Observations about Saints Row (the original)

Quantum

Quantum

I finally finished the campaign in Saints Row (the original) recently, after I had already completed the campaign modes of all the other Saints Row games. I wasn't expecting the game to impress me with features since I had already played the later games, but I wanted to know the full origin story of the Third Street Saints. But, although the graphics were more primitive and there were no boats or flying vehicles, there were some things I was unexpectedly impressed with. Some of these features are also in Saints Row 2, but I was really impressed they were in the first one.
  1. The non-player characters talk directly to you and actually turn their heads to look directly at you when they talk and when you walk by! It makes the game feel a lot more personal. I always liked the way the characters look directly at you in the game "Metro 2033" (another Deep Silver game), but I didn't expect an older Saints Row game did that.

  2. Stilwater isn't quite as big as Saints Row 2, but it's still a lot bigger than Saints Row 3. It's got superhighways with full semi-trailer trucks (not just the front half).

  3. The thunderstorms are awesome! I miss the reflections of the lighted billboards on the wet roads at night, but I love the lightning which is totally missing from SR3. And the length of the storms seem a lot more realistic than SR3. I think these are my favorite thunderstorms of any of the Saints Row games.

  4. I love the way time flows linearly, and the sun and moon move across the sky. And those beautiful red sunsets which I can watch from the Lopez Mansion crib.

  5. I love the variety of shops. And the movie theaters that let you replay missions. Why did they remove that?

  6. The Wheel Woman homie! Awesome! She drives you around and turns if you tell her to.

  7. I can actually "ride" the elevated railway.

  8. The lift bridge goes up and down periodically, just like a real one!

  9. You can reenter almost all of the buildings that were part of missions.
What features do you like in the original Saints Row that have been lost in the later games?

EDIT: And then, of course, there's Stefan! I miss his radio ads. :D Alright, bye-bye.
 
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1. One thing that comes to mind is all that wonderful tacky jewellery: there were so many chains and rings compared to SR2, all the rings especially are so boring in 2. It just feels like blasphemy for the selection to have gotten worse when the working title for 1 was Bling Bling, haha.

2. The activity cutscenes are so much better looking than in 2, even if they're short - the npcs in general just seem to emote better in 1 and look more unique because of the way the npcs were made compared to 2 even if the models aren't as detailed. If that was the price to pay for the amazing cc of SR2, though, it's perfectly understandable.

3. I unironically love all the original songs made for the game. They're kinda silly, but they're silly in the same way that SR1 and 2 are and they never fail to cheer me up and make me want to play the games. Shame that the guys at Volition don't seem to have similarly fond memories of them judging from what they've said during their streams.

Overall SR1 (and 2) just give me this feeling of a game company that was really invested in what they were making. Compared to 3 and up it's a much more humble game, but it feels like there was a lot more love and frustrated determination poured into it, and it shows.
 
Also one thing I noticed when viewing gameplay of SR1 on the net is that it seems like the ragdoll physics are much more fluid than the other games. As opposed to SR2 where the NPC's would fly 4 feet in the air and collapse into a pile of jelly or SR3, SR4 and Gat Out Of Hell where the NPC's use canned death animations that look like they were ported from RFG.
 
Fan of Saints said:
It's pity how they cut drugs from Saints Row 2 - as far as I know they made melee attacks much stronger in Saints Row 1.
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Booze increases melee damage (you can knock down npcs with like a single punch), getting high makes you more resistant to damage. I thought that they still had the same effect in SR2 even if there's only one option of each to buy, but if the unofficial wiki is to be trusted that's only true for the blunts.

I pretty much never buy either in 1 though and in 2 I only ever buy booze to hear Boss' drunken babbling, it's one of my fave things.
 
Tupu said:
Booze increases melee damage (you can knock down npcs with like a single punch), getting high makes you more resistant to damage. I thought that they still had the same effect in SR2 even if there's only one option of each to buy, but if the unofficial wiki is to be trusted that's only true for the blunts.
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Blunts and alcohol have just cosmetic effects in Saints Row 2, they don't do anything else. I'm really wondering why they didn't port drugs from Saints Row 1...
 
Tupu said:
Overall SR1 (and 2) just give me this feeling of a game company that was really invested in what they were making. Compared to 3 and up it's a much more humble game, but it feels like there was a lot more love and frustrated determination poured into it, and it shows.
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That's something that I noticed with Saints Row 1 too. Although the graphics engine is more limited, it only had a male protagonist, it didn't have boats or flying vehicles, and it didn't have nearly the costume selection and detail as Saints Row 3 and later, the things they DID have were implemented VERY WELL with a lot of attention to detail. The game doesn't feel rushed. The city feels the most alive and real of any Saints Row game that's come since. Little things like, when a car drives up next to you, the people in the car turn their heads and look right at you! Everybody on the street talks to you. And, yes, the ragdoll physics seem much more natural than Saints Row 2. And Saints Row 1 seems to have the best drivers of any Saints Row game. They don't drive like maniacs like the other games!

And I absolutely love the original music in Saints Row 1, including the original music by Sy Smith (a.k.a. Alisha), and also the great radio programs like the Mike and David show on KBOOM FM (where they discuss violent video games and how they're making our children insensitive to violence :p).

I just always wonder why more of the small details from Saints Row 1 were lost in later games. Couldn't they be ported, since they already did the work?
 
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I was saddened when Booze and Drugs didn't do anything in SR2.One of my favorite things to do in SR1 is get drunk and superpunch people to the sky.I have no idea why they cut out the abilities the drugs/alcohol had in SR2.
 
Kojo The Clown said:
I was saddened when Booze and Drugs didn't do anything in SR2.One of my favorite things to do in SR1 is get drunk and superpunch people to the sky.I have no idea why they cut out the abilities the drugs/alcohol had in SR2.
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Drugs and booze aren't present in Saints Row 2 at all - there are just beer and blunts, everything else has been removed.
 
Quantum said:
That's something that I noticed with Saints Row 1 too. Although the graphics engine is more limited, it only had a male protagonist, it didn't have boats or flying vehicles, and it didn't have nearly the costume selection and detail as Saints Row 3 and later, the things they DID have were implemented VERY WELL with a lot of attention to detail. The game doesn't feel rushed. The city feels the most alive and real of any Saints Row game that's come since. Little things like, when a car drives up next to you, the people in the car turn their heads and look right at you! Everybody on the street talks to you. And, yes, the ragdoll physics seem much more natural than Saints Row 2. And Saints Row 1 seems to have the best drivers of any Saints Row game. They don't drive like maniacs like the other games!

And I absolutely love the original music in Saints Row 1, including the original music by Sy Smith (a.k.a. Alisha), and also the great radio programs like the Mike and David show on KBOOM FM (where they discuss violent video games and how the're making our children insensitive to violence :p).
I just always wonder why more of the small details from Saints Row 1 were lost in later games. Couldn't they be ported, since they already did the work?
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Because Volition wants to make SR "whacky" and unfortunately they believe the only way to do that is to take a chainsaw to the games story, gameplay and open world design. (I still think SR4 and GOOH are the weakest of series, especially SR4 since it has the most bland and ugly sandbox I have ever seen)
 
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