Saints Row: Gat Outta Hell

Happy Price: 4.99

Rating: 7.0

Gameplay

As a standalone game, you feel a bit cheated because Gat Outta Hell feels very much like DLC to Saints Row IV. It is pretty much the same game with a different narrative and reskinned guns to make them more hell themed. As you fly and sprint through hell, your job is to create as much chaos as possible in order to piss off the devil and have him confront you. 

Narrative

The most unique and best feature of the game was the story. After playing with a Ouija board a hell portal opens up and steals the president. Johnny Gat goes into hell to rescue his buddy, because he's Johnny Gat and a complete badass. The devil is to marry his daughter to the president, so that the union can assist the devil in corrupting humanity. The president has great leadership skills and is ruthless, so he's the perfect candidate for a son in law. There are many surprises inside the story including musicals and many unique endings the player can select. The voice acting and animation are superb making the story immersive and worth your time.

You'll find prominent figures from history down in hell, both fictional and from the SR universe. These figures include Blackbeard, Shakespeare, the Twins, and Vlad the Impaler. These characters have found themselves new roles in hell, and each are favored by the devil in some way due to their work on Earth. Exploring these is fun and entertaining, as it makes you think how their talents would translate to modern society. For example, Shakespeare in hell is an EDM DJ, begging the question if his talents would have rose to the surface in the modern age or would've been diluted by the lures of modern technology.  

Combat

If you've ever played Saints Row IV, skip this section. It is the exact same. If not, keep reading. Johnny Gat has two main ways to navigate the area and avoid enemy gunfire. That is sprinting and flying. Upgrading these two movement mechanics will greatly enhance your experience defeating tons of demons and hellspawn. In order to conserve ammo and generally move around as fast as possible, I sprinted around and kicked people in the nuts as much as I could. The benefit of doing that is health would drop right next to me, and I'd get to see a sweet animation like a wrestling move. 

In terms of shooting, you get a small selection of weapons. There are the pistols, sub machine guns, machine guns, melee, special, and explosive. There are two to three variants of each of these weapon types, and each must be individually upgraded so choose carefully on which you'd like to build out, because you won't be able to build them all out. Don't think the hell version of a weapon is going to be superior than the Earth version, for example the rocket launcher and shotgun are superior than their hell version counterparts. Early game, I assumed since the hell versions looked cooler they'd be more powerful, so I wasted money upgrading them. When the opportunity arises, make sure you get the couch gun. It is by far the most powerful gun in the game, and eventually it can be upgraded to the point where there is unlimited ammo and no reloads. This made defeating the devil a cakewalk.

You do also get super powers, but pick one and upgrade that as much as possible. The currency to upgrade them is limited, and is annoying to obtain early game. Once you've upgraded flying enough it gets a little easier, but it's still a task. Each prominent figure you help out in hell will award you a different power. There are four that were stated above, each with something to offer you. These super powers assist in battles, but are far from the main thing that kills things. Those are still going to be your guns, but when in a tight situation the super powers help. I stuck to the stomp since it cleared out areas which would help when I had to stay and protect an area for long periods of time. A few mission types require this, and it suited me well. The three other options include spawning imps, an arcane blast, and an aura. 

Environments

Hell is a difficult thing to create because it's not real, but at the same time this makes it awesome because you can create it however you imagine it to be. The environment is very underwhelming and I feel like I'm in a hell skinned version of a city from Saints Row IV. No pun intended, but there is no soul to the environment. It feels like I'm in a test version of the game or something, and the details have not been fully fleshed out. There isn't any real soundtrack, so when you're getting place to place it feels dreadful. This clashes with the theme that Saints Row has created, where hell would likely be a fun place. I expected there to be music that got my energy up, but instead I got something that made me want to shut the game off. To me it seemed like there were a lot of assets from other games that were re-used, and just were re skinned. That was disappointing.

Summary

Probably not worth your time. The narrative was the most fun part, and you an youtube that online. This is miles from SR III which is one of my favorite games. SR IV took a step back, and this takes a step way back. It has it's moments of great polish, but It's still taking and building off of a highly polished franchise. 

