Saints Row IV

Intense overall intensity
Highest flag: Crime & lawlessness — rewarded for crime against innocents
SandboxSci-fiShooter

What's in it

Substances player uses or trades
High

Alcohol is present in the world and consumed on screen, and drug use is referenced in dialogue and mission content.

Crime & lawlessness rewarded for crime against innocents
High

The player leads a gang and is rewarded for open-world mayhem — assaulting civilians, wrecking property, and destruction sprees for cash and score.

Language strong
High

Frequent strong profanity including 'fuck' in scripted dialogue.

Violence realistic
Moderate

Third-person gunfights and superpowered melee against human, gang, and alien enemies with blood spray; bodies fall but there is no dismemberment or lingering gore.

Nudity partial/artistic
Moderate

The character creator allows a fully unclothed body with genital sliders, obscured by a blur, alongside revealing and fetish outfits.

Dark themes intense
Moderate

Aliens abduct humanity and destroy Earth, and each captured ally is trapped reliving a personal nightmare of grief, fear, or loss.

Sexual content innuendo
Moderate

Crude sexual humor runs throughout — propositions, sex jokes, a gun modeled as a giant phallus, and optional companion romances that cut away rather than show the act.

Horror & psychological spooky
Low

Some segments feature zombies and unsettling simulated environments, presented for parody rather than sustained fright.

Sexual violence referenced
Low

The alien arsenal includes a probe-shaped weapon whose name and design are a crude joke about non-consensual probing. It is fired at enemies like any other gun; no sexual assault is shown or acted out on any character.

Who can reach your kid

What it is

Saints Row IV is an open-world action game in which the player leads a street gang whose boss has become President of the United States, then gains superpowers to fight off an alien invasion inside a simulated version of the city of Steelport. Play centers on third-person shooting, super-jumping and super-running across the map, and completing story and side missions, all wrapped in deliberately over-the-top parody. Content includes bloody gunplay against human and alien enemies, heavy profanity, crude sexual humor and innuendo, alcohol and drug references, an optional undressed-character creator with blurred genitals, and free-roam mayhem that rewards destruction and killing civilians. Two-player online co-op is available; there is no built-in chat system.

How it's framed

The game frames all of its excess as comedy and satire — it exaggerates crime, superpowers, and shock-value weapons for laughs, and never presents its mayhem as a serious moral stance. Beneath the parody it briefly touches heavier notes, such as allies confronting their fears in personal simulated hells, but the overall register stays irreverent and cartoonish.

Details

Developer
Volition
Publisher
Deep Silver
Released
2013-08-20
Metacritic 86critic score (third-party) · out of 100

Similar games

We built this because we needed it

Balanced Play pools your kids' game time into one budget across Steam, Switch, PlayStation, Xbox and more. We're taking 100 founding families — free for life.

Claim a founding spot →

Free for life for the first 100. No card, no spam.