Saints Row IV

[MXC]

I think it's worth saying that this is my new favorite game of 2013. This game is more fun than literally every game I have ever played, and it does a better job of being a followup to Saints Row 2 than Saints Row the Third ever was. Unlike the third game, Saints Row IV actually has a narrative on par with the second game. Not only that but additionally, I have never had this much fun getting from point A to point B. There are plenty of sandbox games out there that play with superpowers: Crackdown, Infamous, Prototype, Superman, I believe there was a Hulk game there somewhere, whatever, but this game pulls off the element of movement MILES ahead of just about every other game out there.

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I also found it pretty interesting that Adam Sessler went out of his way to give his own feelings on the game after it had already been reviewed by one of his co workers.
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Has anyone else played this?

[Kornman00]

I started playing it the other night, after getting sucked into Blacklist only to have uplay fuck that experience over. Pretty fucking awesome. I think they also did a better job with the soundtrack this time. I swear, Lump just goves with starting some superhero type shit. Glad I preordered and got the POTUS gun or w/e that all-guns-rolled-into-one gun is. Because the baseline standard weapons (not specials, and not upgraded) blow.

[Kornman00]

Some thoughts after having played the game for a while now:
* I tend to do side missions first, since they unlock stuff and help stack up your XP (in theory, making the story missions easier or less of a chore). The most annoying part of SR4 probably comes from having to exit the simulation to talk to your gang. Which you pretty much have to do after finishing every side mission. This is a huge problem early on because there is only one fucking exit. I don't fucking care how fast I can sprint, running goddamn 1.5k to 2k+ meters gets old real fast. I started just calling in a Void so I could just point in the direction I wanted to go and not much with holding any buttons. Also, early on you don't have unlimited sprint, which will of course impact this.

I think the only reason they even make you go back to the ship to 'talk' to your gang after these missions is to provide the option to 'romance' them. Sure, I liked asking Kinzie if she wanted to fuck, but I don't really see the point in breaking the flow of gameplay just to have this and provide something more than voice acknowledgement that "hey! you did that thing I wanted! here's an unlock". I really don't need to run 2k+ meters just to see Keith David's model tell me good job or remind me we need to kick some alien ass. No matter how cool Keith David is.

* Maybe it's just me and having replayed SR3 a lot already this year, but it seems like SR4's activities are just a fucking chore. They get old after the 2nd play. And there are a lot of plays just in the side and primary missions.

* Store hacking I guess could be categorized with the above. However, it has some unique points. For some reason the devs still don't get the concept of stopping the (actual) game simulation when going into one of these metagames. So if you have heat on your tail (maybe from just finishing a kill-everything-here-to-gain-territory) and enter this hacking mode, you will still take damage from because the outside world isn't on pause. I can't see the outside world, why the fuck is it affecting me?

* Powers-only boss fights. Sure, if selecting your powers wasn't so clunky.

A lot of cool ideas in this game...that fell short due to poor execution.

[MXC]

Some thoughts after having played the game for a while now:
* I tend to do side missions first, since they unlock stuff and help stack up your XP (in theory, making the story missions easier or less of a chore). The most annoying part of SR4 probably comes from having to exit the simulation to talk to your gang. Which you pretty much have to do after finishing every side mission. This is a huge problem early on because there is only one fucking exit. I don't fucking care how fast I can sprint, running goddamn 1.5k to 2k+ meters gets old real fast. I started just calling in a Void so I could just point in the direction I wanted to go and not much with holding any buttons. Also, early on you don't have unlimited sprint, which will of course impact this.

I think the only reason they even make you go back to the ship to 'talk' to your gang after these missions is to provide the option to 'romance' them. Sure, I liked asking Kinzie if she wanted to fuck, but I don't really see the point in breaking the flow of gameplay just to have this and provide something more than voice acknowledgement that "hey! you did that thing I wanted! here's an unlock". I really don't need to run 2k+ meters just to see Keith David's model tell me good job or remind me we need to kick some alien ass. No matter how cool Keith David is.

* Maybe it's just me and having replayed SR3 a lot already this year, but it seems like SR4's activities are just a fucking chore. They get old after the 2nd play. And there are a lot of plays just in the side and primary missions.

* Store hacking I guess could be categorized with the above. However, it has some unique points. For some reason the devs still don't get the concept of stopping the (actual) game simulation when going into one of these metagames. So if you have heat on your tail (maybe from just finishing a kill-everything-here-to-gain-territory) and enter this hacking mode, you will still take damage from because the outside world isn't on pause. I can't see the outside world, why the fuck is it affecting me?

* Powers-only boss fights. Sure, if selecting your powers wasn't so clunky.

A lot of cool ideas in this game...that fell short due to poor execution.

Huh, I never really found going back and forth between the real world and the simulation much of an issue, I picked up that they ultimately have you taking over the city, so I just took care of it on my own, and when every single sidequest objective was just "meet X on the ship" I exited the simulation and completed them in bulk.

Also, when I play sandbox games, if I get into them I try to see how much is in a game, so I did alot of playing with the cars in addition to moving around with superpowers. Also I liked that Volition took out the invincibility upgrade from the last game, which gave mean excuse to play with the different weapons instead of just my fists(I played through both as Saxton Hale).As far as the hacking went, I felt not having things stop around you added a little more difficulty to it.