![[V] IdolNinja](/forum/data/avatars/m/0/62.jpg?1394026296){kind=avatar}
[V] IdolNinja
Volition Staff
With a grand total of 35 hours invested in the Saints Row IV preview, in addition to the 25 or so with the alpha back in April, I thought this would be a good time to do a followup. I'll attempt to answer many of the community questions I've received, as well as add some extra info, and also my feelings about the open world and replayability. Keep in mind that this is mostly based on alpha/preview code, and I have not played the final game all the way through with all the the bells and whistles.
SUPER POWERS
Super power upgrades are not just tri-elemental firec/ice/lightning like I had originally thought. Looking through the upgrade menus revealed these:
Blast: Freeze, Fire, Mind Control
Telekinesis: Force, Lightning, Life Steal
Stomp: Rock, Gravity, Shrink
Buff: Fire, Lightning, Freeze
I didn't get to try any of them since they are later unlocks, but the menu for the powers has them listed as choices. I think the shrink upgrade for stomp is actually what the leaked achievements were referring to, and not a shrink gun.
Super Jump has an "Immovable Object" upgrade where cars no longer knock you down, that is via Saints Book style challenges.
Super Sprint has the Tornado upgrade at level 23, and the ability to run on water by completing Saints Book style challenges.
WARNING! Make sure to save before you purchase the Super Sprint Tornado upgrade and try it out first to see if you like it! In the current build it sucks up vehicles in its wake and has a couple of bad side effects that I do NOT like:
1. It's very difficult to boduken into cars since your sprint/awesome button messes them up and flips/pushes them
2. With all the random junk and cars flipping around it actually raises notoriety when other npcs/cops get hit with this stuff. I ended up feeling like the proverbial bull in a china shop when trying to peacefully explore and enjoy the city.
Death From Above has a level 50 upgrade called "Nuke" where "you can now devastate entire section of the city." Before you ask I didn't get to try it. I was only at level 29 or so after 35 hours of play.
When holding an object or npc with TK you can gently set them down by simply switching powers. I wound up using this to collect a huge group of npcs on top of a roof but then accidentally set them all on fire while using Buff. It was pretty hysterical.
Customization of super powers is not permanent. You can change them at any time with no penalty.
Gliding is now actually part of Super Jump and not a separate passive power like I thought in LA. There looks to be a blank 4th slot, so there may be one more passive power that hasn't been disclosed yet.
You cannot use superpowers while driving, only guns.
You can use Telekinesis on flying vehicles once you get the upgrade for it.
CLOTHING AND CUSTOMIZATION
There is a single cape in the game, but it's only there as part of Nyte Blade's costume which is now buyable at Let's Pretend.
For all you fellow Dragon Ball fans, there is a Cobra Kai gi (from Karate Kid) at Let's Pretend. If you color it orange and use the Super Saiyan hair (hat,) you can make a pretty close powered up Goku. Unfortunately, the shoes are attached to the gi, so no knee high black boots.
The Jedi robe I mentioned in the previous article is actually a Jedi tunic called the Desert Dweller (heh.) Sorry for any disappointment to anyone who was desperately hoping for Sith robes. A jedi robe with cowl might be a fun first modding project once we get the SDK out.
WEAPONS
Most weapon costumes also have different audio and visual fx when firing them which makes them feel like unique weapons instead of just skins. It really feels like you have a massive arsenal of unique weapons to choose from this time, far surpassing even what was there in SR2.
Tony Barrett posted a list of weapons and skins on Something Awful in addition to his Saints Row IV preview article.
Baseball Bat (Nail bat)
Stun gun
Tentacle Bat
Energy Sword
Alien Pistol
Heavy Pistol (Cumia Magnum, DEK-RD Railpistol (Deckard, Blade Runner), The Captain (Mal, Firefly))
Quickshot Pistol (Renegade (Han Solo), Red Shirt Special (Star Trek))
Alien SMG
Heavy SMG (Gangland (Tommy Gun), Rubber Band Gun)
Rapid Fire SMG (Nail Gun, Cyborg Pistol (Robocop)
Thumpgun/Alien Shotgun
Pump Action Shotgun (Blunderbuss, Kardak Lasershot (???))
