Where Has Saints Row Gone Wrong?

Saints Row has been one of my favourite open-world adventure games of this generation. Before SR, we only had Grand Theft Auto to look to, but when the first Saints Row launched in 2006, I fell in love with it. It offered something completely new for the Xbox 360, activities, customizations, cribs and a great storyline. Sure San Andreas had this, but that was on the PS2, and no one had dared take on GTA. Saints Row wasn’t afraid to, and in the process made a great game, and eventually series. But I am unsure of Saints Row IV.

[KillrateOmega]

Answer: Superpowers and the Presidency.

[JumpToGamer]

Precisely :)

[itani]

After number 2.

[SpaZaA]

Trying to be Infamous.
That being said, it's to early to say superpowers won't work well, I still look forward to SR IV.

[Heisenburger]

I just recently purchased Prototype 2 myself. As 'Human' said the similarities are quite apparent after playing that game.

I was all against SR4 up since Saints 3 felt like they just took everything that i liked from 2 out. That is, until I got Prototype 2.

I was imagining how fun that game would be with co-op play. Then I remembered the game I had written off, SR4.

Now am I still disappointed with the direction they chose after 2? Absolutely.

But I know SR4 will be much more fun for me personally than The Third ever was.

Should be a great guilty pleasure co-op game.

[JsonHenry]

I like the over the top direction. If I wanted a serious game I would play GTA.

[dark-hollow]

Saints row did right thing with the third one. Its wackiness and over the top action give it own unique identity to set it apart from the behemoth that is the GTA series.

[HammadTheBeast]

Actually that's where they went wrong in my opinion. Saints Row has always had an identity, but now they're trying to be outrageous and different for the sake of being outrageous and different.

It's going too far, and impacting the story, characters and the rest negatively.

[Angrymorgan]

Saints row 1 was the only one I really enjoyed.
Saints row 2 was too rough around the edges, graphically and animation wise. And number 3 was the worst. I couldnt enjoy the madness of it. Plus you could access way too much from the phone. Took away the exploration too much. Id find myself just racing to marker rather than enjoying the city. ....imo..

[fenome]

I wish they'd just take out some of the clutter. Yeah, I wanna roam around and have fun and do my own thing, but with all the stars all over the map and everything everywhere it's easy to get... I was gonna say side-tracked, but that's not the word I'm looking for. I like getting side-tracked..
Too many things trying to tell me what to do is maybe a better explanation..
If I happen to see something shiny on the way, maybe I wanna go check that out. If I'm actually trying to get to something specific and I can't even tell where I'm trying to go because the mini-map is so cluttered it gets convoluted though. I love options, don't get me wrong, but when they make everything seem important it then nothing really feels like it is actually important. At that point everything is hella fun at first, but then it seems like doing the same stuff over and over.

Don't get me wrong, I want this game to be good, I really do. I just hope they have fun it, and realize that that's what we wanna do. Have fun with it. If you're gonna focus, then focus. If you're going free-for-all, do that. Just run with what you've got.

[3-4-5]

Played the first one only for like an hour and it was fun but nothing like GTA.

They aren't unique enough from other games.

It's like pieces of other games combined into one.

They need to find their identity outside of a purple dildo.

They are losing credibility and respect amongst gamers.

Super powered president sounds like something from idiocracy. Except idiocracy was more realistic.

[My_Name_BTW_Is_Dante]

It hasn't.

GTA went wrong by taking the fun out of the game for more realism.

[brodychet]

have you not seen GTA5. get with it pal.

[NihonjinChick]

Saints Row isn't much fun either. The only people who will enjoy this game are 5 year olds that are obsessed with superheros.

[DevilishSix]

Wait..What? So someone has to be 5 years old to enjoy superheros? WTF you need to stop stereotyping people, homey.

[HammadTheBeast]

And Saints Row goes too far. It'll never beat GTA in quality or immersion. Or fun, if you can get past IV.

[NihonjinChick]

Saints Row 1 and 2 had a perfect balance of wackiness and a serious tone. The story in the first two was also really fun.

Now the series seems like a game that was made to appeal to small children with short attention spans. The story sucks and I hate what they did to some of the characters.

[fsfsxii]

Some mature people liked SR3 and like the way SR4 is headed, some people also enjoy over the top insanely fun games, i'm one of them.

[NihonjinChick]

I'm not doubting that some people like the new direction the series is taking.

After all, there are people who enjoyed Mind Jack, Alpha Protocol, DBZ kinect, and Sonic Free riders.

Even the worst games have people who enjoy them.

[iceman06]

I have to agree, because I am one as well. I really enjoyed the humor and the chaotic nature of the story. It was close to impossible to predict what was going to happen next. The missions, though basic in nature, are well hidden behind the over-the-top narrative. That being said, I also enjoy the less chaotic, and more grounded story of GTA. I didn't mind the STORY of GTA 4. I just felt like the mission structure and the side missions lacked the variety of the previous games. It was a bit tedious to try to finish.

[Kietz]

"Now the series seems like a game that was made to appeal to small children with short attention spans."

Elaborate.

[Amplitude]

lol whuttt. Saints 3 had a great story. Small children and toddlers dont play Saints.

I do agree that Saints 3 had some problems though. Like some of the 12-year-old-targeted jokes are pretty unfunny but they're avoidable... like "ha ha ha im hitting people with a dildo" or the whole Professor Genki thing. Kinda felt like they were trying just way too hard.
That and the obvious decrease in character/car/crib customization from Saints 2.

but Saints 3 was still really really fun and a great game that i got a ton of entertainment out of. If you think it was bad because of it's craziness then thats your opinion but i think you're in the minority. Props to the devs for doing something different rather than just 4 updated versions of GTA clones.

