SRIV IdolNinja's Saints Row IV Review

I tempered my anticipation, and I think I avoided over-hyping myself for this game as I some times do for other games, so I think I will enjoy myself. I often daydream about the next game I want, and then that game just cannot live up to my dreams.

I'm glad SR4 is a mostly awesome experience and look forward to playing it.
 
I'm kind of sad to know that the outfits are almost entirely in the Inauguration station. It struck me as weird that outfits that used to be separate pieces are now just solid one piece outfits in the game. I really liked using the Battalion pants with just about everything. I guess usually I'm just kind of sad there are more girl centric clothes, HOWEVER, they totally fixed that weird midriff issue in SR3, and they added a ton of pants, including giving me back a proper pair of cargo pants.
 
Miku Hatsune said:
The only reason why barely anyone listened to the Blood was because the music was bad and the DJ was bad too. If they'd put in some good metal bands the numbers would've been different.
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I disagree with that.
The Black Dahlia Murder, Otep, Opeth, Goatwhore or Amon Amarth...and 2,3 Artists that are okay as well like Manson, Mastodon or Drowning Pool were good enough. Mixed up with Bands from other stations like Bush and Deftones...that made a good mixtape and I alway just switched The Blood and the Mixtape.

What really fucked up the Station was the fact that they throw in that weird Industrial/Electronic/Idontknowwhatitwasbutitsucked in and like you said, the DJ was annoying as hell.

But I agree with Idol that the Sr2 playlist was better....or at least it was a better mix.

However the lack of a metalradio still shocks me. I don't know how to enjoy the game without good music. (Okay classic is always good but not for a over the top action game).
 
Valgo2 said:
I disagree with that.
The Black Dahlia Murder, Otep, Opeth, Goatwhore or Amon Amarth...and 2,3 Artists that are okay as well like Manson, Mastodon or Drowning Pool were good enough. Mixed up with Bands from other stations like Bush and Deftones...that made a good mixtape and I alway just switched The Blood and the Mixtape.

What really fucked up the Station was the fact that they throw in that weird Industrial/Electronic/Idontknowwhatitwasbutitsucked in and like you said, the DJ was annoying as hell.

But I agree with Idol that the Sr2 playlist was better....or at least it was a better mix.

However the lack of a metalradio still shocks me. I don't know how to enjoy the game without good music. (Okay classic is always good but not for a over the top action game).
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Bro, Stan Bush's The Touch.
 
I just wonder what they will do with Saints Row 5. I really hope they listen to the points Idol makes about the city beeing more alive in 2. Okay, it's true most gamers would just follow the instructions on screen and just go from point a to b. But I loved wandering about the city and seeing funny things. I would just go into some strange door and find a whole area that practically had no use. Still I spent almost an hour there, just looking around.

Perhaps to early to start, but what I would love to see in the next gen Saints Row V is more of that, perhaps a multiplayer mode that allows 32 or so other people to play in one session, making a mess in the city with special multiplayer modes. King of the Hill, capture the flag, last man standing, racing, perhaps special missions. With more people online, hiding places like the sex cavern is great. xD

But for now, I will enjoy the hell out of Saints Row IV! Well, not now.. the 23'rd...
 
Valgo2 said:
What's up with that song?

Oh and I agree with you that the some of the outfits should be seperate pieces again. I miss the gothic pant/skirt Cimbination already.
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Its a song from the old 1980's Transformer's movie. I absolutely loved it as a little kid, and it made it into the soundtrack for SR4. Oddly enough Stan Bush seems to be getting a lot of attention in the game world, this is like the 5th recent game to have a song by him.
 
Uzi said:
Top notch review, IdolNija, thank you.

This bit from your review got me a in a more elevated mood looking forward to SR4:

""Not exactly a cheat, but it's incredibly easy to mod out the aliens and make the open world spawn normal gang members instead. It's seriously only one line of code. Couple this with the cheats to remove the glitching and the superpowers and you have an open world experience that is more like the earlier gang-based Saints Row games. I do feel like Volition missed an opportunity not to add it as a cheat for console players though.""


I hope to avoid as much as that super power nonsense as possible and try to enjoy what is there. We do look forward to the day SR4 can be fixed
up to be perhaps a bit more like great elements from SR2 and SR3.
I enjoyed City of Heroes. Crazy Mad Superpowers worked there for a reason. In my gangland silly dream world I find in
SR2-3, I do not get it nor appreciate it!!

