The Devil has kidnapped the President of the United States to marry off his daughter, Jezebel, to in a shotgun wedding deep in the bowels of Hell. If there was an award for most creative game premise, then Gat Out of Hell would win hands down. Gat Out of Hell is a stand alone expansion to Saint’s Row IV: players need not have played SR4 to play the expansion, but where’s the fun in that?
The survivors from SR4 are aboard the ship celebrating Kinzie’s birthday. However, Matt’s choice as Ouija for a party game has unforeseen consequences as The Boss is sucked into hell by demonic forces. Johnny Gat and Kinzie force the Ouija board to open a second portal to hell, and the game is on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsbchv0i3xU[width=650,height=366]
Highway To Hell
Johnny and Kinzie hook up with Dane, the Ultor antagonist from SR2, who has spent his time in hell increasing his wealth and influence, as well as cementing alliances with some of Hell’s more notorious and powerful residents. Ultor serves as a safehouse and the place to switch between Johnny and Kinzie as the playable character. Similar to the loyalty missions in Saint’s Row IV, the player will receive upgrades and perks by performing missions for Dane and his colleagues: William Shakespeare, Kiki and Viola DeWynter, Vlad the Impaler, and Blackbeard.
Dane’s plan is to create enough chaos in hell to make Satan take notice, then capitalize on Satan’s distractedness. Johnny’s plan is to crash the wedding and shoot Satan in the face. Ultimately, both plans should be used, as the distraction missions allow the player to gain proficiency and upgrades for their hell powers, and at least one dissenter should be at the wedding: shooting the father of the bride in the face is a very clear objection to the union.
The game has no storyline to speak of and is instead presented as a interminable series of side missions. Johnny and Kinzie perform missions to gain the loyalty of Dane and his colleagues, to gain super-powers and weapons, upgrade weapons and abilities, and for spending money. These side missions are very similar to SR4, but with a Hell-themed twist. The Blazing activity from SR4 is now Hellblazing and requires the player to navigate an aerial obstacle course instead of super-speeding through a track in Steelport. There is a ragdoll equivalent to Fraud, some Hell-themed Mayhem activities, and a few infiltrate and capture the flag activities.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmeDkdoJ93I&list=UUeUIaIHNJKlpTBo0iXuaLA...
Arsenal From Hell
The biggest difference between SR4 and Gat Out of Hell, aside from the hellish environment, is the available weaponry. There are no dildo bats in Hell, nothing to jam up your victim’s ass and fire them off into the stratosphere, and no Dubstep Gun. Volition has provided some Hell-themed varieties of standard firearms with some supernatural effects. The best of the bunch are the Seven Deadly Weapons, each one based on one of the Deadly Sins.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLR8bITvB9g[width=650,height=366]
While all of these felt unique and were fun to play around with, my favorites were the recliner that equipped with a gatling gun and missile launcher, and the sinister Gallows Dodger that would enter a mass murder mode once it was fed enough souls.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1EPgbvVoHw&list=UUeUIaIHNJKlpTBo0iXuaLA...
The vehicles, like in SR4, were only useful for the first 25% of the game: after that the player gains enough superpower proficiency to make land-crawlers obsolete. Most of the vehicles in Hell are pieces of shit anyway: battered taxis, ancient sedans, crap motorcycles, etc. There are a few nice vehicles, like limos and armored cars, but if you just have to have something to drive I would suggest that you take the Predaceptor for a spin: you won’t be disappointed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IEZxj3yeGw&list=UUeUIaIHNJKlpTBo0iXuaLA...
Hella Good
There are a lot of similarities between Gat Out of Hell and Ubisoft’s little bite sized piece of Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, and that’s not a bad thing. Players get a decent amount of Saint’s Row content without the AAA price tag. This is an over the top take on a game franchise that has already gone over the top. I hazed demonic frat boys through floating rings, ran over as many shambling pedestrians that I could before being gunned down by the Five-O from hell, created devastation from a floating recliner, and punched Satan in the face. This is a series that hasn’t taken itself seriously in a long time.
Gat Out of Hell also features a cooperative mode that allows the player to assault Hell with a friend. Some of the missions can only be performed cooperatively, so completionists will need to make a friend to get their 100% cheevo rating.
You Knew it Was Coming
All the irreverent humor and crazy side missions cannot disguise the fact that the game has no structure. When Volition failed to include a main mission, this left me with no sense of game progression. Players can pretty much go to the tower at any point in the game and crash the wedding, thus ending the game. There are a lot of activities around town but, being variations of the same activities from SR4, they got old real quick.
Playing as Johnny Gat and Kinzie means that Volition’s excellent character creator goes unused for this game. This isn’t a deal breaker, but that player-character bond from the previous games has been compromised. Johnny Gat is a kick-ass personality, but he’s not The Boss.
The Verdict
Gat Out of Hell is the violently wacky conclusion to SR4 that both outdoes the main game and falls short at the same time. If you haven’t played SR4, then the Re-Elected bundle with all DLC, including Gat Out of Hell, would be the way to go. SR4 vets can rest assured that SR4: Re=Elected is identical to the last-gen entry and that rating still applies. Save your money and buy this DLC independently.