Semi-Auto Shotgun (Big Game (hunter’s shotgun), Ion Blaster (Boba Fett), Full Choke Silenced (No Country For Old Men))
Alien Rifle
Automatic Rifle (Mercenary LMG (M60), EM Railgun (Eraser))
Burst Rifle (Impulse Rifle (Aliens), Soakmaster)
Alien RPG
RPG (El Fugitivo (Desperado), Potato Gun)
Sniper Rifle (GI Sniper, Lever Action, Block Gun (Minecraft)
Abduction Gun
Laserarm Arm
Minethrower Arm
Singularity Rifle/Black Hole Gun is available in one of the diversions, but only once.
VEHICLES
An updated version of the Venom Classic is back, but this time called the "Rattler." I also found a Kaneda as well.
You can airjack vehicles, but it's tough to pull off.
RADIO
There are 7 radio stations:
* Four-20 - Reggae station returns from SR/SR2
* KRHYME - hip hop
* Mad Decent with DJ RiFF RAFF which is composed entirely of songs from artists on the Mad Decent record label.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riff_Raff_(rapper)
* The Mixx has a much better selection this time as compared to SRTT, though still not as good as the SR2 Mixx. It was nice to finally hear Men Without Hats - Safety Dance since it's actually referenced in both the SR2 and SRTT game files, but never actually in a game proper until now.
* GenX is mostly the same style alternative as the previous games.
* K12 with, believe it or not, DJ Jane Valderama who is absolutely hilarious discussing the the finer points of dubstep and EDM.
* Klassic with DJ Zinyak as he waxes poetic introducing opera and classical tracks. He also reads excerpts from great literary works and acts out all the voice parts. It is absolutely brilliant since he's gushing over human culture while at the same time sneering at and making fun of humans who don't appreciate it. It really gives him a lot of additional personality that any truly great villain needs.
NOTE: I was really surprised that there was no metal station this time. It's quite possible that it just didn't make it in to the preview build, since there looks to be an extra slot in the menu for an additional station.
ACTIVITIES , DIVERSIONS, AND SIDE CONTENT
The new activities are listed among the challenges, but I can't talk details about them yet since they weren't actually playable in the preview:
Super-Powered Fight Club
Platforming Rift
Speed Rift
Telekinesis Rift
The Saints book style challenges have a ton of extra stuff to do and also give you unlocks and bonuses for completing them. For example, complete any 1 challenge and you will unlock the Abduct-o-matic gun. Complete 12 challenges for a clothing store discount, etc. The challenge list also has activity unlocks as well. For example, getting all silver medals in all Blazing instances grants you fire immunity, while all gold medals in Blazin' gets you a set of flame weapon skins. There are other unlocks tied to activity medals like new homies, special super power upgrades, and other bonuses. This is another huge improvement over SRTT, since doing extras like these are actually worth it now instead of just for some stupid achievement. It seems like Volition have really made some thoughtful decisions on how to make extra content compelling this time around.
The virus Injection (survival) diversion had some insane stuff going on which made them a lot more fun than the SRTT ones. For example, some of them had all the npcs glitched out and screaming like horrible banshees; old ladies floating around in a T-pose, cars driving around on their roofs and unloading horrible deformed passengers with incorrect animation rigs and disturbingly long fingers, necks stretched up about 6 ft high, bugged out eyes, etc. I think Volition may have removed the glitch zones and put all of that stuff into these instances, and that's why I haven't found them in the open world proper. Other Virus Injection locations had you fighting a massive army of Professor Genkis, bikers, mascots, etc.
The Security Deletion (hitman) targets were equally as awesome. Many of the targets had superpowers and you had to fight them and their superpowered clones which was really challenging. Each target was also interesting, and not just regular boring npcs. For example, you had to assassinate a toilet, a crew of skeleton suits, etc.
Both streaking and vehicle surfing return.
