Saints Row: Gat out of Hell

Gat out of Hell is a standalone expansion that continues directly from the story of Saints Row IV, this time without an open universe and without Steelport. Playing as Johnny Gat or Kinzie Kensington, the player descends straight into hell to rescue the kidnapped Saints president from Satan himself, who wants to marry him off to his daughter. The open world has shrunk to hell, divided into several thematically distinct areas, but the gameplay has been enriched with free flight using demonic wings, replacing the earlier superfast rooftop running and making traversal a completely different experience than in the fourth game. The humor remains just as over-the-top as in the main entry, only this time it targets Christian mythology, musical numbers in which characters suddenly burst into full songs in the middle of a mission, and hell portrayed as an annoyingly bureaucratic institution full of paperwork, lines, and pointless regulations. The new setting also brings a new set of weapons and abilities - angelic and demonic flight add-ons, fiery blades, or the ability to temporarily turn an enemy into a harmless creature - which expand the already rich arsenal known from the fourth game.

On PC, the game launched in a current-gen version alongside the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One releases in January 2015, with the PC version offering the highest achievable resolution and the smoothest frame rate, which, for a game built mainly around free flight over the sprawling scenery of hell, affects the overall feel of movement more than in previous entries based on ground movement. Its smaller scope compared to the fourth game makes it more of a compact, self-contained episode than a full-fledged sequel, which also means a shorter, more streamlined pace without unnecessary padding from side activities and an open world full of filler content.

Why play: Gat out of Hell suits fans of Saints Row IV who want a shorter variation focused on free flight, with the same over-the-top humor and gameplay, without having to go through the whole open city again, and on PC they'll get to enjoy it in its smoothest form of all available versions.