Is there really not a Saints Row IV thread yet? It's out here in eight hours!

[Madame Adequate]

Look out, here comes Paul!

[NeoCracker]

Oh god, Pierces Loyalty Mission. XD

(SPOILER)DAMN YOU ZINYAK FOR BUTCHERING BIZ MARKIE!

[Aulayna]

Meh I really want to get this but the financials are a bit tight right now and early access for XIV starts the day after it's released here. :s

[NeoCracker]

...Now having romanced/Sexed everyone the game lets me, I must say Ben King's may be my favorite, if only for it's contrast to all others. This is closely followed by Kenzi and Asha.

Pretty close to finishing it now though, expecting to do so by Saturday, perhaps Sunday if I've misjudged the game length.

I also have my Rep level at 50, so the only upgrades I don't have access too are trout you need to do the bonus missions for.

[Madame Adequate]

I finished this last night and I think it might be GOTY and I say that keeping EU4 in mind.

Sacrifice whatever you need to - get this game.

[NeoCracker]

If only this game hadn't come out just before all of my weeks shifts I'd have finished it by now.

That said I'll finish it tonight most likely.

[Skyblade]

I am getting this game now. Never played a Saint's Row game before, no previous interest in the series, this is just based on recommendations. I hope I don't hate your taste in games in a few minutes hours (stupid download times).

Game of the Year, ha. It still has to beat Fire Emblem Awakening

[Vyk]

They don't shoe-horn exposition, but they generally give enough that I doubt you'll be very lost regarding the motivation behind much. Just don't expect them to introduce characters with full back stories, they presume you do know them, or at least know OF them. But you'll get the general idea behind everyone regardless. So I think it's okay to just jump right in. But the previous games really aren't too bad. I'd recommend them too, for just simple fun. The second one is really highly regarded for managing to get out some believably good drama as well

[Madame Adequate]

I'm not sure if it'll be quite as good to people who haven't played the previous ones, but yeah it's still gonna be pretty amazing.

Especially if you've read your Poe.

[NeoCracker]

Well, before I clear out the final mission, I must say Kinzie pretty much stole this entire game for me. There was not a moment involving her that wasn't just wonderful, especially her simulated nightmare. XD

Edit: Unless something happens post credits.... This ending is kind of disappointing.

[Skyblade]

So, I spent most of last night with the game, and I thought I'd give my impressions.

I won't deny that it's a good game. But it has a ton of problems that keep it from being a great game. I'll be talking problems first, then I'll discuss what I like about the game at the end.

First, it suffers from Assassin's Creed syndrome. It has a huge selection of weapons that it gives you tons of control over, and then it makes all of those useless by giving you access to the game's best weapon within the first twenty minutes. In AC, it was the Hidden Blades. Here, it's the Super Sprint Beatdown. Saint's Row also applies this to a fairly interesting vehicle customization and collection system, which would otherwise be a fun and interesting sidequest, by making Super Sprint and jumping far better than cars anyway, to the point that you'll never use them.

Combat with weapons is at its strongest in the very first mission of the game (which is good, because that's probably the only time, outside of lieutenants, that you'll use guns). The intro level shooter, due to the fact that it's an indoor area, had lots of cover, good choke points, and some excellent high ground spaces. Unfortunately, most of the game is open world exploration and combat on the cityscape, so we get none of that, turning weapon combat into just mass firepower tactics between the sides, and you're usually outnumbered. So, again, ignore weapons, and just use your superpowers.

I'm also not a fan of the game's story presentation. I can't really tell any difference between story missions, and the simple sandbox objectives that I complete as I explore the city naturally. There are no memorable bosses, no really fun objectives. I do like the game's sandbox, but the campaign is way too much of the same sandbox, and they missed an opportunity for some impressive missions and set pieces. At least thus far.

This is further punctuated by a lack of enemies. There are, as far as I can tell, three enemies in the entire game. Policemen, Alien Soldiers, and Lieutenants. None of them speak, or have any personality whatsoever, even with the Lieutenants show up in cutscenes. They have an incredibly fun main villain, but they surround him with boring, forgettable henchmen who have nothing to distinguish them from any other in your mind.



That aside, the rest of the game is really swell. The superpower mechanics are great, the writing is incredibly enjoyable, the characters are memorable, the customization options (even for weapons and such which you'll never use) are diverse and fun to play with, and the sandbox objectives are all solid (well, except hacking).

So it's a fun game. But it's nowhere near as good as it could have been, and it is definitely not the Game of the Year.

[Madame Adequate]

I can't refute that by saying you're simply wrong, but I will say that you're approaching Saints Row with the wrong attitude in mind. This is NOT a game which revolves around, or even requires, any sort of optimum play style or digging up powerful weapons in obscure places or anything like that. You get the Super Sprint Beatdown early on because it's smurfing awesome and in Saints Row that's really all that matters - and as great as it is it's far from the best weapon in the game, as it's not the Dubstep Gun, 'Merica, the Black Hole Gun, a Laserarm, a Void, or fully-upgraded Death From Above. But that's the thing, just about any weapon in the game right down to your bare superpowered hands is viable because it's about dressing how you want, driving what you want, and using whatever weapons/powers you want to smurf up Zin. If you're playing SR and looking for the most powerful weapon and most efficient way to kill enemies then you're doing it wrong, because what you should be doing is using the Dubstep Gun to make everyone dance while explosive wubs deal with enemy vehicles, and then you run up to an alien and hit him in the balls so hard he flies 30 feet, then you Freeze the area, run straight up a skyscraper in a couple seconds, jump off, and Stomp the intersection you were just at so hard that everyone and everything shatters into shards of ice.

I will agree that enemy types are a bit lacking in the early game, though that gets better as you progress. (Then those rolly robot bastards show up and you quickly regret wishing for more enemy types.)

[Skyblade]

Well, these are early impressions. I don't have most of those weapons or abilities. My newest acquisitions are the Rocket Launcher and Sniper Rifle, and Freeze Blast is new too.

The Sniper Rifle does get a ton of use for me, even without upgrades, so as I get more weapons, or the cache to upgrade others, it'll probably shift my opinion.

Is there an alien shotgun?

[Madame Adequate]

Yeah, the Thumpgun, though I rolled with the Auto-Shotty so I can't tell you how it performs.

[NeoCracker]

Auto-Shotgun is pretty much my weapon of choice in that game, though I had a lot of fun with other weapons.