Saints Row IV is every bit as lewd, crude and outrageous as previous instalments – but that’s no bad thing.

The series has always lived in the shadow of the more illustrious Grand Theft Auto and it would be easy to dismiss this latest version, released with very little fanfare, as an inferior alternative or a mere appetiser to the upcoming GTA5.

That would do it an injustice though because what Saints Row has always done much better, and what I suspect it will still be doing better even after GTA5, is to not take itself seriously at all.

The series has always been open-world sandbox gaming at its silliest and most outlandish, and that’s exactly what Saints Row IV delivers more of. Volition's game is completely ridiculous from start to finish, but also a lot of fun.

Your Local Guardian: Saints Row IV

It may look a bit rough compared to many other current games, with textures, lighting, draw distances and overall graphical quality being rather low-grade, but this doesn't take away from the fact that the gameplay is plain entertaining – at least in a very juvenile and coarse way.

SR4 is a mixture of third-person action, RPG, fighting, shooting and driving set in an expansive (and artificial - I'll get to that soon) city which you can explore at will and create as much mayhem as you like in when you're not embarking on the missions which drive the story forward.

Even by previous Saints Row standards, the plot is completely ludicrous.

Playing as the celeb icon and potty-mouthed leader of the Third Street Saints gang, your first task in the game is to kill some terrorists and then jump on a nuclear missile after it's been launched. As Aerosmith's Don't Wanna Miss A Thing plays, you disarm the nuke and become a hero before your character becomes ... President of the USA! But wait ... there's then an alien invasion! This leads to you being captured and held prisoner inside a Matrix-like computer simulation version of Steelport, the city the third Saints Row game was set in.

The main objective is to weaken and ultimately escape the simulation through completing the series of quests that come your way during the campaign. Many of these boil down to the familiar ‘go here and do this’ tasks that typify the genre but there some surprising moments too. As before, there are also a variety of side-quests and mini games to play – and endless hours can be spent roaming around beating up random strangers.

In terms of how its core gameplay, SR4 doesn’t really alter and advance the series’ recipe for create-your-own chaos and destruction.

Your Local Guardian: Saints Row IV

It still contains the same gratuitous (albeit completely over-the-top) violence, crazy vehicles, deep character customisation and so on, but there is one special new ingredient this time - superhero powers.

From fairly early on these allow you to run like the wind, leap up the sides of buildings and glide through the air. Later on you’re able to launch fireballs, freeze enemies and use telekinesis among the several other abilities that can be acquired and enhanced by collecting numerous data clusters scattered around the world.

The Infamous or Prototype-like edge these powers give SR4 is mainly positive. They create potential for even more fun – or at least a slightly different kind of fun compared to relying on fists or firearms to do your dirty work. They also make moving around much faster and easier.

On a slightly negative note, the abilities seem to suck some of the challenge and peril from the game. They make certain things, such as fleeing a tricky situation, almost too easy. The speed and extra agility they offer also makes using the game’s many vehicles mostly unnecessary.

Your Local Guardian: Saints Row IV

The powers add to the sci-fi flavour and work well in combination with the synthetic setting. Whether intended or not, situating the action inside the computer simulation turns out to be a clever trick as it provides a reason for why the superhero abilities exist as well as an excuse for the strange physics and occasional glitches in the game.

In addition to being generally unrefined, SR4 has some other flaws which hold it back. For instance, combat mechanics are overly basic, including no cover system, and the AI is at times painfully dim. Fighting is frustrating when the enemy relies so heavily on strength in numbers, swamping the screen with attackers and attempting to overpower through sheer collective force.

Where SR4 excels is through its creativity and humour.

The creativity shines through in some of the bizarre and sometimes ingenious moments which provide variety during the missions.

These include battling against a gigantic can of energy drink, playing a 2D beat ‘em up akin to Streets of Rage and visiting a 50s sitcom version of Steelport.

Weapons are inventive too, ranging from the tentacle bat to a gun which inflates people’s heads until they explode and a dubstep weapon which forces people to dance until they die.

There is also some clever use made of previous character and settings from the Saints Row series.

Although the city is permanently bathed in darkness as is alien overlord Zinyak’s whim, there is nothing gloomy about the rest of the game. The humour comes through in the plentiful (and other rude) gags, the tongue-in-cheek parodies of other games and the many self-made moments of mirth. There is even some literal toilet humour when one of the security deletion tasks has you chasing an armed and dangerous loo.

For double the fun and mayhem in SR4 grab yourself a mate and get stuck into the two-player co-op.

Overall, SR4 is at times an insane game, other times an hilarious game, sometimes downright stupid and the rest of the time a combination of all these things. It rarely stops being fun, though.

If you can suspend your grasp on reality and good taste for a while you’ll have a blast with this game.

8 out of 10

Published by Deep Silver, Saints Row IV is available now for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC – PS3 version tested