I Didn't Know How Much I Loved Hell Until I Played Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell

Greg Tito

PR for Dungeons & Dragons
Sep 29, 2005
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I Didn't Know How Much I Loved Hell Until I Played Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell



Gat Out of Hell is just as crazy fun as you would expect from a Saints Row game set in Hell.

Gat Out of Hell [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/editorials/interviews/12176-Saints-Row-Gat-Out-of-Hell-Expands-Volition-s-Gang-Fantasy-Serie?] sounds like an amazing blend of absurdist story-telling and open-world exploration. I wasn't able to make it to the Volition panel at PAX Prime 2014 but I did get a chance to play the demo they had on the show floor. Without the context of story or any introduction at all really, the experience of playing around in the city of Hell was hella fun (sorry).

The model for Johnny Gat is quite hilarious - he looks like a purple-sequined Elvis impersonator fallen from heaven. In place of the jumping and flying mechanics from Saints Row IV, large angel's wings sprout from your back. Flying is less of a glide and more of a flight sim, complete with inverted flight stick controls. In the open world of Hell, there's a bunch of skill points you can collect just like in SR4 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/editorials/reviews/10521-Saints-Row-IV-Review-Hilarious-and-Over-The-Top], but there's also a few you need to grab by flying through a series of checkpoints in a brief minigame. Knowing my completionist self, I'll have fun trying to grab every one.

The map of Hell is dotted with tons of activities and completing them will allow Gat (or Kinzie) to control that portion of the city. In chatting with Steve Jaros at the Volition booth, that's how you'll progress in Gat Out of Hell in lieu of story missions. Once you control a certain percentage of the city, you'll get the attention of Satan and cue the massive musical number Jaros discussed in the interview here. Grab even more, and you'll fight Satan in a huge boss battle. Jaros even promised a special epilogue he's especially excited for players to watch, but that's only accessible if you 100% turn the city of Hell to purple under the control of Third Street Saints.

[gallery=3097]

Gameplay-wise, even though the setting is completely crazy it still plays very much like a Saints Row game. There are vehicles to hijack and drive, you shoot shuffling dead folks, and gun-wielding demons come to kill you if build up too much notoriety. The weapons you have a pretty crazy, including a frog-flinger that works like a grenade launcher, and the armchair weapon Jaros mentioned is pretty dang fun.

Look for Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell for PC, Xbox One, 360, PS3 and PS4 on January 27th 2015 for $19.99.


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tippy2k2

Beloved Tyrant
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Mar 15, 2008
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Holy smokes! I freaking love Saints Row IV and will likely throw my money at the 360 to try to get it download faster but is that a typo or is it seriously not coming out until next year?

...hmmmm, upon checking on the first random site I clicked on, that does seem to be the correct date.

Although to be fair, I suppose this looks to be more "Far Cry Blood Dragon" than a normal piece of DLC (though it does fit beautifully with the Saints Row style).

Either way, I'm excited for more potty humor and super powers!
 

Xman490

Doctorate in Danger
May 29, 2010
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Greg Tito said:
I Didn't Know How Much I Loved Hell Until I Played Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell
Flying is less of a glide and more of a flight sim, complete with inverted flight stick controls.
A city in Hell sounds intriguing (while not very different from Steelport), but flight sounds fantastic. Besides a few games with Superman, I can't think of any game in which a character flies freely without an aerial vehicle. I'll surely get this game, though probably in a Summer Sale.
 

Therumancer

Citation Needed
Nov 28, 2007
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Sounds cool, I'm a fan of absurdist takes on Hell. I have fond memories of the old "Heroes In Hell" shared world anthology, and works like Edward Lee's "City Infernal" stories. I'm wondering how many nods to similar concepts will be worked in.

That said, it's a ways off, and I'm wondering at the low price-tag.

I was kind of hoping we were going to have a flat out science-fiction game in the future though rather than jokes about it. Mainly because the "Ultor" corporation was used in the "Red Faction" games. I was thinking that their next big game might be in the future, after The Boss is a memory, and involve say having to take back Mars "old school" from the Rebels since The Saints run Ultor. Either that or something where they try and take over vice/crime on the red planet to the backdrop of the corp security vs. resistance fights. It struck me as being the natural crossover in the long run, but I'm apparently wrong. :)

Of course part of this is inspired by how disappointed I was with the "destroyable environments" in Red Faction where things were never as open ended as they were supposed to be, and you wound up only being able to destroy specific things. It would be nice if they went "Saint's Row" with it where people expect a sort of cartoony logic, and give us the game it was supposed to be, I mean just imagine the rampages you could have in a game where you can actually chop down office buildings like trees using your mighty hammer... :)
 

Therumancer

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Nov 28, 2007
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Xman490 said:
Greg Tito said:
I Didn't Know How Much I Loved Hell Until I Played Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell
Flying is less of a glide and more of a flight sim, complete with inverted flight stick controls.
A city in Hell sounds intriguing, but flight sounds fantastic. Besides a few games with Superman, I can't think of any game in which a character flies freely without an aerial vehicle. I'll surely get this game, though probably in a Summer Sale.
Most of the super hero MMOs allow this. I know DC Universe Online, Champions Online, and the now defunct "City Of Heroes/City Of Villains" all have (or had) flight as a travel power. In CO you can choose multiple ways of doing it, there are flight powers that cosmetically involve a vehicle, and others which are just "superman" type flight with various "vanity" powers to give different types of energy trails and such (or you can have flight without them), CO also has vehicles (with their own stats and mounted weapons and such) in addition to the "cosmetic on a flight power" stuff. With time/investment/effort you can wind up with the equivalent of the [insert hero name]Mobile with it's own stats and weapons, and all of them fly (even the cars are like hover cars and stuff, I guess because it was easier, and if they were ground locked people probably wouldn't use them at all).
 

Bara_no_Hime

New member
Sep 15, 2010
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@.@

I want this game SO MUCH!!!

Come on Volition, shut up and take my money already!

Seriously though, this thing sounds amazing. I can't wait!
 

Elfgore

Your friendly local nihilist
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Dec 6, 2010
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FUCKING YES!!!!!! I so wanted to be able to fly around with angel wings and I fucking can! This is a first day fucking buy for me. Man, I'm so pumped!
 

FalloutJack

Bah weep grah nah neep ninny bom
Nov 20, 2008
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Greg Tito said:
Everybody wants to be Johnny Gat.
Greg, question. Much as I love Saint's Row, what's with the review-type entries here lately? They're informative and all, but wouldn't they go in the review section?
 

Racecarlock

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Jul 10, 2010
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Guess they're taking the saint thing literally by this point.

And hell yes, I'm getting it. I want to shoot satan in hell.