Saints Row

[Caldwin]

I'm kinda new to the series. So if there's some pun that absolutely must be made with the thread title, let me know and I'll change it.

Anyway, I've been having a lot of fun with Playstation Plus Premium. I started Saints Row 2 just out of curiosity since there's a new Saints Row coming up some time soon. It was okay, pretty much what I expected: guns, cars, gaining turf. Of course, being a PS3 game, that means I can only stream it. Not bad in and of itself except it takes forever to get the game started. So I didn't even get too terribly far with it. First hideout mostly.

So I decided to download Saints Row 4. They really must be pushing the Saints Row series on Plus with the new game coming soon (not that I'm complaining at all).

It...was not what I was expecting. Aliens? Super powers? This is not what I expected...but I absolutely love it. I may stick with this one for a while.

So, I guess my main question is, I've had one SR game that's kinda what I expect with guns, cars and gang wars. Now I have another one with aliens and super powers. Two completely different games. So for those who know the series better...what usually defines a typical Saints Row game?

 

[MrBlud]

Saint’s Row started as a low rent GTA clone that just got increasingly bonkers.

 

[Shadewing]

So, I guess my main question is, I've had one SR game that's kinda what I expect with guns, cars and gang wars. Now I have another one with aliens and super powers. Two completely different games. So for those who know the series better...what usually defines a typical Saints Row game?

Being Ridiculously over the top. Saints Row 1 is almost a complete GTA clone, but with a bit more humor and stronger characters (at the time). Saints Row 2 takes Saints Row one and expands on it and we actually start to see some of the over the top absurdity the further you get into the game. Saints Row 3 pushes that to the the extreme of what they can do with a GTA style game, and gives you some almost Ratchet and Clank-esque weapons. Saints Row 4 kinda jumps the shark by throwing in Super Powers and Aliens, but that was how they decided to try and top themselves. Spin-Off 'Gat outta Hell' takes the series to hell, literally. Agents of Mayhem I've not played, but also seems to be aiming for 'Saturday Morning Cartoon' levels of chaos.

New Saints Row is trying to go back to basics, so probably expect something between 2 and 3 with more grounded gameplay, but still some over the top elements and weapons.

 

[Pocket]

I'm still waiting for that Saint's Row 2 rerelease they said would fix all the bugs. Now that they're just straight-up rebooting the series, I'm pretty sure that's been officially canned and they're just not bothering to tell anyone.

 

[Caldwin]

Saints Row 4 kinda jumps the shark by throwing in Super Powers and Aliens, but that was how they decided to try and top themselves.

Sooo, definitely not trying to trivialize this. Seeing one of your favorite franchises jump the shark can suck. Maybe it helps that I don't have the history with the previous games in the franchise. Because, yeah, I'm sure to you, this was jumping the shark. To me, so far this has been the most bat-jive insane thing I've seen in a long while and I can't stop laughing my ass off.

I mean, let's just take in some of the bat-jive crazy stuff...on second thought, never mind. If I listed half the stuff I've just seen in the past hour, I'd get banned. (though I will say that the dubstep gun has just become one of my favorites).

 

[Shadewing]

Despite my statement of the series jumping the shark with it; I don't dislike or hate 4. It is the game where the series stops being about a gang taking over a city, by taking down even worse gangs and just does whatever the f it wants. They wrote themselves into a corner between 4 and Hell; and is why the series has been kinda dead til the reboot. However I will say, on its completely own merits... 4 is a rather fun parody of Superhero games; its still got the really strong characters and humor the series is known for. There is still a lot of fun to be had. While it veers away from what I'd want the game to be, there is still enough of the series' staples and charms that keep me from hating it.

I own this series multiple times over, including 4. I am very eager to see if the reboot lives up to the bat-jive rep of the games before it. But for me 3 is peak Saints Row. Introducing Prof Genki and his insane side missions, fighting a gang of luchadores and a gang of Cyberpunk wannabes, as well as an gov't anti-gang task force that has SHEILD level tech, insane collectables including jive like blow-up dolls, they are just seeing just how much they can get away with. Like its very easy to see how the question of "How do we top this?" leads to 4.

 

[wonko the sane?]

Playing the series in order (starting at say 2, because 2 is functionally just a "Okay, what did we WANT to do with 1, but couldn't." remake.) is a trip. Kinda like watching gurren lagann for the first time: it literally just keeps escalating, and escalating, and escalating. It's fun because of how ludicrous it is at its core, and how far they keep pushing it.

