In prior Saints Row games, you were a gang leader trying to dominate the city you are in by crushing other gangs. In Saints Row IV though, you are the President of the United States, and instead of having multiple gangs to face, you just have the alien Zin Empire to defeat. When the empire invaded Earth, they took you and other members of the Saints gang prisoner, trapping them within simulations meant to break their will. Of course your response is to break the simulation, which does not go over particularly well with Emperor Zinyak. In response he throws you into a new prison, modeled after Steelport, but he makes multiple changes to demonstrate his dominance over the simulation. With a computer genius like Kinzie Kensington on your side though, the simulation becomes less a prison and more a playground as you acquire superpowers (super user powers?).