Saints Row

Husky_Khan

The Dog Whistler... I mean Whisperer.
Founder
Sotnik

Husky_Khan

The Dog Whistler... I mean Whisperer.
Founder
Sotnik
Impromptu ranking time. How do you rate the games so far?

Saints Row: The Third: The first Saints Row game I ever played. I lovedhow wacky and fun and light hearted it was and the wide variety of fun characters. I was never much into GTA style games and could never really get into them and the billion of different things you could potentially do in those Open World settings. But here, the side quests and games were actually fun and enjoyable to play. Dozens of hours were dumped into this game just doing stuff. Fun stuff.

Saints Row 2:
This is a tough one because I want to rank this as number one. The story and plot of this game is FIERCE and GRITTY. I didn't played Saints Row 2 until after playing Three and Four and needing MORE and I got it here. I loved the violence and the gang warfare and exploring the actual hometown of the Saints in Stilwater. Another bonus was learning a lot more about the Saints Row lore that was touched upon in later games. This games characters were just as fun and humorous and interesting as in later games and was still pretty off the wall and stylistic and the gameplay itself was thankfully far from dated and readily accessible to me. But again, it's the story and how surprisingly bloody and ruthless it gets that really impacted me. It's a great game all around with a strong narrative. But unlike Saints Row: The Third I never spent loads of time just playing the game and losing myself in the open world experience. But it has the best single player campaign, if you could call it that, then any of the other games.

Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell: I was reluctant in playing this one, but I think I liked the DLC more then the actual game. The setting was radically different and had so many Easter Eggs (especially historical ones) and yet transposing everything into Hell, it still had that Saints Row Experience. The main plot was ridiculous, but fun and I loved it. It reminded me a bit of South Park actually. Plus I got to play as Johnny Gat rescuing The Boss, which was great. I'm saving my own original game avatar as a badass NPC! And yes, I chose the "Find a New Homeworld for the Saints to Rebuild Humanity" ending. And God chose a good planet for the Saints to finish on... no pun intended. :devilish:

Saints Row IV: Just saying, I did like this game a lot. But it was in spite of Zinyak and his aliens. I appreciate the They Live type of motif going on, it was a fine film and I loved the opening and The Boss becoming President but was really perturbed at Zinyak destroying the Earth and the whole game taking place in a Simulation. I'm already playing a game and now I'm playing a game inside of a game. Furthermore I found fighting the Police/Military and various Gangs in previous games far more interesting then fighting aliens gameplay wise. It was a good game, but narratively it was meh. And the enemies weren't as good as in Saints Row: The Third. And this is in spite of having awesome people like Vice President Keith David and Roddy Piper and Asha Odekar being introduced into the game.

Never played the original Saints Row however so... yeah.
 

ParadiseLost

Well-known member
Nah, what happened is that it got postponed.

Most devs like to focus on marketing the 3 months before launch. Now that its postponed there's no reason to push the marketing anymore.
 

Husky_Khan

The Dog Whistler... I mean Whisperer.
Founder
Sotnik
Oh yeah, look at that. Announcement made last November.



New release date pushes it back SIX months to August of 2022.
 

Husky_Khan

The Dog Whistler... I mean Whisperer.
Founder
Sotnik
Oh forgot about this.

Apparently its gone Gold. Release date is still August 23rd.

 

The Original Sixth

Well-known member
Founder
Impromptu ranking time. How do you rate the games so far?

Saints Row: The Third: The first Saints Row game I ever played. I lovedhow wacky and fun and light hearted it was and the wide variety of fun characters. I was never much into GTA style games and could never really get into them and the billion of different things you could potentially do in those Open World settings. But here, the side quests and games were actually fun and enjoyable to play. Dozens of hours were dumped into this game just doing stuff. Fun stuff.


I would say that Saint's Row: the Third was a good, solid came, but it was the "We're Jumping the Shark" moment for the series. It was a massive break from the games before it, but it did retain a bit of the grit and grounded ideas of the earlier games. I did really enjoy SR3 when it came out, but I have to say that it has not aged well. Even the remake is...well, still bare bones when you compare it to the depth of the original two.

Still, I will say that I remember SR3 having better assassinations, the tanks were fun, and the game was more streamlined. The clothes were also better as were the visuals, but they lacked the creativity of one and two. I'll also say that the whole Saints Row marketing line in-game was amazing. Air vehicles were also better handled if I am not mistaken.

One thing I could never get over was how SR3 had no chicks in their police force. I don't mean that I'm offended that they aren't there, but it's bizarre that they're in earlier SR games and there are chicks in the pseduo-military outfit that invades the city, but they're not in the actual police force. At all.

Saints Row 2:
This is a tough one because I want to rank this as number one. The story and plot of this game is FIERCE and GRITTY. I didn't played Saints Row 2 until after playing Three and Four and needing MORE and I got it here. I loved the violence and the gang warfare and exploring the actual hometown of the Saints in Stilwater. Another bonus was learning a lot more about the Saints Row lore that was touched upon in later games. This games characters were just as fun and humorous and interesting as in later games and was still pretty off the wall and stylistic and the gameplay itself was thankfully far from dated and readily accessible to me. But again, it's the story and how surprisingly bloody and ruthless it gets that really impacted me. It's a great game all around with a strong narrative. But unlike Saints Row: The Third I never spent loads of time just playing the game and losing myself in the open world experience. But it has the best single player campaign, if you could call it that, then any of the other games.

