1. Toilets – Half-Life 2

Half-Life 2 helped revolutionize the way physics work in video games with its versatile use of the Havok engine. Filling up trash bins with cans is cool and all, but the gravity gun really took physics to the next level. Just about any physical object in the environment could be used as a projectile with the gravity gun’s pick up and punt functionality. While saws and explosive barrels prove the most deadly objects to use, we couldn’t help shooting toilets at foes. Our excuse for using a toilet was the “flushed” achievement, but the hilarity of it was often the real reason. To Judith Mossman’s disappointment, we couldn’t help but treat the gravity gun as a toy throughout Half-Life 2.

Land Shark – Armed and Dangerous

This 2003 Lucasarts third-person shooter may have been a repetitive slog at times, but it had humor by the bucketloads. The Monty Python and Star Wars parodies were great fun, but the Land Shark gun takes the cake as the game’s craziest thing. Just shoot at an enemy and a live shark tunnels through the ground, popping up below your opponent to eat them alive. Armed and Dangerous may not be remembered for its level design or anything, but the Land Shark lives on as one of the wildest things shot at an enemy in games.

Pixels – Ratchet & Clank 2016

How could a Ratchet & Clank game not make it on a list like this? While it was a given, what was difficult was deciding which weapons made earned a spot. I couldn’t resist the Pixelizer from the 2016 reboot. As the name suggests, this handy shotgun variant morphs enemies into a pile of 2D pixels. The icing on top is that they crumble apart like lego bricks when defeated by the shot.

Drill Bore – Turok 2

It’s hard to beat the Cerebral Bore when it comes to game weapon brutality. A combination of a homing device, saw, and clamp, the Cerebral Bore tracks enemy brains and latches onto them, and well, you know the rest. Turok 2 shows a surprising amount of blood and gore as the bore tunnels through enemies’ skulls. While it’s certainly a satisfying weapon to use, the Cerebral Bore is one of the game’s slower weapons due to the lock-on and scanning time.

Dubstep ‘wubs’ – Saints Row 4

“It’s a party in a gun! Make the world dance to your beat and fear the power of your wubs!” That’s the in-game description of the Dubstep Gun and it fits the bill. Not only does it look like a turntable, but it literally shoots streams of dubstep energy at opponents. What’s even more hilarious and neat is the specific music track changes depending on the outfit worn.

Argent Energy Plasma – Doom (2016)

Every Doom player knows the destructive power of the BFG. It’s the most notorious weapon in the series for good reason. And it’s handy to boot, given that it’s one of two weapons in Doom 2016 with its own dedicated button (instead of the weapon wheel). Doom 2016’s iteration of the BFG uses green plasma made from Argent Energy, dealing up to 6000 damage to an enemy. This thing can vaporize and kill any enemy in a single shot as long as it’s not one of the bosses. The splash damage is also pretty large, catching groups and stragglers in the explosion radius very easily. You know you’ve just acquired the best weapon when that BFG Division music starts playing.

Swords – Borderlands 2

Among the thousands upon thousands of gun variants available throughout the Borderlands games, the Swordsplosion!!! gun takes the cake as most ridiculous. This E-tech shotgun is only available in the Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep DLC from Borderlands 2. Not only does it shoot an exploding sword, but it spawns other smaller swords that explode, spawning even tinier swords. It’s perhaps the most bizarre take on the weapons I’ve seen and I love it.

Rainbows Farts – Red Faction: Armageddon

Instead of your conventional super weapon being rewarded upon completing the game, Red Faction: Armageddon gives players a unicorn gun that farts rainbows. It’s not just a silly novelty though, as the Mr Toots gun provides some of the most damage in the game with its long-range high-powered laser shot. Enemies having the priviledge to be destroyed by Mr Toots explode in a confetti rainbow shower to top it all off.

Skunks – Oddworld Stranger’s Wrath

I’ve always appreciated Stranger’s Wrath for its unique take on the wild west bounty hunter schtick. It really feels like playing a sort of warped Jim Henson version of a classic Western. The third-person gunplay is pretty fun, but the live ammo is particularly charming. Each area has its own ecosystem of rodents and mammals that Stranger can pick up and use as Crossbow ammo, and those adorable but smelly Stunkz are my pick due to their cuteness and application. Shooting these skunks at enemies briefly immobilizes them, causing them to vomit uncontrollably.

