I never played the first Saints Row, because I heard it was a mediocre GTA clone. The second one, though, got some good press and people claimed it was the spiritual successor to the PS2-era GTA games. Even though I thought GTA4 was the best in the series, many thought it put too much focus on the serious storyline and took away from the zany antics of its predecessors. So, anyway, I picked it up and it was a lot of fun.
The third game didn't hold a ton of appeal for me. I have it, I got it as part of one of the Humble Bundles at one point, but I have yet to play it. The zany antics took a front seat. You even have a melee weapon shaped like a giant dildo. The dick and fart jokes were obviously in full effect, and that's not really my jam, so I have yet to play it. It's still on my backburner, and I intend to get into it someday, but it didn't make me want to dive right in.
Now, the fourth game is on the horizon. There are crazy weapons, and if I'm being honest the dubstep gun looks hilarious. There are, as always, crazy cars. Monster trucks that can take out cars in your way. But then there are superpowers. You can run faster than you can drive. You can jump high enough and glide far enough that planes and helicopters seem unnecessary. And you have what appears to be over-the-top fun hand-to-hand combat. So why would you ever use vehicles or guns?
On the one hand, this seems like a game trying to be too much, throwing in so many different mechanics that it becomes a muddled mess. On the other hand, the freedom to do things the way you want is appealing, and the quests may take a backseat to truly fun sandbox freedom. What's your take?
Oh, and, you are now the President of the United States and you're fighting aliens instead of rival gangs. Can't leave that out.
The third game didn't hold a ton of appeal for me. I have it, I got it as part of one of the Humble Bundles at one point, but I have yet to play it. The zany antics took a front seat. You even have a melee weapon shaped like a giant dildo. The dick and fart jokes were obviously in full effect, and that's not really my jam, so I have yet to play it. It's still on my backburner, and I intend to get into it someday, but it didn't make me want to dive right in.
Now, the fourth game is on the horizon. There are crazy weapons, and if I'm being honest the dubstep gun looks hilarious. There are, as always, crazy cars. Monster trucks that can take out cars in your way. But then there are superpowers. You can run faster than you can drive. You can jump high enough and glide far enough that planes and helicopters seem unnecessary. And you have what appears to be over-the-top fun hand-to-hand combat. So why would you ever use vehicles or guns?
On the one hand, this seems like a game trying to be too much, throwing in so many different mechanics that it becomes a muddled mess. On the other hand, the freedom to do things the way you want is appealing, and the quests may take a backseat to truly fun sandbox freedom. What's your take?
Oh, and, you are now the President of the United States and you're fighting aliens instead of rival gangs. Can't leave that out.
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I think the big thing with the Saint's Row games has been a progressively more outrageous attitude of "Why? Because you can!" It's a fantasy version of GTA, which I've always appreciated, even though I've never played more than a few hours of any Saint's game. This 4th iteration is a little more appealing to me, mostly because of the super powers. Well...and the dubstep gun. That's just genius.
I did play an hour or so of SR3 after posting this, and I have to admit it's quite a blast so far. I mean I had a gunfight while in freefall. When does that happen?
"On the one hand, this seems like a game trying to be too much, throwing in so many different mechanics that it becomes a muddled mess."
That's pretty close to what I said about SR3 before it came out. I anticipated that there would just be too many elements thrown together haphazardly. Instead, I discovered the game had too many elements very carefully thrown together. SR3 is over-the-top without going too far into the realm of absurdity to make it a caricature of its own cleverness.
Still, not as much fun after the missions are complete as SR2. SR2 remains playable LONG after the story missions are done.