Someone convince me that Saints Row IV....

Someone convince me that Saints Row IV isn't just a glorified DLC expansion. I keep seeing nothing but glowing reviews, but watching the gameplay, it all seems so unremarkably familiar. I see a skinned Saints Row Third. Im no saints hater, i loved playing the third. i want to like this game too but i feel like its just more of the same with cheat codes enabled. i realize its not out yet, but im guessing some of you can help me figure this out.

tell me what you think from what you have seen/experienced so far:

does it stand on its own as a completely new full priced installment of the series?

do you think it deserves the high reviews it is getting?

how much do do you noticed re-used aspects from the third?

all opinions welcome

thanks guys

You can romance Keith David.

Is that not enough?

It's Saints Row 3.5, but more Saints Row: The Third is right up my alley.

Sequel to a game is a lot like the last game? I refuse to believe it.

I don't see why you need complete strangers to try to convince you about something you can easily discover for yourself. I mean, I'm sure you can easily play it and judge for yourself if it's worthy of your time or not.

There's a difference between a solid sequel that adds on top of what was good in the first place and just adding a couple of new missions to the existing framework. No need to be a dick about it.

I'm with you Magnum William, I liked Saints Row 3 but I don't just want the same city but now I have superpowers....that just seems like DLC to me too. I hope the writing, humor and story can make up for it when it comes out.

No one here has played the game so I think this is the wrong place.

lol im asking strangers because I'm trying to be a part of this community by ya know, interacting positively with people? I already said I know it's not out yet. I'm asking your opinions if any at this time. If you have one share it, if not you don't have to post. thanks to those of you who did answer especially @vinny_says. you get me. :)

So much so that it's the same map? It's like Crackdown 2 all over again.

@vinny_says: @bestusernameever: They've shown new abilities, new weapons, new enemies, a new story, new characters, new activities, new vehicles, and new systems for acquiring property and upgrades. I guess that effort would have been better spent shuffling the map layout? You can't actually think that.

This. Pay any amount of attention and you'd see that they've added quite a bit to the game. The fact that it's set in the same city doesn't negate that.

The super powers mean that the base gameplay is pretty wildly different.

I look at Saints Row IV and it makes me think of Vice City and San Andreas, when Rockstar made some really great games in a two year cycle building on the engine of its predecessor while improving most if not everything about it.

I just replayed The Third in anticipation for this game. Now I know that it's the same city, I have no desire to play IV anytime soon.

ive seen my fair share of coverage and if anything, it was why i made this thread. i paid attention. from models to animations there's so much that is exactly the same. its a bummer. i cant be the only one who sees that. maybe if they put at least a bit of effort shuffling the map, it all wouldnt feel so half-assed to me.

You're not the only one who sees that it looks and sounds very similar to the third game.

However, from what I've seen of it, I think it looks interesting. Yes, I would call it an expansion pack and not a full sequel, but it seems like there's just enough, just barely enough, to justify its price tag.

@believer258:

im hoping you are right

Well, if you're not convinced, then don't buy it and wait for it to go down to an appropriate price.

Well, if you're not convinced, then don't buy it and wait for it to go down to an appropriate price.

Well think of it this way; unless a sequel utilizes a new game engine or comes out on a new system, ain't it all technically a mod anyway? People don't really play Saints row for the story, they play it because its bat shit crazy and they just turn it up to 11 here. While it may seem just like a DLC or really cool mod; it is probably the best mod you will ever see with an actual DLC storyline and everything.

Which is why I'm going to wait til it gets like 10-20 bucks on a steam sale and get it then.

How can any of us answer these questions without having played the game?