Needles – Halo

While the famous M16 pistol from Halo 1 is undoubtedly the most effective weapon in the game, the Needler was the most innovative and intriguing. A Covenant creation, the Needler pins enemies with a barrage of energy needles that explode after a few seconds of insertion. They’re like an arrow with a timed explosive. Just shooting a few needles at enemies does peanut damage, but spam that sucker onto your opponent and you have a chained explosion that kills them within seconds.

Water – Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

The Water Pistol is one of many guns that can be developed on the Mother Base. And it’s far from the novelty item that it initially seems. Besides its utility distracting and potentially blinding enemies with splashes of water, it can short-circuit electronic equipment. But did you know the Water Pistol can even defeat a certain boss? That’s right, the Man on Fire can be defeated by spraying a ton of water from the Water Pistol directly on him. It takes about 80 or so hits, but once you take him down, it’ll be the ultimate humiliation.

Plungers – Luigi’s Mansion 3

The original Poltergust 3000 from the first Luigi’s Mansion defined the game’s premise and concept with its Ghostbusters-like vacuum gameplay. Well, the Poltergust has gone through some impressive upgrades since Luigi’s first haunted house visit. Luigi’s Mansion 3 introduces a bunch of new abilities and features for the Poltergust G-00. The funniest happens to be the Suction Shot, which involves plunging a ghost in the face and pulling it with a rope. The traditional use of Suction Shot is to break objects apart for easier suction, but we can’t stop shooting plungers directly at the enemies.

Thunderjaw – Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart

Rift Apart is the second and final Ratchet & Clank game to make it on the list, and of course it’s the RYNO. The RYNO is a returning legacy weapon, but the 8th iteration goes a step further, summoning objects from various PlayStation games. To get this ultimate weapon, players must find every Spybot in the game. Your reward pays off though. I mean, who doesn’t want to smash enemies with Sully’s plane from Uncharted, Jak & Daxter, or a freaking Thunderjaw from Horizon: Zero Dawn? Okay, technically, you’re dropping these objects from a portal and not shooting them, but you’re still shooting to open the portal, so it counts.

Junk – Fallout 3

Like Half-Life 2’s Gravity Gun, the Rock-It Launcher shoots a variety of environmental objects at enemies. What makes this weapon unique is Fallout 3’s emphasis on junk items. There’s a ton of junk within the Capital Wasteland and most of it can be loaded into the Rock-It Launcher. It’s a tad disappointing that every junk item has the same damage output, but the variety of stuff you can shoot at opponents is impressive nonetheless.

Bullet Bill – Mario Kart

Bullet Bill is the oldest object on this list, with its first appearance in world 5-1 of the first Super Mario Bros. Game from 1987. It wasn’t until Mario Kart Wii (and technically Mario Kart DS) when players could finally harness the dread power of Bullet Bill on unsuspecting friends. The kart turns into a giant Bullet Bill, auto-piloting through the course at top-speed catapulting others to the back of the line – that is, until they smash you with one later in the race.

Building Crazy Creations

What’s the one common thing between Starfield and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom? The crazy creations that each game allows you to make. A ship without a center of mass, allowing enemy fire to pass through and never hit you, or a drone that lasers enemies from the sky, seems impossible when you first start – the options are many and insane.

Spending Hours and Hours in Character Creation

This applies to any game with an extensive character creation toolset, like Baldur’s Gate 3. However, Skyrim is where it truly got out of control, and Starfield expanded on it further with more options. You could argue that it means nothing, but when role-playing as yourself or your ideal version, it’s important to get every little detail right, even if it takes hours. Then start again after playing for a few minutes because you want to change something (which is thankfully not an issue in modern games with mid-game editing options).

Diving Off Skyscrapers

2023 was the year that Saints Row developer Volition closed down. The series will continue, but it may be impossible to top Saints Row 4. What other open-world game allows for superpowers, weapons that fire black holes, or summoning mechs? However, our favorite thing is diving off a skyscraper and causing a massive explosion. Does it serve much purpose, given how late you get it? No, but it looks incredible. Prototype 1 and 2 did the same thing, causing a massive impact as you landed in the city streets, and was equally satisfying.

Hoarding Items

Whatever the genre, there’s just something about hoarding items and not using them, not even when you reach the final stage. It’s common in Larian Studios’ games, like the recent Baldur’s Gate 3, but arguably occurs more in games like Skyrim and Starfield. Have you ever packed your house with cheese in the former? How about throwing junk left and right in your spaceship for the latter? Some players stuffed their ships with potatoes because why not?

