E3 2013: Saints Row IV Hands-On

I haven't had this much fun playing a videogame since, well, the last Saints Row game. Seriously, Saints Row IV (SRIV) makes all the other Saints games look positively tame. Yes, I know that the third game turned you into a virtual toilet at one point but in SRIV you're the President of the United States with superpowers and you can fly!

Three things in this game really stood out. First, the Singularity Gun is insanely fun to use. It's a gun that fires mini black holes that suck everything in the immediate vicinity into oblivion. Buildings, cars, space ships, aliens, people and trees. Nothing is safe. It's utter, mindless destruction.

Secondly, the Dubstep Gun. If you've never seen an alien space ship dancing to dubstep in mid air then you just haven't lived. Armed with this gun you can unleash the power of the (dub)step on anything. Personally, I'm not a fan of this type music at all but I had a ton of fun playing with this gun. It's utterly nuts. Wub, wub, wub.

Finally, flying. There I was, perched miles about the ground on some sort of giant tower, trying not to fall of the edge, when one of the Volition devs suggested that I just jump of the edge and fly down to the bottom as it would be much quicker. Uh, ok. It seemed so obvious when he said it to me. Happily, flying is a doodle to master. Hold down one button and point where you want to go. Easy. Remember how much fun it was floating around the world in the brilliant PS Vita game Gravity Rush? It's just as much fun in SRIV. Driving around in cars, by comparison, seems almost old school.

Read more about Saints Row IV at the Average Gamer >