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.