Walk the Entire Map

With how large the maps can be in open-world games, one of the craziest things you can do is walk from one end of the map to the other. Not drive or ride on horseback, but simply walk. It’ll take a while, whether you’re traversing Hyrule in Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom or The Lands Between in Elden Ring, but you can do it. Should you do it? Probably not, but it can be fun.

Attack NPCs and Cause Chaos

How many times have you quick-saved before unleashing Fus-roh-dah on hapless NPCs? How often would you run through markets in Assassin’s Creed, knocking over vendors as you rushed past? How frequently would you punch a random NPC in Los Santos and see how things played out? Attacking NPCs is an old but relevant pastime that still makes for the most extensive chaos.

Fight the Cops

Grand Theft Auto is infamous for the extensive battles you can have with the cops, with Grand Theft Auto 5 being the craziest yet. Other games like Cyberpunk 2077 have since caught up, with vehicular combat and encounters with MaxTac if you’re a big enough nuisance. Call it rebelling against authority or simply seeking a challenge, but battling the cops and surviving for as long as possible as they throw everything at you is fun.

Stalk NPCs

The realism of non-playable characters can vary in open-world games, so it’s always fun to hang around and see what they do. In games like Red Dead Redemption 2, following them and seeing what they do throughout the day is fascinating. One NPC gets up early, tends to his farm, makes food and then hangs out in the evening before sleeping. It sounds simple, but seeing others with schedules and watching them play out is incredible, if creepy.

Watch Random Events and Do Nothing

Conversely, you can just watch some random events in Red Dead Redemption 2 and do nothing. The guy drowning his wife in the trough? Don’t stop him. He’ll go on his way, and in a couple of days, you can walk in on his public execution. There are several such occurrences in open-world titles, and seeing how things play out can be entertaining (if morally dubious).

Break into NPCs’ Houses

After extensively observing an NPC, the next logical course of action, of course, was to try and break into their houses, preferably at night in the case of Skyrim. Maybe you could wake them up and see their reactions. Maybe you could steal everything, with or without their permission. Either way, hilarity ensues.

Stop GTA 5’s Train

The train in Grand Theft Auto 5 is the stuff of legend, running across the map and playing into specific story missions. The question arose then: Could you stop it? Players at the time tried everything, which boiled down to lining up as many buses and objects on the track as possible to stop it. Nothing worked…until eventually, someone discovered that parachuting onto it, going towards the front, throwing several C4s and detonating them could do it. Thus did another great GTA experiment come to an end, but it was a crazy time while it lasted.

FULTON Everything in Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain

With how serious the ending to Ground Zeroes was, it’s funny how Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain lightens the tension in some ways. Not necessarily in the story (though there are some light-hearted moments), but in the gameplay, as you slide around in boxes, deploy cardboard cut-out decoys and, well, FULTON everything. FULTON cargo containers. FULTON sheep or soldiers. It never gets old, and the lengths you can go to make everything on the enemy battlefield your own is hilarious.

Destroy Everything

Destruction in video games is impressive and can be especially fun in games like Teardown. In open-world games like Just Cause, it’s enjoyable to let loose on the world and cause widespread destruction. Buildings crumble, chains of explosions go off, enemies fly all over the place, the works – and the best part is that the game encourages it.

Dig Straight Down in Minecraft

Minecraft has undergone several changes and new additions since it launched in 2009. Between the Nether Fortresses, Elytra, new biomes and enemy types, one rule has remained prominent – never dig straight down. You have no clue what you’ll find, and it’s just as easy to hit lava that can kill you and destroy your items under most circumstances as it is to find diamonds (probably). Naturally, everyone digs straight down to see what happens and embraces death with gusto.

Throwing Enemies/Players Off Ledges

With all the insane things that open-world games allow for, it’s hilarious how something as simple as knocking someone off of a high place can be invigorating. Drop-kicking zombies off a rooftop in Dying Light, kicking bad guys off cliffs in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, and even just hitting another player and watching them plummet to their doom in Minecraft – it never gets old.

WATCH DOGS 2

The Watch Dogs franchise obviously has its own unique DNA with its pseudo-cyberpunk trappings and its hacking-centric gameplay mechanics, but there’s still a lot of GTA in Ubisoft’s franchise, and no game captures that better than Watch Dogs 2. If what you’re looking for is a large open world sandbox where you can have all kinds of chaotic (and criminal) fun with solidly implemented mechanics, in addition to a healthy dose of GTA-esque missions and side activities, Watch Dogs 2 offers that in spades.

