A big concern in an industry where there is a lot of horrible false advertising is essentially not just what they are showing in the marketing, but what they aren't showing. A very good example is Fallout 4, which had a lot of excitement pre-release, but reception quickly down-spiraled post launch as people experienced what Bethesda was hiding in the previews.
The only raw gameplay of Saints Row we have gotten has been super incomplete, very quiet, drab looking scenes with no music, no city or biome audio, barely any civilians or traffic density, and a general sense of lifelessness and lack of world detail.
The only mini-game's they have shown off are hot-traffic, and the generic "blow up the area around you" one, neither of which indicates inspiring or creative new types of gameplay, challenge, or replayability.
They haven't shown any of the world interactions, or demonstrated the crime-syndicate building mechanic in detail, so it's very possible that it turns out to be exceptionally shallow and disappointing. The only customization they've shown of base design is swapping out some statues, they haven't elaborated on crew customization, they haven't shown improvements to enemy AI or combat difficulty, they haven't explained any new combat mechanics or melee systems. They haven't demonstrated any world detail beyond pretty locales, or anything to actually do in the open-world. There is a lot they haven't demonstrated that makes or breaks the game flow.
They demonstrated the game as an aesthetic reboot, but that isn't what is important, all of the footage I've seen makes the gameplay look identical to Saints Row 3, and that is absolutely not good enough for most modern audiences, expectations for open world games have changed dramatically.
Insofar as the characters and tone, they have, as I saw someone mention, the mild smarm and stoic cool that plagues marvel films, and is often-times horrible for character development or building stake and investment in a story, at least as far as the marketing shows us.
Saints Row 3 and 4 also had a fair chunk of that, which is also a big part of why I found Kinsie to be an unappealing character, but 4 in particular had some really good character and story moments I wasn't expecting, and that the marketing gave no indication towards.
So I could be pleasantly surprised and greatly enjoy the story and its characters, even though I dislike the youth-culture aesthetic, but that is a gamble, and not one I'm willing to bet money on without reviews.
It also isn't helping that I personally am super let down with the character creator, and despite people touting "cartoony Fornite graphics", there is that off looking plastic/course skin complexion that plagues a lot of triple A games trying to look realistic, and no options to change complexion in general.
I really hope to be proven wrong, but with how sparse Volitions social media is, I have no idea if the game will actually be a financial success, or if it will be the death knell for a studio that hasn't kept up with modern gameplay standards.
My grief is that they aren’t gonna allow cheat codes right off the bat. I mean, c’mon, that was a staple of the franchise! What if some of us like breaking the game and creating a stupidly OP/stupidly rich character on level one? xD
