The game's open world nature allows players to freely explore a simulation of the fictional city of Steelport while completing main and side missions at their leisure.

Five years into their governance, they find themselves trapped in the Steelport simulation along with members of their gang, the 3rd Street Saints, after an alien empire known as the Zin attack the Earth and capture them.

Saints Row IV was the first game developed by Volition after its acquisition by Koch Media in early 2013, following the bankruptcy proceedings of the franchise's original publisher, THQ.

[3] As the leader of the Saints, a street gang that has become the world's most "powerful and popular" organization, the player is elected President of the United States, receives superpowers, and fends off an alien invasion.

[4] The player-character receives elemental powers and superpowers that greatly increase their jump height and running speed, such that the player can hop over buildings and outrun vehicles.

[3] The elemental powers include abilities to shoot fire and ice projectiles, telekinetically toss things, and create shockwaves upon landing jumps.

[4] As the player progresses through the game, they can optionally upgrade their abilities and weapons skill tree[3] by using collectible "data clusters" scattered around town.

[2] Saints Row IV's story parodies science fiction video games, mostly Mass Effect 2, as well as films like The Matrix and Zero Dark Thirty, and other "nerd culture".

[4] Other elements borrowed from video game culture include BioWare-style character romances and a Metal Gear-style mission with an unhelpful partner.

The Boss (Troy Baker, Kenn Michael, Robin Atkin Downes, Laura Bailey, Diane Michelle, Sumalee Montano, or Nolan North) and the Saints' top lieutenants, Shaundi (Danielle Nicolet) and Pierce Washington (Arif S. Kinchen), breach Cyrus' base with Asha, killing him and preventing a nuclear missile from hitting Washington D.C. Five years later, the Boss has been elected President of the United States for this heroism, receiving actor Keith David (himself) as Vice President, while assigning the Cabinet roles to fellow Saints, Asha, Matt and former Vice Kings leader Benjamin King (Terry Crews).

Moments into a press conference, Earth is hit by an invasion from an alien empire known as the Zin, led by the ruthless Zinyak (JB Blanc), who destroy the White House and abduct the Boss, Keith and most of the Cabinet.

Zinyak responds by having the Steelport simulation flooded with copies of gang members the Boss faced in the past, which causes Kinzie to suspect he is drawing them from the memories of someone else who has fought them.

The Boss quickly deduces that the Zin abducted Johnny Gat (Daniel Dae Kim), who was supposedly killed years ago, but is the only other Saint who was in the gang longer than them.

With the Saints back in operations, Kinzie formulates a plan to board Zinyak's ship by overloading the Steelport simulation to create an opening.

[7] With THQ suffering financially, its president Jason Rubin encouraged company subsidiary and Saints Row series developer Volition to grow elements from the expansion into a full game.

The studio officially announced Saints Row IV two months later, which was published by Koch Media brand Deep Silver.

Acquired without rights to their Red Faction series, Volition's new goals were to make connected, open world games where "the player is an agent of mayhem".

[8] They also chose to remove the previous game's in-game mobile phone-based navigation, which hindered its narration, and replaced it with a "quest log structure".

[14] Saints Row IV was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 in North America on August 20, 2013, and worldwide on three days later.

[21] High Voltage Software ported the game to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One with all of its downloadable content as Saints Row IV: Re-Elected.

The pack's storytelling frequently breaks the fourth wall and self-referentially acknowledges its own plot holes and incongruence with the larger Saints Row story.

[47] Polygon's Danielle Riendeau described Saints Row IV as "big, goofy, and self-referential fun" and thought that the game accomplished what it set out to be: "an outrageous exercise in player power fantasy".

Riendeau wrote that Volition "trimmed the fat" from previous games, and that their addition of superpowers "blew the constraints off a genre already known for player freedom".

Schilling wrote that the need to restock at ammo shops was a "jarring holdover" from the previous games, but appreciated the recurrence of elements such as the GPS navigation system, side mission gameplay, and city district liberation.

[4] Schilling also commented on how he felt an urge to simply forgo the story to search for collectibles, though despite these options, the game became "wearying" over long play sessions.

[4] Similarly, Dan Stapleton of IGN became bored when his superhero protagonist had little "to overcome", and ultimately likened the game to "enabling god-like cheat codes" in its predecessor.

[2] He wrote that it was very difficult to die, given the large amount of power-ups dropped by enemies, and that the otherwise praiseworthy features from Saints Row: The Third felt "vestigial" when outmoded by superpowers.