Then I have to say that you have not spent enough time actually exploring both those games, rather I expect that you are looking at the minigames and side-stuff. In actuality, SR2 is far, far more developed and complex a setting than SR3 and those that followed it. There are a SHITLOAD of easter eggs that are just really easy to miss in that game and the NPCs are far funnier than in SR3.

I shit you not, I was walking around Stilwater University and this fat cow runs up to me and screams "I AM A SOCIAL JUSTICE WARRIOR!". I naturally emptied my Tombstone into her face. This was a game released in 2008, mind you. I also prefer SR2's healing method of food, booze, and (though I don't use this myself) weed to heal battle damage. The fast food places are just underrated in the Saints Row Games. Did you LISTEN to the commercials for Freckle Bitches? Or Phuc Mi Phuch Yu? Or Company of Gyros?

And if you like the minigames in SR3, how can one overlook SR2's HotFuzz? Or the Drive-By-Shootings? That's where you literally grab some of your boys, drive down a neigherhood, and just shoot things up (which activates the activity). Or what about ho-ing? Where you drive a ho around in a car for high-powered politicians and movers of the city while trying to avoid the media? Or God-help-me, Septic Avenger? Where you drive around in a rigged septic truck and devalue upper-class neighborhoods with a literal shit cannon. And that's in addition to pretty much every minigame that SR3 has (although, many of SR3's are more polished). And unlike SR3, where you're introduced to the events in the game (and thus can miss out on those phone calls or they seem out of place), in SR2, the cutscenes are IN the activities themselves. Like Hotfuzz? You're hired by Lawyer Lee (the gang's own crooked lawyer) to pretend to be a cop on TV (Hotfuzz = Cops) so you can discredit the SPD for his court case against them for another client.

And as much as I love some of the fights in SR3...they're unrealistic as hell. SR2 rarely deviates from how tough an enemy is beyond what a human could conceivably have in a fight. Most thugs go down in a few hits (depending on the gun...I love the shotgun--which doesn't have shit range like it does in SR3), save for bosses.

SR2 was more realistic in my mind; when I walked the streets of SR2, I felt like I was in a real city. Everything seemed more or less natural, although the trailer park seemed so out of place next to a suburb...but that was an amazing trailer park. It had a fucking arcade, shop, and laundromat in one area. And it was the scene of a shootout! It's one of the coolest parts of that game, going through those small shops and areas. You don't get that too much in SR3 and when you do, it's actually pretty boring.

And that's my criticism with SR3. It lacks the depth of SR2. When I walk the streets of SR3, it doesn't feel authentic, save for a few places. It just seems very sterilized and the NPCs are much more limited in design, interaction, and behaviors. SR3, you had punkers, frat boys, drunks, bums, businessmen, blue collar, drug addicts, geeks, sports fanatics, cheerleaders, middle class housewives, lots of different old people, fatties, and so much more. You get a lot of those in SR3 too, I'm not saying they aren't there, but the interaction is not there. In SR2, NPCs will interact with each other. Sit in each other's laps, hold hands, have group studies--shit, some of them even sing in a quartet! Some protest (also in SR3, but they aren't protesting you--they're protesting political stuff from all aspects of the spectrum). They'll read newspapers, pull out umbrellas (or use newspapers), work on laptops, at office desks, and you can even mug them (hold your gun on them for a few seconds)!

SR3...it doesn't have that. It has maybe a tenth of what SR2 had.

Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell:
I was reluctant in playing this one, but I think I liked the DLC more then the actual game. The setting was radically different and had so many Easter Eggs (especially historical ones) and yet transposing everything into Hell, it still had that Saints Row Experience. The main plot was ridiculous, but fun and I loved it. It reminded me a bit of South Park actually. Plus I got to play as Johnny Gat rescuing The Boss, which was great. I'm saving my own original game avatar as a badass NPC! And yes, I chose the "Find a New Homeworld for the Saints to Rebuild Humanity" ending. And God chose a good planet for the Saints to finish on... no pun intended. :devilish:

The storyline was fun, some of the minigames, weapons, and enemies were fun...but it was honestly a let-down for me. Even with the chance at playing Gat.

Saints Row IV:
Just saying, I did like this game a lot. But it was in spite of Zinyak and his aliens. I appreciate the They Live type of motif going on, it was a fine film and I loved the opening and The Boss becoming President but was really perturbed at Zinyak destroying the Earth and the whole game taking place in a Simulation. I'm already playing a game and now I'm playing a game inside of a game. Furthermore I found fighting the Police/Military and various Gangs in previous games far more interesting then fighting aliens gameplay wise. It was a good game, but narratively it was meh. And the enemies weren't as good as in Saints Row: The Third. And this is in spite of having awesome people like Vice President Keith David and Roddy Piper and Asha Odekar being introduced into the game.