I've only recently been playing SR2, and am late to that game having been introduced via SR3 so my view of SR was 'tainted'.
I must say, I do see what SaRow vets say is a great disminishment as SR3 rolled out yet it managed to improve in so many areas.
I liked SR3 very much, overall and am now seeing with mine own eyes what was sadly dropped in Sr2.
So now they drop things beloved in SR3, one example. CRIBS.
SIGH. WTF. WHY? I can play Halo or something for space ships.


My prepay is in with Steam so I'm playing SR4 even if it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Thanks to your review and mentioning items
like what was quoted above, the bad taste might turn into something nice and minty. Thank you. It is great that they do value your
and Minimauls input and have gone with the great decision to help with a promised SDK! I'm thinking they should hire you all as
a consultant for SR V. Just saying.
The next year should be interesting for the SR game mod universe.

I'm going to repeat the suggestion if others out there are like me that are not very happy with the even weirder direction SR4 took, still toss cash
at them as it does appear they will be giving the skilled modder community needed tools. At least consider it. I did , despite my misgivings
a few weeks back, misgivings that were enhanced by more game play footage I just saw. Even though it almost appears SR4 is like
super powered giant DLC over SR3. I can live with that. Hell, I didn't play Fallout New Vegas much until certain game mods
I wanted showed up via that community. At worst, this will be the same.

One final (ya right) comment. It seems so many game developers end up on the same chain of 'diminish what was good' train when it comes
to game series. I will cite some examples. Blizzard with Diablo 1, Diablo2 and Diablo3. Somewhere between 1 and 2 they forgot what made the
prior loved by players D2 to D3? SCREAM.
(that is CODY the dog)
Command and Conquer game series. I'll just leave it at those two, I could cite others.

The consistent thing is they all drop what core elements make a game great. They polish certain aspects to make
the next better in some ways but the end result is usually dumbed down version of what was before, like watered down
wine that was watered too far.
Perhaps it is developer / author fatigue and or drugs.

Now to fire up SR2 for a bit until it crashes on me. Later.
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ive only installed gotr and it fixed all the crashing for me. XDDD

sr4 set out to be fun. and thats what it seems we are getting.

Valgo2 said:
I disagree with that.
The Black Dahlia Murder, Otep, Opeth, Goatwhore or Amon Amarth...and 2,3 Artists that are okay as well like Manson, Mastodon or Drowning Pool were good enough. Mixed up with Bands from other stations like Bush and Deftones...that made a good mixtape and I alway just switched The Blood and the Mixtape.

What really fucked up the Station was the fact that they throw in that weird Industrial/Electronic/Idontknowwhatitwasbutitsucked in and like you said, the DJ was annoying as hell.

But I agree with Idol that the Sr2 playlist was better....or at least it was a better mix.

However the lack of a metalradio still shocks me. I don't know how to enjoy the game without good music. (Okay classic is always good but not for a over the top action game).
Click to expand...

bro, you never tried causing mass chaos to hall of the mountain king have ya?
 
Well yes the Sr4 Playlist doesn't suck completely. After all there are in Flames and Papa Roach (even though there were mutch better singles on The Connection than Still Swingin). But It just bugs me that they canceled the metal station because there were not enough people that listened to it.
I would bet, that there were still more poeple listening to the blood than to the classic or reggae station.

@smashbro:
Classic is awesome. But that is nothing I want to hear while playing a over the top action game.
It's something i listen to while reading.
 
Really enjoyed reading your review. Lots to love in SR4 and I think your criticisms sound fair as well. Though I guess I can live with Steelport feeling generic since the city isn't really the reason I play Saints Row games. I'm not a big fan of comparing the 2 series, but I've always been far more impressed with what R* put out with Liberty City in GTAIV than I have been with either Stillwater or Steelport. Probably the #1 reason I'm looking forward to playing GTA V is just seeing the ridiculous scope and density of Los Santos. And I agree it would've been nice to have hidden areas and other charms to the new Steelport, but since that's not what I'm coming to the series for, I guess I don't mind that they spent the time instead on making the super powers work, the missions exciting, and making the story goofy, but also clever in a way you don't see in the typical "bad video game plot".

What I love about Saints Row is the city is more of an excuse. It's a playground (or blank canvas if you will) for messing around with, and just have an outlet to have fun with the game. I love the games doesn't take itself seriously at all, and that design philosophy permeates the entire game, from what your character can do, to how the missions are structured. And reading your review, it sounds like all of that has been fine tuned and polished to make one hell of a game.
 
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