TIME OF DAY AND PERMANENT NIGHT
I keep seeing a lot of questions from people not understanding how the time of day works despite my best efforts to explain it. To clarify, most of the game is played at night. Things do get progressively lighter as you complete missions though. It's like the story takes place over one long night until morning and daylight for the climax. By taking out hot spots and control points in the open world, you are actually changing the color of the lighting from a harsh oppressive red to a cool relaxing blue. Doing that open world stuff does not advance the time of day or make it brighter in any way though; only the story missions do so.
Jon Criner from Volition also had this to say about the endless night and lack of a proper cycle:
I can confirm that the "cool surprise" that Jon is talking about is pretty neat, and no... it's not a true day/night cycle.
OPEN WORLD
I finally feel comfortable confirming that the Virtual Steelport open world is definitely more interesting than the SRTT version, and has replayability. I am having more fun exploring and poking around than I ever did in SRTT. In fact, 15 of my 30 hours in the preview were spent free roaming, and I simply couldn't get enough. I was absolutely crushed when the timed preview was up and I was forced to stop. This is an excellent sign that the game will hold up and still remain fun in post-game. For everyone who keeps asking, it still doesn't come close to approaching the varied environments and details of SR2 Stilwater though. Volition, we need more interesting stuff like underground caverns, cemetaries, universities, mountains, hotel interiors, more stores, and a mall! These are the kind of things that keep the open world fresh and interesting!
NPC Behavior is vastly improved from SRTT and functions more like SR2. As an example, I was standing in an intersection, and a drunk driver in a Raycaster smacks into a preppie who goes flying over the hood and lands in the street. A biker on a motorcycle then runs him over but gets stopped by traffic just ahead. The preppie gets up, pulls out a bat, runs up to the biker and yanks him off his motorcycle. The biker freaks out and throws his hands up in the air and starts running away. The preppie chases him down and corners him next to Rim Jobs where he proceeds to beat him with the bat until he's dead. I didn't do anything to instigate any of it. I was just standing there bemused while watching it unfold. Interesting emergent npc stuff like this happened quite frequently while wandering the city.
Regular saints do roam around controlled areas, just like the original games. I actually got into a big firefight again Zin/police with them backing me up.
I ran into Professor Genki in the open world and he was using superpowers to do horrible things to npcs. I ended up hanging around for a good 20 minutes just watching him murder the innocent with gleeful abandon. It was a riot.
You can still swim in the game and warp to shore. It's much easier and quicker to just super jump out of the water though.
FINAL THOUGHTS
SUPER POWERS
Super power upgrades are not just tri-elemental firec/ice/lightning like I had originally thought. Looking through the upgrade menus revealed these:
Blast: Freeze, Fire, Mind Control
Telekinesis: Force, Lightning, Life Steal
Stomp: Rock, Gravity, Shrink
Buff: Fire, Lightning, Freeze
I didn't get to try any of them since they are later unlocks, but the menu for the powers has them listed as choices. I think the shrink upgrade for stomp is actually what the leaked achievements were referring to, and not a shrink gun.
Super Jump has an "Immovable Object" upgrade where cars no longer knock you down, that is via Saints Book style challenges.
Super Sprint has the Tornado upgrade at level 23, and the ability to run on water by completing Saints Book style challenges.
WARNING! Make sure to save before you purchase the Super Sprint Tornado upgrade and try it out first to see if you like it! In the current build it sucks up vehicles in its wake and has a couple of bad side effects that I do NOT like:
1. It's very difficult to boduken into cars since your sprint/awesome button messes them up and flips/pushes them
2. With all the random junk and cars flipping around it actually raises notoriety when other npcs/cops get hit with this stuff. I ended up feeling like the proverbial bull in a china shop when trying to peacefully explore and enjoy the city.
Death From Above has a level 50 upgrade called "Nuke" where "you can now devastate entire section of the city." Before you ask I didn't get to try it. I was only at level 29 or so after 35 hours of play.
When holding an object or npc with TK you can gently set them down by simply switching powers. I wound up using this to collect a huge group of npcs on top of a roof but then accidentally set them all on fire while using Buff. It was pretty hysterical.
Customization of super powers is not permanent. You can change them at any time with no penalty.
Gliding is now actually part of Super Jump and not a separate passive power like I thought in LA. There looks to be a blank 4th slot, so there may be one more passive power that hasn't been disclosed yet.
