas DLC (which is apparently no longer canon as of this game. Sad, I really liked that DLC) as a result of those flaws, but I still had fun with it.

Let me get my biggest complaint out of the way right off the top: You bothered to put in the time to collect 100% of the clusters so you could max out all your powers? Well too bad! You can't. There are 940 clusters in this game, and purchasing and upgrading all of your powers would take at least 1120, if my calculations are correct. Unlike SRIV, which left you with a ton of clusters you'd never use, in this game, it's impossible to max out all your powers, so you have to pick and choose which ones you want to max (it would have been nice to know that BEFORE I spent clusters willy nilly grabbing every upgrade for the never-used 'Summons' power). Now if this were some sort of class/build-based RPG, that'd be fine, but this is a Saints Row game, and I expect to be rewarded for taking the time to collect everything.

Beyond that, the game lacks a lot of what gives Saints Row games their personality, such as 80s pop music and a large cast of colourful characters. Saints Row IV was a bit bland in the post-game, but this game feels very empty and lifeless. Makes sense for the setting, I suppose, but it could have been handled better. I miss being able to dress up my characters however I see fit, and buying things from actual shops. I miss being able to store/recall and/or modify vehicles (even though vehicles have been worthless since Saints IV). I even miss being able to taunt or compliment random passersby (I tried binding those actions to keys in the key setup menu, but it refused to bind those actions, probably because they didn't want to make taunts or compliments for each character). I really miss the "Death From Above" attack from Saints Row IV, since it's still possible to hover in midair, and it even still uses the same animation. With the new flight mode, it seems like it'd have been a perfect fit, but it was taken out for some reason.

Now on to the positive: The flight is fun. It's something that was SORELY missing in Saints Row IV, and I really enjoy screwing around with it. It takes a good while to get the hang of, and even longer to master, but when you do, it feels pretty natural (at least for mouse and keyboard, but I can't imagine why you'd be playing this game with a controller). At least one of the new powers and a couple of the new weapons are interesting. Not really anything too special, and I'd rather just take the Saints Row IV weapons and powers any day, but interesting. Switching off between Johnny and Kinzie is kind of a neat little gimmick, even though it seems to be mostly if not entirely a cosmetic difference (it feels like Kinzie takes damage faster, though I may just be imagining that. Other than that, the only difference I see is in the final boss fight, depending on who you are when you go into it). The humour is okay, though that's to be expected of Saints Row.

tl;dr: It's not as good as Saints Row IV or the Christmas DLC, I'm sad that the Christmas DLC is no longer canon, I'm not happy about not being able to max out my character, and I feel the price was much higher than it should have been, but I still enjoyed it, so I can't say I don't recommend it. I give Gat Out of Hell a C+.