I’ve been playing Saints Row on last-generation PS4 and Xbox One systems for the past week – and honestly? It’s really not that bad. The fundamental tech issues remain: the eye-catching shadow pop-in is back — and actually a bit worse here. The buggy NPC animations and physics return as well. And finally, the 60 fps target of the PS5 and Series X versions gives way to something lower on last-generation machines – a frame rate of sub-40 fps or even sub-30 in stress test scenarios. Performance is still unlocked too, while a 30fps cap would have really made a positive difference, but I went into this with low expectations, far exceeding the last generation versions.
As with Xbox Series S, the wealth of performance mode variations seen in the Series X and PS5 releases is gone. There are no graphic switches of any kind. Plus, ray tracing features are missing, of course, but that’s fine. There seem to be fixed pixel counts on all systems with no apparent dynamic resolution scaling, but what’s interesting is how the HUD overlay actually appears to change the resolution. It’s very, very strange. In-game DRS can’t be ruled out entirely, but the game looks consistent in terms of image quality, with just the flickering HUD giving any sense of a resolution change.
Looking at the qualities of the last-gen versions, you’d expect Xbox One X to deliver the best rendition of the game, but that’s only partially true here. At least in image quality you get a very decent rise here with a native 2560×1440, up from the less-than-great 1080p on PlayStation 4 Pro. The One X’s 1440p also outperforms the Series S’s Full HD output – but the quality settings are rolled back (particularly in terms of blade density) and the unlocked performance level is actually worse than the PS4 Pro experience. If that’s the case, there’s no real ‘winner’ here in terms of the last-gen machines, because while the One X looks significantly cleaner, frame rates can hit a low of 24 fps – Pro is smoother overall, though far from smooth and consistent in its delivery.
Can last-gen consoles handle Saints Row? Well, so far we’ve seen the upgraded machines lose a little bit of detail and a lot of performance compared to their more modern counterparts, but aside from the raw frame rates, it looks the same with only minor tweaks to the settings. . However, on the base machines, developer Volition has to cut deeper. Interestingly, the vanilla PS4 runs at the same display resolution as the Pro – full HD 1080p – but the grass density takes a hit, the shadow draw distance is noticeably trimmed back, while the shadow quality itself and indeed the effect quality are of a much lower resolution. It’s no surprise to see the same compromises applied to Xbox One S as well, which also drops the pixel count to 1536×864, making it the happiest version of the lot.
Perhaps the biggest issue with base PS4 and Xbox One is the frame rate. The performance hovers around the 30 fps line on the Sony machine and just wavers over and under all the time. Sometimes the deviation is two to three frames per second, but it’s always around that number. The fact that it stabilizes around 30fps again suggests that DRS may be in effect, but 1080p occurs at any number of pixels. So one theory is that the visual settings themselves may be dynamic in nature – down to ambient occlusion, post-effects and more – similar to how Elden Ring works.
It would certainly explain how, and why, the frame rate clings to 30fps, almost like it’s headed towards that 30fps mark, and it would also explain how it does this without a 30fps cap, too. Cutscenes, however, can see the performance tank bottoming out at just under 20fps. Performance results, however, are unexpected with Xbox One, which even performs slightly better than PS4 in many areas, at up to five frames per second. Even with its resolution deficit, there’s a sense that there’s more going on here than meets the eye, considering the higher level of performance on the least capable last-generation machine.
All things considered, Saints Row isn’t a disaster on any of these four older systems, despite the inconsistent nature of the game running on the newer, much more capable machines. PS4 Pro offers the smoothest frame rate of the bunch, while Xbox One X has the best picture quality – but even the base Xbox One S runs at a frame rate often above 30 fps. The visual cuts are noticeable, especially on the base PS4 and Xbox One, but all releases are playable – and would benefit even more if performance were capped at 30fps with smooth frame delivery as opposed to the unlocked frame rate seen here.
As I said, I went into this with low expectations and to be clear, this is hardly the ideal way to play the game – but it’s not radically off the track when compared to the current generation renditions where we looked at earlier. Other than the resolution upgrade, better drawing spacing, and improved shadows, the game is similar and the new consoles don’t exactly deliver a generational improvement. What we see in Saints Row is a project that was clearly built with older PS4 and Xbox One based limits in mind.
With the bugs and lack of gloss of Saints Row in addition to the visual quirks that are present on each system, the game looks and works better than you might think on last generation hardware. Still, it’s hard to heartily recommend any of the last-generation versions. Most of the time I would go into this and expect the worst – especially on the base Xbox One – but it turns out all four consoles are running Saints Row good enough and there are obvious ways for the developer to get this game into shape other than bug fixes (did we mention a 30fps cap?). There are issues here, but they’re not insurmountable – so I remain hopeful that further updates can still change the fate of this game.
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