Saints Row fans think buggy launch means the end of the franchise

Saints Row bugs
(Image credit: Volition)

A plethora of Saints Row bugs have many franchise fans worried this could be the death knell for the series. Our Saints Row review mentions a few of the bugs encountered during 20 hours of gameplay, which included a mission that had to be replayed several times and a bug that temporarily broke all takedown animations - but there are many more circulating the internet. To be honest, things don't look good.

The Saints Row subreddit is currently aflame, with one Redditor wondering if the Grim Reaper has visited Saints Row and another flat-out saying the existence of the subreddit is part of the problem, and that players "should be demanding better from [publisher] Volition". While some of Saints Row's negative or middling reviews can be attributed to the game's overall vibe (which I myself wrote is "dated"), the major issue is the plethora of bugs. 

Skill Up's review calls the technical state of Saints Row "very, very bad." A Twitter user shared a clip from that same review, which shows off a massive character model glitch in the final mission (spoilers) where a character called the Nahualli goes into a T-pose before his entire torso lengthens and spins and twists around like something out of The Thing. The team over at Kinda Funny games experienced the exact same character model glitch.

Another Redditor spotted an in-game pop-up that implies devs were rushed during the development process - because the text isn't filled out at all.

a_review_in_one_image from r/SaintsRow

I myself ran into a glitch during the Insurance Fraud missions where all the cars in Santo Ileso would just disappear. Considering Insurance Fraud requires you get hit by cars in order to rack up some payouts from insurance companies, the lack of viable vehicles renders the mission impossible. 

As mentioned in my review, Deep Silver and Volition have promised a day one performance patch, but there are no details about what that patch entails and when it will be available. Saints Row launched today, August 23, for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, and PC. 

If you're playing the new open-world crime game, here are the best Saints Row weapons to use.

Alyssa Mercante

Alyssa Mercante is an editor and features writer at GamesRadar based out of Brooklyn, NY. Prior to entering the industry, she got her Masters's degree in Modern and Contemporary Literature at Newcastle University with a dissertation focusing on contemporary indie games. She spends most of her time playing competitive shooters and in-depth RPGs and was recently on a PAX Panel about the best bars in video games. In her spare time Alyssa rescues cats, practices her Italian, and plays soccer.

Read more
Saints Row Review
Saber Interactive CEO says Saints Row had to die because the games were too expensive: "The days of throwing money at games other than the GTAs of the world is over"
Rise of the Ronin
A year after its PS5 launch, Rise of the Ronin debuts on PC to "Mixed" reviews and performance complaints: "Stuttering on a 4090 is just... no"
Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League ends on a whimper with a two-minute-long comic strip that renders the whole plot utterly pointless
Helldivers 2 intro cutscene helldiver thumbs up
Despite Arrowhead trying to fix it twice, Helldivers 2 still features a chaotic bug that lets you slide around like a snake, and "it's even more hilarious" after the latest update
A group of bandits in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2
"6 years of work leaving the nest": Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is already making its way into the hands of reviewers, and one dev is "nervous but also excited AF"
Helldivers 2 screenshot showing a fully geared/armored diver standing with gun in hand as three jets soar the skies behind him
Helldivers 2 boss told launch players not to buy until servers calmed down, and it "took 5 minutes until I got a call from the friendly people over at PlayStation asking what the f*** I was smoking"
Latest in Open World
Schedule 1
Schedule 1 is Steam's latest viral hit – an open-world drug dealing simulator with 98% positive reviews, co-op, and a free sample to get you started
a spacesuit wearing person looks at a cool dinosaur skeleton
No Man's Sky's latest free update lets you live out your childhood dreams of digging up dinosaur bones
Batman looking over the city during Batman: Arkham City, one of the best PS3 games.
The PS2 Batman Begins game was considered such a "disaster" that Christopher Nolan turned down a Dark Knight-inspired game
Red Dead Redemption screenshot of protagonist John Marston aiming a pistol
Ex GTA 6 dev says free and live service games are "eating everyone's time," and combined with "open world fatigue," it's getting harder to make players explore
Mindseye
"There are so many games": Legendary dev behind GTA 3, GTA 4, GTA 5 and many more says the industry needs to "get smarter" about what players want
Shadow of Mordor's Nemesis System was only created because WB Games wanted something to combat Batman Arkham Asylum's second-hand sales, exec says
Latest in News
Destiny 2 Lightfall
When Destiny 2 "weekly active users dropped lower and faster than we'd seen since 2018," Bungie assembled an A-Team to put out some fires: "We needed to do something"
Velma, Daphne, Fred, Shaggy, and Scooby-Doo looking at a giant key which is also a clue
Netflix is rebooting Scooby-Doo as a live-action series from the producer of Supergirl and The Flash centered around a "supernatural murder" at a summer camp
Astro Bot
Astro Bot went through 23 pitch iterations before its director promised PlayStation "happy gameplay" and "overflowing charm," though it did once end with robot decapitation that made "some people really upset"
Tomb Raider
5 years after Avengers, 2 years after its last layoffs, and who knows how long before Perfect Dark and Tomb Raider return, Crystal Dynamics announces another round of layoffs
AI Limit
"AI is not as effective as it might appear": Dev of AI-focused Soulslike RPG says they didn't use any AI-generated content and it can't match "genuine creativity"
Fantastic Four: 1234 #2 cover excerpt
Sue Storm and Namor are officially both in Avengers: Doomsday, and fans are wondering if Reed Richards has something to worry about