Saints Row - Great series, or Greatest series?

Since I'm currently hanging out in the middle of SR2 running down the Ronin, I feel compelled to make this thread.

Why is this game series not more celebrated? I know there are some hardcore Saints here on the forum, but I also know there are way more people who like GTA more, and GTA has way more average-person street cred. If you haven't played a Saints Row game (the 1st one barely counts, so not that), what has dissuaded you? Especially if you are the kind of person who likes GTA; if it just isn't your style of game at all, then that's another matter.

If you HAVE played it, what is the essence of the series to you, and what has it done best? What's the worst step backward it has taken? Is Gat Out of Hell worth buying? Is SR3 or SR4 better (2 is the best, sorry)?

Everything about these games is great, basically, and it satisfies all my sandbox violence needs without having to get into GTA and its unironic "this is cool because there's so much swearing" attitude.

Anyway, celebrate these amazing games and ask what the deal is if you haven't played them.

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Originally Posted by Spuuky

(2 is the best, sorry)

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Never apologise for saying this.

I think GTA is preferred by many for two reasons - it's the more established brand and people have found memories of the PS2 iterations, and it has online multiplayer (not co-op). The original Saints Row had online multiplayer but it wasn't great - it was my first ever online console gaming experience and I thought it was the business at the time. Saints 2 had it too, but as I recall you were just in enclosed spaces rather than having the whole of Stillwater. I'm not complaining though, I'm much more of a co-op man.

The main difference for me is the sense of humour and how seriously they take themselves. GTA tries to play it cool, take a step back and say "Ha, look at society. Isn't it trout?" whereas Saints is just balls out unapologetically rampant. It's telling that from the IV DLC episodes and then onto V that Rockstar tried to shift the GTA series a little bit more into the direction of Saints.

To answer the question, tricky but I'm going 4. The lack of a new city was disappointing and vehicles are essentially redundant, but the super powers absolutely turned the Saints series on its head. Plus all the clever little throwbacks to the three previous titles and stuff like the Johnny Gat 16 bit adventure were excellent diversions.

I missed out on Saints Row 1, but 2 had a damn near perfect balance of serious moments and stories to invest you in the plot and out of control wacky hijinks that really highlight some of the sillier aspects of the genre of the game. Each following game kind of started to abandon the former in favor of getting more ridiculous, which is fine. While I really enjoyed them, they didn't really compare. I'd say that's why it doesn't get as celebrated as a series.

I enjoyed Saint's Row 4. Never felt compelled to even try the others. The mob-boss thing doesn't really appeal to me. Superheroes fighting aliens, though? Sign me up any day.

First one was okay. Never bothered with the others. Those type of games get old pretty quick for me.

I haven't played either series. GTA is the one gaming series mom banned from the house. I want to try out Saint Rows after a friend told me what they were like but I haven't gotten around to picking any up.

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Originally Posted by escobert

First one was okay. Never bothered with the others. Those type of games get old pretty quick for me.

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See, I thought that, but it was because GTA gets old pretty quick for me. SR2-4 didn't. (SR1 was basically just a somewhat poor GTA clone)

Yeah I can't get into, or stay into GTA games, or their other clones. But there's something special about Saints Row. I adore them all. 2 and 4 are fantastic. Played through multiple times, and the updated version of 4 for the PS4 was super great