[RavageX]

You are definitely wrong about being in the minority. MOST of the people who liked SR1 and 2 hated or really disliked the game.

I was on the official forums till I finally had it and I recall maybe two people defending the game's direction.

The fact you thought the game had a "great story" says a lot. Not really trying to knock your taste but I don't remember a single thing that was "great" about it.

It was just a bunch of random crap thrown together. Wrestlers, riding in a car with a tiger, farts in a jar, over done zombies...yeah that's really great.

[xXBlondieVanHarlowXx]

@IncredibleGamerChick

"After all, there are people who enjoyed Mind Jack, Alpha Protocol, DBZ kinect, and Sonic Free riders.

Even the worst games have people who enjoy them."

Translating... Translating.. Translating..

Games I like are good. If I don't like them they are bad therefore I don't respect people who like those "bad" games, I will insult people who enjoyed those aforementioned "bad" games by calling them retarded 5 year olds and will absolutely NOT respect their opinion.

Translation complete. SMH :/

[CrossingEden]

it hasn't gone wrong, the only thing that's gone wrong is gamers who constantly complain about games not trying anything new or unique, and then getting all uppity whenever a game like saints row dares to have a plot that doesn't take itself seriously, these same people then turn around and defend games like lollipop chainsaw, in other words, gamers today just like to whine about everything, had no idea that every game had to have some element of seriousness -_-

[NihonjinChick]

Nobody complained about Saints Row 2, so there wasn't really any reason for them to ruin the franchise with these changes that nobody wanted. All they had to do was expand on what made 2 great. Not make it a game for toddlers.

[fsfsxii]

For once, i agree with you with you.

[MadLad]

Saint's Row has gone wrong?
Couldn't tell.

[Craigatorian]

the only saints row i played was the third

[fsfsxii]

It hasn't gotten wrong. I like the direction SR4 is going, we need less serious games. I say this is where gaming has gone wrong.

[RavageX]

It went plenty wrong. Look folks, you can have a fun and crazy game that still makes SENSE.

SR2 was just right. Had a good story, and lots of craziness, plus there was loads to do and places to explore.

In comes SR3, where it ONLY had stupid craziness.

You know what? IncredibleGamerChick has pretty much covered everything I wanted to say, and did a fine job with it.

SR3 and from the looks of it SR4 are steps backwards in the series for me. Prettied-up trash. The only real improvement was with the graphics, and they didn't even do that right since the customization options were less.

The jet bike and such were cool, but whats the point if there isn't a damn thing to do with them? There really wasn't any point in exploring cause there wasn't a damn thing to find worthwhile..no caves, malls, gang hideouts, NOTHING.

No real challenge to the game cause of the stupid upgrades, NO real diversions since they are part of the story(which was the worst part of all).

I just can't begin to tell you how furious this game makes me. It was my anticipated title of the year before it came out. I might need to see a psychiatrist because I just can't seem to let this go.

(deep breath)

I'm ok. Really...maybe I'll go for a nice, peaceful walk or something and hope I don't run across any more articles on this game any time soon.

(It is just a game after all...a very poorly done one)

[dcj0524]

This. Exactly how I feel. I loved saints row 3 as did my xousin. On the ps3 we got saints row 2 free with the third. Me and him started playing and there was SO MUCH more to do in sr2. It was dumb. SR2 had more content and fun than sr3. me and my cuz still don't understand why.

[frostyhat123]

To me they really need to focus on fine tuning the gameplay. If they could just put all their effort into fixing the mechanics in the next iteration I will buy it in a heartbeat.

[silvacrest]

i loved saints row 1 but the rest were just to wacky for my tastes

you can make a game fun but over the top stuff gets old extremely fast

[Jagsrock]

I don't mind the new direction. It's a video game after all and the point is to escape reality and have fun. Sr4 looks like a wacky good time, plus it would be redundant if it tried to be like GTA.

[iceman06]

I think that this is the real point. When Saints Row came out, people like it or didn't but it was solely based on it being better or worse than GTA. Since then, it has tried to kind of carve out it's own niche. That being, it taking things that you like about sandbox games and making them totally wacky and insane. As a co-op game, it is a blast to play. Some of the mechanics are great, they just need some balance. Overall, I love sandbox games. So, it's hard to be objective about them. I love GTA. I like the Saints Row series. I loved Red Dead Redemption. I loved Just Cause 2 (mostly for the mechanics).

[bluetoto]

Next.

[Brian123]

Saints row 2 was good. Saints row 3, should not have stayed with gangs if they were to make the gangs so "ungangly" looking. They looked like people dressing up at carnivals. The city lacks things to do, there were few places you could actually go in, besides cribs or shops. It needs to be more interactive in my opinion. Saints row 4 although has extremely funny looking things to do, the team failed by keeping it in the same city :( they say its expanded, its mainly just aliens added to the sky. Im not a GTA fan but for instance compare SR4 to gta 5 wow. Gta looks good because of the huge amount of things to do, its interactive, and HUGE. If SR made the area larger and (too differentiate itself from gta) it added things like from battlefield, the fact that things can be blown up and stay broken! It would be a beautiful addition. But i love saints row still, many hilarious moments. However the lack of new things is its downfall, same looking people, some same cars, same city. They should try to focus on aspects from saints row 2. This is all my opinion. Do not buy sr4 untill price is down, unless you havent played sr3. If you havent played sr3 then sr4 will be extreme fun. Otherwise its a bit repetitive and boring landscape. :D