Nope. Saints Row 3 has a different engine.
SPOILERS My experience with Saints Row IV.
- Thread starter SonicInTheRow
- Start date
This Problem is not exclusive to Saints Row though. Look at other Open World Game Series like Assassins Creed or even GTA. Everytime the Developers created a New Engine for them, the first Game with it didn't mach up to their direct predecessor. That is simply the nature of the Beast. Developing a New Engine and working with an Engine that you are not very experienced with costs alot of Time and Workpower. I actually think that this is the Problem why some People (not me) hated or where disappointed in SR3 besides the more extreme Slapstick and the Story that was all over the Place. They expected it to bring everything that Saints Row 2 had and put more Stuff on Top of that. Well this is a very unrealistic Expectation. With a new Engine you always start with Zero. This is of course not an Excuse for every bad Design Decision or Problem a Game has but if you don't waste so much Time on searching specific Things that you expect from the previous Game and instead lay back and see what this Game has to offer you from itself, you enjoy it much more. In Case of Saints Row 3 i just expected an Open World, quirky Antiheroes, some Humor and Customization Options because these are all the constant Basics from the previous Games. And since Saints Row 3 had all of that in a good Quality and Amount i wasn't disappointed or hated the Game. Maybe if you Approach the next SR Game with a New Engine in a similar way you won't think of it as meh. This has nothing to do with being undemanding. This is just more realistic. If you expect more than the Developers realistically can do you will always be disapponted.
I believe they should have remained with the older engine, instead of using a new one. They could have added their improvements that they needed to do, but keep the one beforehand. I never understood why developers need to switch to newer engines when they could have always improved upon the old one. Use an older engine until you can't anymore. They should have focused on improvement and content, not working on a new engine.
They didn't NEED to switch to new engine - All three current games come out on almost all the same generation consoles. The X-B0x 360, The PS3, PC.... they should have just kept the old engine.
Also, the fact that other developers keep changing engines is exactly my point - it's stupid and unnecessary.
Did it disappoint me? Yeah. Did I hate it? No. The problem was, the went too far with the slapstick. Although a lot of people complain about the story being too silly, few complained when the activities were silly. In fact, the open world of Steelport isn't quite as silly as Stilwater's. We wanted silly activities and silly open-world, but a serious storyline. Instead, they went the other way, serious open-world, silly storyline.
I never expected more content than SR2, but I did expect similar amount of content as SR2. Like I said earlier in this post, if they kept the old engine, they could have done that. And MY expectations are hardly unrealistic if they kept the old engine.
My expectations are completely realistic - I never expected the same game as SR2, but I did expect SR3 to have a similar amount of content. The only reason why it didn't, is because they used a new engine, one the fans never asked for.
Don't attribute what others think are what I think. I don't hate SR3, but it simply not as good as SR2, overall. Is it better than SR1? You bet SR3 is better than SR1. Is it better than SR2? Definitely No.
The fact that SR4 will be much better than SR3 proves my point - if they don't have to change their engine, they can focus on content, because they already have worked on their fundamentals. With SR4, they are doing just that - focusing on content, polishing their fundamentals.
However, for SR5, I do expect a new engine, but for a good reason - they are switching to a next generation consoles, so they don't have a choice this time. But they better not switch engines every two games next time - I expect them to use the same engine as long as they can, so they better not change engines after SR5.
A lot of what they did in Saints Row 3 probably couldn't be done on the Saints Row 2 engine. I mean, could you imagine a working VTOL in an engine that started in 2006?
Valid point, Hokie, but working VTOL probably isn't the best example of something that wouldn't work in the old engine. San Andreas had a VTOL and that game's engine had been in play since I think....around the beginning of the PS2's lifecycle. GTA3 came out what, a year after the PS2 did?
You are right. If they kept the Engine and build up on it SR3 could have had the same amount of Content as SR2. But you knew beforehand that they used a new Engine for SR3 so you could have scaled your Expectations accordingly. This was just a Tipp from me to avoid too much disappointment in the Future however. Sorry if i came off as pretentious by saying that your Expectations where unrealistic and i never wanted to implicate that you hate SR3. I just got the Feeling from reading a lot of commentaries and Posts all over the Internet that some People just had unrealistic Expectaions for SR3 and that for where overly disappointed.
If a New Engine was really necessary for SR3 or not we will see somewhat once the SDK for SR2 is released. Because then we will see how much of the good Stuff from SR3 can be worked into SR2. It's easy to say that the Old Engine was good enough or could have been reworked to be good enough but you can't proof it without proper Technical Knowledge wich i think we both don't have.
And that a new Engine was coming for SR3 was pretty clear after the Release of SR2. Because one of the Major Complaints everywhere where the Outdated Graphics for that Time (not my Opinion btw). This was was mainly due to the Release of GTA4 with a more impressive Engine at that same Time (Even though i think GTA4 was nothing more then a Graphics Demo to begin with).
The Point is that when SR5 will Feature a New Engine you should expect less Content and a less refined Experience by default. If they manage to achieve a Miracle and still have the same amount of Content and Quality than you can be even more happy about it.
Btw Sorry if some of my Stuff doesn't Sound right. English is not my native Language but hope you still understand what i wrote.
Yes, I could imagine they could included the VTOL using the SR2 engine. It might have taken extension modifcation, but you forget, they did extensively modify SR2 when they made SR2.
But here's the thing - your example implies the SR3 engine is better than SR2 engine. I bet in some, or even MOST cases it's better. But does the game take full advantage of those superior capabilties in SR3? It doesn't look that way in most cases. Sure, the driving is better in SR3, but they could have done that with SR2's engine as well. The graphics? Although the city looks a bit better in some cases, when it comes to character customization and character models, SR2 actually was superior in both cases. The character models in SR3 almost like SR1 models, except more detailed. SR2's character models are much more detailed.
My point isn't so much SR3's engine sucked, as much as they should have focused on pushing the SR2's engine to the limit. Working on a new engine took time away from content creation, and this obviously shows in SR3.
On top of that, like I said before, there's a pattern - every time they do NOT switch the engine, their ability to create content for a good game excels. When SR4 comes out, it would probably be better than SR3 (and equal or even exceed in SR2 in some ways).
You didn't sound pretentious, I just think you viewed more points in the lens of "Typical SR3 Hater", which, although I am not, I understand why one would think that way.
As for SR5, I don't have ANY expectations for that game. I understand Volition's pattern at this point. In fact, I don't expect even less than SR3 (maybe even less than SR1), because they are going to probably have to work on next-gen consoles and probably a new game engine at the same time. I expect really nothing at that point.
I forgot about that, but yeah, if VTOL's can work in San Andreas, why would it be difficult to add one in Saints Row 2?
Ah, yeah. Could have made a better example. I guess what I meant is: Not every engine is like the source engine. You can't just go on and enhance it for a good nine, ten years.
That's a fair point, but I don't see anything in SR3 that they couldn't do with SR2's engine.
Jigglebones, maybe? I can't exactly imagine seeing a well optimized Penetrator in the SR2 engine.