SAINTS ROW 4

By the time the Saints Row franchise got to its fourth instalment, it had moved quite far away from how similar it used to be to the Grand Theft Auto games in its earlier days, and though that’s a stick that’s often used to beat Saints Row 4 with, on its own merits, as an open world crime action game, there’s a lot to love about it. From the bombastic, over-the-top mechanics that the game arms you with to wreak havoc with in the world to just how fun it is to simply explore the sandbox and mess about with its systems, Saints Row 4 offers a solid dose of open world action.

RED DEAD REDEMPTION 2

Let’s get to some of the painfully obvious picks now, because even though they’re obvious they’re well worth mentioning. Rockstar’s very own Red Dead Redemption 2 is, in fact, by far the best game on this list. Owing to its period setting, its more somber tone, and the added focus on character-driven storytelling, Red Dead 2 is obviously quite different from GTA in some key ways- but it’s a Rockstar open world. The sheer size of the map, the astounding variety and attention to detail it exhibits in spite of how large it is, the spectacularly designed content it’s brimming with, the complex web of systems that make the sandbox an infinitely enjoyable one- all of the hallmark Rockstar qualities you’d want in an open world game, Red Dead Redemption 2 delivers in extreme abundance.

GRAND THEFT AUTO 4

You don’t need us to tell you that you should be playing GTA 5 to scratch your GTA itch. More than a decade on from its launch, people can’t stop buying and playing it. That does mean, however, that some of its predecessors don’t get the retrospective attention that they deserve. Grand Theft Auto 4, for instance, has aged remarkably well. Not only does it have one of the strongest stories in the entire series, its open world is also one of the best-designed and most intricately detailed ones even today, so long after the game first came out. Do yourselves a favour and hop back into GTA 4, because it’s an absolute classic.

YAKUZA 5

Yakuza and Grand Theft Auto games might not be as similar as many often perceive them as, but particularly where Yakuza 5 is concerned, there’s a lot of GTA DNA in it. It is, for starters, one of the series’ larger games where pure real estate is concerned, while similar to GTA, it also offers a smattering of excellently designed side content that you can pour countless hours into. On top of that, you obviously have plenty of opportunities to commit outrageous crimes throughout the game’s world, and there are also multiple protagonists to play as, similar to GTA 5 (though that’s the case in several other Yakuza games as well, to be fair).

MAFIA: DEFINITIVE EDITION

2K’s Mafia franchise doesn’t put as much stock into the open world sandbox aspect of its experience as something like GTA does, instead putting the vast majority of its focus on storytelling. But even so, if you want to run and drive around an intricately crafted real-world (or real-world adjacent) city as a hardened criminal, Mafia: Definitive Edition is a game that’s likely to appeal to you. On top of that, it adds extra flavour of its own with an incredibly authentic and atmospheric period setting, allowing it to stand out in what’s clearly quite a crowded category.

FAR CRY 6

The Far Cry and GTA franchises have often had very similar sensibilities, in spite of how outwardly different they tend to be, and that’s abundantly evident in Far Cry 6 as well. Yes, having an open world that’s mostly wilderness and rural areas does give it a different flavour from Rockstar’s franchise (though Far Cry 6 does have way more urban environments than any of its predecessors), but from the systemic nature of its open world mechanics to the driving to so much more, Far Cry 6 does owe a lot of itself to GTA. 

GHOST RECON WILDLANDS

You might stand on the opposite sides of law in Ghost Recon Wildlands and Grand Theft Auto, but the former still borrows liberally from the latter in several respects. On top of offering a massive, systemic open world featuring third person shooter combat, Ghost Recon Wildlands is also a great game for someone who simply wants to get behind the wheel in a vehicle and cruise around the open world. And of course, it becomes doubly enjoyable if you’re doing all of that stuff in co-op.

JUST CAUSE 4

The Just Cause franchise has always been famous for its unique brand of open world chaos, and there’s plenty of that to go around in Just Cause 4 as well. Though the game is not without its issues in some key departments (like its storytelling and many of its bland missions), the actual sandbox itself is an absolute blast to exist in. From the explosive combat to the riotously fun wingsuit and grappling hook loop to the addition of extreme weather, Just Cause 4’s open world is brimming with opportunities to have fun of your own making.

