Saints Row IV is one of my favorite games of 2013 by a wide margin. The game takes the open world crime genre and turns it on its head with hilarious dialogue, great characters, and fun gameplay. After beating the game I left Steelport for a few months until hearing the news that Volition had the first season pass DLC coming soon, and that the DLC would be basically a commentary by the characters of the series on what the original Enter the Dominatrix expansion for Saints Row The Third was meant to be back in 2012. This is exactly what the Enter the Dominatrix DLC for Saints Row IV is, and it retains the hilarious dialogue that made Saints IV so good, even if the missions themselves are a bit lackluster.
As mentioned, Enter the Dominatrix is a DLC that features the Saints Row characters discussing what EtD was meant to be before it got rolled into Saints Row IV in a TV interview format. As you play through the missions the characters will pop in for voice over clips discussing the mission you are playing in a “breaking the fourth wall” sort of way, as if they, the characters, were the actors. A bit confusing, but it works to great effect and is quite funny and interesting. Another quirky aspect of the DLC is that some of the cut-scenes aren’t cut-scenes at all, they are moving storyboards. You kind of get the feeling that Volition wanted to put this content out, but didn’t want to finish it up 100% like Saints Row IV was, so they used their creative streak and combined the finished content with animated storyboards and even a bit of full motion video. I think it ends up working, but the DLC does really feel like a director’s cut and not finished, polished content. That may be the point, though.
For gameplay the DLC sticks to the traditional Saints formula. The missions are a bit more varied than any of the Saints Row The Third DLC (thankfully) but the gameplay is still pretty basic. You do a few shooting missions, a race mission, and a mission in which you are flying a spaceship through Frank, and over-sized Saints Flow can. The missions are a bit of fun and never got too tiresome, but they really do feel like cut content; Like they were once a part of something bigger.
Overall I enjoyed the Enter the Dominatrix DLC for Saints Row IV. The gameplay and missions were just your typical fare, but the commentary and wrappings Volition put around the missions was fantastic. Hearing Saints characters comment on why they hate filler missions, or why it was a horrible idea to have Pierce be mayor of Steelport in a specific mission brought a lot of fun to the package and made me want to keep going. Oh, on that note, the ending of the DLC is something to behold. That’s all I’ll say there.
If you enjoyed Saints Row IV and like the lore of the series you’ll enjoy this DLC. It might not have the most exciting gameplay and missions, and only clocks in at about an hour, but it does offer a lot of fun and some laughs along the way. It’s a great piece of content to get you back in the Saints mood and ready for the next big DLC, “How the Saints Saved X-Mas.”
Saints Row IV DLC Gameplay
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Zh29kyIWd8