You cannot use superpowers while driving, only guns.
You can use Telekinesis on flying vehicles once you get the upgrade for it.
CLOTHING AND CUSTOMIZATION
There is a single cape in the game, but it's only there as part of Nyte Blade's costume which is now buyable at Let's Pretend.
For all you fellow Dragon Ball fans, there is a Cobra Kai gi (from Karate Kid) at Let's Pretend. If you color it orange and use the Super Saiyan hair (hat,) you can make a pretty close powered up Goku. Unfortunately, the shoes are attached to the gi, so no knee high black boots.
The Jedi robe I mentioned in the previous article is actually a Jedi tunic called the Desert Dweller (heh.) Sorry for any disappointment to anyone who was desperately hoping for Sith robes. A jedi robe with cowl might be a fun first modding project once we get the SDK out.
WEAPONS
Most weapon costumes also have different audio and visual fx when firing them which makes them feel like unique weapons instead of just skins. It really feels like you have a massive arsenal of unique weapons to choose from this time, far surpassing even what was there in SR2.
Tony Barrett posted a list of weapons and skins on Something Awful in addition to his Saints Row IV preview article.
Baseball Bat (Nail bat)
Stun gun
Tentacle Bat
Energy Sword
Alien Pistol
Heavy Pistol (Cumia Magnum, DEK-RD Railpistol (Deckard, Blade Runner), The Captain (Mal, Firefly))
Quickshot Pistol (Renegade (Han Solo), Red Shirt Special (Star Trek))
Alien SMG
Heavy SMG (Gangland (Tommy Gun), Rubber Band Gun)
Rapid Fire SMG (Nail Gun, Cyborg Pistol (Robocop)
Thumpgun/Alien Shotgun
Pump Action Shotgun (Blunderbuss, Kardak Lasershot (???))
Semi-Auto Shotgun (Big Game (hunter’s shotgun), Ion Blaster (Boba Fett), Full Choke Silenced (No Country For Old Men))
Alien Rifle
Automatic Rifle (Mercenary LMG (M60), EM Railgun (Eraser))
Burst Rifle (Impulse Rifle (Aliens), Soakmaster)
Alien RPG
RPG (El Fugitivo (Desperado), Potato Gun)
Sniper Rifle (GI Sniper, Lever Action, Block Gun (Minecraft)
Abduction Gun
Laserarm Arm
Minethrower Arm
Singularity Rifle/Black Hole Gun is available in one of the diversions, but only once.
VEHICLES
An updated version of the Venom Classic is back, but this time called the "Rattler." I also found a Kaneda as well.
You can airjack vehicles, but it's tough to pull off.
RADIO
There are 7 radio stations:
* Four-20 - Reggae station returns from SR/SR2
* KRHYME - hip hop
* Mad Decent with DJ RiFF RAFF which is composed entirely of songs from artists on the Mad Decent record label.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riff_Raff_(rapper)
* The Mixx has a much better selection this time as compared to SRTT, though still not as good as the SR2 Mixx. It was nice to finally hear Men Without Hats - Safety Dance since it's actually referenced in both the SR2 and SRTT game files, but never actually in a game proper until now.
* GenX is mostly the same style alternative as the previous games.
* K12 with, believe it or not, DJ Jane Valderama who is absolutely hilarious discussing the the finer points of dubstep and EDM.
* Klassic with DJ Zinyak as he waxes poetic introducing opera and classical tracks. He also reads excerpts from great literary works and acts out all the voice parts. It is absolutely brilliant since he's gushing over human culture while at the same time sneering at and making fun of humans who don't appreciate it. It really gives him a lot of additional personality that any truly great villain needs.
NOTE: I was really surprised that there was no metal station this time. It's quite possible that it just didn't make it in to the preview build, since there looks to be an extra slot in the menu for an additional station.