CYBERPUNK 2077

Until quite recently, Cyberpunk 2077’s attempts to inject its open world with elements similar to the Grand Theft Auto games were unsuccessful ones, to say the least, but in the wake of Update 2.0 and Phantom Liberty, that’s certainly no longer the case. The open world is alive and buzzing, and the game does an excellent job of immersing you in its dense metropolis. From driving around in your vehicles to engaging in a variety of side activities to committing crimes to your heart’s content and wrangling with the cops, Cyberpunk 2077 and Phantom Liberty are the closest we’ve ever come to a futuristic take on GTA.

Horizon Forbidden West + Burning Shores

Despite being a post-apocalyptic adventure, Horizon Forbidden West manages to craft a world that well and truly feels like a character in its own right. Be it the granular attention to detail in the environments or the many tribal settlements spread throughout the world, the Forbidden West never fails to surprise at every turn. Even the machines form an ecosystem with certain kinds of mechanical creatures only found in certain places, and each of these types has its own schedules.

30. Just Cause 2

Although almost all games in the Just Cause series are fine sandbox experiences, the second game is perhaps the best the franchise has to offer. Featuring over the top bombastic action set pieces along with stellar mission design, Just Cause 2 features a vast playground to do some of the craziest things possible in video games. Although the combat is disappointing, it’s the open world and the crazy amount of destruction one can do in it is the star of the show here.

#15. BATMAN: THE ENEMY WITHIN

The first iteration of Telltale Games had a spotty track record with licensed properties in its latter years, but one in particular where the studio knocked it out of the work was Batman. And though the first Telltale Batman game was solid enough in its own right, its sequel, The Enemy Within, took things to much greater heights. Its portrayal and characterization of Batman and the Joker deserves all the praise in the world, and the complex, nuanced dynamic between the two characters is something every Batman fan needs to experience.

Marvel’s Spider-Man

The most successful open-world superhero game is undoubtedly Marvel’s Spider-Man. Available in 2018 for PS4 before arriving on PS5 in “Remastered” form, it sold over 20 million units on the previous-gen console alone. It made you feel like Spider-Man, a given and a nice thing when it came to the combat and web-swinging, but also sometimes like Miles Morales and Mary Jane Watson, which was weird in certain sections.

Nevertheless, its stellar encounters, gorgeous visuals that accurately captured Manhattan, and memorable storyline had us hooked. And while the open world may have adhered to some familiar tropes, the sheer fun it offered, combined with the incredible movement and traversal methods, was simply sublime.

However, all the DLC will be removed from standalone purchases along with the different versions of the game. Saves and Achievements will carry over into the Re-Elected version. Furthermore, cross-platform play is also launching on the same day, allowing those on Steam to play with Epic Games and GOG users.

Saints Row 4 is available for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC, while Re-Elected is on PS4, Xbox One, Google Stadia, and Nintendo Switch. For more details on the base game, check out our review here. You can also check out our review for the Re-Elected version here.

The reviews caused stocks for the Embracer Group, the parent company for Deep Silver which publishes the game, to take a tumble. Which is not great, especially since it considers the reboot as one of its more important releases for the quarter. One could look at the reviews and believe that critics aren’t too high on the game – and truth be told, the number of mixed and negative reviews on Metacritic outweigh the positives, 42 to 18.

However, if you look at the reaction from gamers, whether it’s in the comments on videos or the limited user scores on Metacritic, you’d think this is one of the worst games ever made. So what gives? Why do some gamers hate Saints Row so much?

The amount of hate actually goes back to the reboot’s initial reveal and announcement. At the time, Saints Row garnered hate for a variety of reasons. These include a setting that opted for more realism, but still stretched credulity as the series usually does (just not as organically as a “real” Saints Row title would); a new cast of characters that didn’t resonate in the few minutes they were showcased; visual quality that wasn’t quite up to par; being a reboot in general; and of course, for being “woke.” Such was the backlash that the developer had to come out and say that it wasn’t backing down, even as it acknowledged the “knee jerk reaction” and how “no one has rebooted like this before.”

First off, it’s worth asking – why did Volition opt for a reboot? After the events of Saints Row 4 and Gat Out of Hell – not to mention Agents of Mayhem with its own universe – some people felt it was necessary to start with a clean slate. Furthermore, sticking with a more grounded approach made sense in many ways. There were complaints that Saints Row 4, despite being a blast, had jumped the shark by a massive degree. How does one even go back to the days of Stilwater after all of that?

But another angle to the discussion is just adapting to the times. Principal designer Damien Allen told GamesRadar, “It is a balancing act, between what’s old and what’s new, but at the end of the day we have to keep moving forward with the times. If we stay the exact same, then it’s not going to do well. We are creating a game that we love, and we are creating something that we think is Saints Row.