There's story there, but... It's window dressing for shotguns in pimp canes, dildo bats, and getting your ass mauled by your copilot tiger.

 

[Tm_Silverclaw]

Despite my statement of the series jumping the shark with it; I don't dislike or hate 4. It is the game where the series stops being about a gang taking over a city, by taking down even worse gangs and just does whatever the f it wants. They wrote themselves into a corner between 4 and Hell; and is why the series has been kinda dead til the reboot.

Honestly I would have loved "Space gangs" and going to different planets in a gang war for a SR 5.

 

[wonko the sane?]

Heh... yeah, that would have been cool...

Course, there's no reason in that case to simply use cataclysmic scale weapons to wipe the spot off the map.

 

[Tm_Silverclaw]

Heh... yeah, that would have been cool...

Course, there's no reason in that case to simply use cataclysmic scale weapons to wipe the spot off the map.

Matt was playing with the said weapons and broke them?

 

[Caldwin]

The more I play the more I wonder, what does 'reason' have to do with anything?

 

[Tm_Silverclaw]

Reason? What is this... reason you speak of?

 

[Caldwin]

It's one of those things everyone says they're looking for but never find because it never truly existed except in the deepest fantasies of human invention.

 

[Shadewing]

Honestly I would have loved "Space gangs" and going to different planets in a gang war for a SR 5.

That, or since 4 implies they can time travel: Saints in Time. Do something like typical like going back to the 70's or 80's, and starting their empire decades earlier maybe with the idea of preventing the destruction of Earth by being prepared for the alien invasion, or do something really offwall, and have them go back to like the revolutionary war and just making like the United States of the Saints or something. Like seriously, imagine like Assassin's Creed 3 (or any of them) but with SR's absolutely ridicous and over the top nature.

 

[Caldwin]

The astroid didn't cause the extinction of the dinosaur. It was the Saints. They also killed all of the butterflies. And Dubstep predates humanity.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

At some point it's no longer possible to jump the shark. This is exactly where the series should go.

 

[Caldwin]

I just finished SR IV. The credits are rolling as I type this. That had to be the most absolute off the hook game I've ever played. It's maybe the best game I've ever played thanks to PS+.

Thing is, I think the things I liked most about this was probably the things I wouldn't find in the other SR games, mainly super hero powers and cyberpunk type setting.

But the weapons were crazy. The humor was off the hook. I very much lost it at so many points because it was just so relentlessly nuts. The soundtrack was everything I never knew I needed in a soundtrack. And that tribute to Transformers the Movie at the end? *chefs kiss*

 

[Shadewing]

You'll get some of the Cyberpunk stuff in three, as Matt and his gang The Deckers are Cyberpunk based and you'll have a few missions that will dip a bit into that genre. No Super powers, but you still get some crazy weapons like:

The Apoca-fist - think a pair of 'Hulk Hands' that make your enemies explode into viscera when punched.
The Shark-o-Matic - cover your victim in chum and then watch as street sharks (literal, not the 90's tmnt knockoff franchise) devour your enemies.
The Mollusk Launcher - Another nuatical themed weapon, this time you fire mind controlling exploding octopi at people, those hit will help you until the little tenticle monster is detonated.
Cyberbuster - The 'please don't sue us' version of Megaman's weapon.
The Sonic Boom gun - Its basically the ranged version of the Apoca-Fist.
Quarter Circle Punch - HADOUKEN!

Plus a lot of really wild mini games like trying to drive a car and not get mauled by a tiger.

It also has some great pop culture references and a killer soundtrack. And multiple endings.

So basically, everything but the Super powers.

 

[Shadewing]

While I do think you'll like 3; I've also got to point out the sorta Spin-Off/stand-alone DLC 'Gat Outta Hell' That uses the SR4 engine. Satan kidnaps The Boss to force them to marry his daughter; its up to Gat and Kenzie to rescue them from Hell, while fighting off previous villians from the SR series and Demon/Angelic powers to replace the Super Powers.

Three is a bigger game, but 'Gat' will give you more of the same (and not using that negatively).

 

[Caldwin]

I just started SR The Third. I tried to start 2, but it was one of the ones you have to stream, which while it works better than I thought it would, the load times are horrendous. But so far 3 does look interesting. I just did the airplane bit at the very beginning and should probably call it a night.

So, am I missing something, or is the first game really the only one that didn't get included with PS+?