Really enjoyed SR4, almost as much as SR3. I honestly thought it was going to be the last SR game, because there was really nowhere left to go. What I loved about SR4 was getting to listen to music wherever I go (damn, about time!), the superpowers, and some really good storylines that they wrapped up. I did like that they at least addressed Shandi's complete character swap from SR2 and SR3 (damn she's a bitch in 3...) and it was cool having Gat back. I never appreciated them killing him off in 2. SR4 was really campy, but I enjoyed it.

But there are flaws. First off, I just have to say that the game makes no sense being in Steelport; it's obvious that Stilwater would have made more sense with what they were going for (and that aspect of the story just flops; ie, if the Saints never existed). The second is a lack of things to do--not as bad as SR3, there are so many side missions with all the characters, that it does make up for it and the side missions they have are fun and engaging, but they really aren't all that interesting once you get over the super powers. And three...I can't really enjoy those powers as much as I would otherwise. That random NPC who you just drove your hand through like some badass, bloodthirsty Ninja-Superman? Doesn't exist. It's just an AI in the game. It's not an actual person. They aren't suffering, so the humor in the brutality is somewhat empty.

And I know that's kind of odd--these people aren't real, to begin with, but somehow, I can find amusement in killing someone in a brutal and humorous way if they're supposed to be real in the game, but taking it another step further is just...well, it just isn't all that much fun. That said, it's a great game.

Never played the original Saints Row however so... yeah.

It's really good. There are some flaws. The combat system in SR1 is even less polished than in SR2 (although, not by much) and in SR1, they turn their guns sideways to shoot. A lot of the original minigames have their place in SR1, but SR2 was really where that ballooned. The notoriety is roughly the same as SR2. The models are uglier (by far) and you get almost no customization (and you can only play as a man), with fairly limited clothing and style options. That said, the story is really good and it has the same humor you see in SR2.

One thing that I loved in SR1 that never made it into SR2 (I don't know why) was that train you see in SR2? It was a fast-travel device in SR1. It's mostly just an obstacle in SR2, save where the Boss is using it in one cutscene. SR1 is also similar in style to SR2, where it feels very much like a real city (just less believable) and you can see that a great deal of the heavy lifting in design and idea was taken from SR1 for SR2 (although Stilwater in SR2 is like, 25-50% larger and about as different).

Overall though, SR1 has not aged gracefully. It was developed at a time when sandbox crime games were still getting their footing and it was very much a Grand Theft Auto clone in its own way. Of any game, it could use with a remake. Use the SR2 game engine, clean it up a bit, and get a prettier skin--and it would do marvels. Honestly, could do the same with SR2. Be better than the new SR shit they're trying to pass from their bowels.

Overall, I'd rank them as:
Saints Row 2
Saints Row 3
Saints Row 4
Saints Row 1
Gat out of Hell

All good games by the way, but I think SR2 is by far the greatest game of the franchise.
 

The Original Sixth

Well-known member
Founder
In SR2 you could buy and customize a crib. A place to hang out but the bigger ones would have a ton of gang members in it. Like the frat house one or the upscale one. Plus there was the underground base. That was really fun. I'm surprised their wasn't an option to clean up the area hear the hotel.

Yeah, that's missing from S3. You can't really upgrade a crib once you get it.
 

Husky_Khan

The Dog Whistler... I mean Whisperer.
Founder
Sotnik
Guess what's releasing tomorrow?

That's right! IMMORTAL EMPIRES for Total War Warhammer III!




Oh and Saints Row... Five? Six?

Or it's a prequel or Multiverse thing? I dunno.

FaydKLAXkAE8Koo


Come tomorrow we'll see if the Audience Scores will beat the Critic ones for better or worse.

GManLives at the very least states its a soulless, schizophrenic 80% completed game that fails to live up to either Saints Row II or Saints Row: The Third.

 
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Husky_Khan

The Dog Whistler... I mean Whisperer.
Founder
Sotnik
Apparently Saints Row was "polarizing in its fan reception.

Embracer Group CEO (the big company that owns those little developer companies) Lars Wingefors had this to say:

VGC said:
“Personally, I had hoped for a greater reception to the game,” he said. “It’s been very polarising. There are a lot of things that could be said in detail around it, but I’m with one hand happy to see lots of gamers and fans happy, and at the same time I’m a bit sad to also see fans not happy, so it’s difficult.


I'm actually surprised its 'polarizing.' The article cites MetaCritic stating that the range is from 62-66 but going on the website the User Reviews are ranging from 2.6 for the PC version to 3.1 for the XBox Version.
 

Urabrask Revealed

Let them go.
Founder
Apparently Saints Row was "polarizing in its fan reception.

Embracer Group CEO (the big company that owns those little developer companies) Lars Wingefors had this to say:




I'm actually surprised its 'polarizing.' The article cites MetaCritic stating that the range is from 62-66 but going on the website the User Reviews are ranging from 2.6 for the PC version to 3.1 for the XBox Version.
The three biggests reasons imo for the lukewarm reception are the following:
1. It's a reboot
2. It's a glitch-riddled mess
3. The story and protagonists are just not engaging.
 

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