The game's weapons are inspired by the seven deadly sins, e.g., a Gluttony Gun that shoots cake batter on enemies for other people to consume.
Plot
The Third Street Saints hold a birthday party for lieutenant Kinzie Kensington (Natalie Lander) on their spaceship, but while playing a game of Ouija Board with a board that once belonged to Aleister Crowley, they unwittingly contact Satan (Travis Willingham), who proclaims that The Boss will marry his daughter Jezebel (Kate Reinders). Satan drags the Boss down to Hell, with Saints lieutenant Johnny Gat (Daniel Dae Kim), as well as Kinzie, volunteering to rescue them.
Upon arriving, they find Ultor Corporation has a branch in Hell and suspect former Saints enemy, Dane Vogel (Jay Mohr), is responsible. Vogel denies involvement, but admits he is taking advantage of Hell's economy, offering to help the Saints save the Boss. Meanwhile, Jezebel is rebelling against her father, as Satan declares her a possession to him. Vogel helps Johnny and Kinzie get Satan's attention by going around Hell and gaining allies such as Kiki (Ashly Burch) & Viola DeWynter (Sasha Grey), William Shakespeare (Liam O'Brien), Blackbeard (Matthew Mercer), and Vlad the Impaler (Liam O'Brien).
Jezebel finds Johnny and offers to take him to Satan's palace, in hopes he can defeat her father. At the palace, Johnny immediately confronts Satan, who threatens to kill Jezebel unless Johnny drops his gun. When he does, Satan gleefully boasts and praises Johnny, naming him worthy of marrying Jezebel. When Johnny refuses to listen, Satan forcibly makes a deal with Johnny to let Kinzie and the Boss go if he marries Jezebel in the Boss's place.
Johnny shoots Satan at the wedding to no effect, so Johnny and Kinzie take out Satan's minions to force Satan into fighting them. They defeat Satan, who surrenders. Satan banishes them back to the mortal realm, along with Jezebel and the Boss. Johnny, however, is detained by God (Nathan Fillion), who explains that Satan was plotting an invasion on Heaven since Zinyak hastened the Apocalypse by destroying Earth, hoping to use the Boss as the general of his army, and offers to repay Johnny for stopping him.
Johnny is given one of five choices by God; go to Heaven to be reunited with his girlfriend Aisha, return to Hell to become its new king, find a new home world for the Saints so humanity can be rebuilt, recreate Earth, or be told the secrets of the universe. Recreating Earth leads to the timeline of Agents of Mayhem. The universe of Saints Row is retconed, and Johnny becomes the lieutenant of the Seoul police force, hoping to find his friends. Kinzie and Matt Miller (Yuri Lowenthal) converse about "Brimstone", a captured female who Johnny goes to interrogate.
Reception
Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell received generally mixed reviews. Aggregating review website Metacritic gave the Microsoft Windows version a 66/100 based on 24 reviews, the Xbox One version a 65/100 based on 16 reviews and the PlayStation 4 version a 64/100 based on 45 reviews.
Brittany Vincent from Destructoid gave the game an 8/10, praising the game's setting, refreshing superpower abilities, new cast of characters, interesting types of enemies and entertaining world, which she stated "feels much more polished and finished than Saints Row IV's Steelport simulation." However, she criticized the game's short length. She summarized the review by saying "There's no agenda and no life lessons to learn in Saints Row. There's only pure escapism, which is what games are meant for in my view. Whenever I feel like I need a break, I will have Saints Row proudly on my shelf." Andrew Reiner from Game Informer gave the game a 7.5/10, praising the worthwhile side-activities, well-designed dialogues, satisfying transversal system, creative weapons and storytelling. However, he criticized the graphics, which he stated is on par with the last-generation version of Saints Row IV, as well as occasional framerate losses. He also criticized the game for lacking in gameplay complexity.
Mikel Reparaz from IGN criticized the game for lacking traditional story missions, as well as featuring repetitive side missions, unimpressive graphics, and being extremely buggy. Alex Carlson from Hardcore Gamer gave the game a 3.5/5, praising the voice-acting, dialogues, collectibles, flight mechanics and the game-world, which he stated "has a balance between familiar and fresh", but criticizing the game for being too similar to the original Saints Row IV in terms of the variety of superpower and mission types, as well as the middling story and graphical glitches. Phil Savage from PC Gamer gave the game a 67/100, praising the world design and in-game abilities such as flying, which he stated "has delivered a new sense of freedom". However, he criticized the lack of proper campaign missions and scripting, limited creativity as well as the poor combat system. He ended the review by saying that "Gat Out of Hell offers all the open-world distractions of a Saints Row game, but it seldom displays the spark of creativity, which made Saints Row: The Third and Saints Row IV so remarkable."