Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Thoughts on Saints Row 4


Saints Row IV is a new game from Volition that builds on the previous Saints Row games (in a very loose way).  I have been looking forward to this game for quite some time.  I love Saints Row the Third.  I love the jokes, the game play, the city, the characters, even the giant purple bat that has other "uses" (if you get my drift).  Last night I got my chance to play it.  After a very cinematic heavy beginning, that was a little slow in my opinion, you finally get to "play" your character.

You are thrown back into a city that is very close to the one from Saints Row the Third (the same city, just a little different).  At first, the quests are pretty much the same as the ones from "the Third".  That isn't a bad thing as they are fun.  A little more on close the game is to "the Third" in a bit.

Soon after running a couple quests you get your "Super Powers".  Imagine Crackdown powers on, well, crack.  One power gives you the ability to sprint for long time frames much faster than any vehicle in the game.  You can also crash through the other vehicles and pedestrians while you are at it.  The question I started to ask myself was why they even bothered to put vehicles in the game.  You can get where you want to go faster by running there.  See that annoying building in your way?  Jump over it.   Is the building too tall to jump over?  Just keep hitting jump and your super hero will keep jumping up the wall.

On to the weapons.  When using them they feel underpowered.  They are not fun to use and you don't get that sense of destruction that you did in previous Saints Row games.  Very early in the game your punches and kicks become more powerful than the weapons you carry (much like Crackdown).  I also don't like the idea that when you hijack a car you just need to press down on the D-Pad to save it.  No more going to a garage to save it.  Kind of takes the excitement of trying to get to the garage in the vehicle in one piece away.

I played the game for about two hours.  The more I played the more I kept feeling that this should have been DLC for Saints Row the Third.  I just feel that they took a very good game, threw in some super powers and aliens, and dumbed it down.  I am going to try and give it a little more time but as of now I will probably be trading this in very shortly as it won't be keeping my attention very long...especially with GTAV hitting soon.

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