ACTIVITIES , DIVERSIONS, AND SIDE CONTENT
The new activities are listed among the challenges, but I can't talk details about them yet since they weren't actually playable in the preview:
Super-Powered Fight Club
Platforming Rift
Speed Rift
Telekinesis Rift
The Saints book style challenges have a ton of extra stuff to do and also give you unlocks and bonuses for completing them. For example, complete any 1 challenge and you will unlock the Abduct-o-matic gun. Complete 12 challenges for a clothing store discount, etc. The challenge list also has activity unlocks as well. For example, getting all silver medals in all Blazing instances grants you fire immunity, while all gold medals in Blazin' gets you a set of flame weapon skins. There are other unlocks tied to activity medals like new homies, special super power upgrades, and other bonuses. This is another huge improvement over SRTT, since doing extras like these are actually worth it now instead of just for some stupid achievement. It seems like Volition have really made some thoughtful decisions on how to make extra content compelling this time around.
The virus Injection (survival) diversion had some insane stuff going on which made them a lot more fun than the SRTT ones. For example, some of them had all the npcs glitched out and screaming like horrible banshees; old ladies floating around in a T-pose, cars driving around on their roofs and unloading horrible deformed passengers with incorrect animation rigs and disturbingly long fingers, necks stretched up about 6 ft high, bugged out eyes, etc. I think Volition may have removed the glitch zones and put all of that stuff into these instances, and that's why I haven't found them in the open world proper. Other Virus Injection locations had you fighting a massive army of Professor Genkis, bikers, mascots, etc.
The Security Deletion (hitman) targets were equally as awesome. Many of the targets had superpowers and you had to fight them and their superpowered clones which was really challenging. Each target was also interesting, and not just regular boring npcs. For example, you had to assassinate a toilet, a crew of skeleton suits, etc.
Both streaking and vehicle surfing return.
TIME OF DAY AND PERMANENT NIGHT
I keep seeing a lot of questions from people not understanding how the time of day works despite my best efforts to explain it. To clarify, most of the game is played at night. Things do get progressively lighter as you complete missions though. It's like the story takes place over one long night until morning and daylight for the climax. By taking out hot spots and control points in the open world, you are actually changing the color of the lighting from a harsh oppressive red to a cool relaxing blue. Doing that open world stuff does not advance the time of day or make it brighter in any way though; only the story missions do so.
Jon Criner from Volition also had this to say about the endless night and lack of a proper cycle:
Jon Criner said:
I can confirm that the "cool surprise" that Jon is talking about is pretty neat, and no... it's not a true day/night cycle.
OPEN WORLD
I finally feel comfortable confirming that the Virtual Steelport open world is definitely more interesting than the SRTT version, and has replayability. I am having more fun exploring and poking around than I ever did in SRTT. In fact, 15 of my 30 hours in the preview were spent free roaming, and I simply couldn't get enough. I was absolutely crushed when the timed preview was up and I was forced to stop. This is an excellent sign that the game will hold up and still remain fun in post-game. For everyone who keeps asking, it still doesn't come close to approaching the varied environments and details of SR2 Stilwater though. Volition, we need more interesting stuff like underground caverns, cemetaries, universities, mountains, hotel interiors, more stores, and a mall! These are the kind of things that keep the open world fresh and interesting!
NPC Behavior is vastly improved from SRTT and functions more like SR2. As an example, I was standing in an intersection, and a drunk driver in a Raycaster smacks into a preppie who goes flying over the hood and lands in the street. A biker on a motorcycle then runs him over but gets stopped by traffic just ahead. The preppie gets up, pulls out a bat, runs up to the biker and yanks him off his motorcycle. The biker freaks out and throws his hands up in the air and starts running away. The preppie chases him down and corners him next to Rim Jobs where he proceeds to beat him with the bat until he's dead. I didn't do anything to instigate any of it. I was just standing there bemused while watching it unfold. Interesting emergent npc stuff like this happened quite frequently while wandering the city.
Regular saints do roam around controlled areas, just like the original games. I actually got into a big firefight again Zin/police with them backing me up.
I ran into Professor Genki in the open world and he was using superpowers to do horrible things to npcs. I ended up hanging around for a good 20 minutes just watching him murder the innocent with gleeful abandon. It was a riot.
You can still swim in the game and warp to shore. It's much easier and quicker to just super jump out of the water though.
FINAL THOUGHTS