“And even if there are some older fans who are vehemently against it, I think there’s going to be so many players that will end up falling in love with it – whether they’re old fans, new fans, or just happen to stumble upon our game on one of the various stores that it’ll be available on. I think there’s something that’s really cool about that.”

Once Volition started showing off more of the game, it became obvious that certain things fans loved about the series were still in place. You could still create your own character and go crazy with the customization. The combat was still over-the-top and explosive, even though it was using new systems like Flow and Perks (and mostly sticks to more realistic weapons). Santo Ileso looked a lot bigger than one initially thought and while there were no powers, it was possible to Wingsuit around at high speeds and assault NPCs indiscriminately.

However, these aspects being in place weren’t enough when the characters that one liked weren’t present. In that sense, I can empathize with those who dislike the game. Not seeing Kinzie, Shaundi, Pierce, Matt, Asha and Keith David return was a shame, especially after everything we had been through together.

In the same GamesRadar interview, UX designer Kenzie Lindgren said that while creating new characters with no strings attached was “really freeing,” the process was daunting because “are people going to love these characters?” For some, the first impression is usually the last and they weren’t impressed with what Neenah, Kevin and Eli had to offer.

The visual quality is another pain point. Even though Volition delayed the game and improved its fidelity, it’s still a major step behind contemporary open world greats like Horizon Forbidden West, Ghost of Tsushima, Red Dead Redemption 2 and so on. Not that the previous Saints Row series were known for their visual brilliance either, but I don’t fault some fans for expecting a much bigger visual leap nine years later.

There are also reports of bugs and glitches, some players facing way more than others. Though a part and parcel of nearly every game, especially open world titles, these added further fuel to the fire. Of course, if I faced such a significant number of bugs when paying full price for the game, I’d be annoyed too.

But the main reason I believe that Saints Row is going down well with some fans and absolutely reviled by others goes back to that “balancing act” that Allen spoke of. The cast is subject to long-standing life issues like struggling with rent or just finding the motivation to get out of bed. Instead of delving deeper into those and fully satirizing US culture like GTA, it embraces the more lighthearted, zany style of Saints Row and its depiction of the underworld.

And while it doesn’t stay “the exact same” as older games, many critics have pointed out how dated it feels in the controls and overall gameplay, whether it’s the shooting, movement or design of side activities. However, for some fans, it could serve as a classic throwback to the older games, just with some tweaks and changes. This is one of the problems with “balancing” the old and new since satisfying everyone rarely goes well. The range of review scores is an indication of that.

At the end of the day, the reasons that one hates Saints Row for could very well be the same reasons that someone else likes it. I may not find the main cast endearing due to my connection with previous games’ characters. Others have found the new characters quite enjoyable and fleshed out, even if the overall story is somewhat lacking given its initial setup.

I may want a game with extensive side quests and painstaking attention to detail. Others probably like the arcadey nature of Saints Row’s gameplay, whether it’s playing Insurance Fraud or just going out and blowing stuff up on the streets. I’m not a huge stickler for visual fidelity but others may feel that a game should achieve a certain visual benchmark when it’s priced for $60.

Everyone has different expectations. As Allen noted, “Sometimes I hear from fans and they love different aspects of the franchise, and that doesn’t resonate with me in the same way. So as much as possible we focus on breadth, on variety, and on making sure that we are really asking ourselves ‘does this add to the player’s enjoyment, and is it something that’s worth their time?'”

With the sheer amount of ideas that the franchise has had since its inception, the question of whether the development team has truly plucked “all the best ones and put them together into a cohesive story, game, and world” will have many different answers. You may agree with some or disagree with others, and it probably wouldn’t be a Saints Row title otherwise. However, if the reboot proves anything, it’s that you can’t please everyone, no matter how many explosions, wingsuits, vehicles, crazy missions and set pieces your game has.

More importantly, even if someone likes your game, they won’t always like everything about it (and will oftentimes let you know). So it goes, until the end of time.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

Control

The morphing Service Weapon may be her claim to the Director position in The Oldest House but it’s Jesse’s psychokinetic powers that make her a force to reckon with. Along with launching objects – and bodies – into enemies, she’s capable of using nearby rubble to create a shield, temporarily Seize a foe’s mind, and even Levitate. Further powers were added in subsequent updates, like Shield Rush for conjuring a shield of rubble and then charging into enemies with it.