Doom

Rating: 9.0

Happy Price: 39.99

Gameplay

Doom is one of the best shooters I've played in years, the single player experience was something I haven't experienced since Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare back in 2007. So it's the best shooter I've played in nine years. There are a variety of enemies, weapons to use against them, the action is non stop, and the story isn't half bad either. 

Run n' Gun

Doom is all about staying in motion and reacting quickly to enemies. Certain enemy types are weak against certain weapons and when a flood of them approach, you have to think quickly about how to go about the situation. Running around and singling out enemies worked best for me. Each weapon has two modifications that can be unlocked, which then can be upgraded. To add, certain weapons share the same ammo, so you have to be very careful about what you're doing. There are two energy weapons, two shotguns, and two machine guns. Deciding what you want to upgrade becomes very important and you have to compliment your own gameplay style if you're going to be successful.

Weapon Types

Each weapon has a strength and weakness, along with certain enemies that respond differently to weapons. There is the standard combat shotgun which has decent range and good damage up close. It can take out most minion type enemies in one shot or leave them ready for a glory kill. This is the most commonly used weapon to take out weaker enemies. Along with that is the double barrel shotgun which has very limited range but much more power than the combat shotgun. I found no use for this weapon. 

The heavy machine gun and chain gun both share ammo. The heavy machine gun is good for distant enemies since you can upgrade it with a scope. Headshots are very effective and when there isn't too many smaller minions chasing you, this weapon is used to take out more powerful enemies. The chain gun burns through ammo but can be used when situations get overwhelming. It will chop through weaker enemies all while damaging the larger ones that accompany them. It's a good way to weaken everything around you until you run out of ammo, and then switch to a more powerful weapon to finish everyone off. 

The pulse rifle and gauss rifle are the energy weapons. The pulse rifle holds a lot of ammo and shoots rapidly, but has low damage. The Gauss rifle is a long range high damage weapon that uses much more ammo per shot than the pulse rifle. I found the pulse rifle to be useless, and the Gauss rifle was much more superior along with it's upgrade tree. 

Last is the rocket launcher. Extremely good at taking out hordes of low level enemies and formidable against the more powerful ones, it's probably the most versatile weapon in the arsenal. With the nature of verticality and moving around a lot, you have to be careful when using this weapon since there is residual damage from your rockets. Blowing up an enemy too close will also damage you, and this is really the only downside to the weapon.

Artwork/Animations

The enemy AI and animations are some of the best I've ever seen in a video game. The levels are complex with platforming features that require precise timing and jumping. Just when you think you can get to a safe area, the enemy AI gracefully jumps towards you. Even enemies you would not anticipate could do that based on their normal pathing. Nothing looks bad while all of this chaos is going on. Enemies are chasing you all over the map no matter where you go, they also try to get to vantage points. When you witness this happening, you can only appreciate the time and effort that went into that. It's some of the smoothest gameplay I've ever experienced and it seems like each scenario has been thought through, or it was incredible level design to avoid issues. 

The character models are top notch and there is a ton of detail and variety with each enemy. Based on their powers, strengths, and weaknesses comes the design of the character. You can tell fat guy is build for being slow and shooting a powerful weapon. Smaller four legged creatures with a horn are probably going to charge. Once their dead and you've actually inspected them, it seems like every inch of the character was thought about. Everything ties back into the personality of the enemy, from the necklace they have or chips in an enemies horn.

The environments are highly detailed and stayed true to the theme. There are two settings, hell and a facility on Mars. This allowed for a great focus to be put on two environments that have a deep variety. Different spaces in hell created an immersive experience and really makes you envision what hell would be like, and even the politics of what go on there. It truly was like being put in another mythical world and getting some perspective on how it would be.

Summary

If you're looking for a very polished game, this is one definitely worth picking up. Be weary that it's a shooter, and if you're not into shooters and gore this might not be for you. Anyone that loves the genre must pick up this game as it sets a new standard of what a next gen shooter should be.