Saints Row IV: Re-Elected

Everything included, the remaster rough — a riotous classic that still plays today

Settle the accounts: the original Saints Row IV pulled a Metacritic 86 from critics and an 87% "Very Positive" Steam rating built from over 57,000 reviews — already a riotous classic the years have vouched for. As its generational remaster, Re-Elected lands a "Strong" 75 on OpenCritic, recommended by 56% across 62 reviews — a respectable but unremarkable number. That gap is precisely the awkward position it occupies: the play still hits, the content is stuffed full, but the remaster itself was handled conservatively, the visual bump is thin, and it falls short of the "definitive" label.

Put another way, Re-Elected's reputation splits into two layers. Underneath sits the base game's proven, still-fun core, so however rough it gets it never looks bad. Floating on top is the regret this remaster left by cutting corners, so it can forget about matching the original's old high marks. What you buy is a discounted sincerity — flawless on content, a little too rough on experience for new hardware. Grasp that split and you will not bring the wrong expectations to it.

Who should buy, who should walk — heaven for unwinders, a minefield for realists

Its target audience is honestly clear. If what you want is mindless stress relief, a love of pop-culture parody, and the weightless thrill of parkour ranked above realistic detail, then Re-Elected was practically tailored for you — superpowered traversal, the Dubstep blaster, '90s anthems, and forty-plus hours of content to spare. It asks nothing of your posture; collapse on the couch after work, play an hour on a whim, and you can still laugh the day's fatigue into rubble.

Flip it around, though. If you want serious storytelling, a realistic crime sandbox, or visuals polished enough to screenshot and show off, it will most likely strike you as rough and juvenile — not your dish. Its humor is dense and blunt, with no margins; its visuals are functional, not fussed-over; its difficulty is all but gone by the back half. To an unwinder those are all upsides; to a player chasing immersion and challenge they may each read as a mark against it. Asking yourself which experience you are after, before you buy, beats reading any score.

The thing nobody dares to copy — it took "the dumbest fun" all the way

In the end, what makes it hardest to replace is the whole recipe of "a gang boss-turned-president fights aliens with superpowers" — superpowered traversal, the Dubstep blaster, '90s anthems, airtight pop-culture parody, kneaded into one lump of nonsense nobody dares photocopy. The genius of that recipe is that you can find any single ingredient elsewhere, yet the full set is one of a kind: superpower parkour exists in Crackdown, open-world crime exists in Grand Theft Auto, but stewing the President, the aliens, the sonic music device and a screenful of memes in one pot — and stewing it this brazenly well — is a dish only it serves.

Its most direct rival is that year's realistic crime benchmark, Grand Theft Auto V, but GTA chases a straight-faced crime epic and cannot hand you this weightless joy or this unabashed parody. The two run opposite extremes, and neither can stand in for the other.

Re-Elected may not be the series' most polished entry, with regrets left in its visuals and its remaster effort, but it took "the dumbest fun" all the way to the end — and on that count alone, it earns a firm spot among a crowded field of open worlds.