Saints Row IV looks horrible. Way over the top, arcadey, unrealistic, too chaotic...I mean if you're 14 with ADHD, go for it. But if you want a serious game, get GTA V. And seriously everything from the menus to the world looks EXACTLY like Saints Row 3. They literally put no effort into making the game. It's Saints Row 3 with cheat mode on.

theres no right or wrong here. i said in the op speak from what you know and what you have seen so far if you cant answer it you dont have to. i merely posed some questions to gauge how everyone around here is seeing things. starting a conversation to see if someone watched all the videos and reviews with an eyebrow raised or to reassure me. maybe there's somethings i missed and someone could make me think of it a different way. i guess im just skeptical at this point.

im not trying to come across as "ahsHit 4real yall newGAme look like turd shood ibuy it?" not everyone gets it but ive gotten some good stuff out of this thread so far.

sheesh internet is such serious business :D

I thought it looked more of the same, for better or for worse. They tweaked the gameplay a bit for sure by adding in super powers. I don't mind them at all to be frank. But I gotta say, I'm not a big fan of how the environment looks like from the videos out there. It's more of the same. I'm planning to give it a go nonetheless .

I couldn't agree more. That quick look killed my interest in Saints Row IV and i'm not even sure I'm going to pick it up any time soon.

Seems to me like you have already made up your mind. If you doubt purchasing it so much, don't buy it or wait for a price drop.

That sums it up better than I could put it.

As for me, I pre-ordered a week or so ago (which I've only done for Borderlands 2 ($36!) and Company of Heroes 2 in the past few years) and after all the footage I've seen, and comments I've read...I'm still solid on my purchase, and cannot fucking wait for Tuesday. It seems like sheer dumb fun, and even after 101 hours in Saints 3, I'm still totally up for more Saints Row.

The superpowers gameplay really isn't that appealing to me either. I played both prototypes and crackdowns already.

@themangalist:

another good point. same here.

I don't mean to sound blunt or negative but you do realize that everything rebgav listed is more or less the definition of an expansion pack, especially for an open world game, right?

Abilities, weapons, enemies, a new story, new characters, new activities, new vehicles and a new system for acquiring property/upgrades. I still don't see a full, stands-on-its-own, from-scratch sequel here. What I see is content additions to a pre-existing game within the same engine using the same technology, set in the same city, with the same basic ingame systems, designs and interactions, same AI, same physics, same gameplay experience.

In other words, if you try to describe what San Andreas was to Vice City, what Just Cause 2 was to the first, what RF Guerrilla was to previous games, what Saints Row The Third was to Saints Row 2, what Assassin's Creed 2 was to the first, what Far Cry 3 is to Far Cry 2, what Call of Pripyat was to Shadow of Chernobyl, what Crysis was to the original Far Cry, and what GTAV is looking to be to GTA IV, you will see what I'm talking about. Saints Row IV clearly falls very short from any of those real sequels when compared to SR3.

This is an open world franchise, the thing they should focus on the most in a sequel is creating a fresh and evolved experience that takes what the previous game added into the next level, using new tech and evolved designs, not adding in a million little things that feel like mods, cheat codes and cheap DLC.

I may be sounding very harsh or uptight right now, but cutting developers slack when they don't put enough effort and ask for another 60 bucks is not my idea of being cool about it.

@jdh5153: Ugh. I dunno, man. Maybe you actually believe everything you're saying. But good lord, do you sound like a GTA shill.

There's a better way to go about not liking something than to call people who enjoy it 14 year olds with ADHD.

Also, if they "literally" had put no effort into this game, there wouldn't even be a game to begin with. Don't use literally where it has no place. It's annoying.

While it's kind of lame that it's Steelport again, I don't think it's gonna actually matter to me. The setting didn't make much difference to me in SR3.

If you doubt about buy it or not, then don't do it and use that money to help people or homeless animals :)

This statement reflects my own opinion. More Saint's Row 3 is really what I wanted all along.

Saints Row IV = glorified expansion pack because it uses the same city as the last game.

18,000 Call of Duty games with identical gameplay come out in a few years and everyone blows their load over the slightest change to the shitty 4 hour campaign or how killstreaks work.

Sigh.

Call of Duty gets a fair amount of flack for how repetitive it is though, especially around these parts.

I don't know, I was super excited for Saints Row IV, but after seeing a review that said the character customization felt even more limited and also looking at the similar menus and character models, it kind of killed my hype, I'll pick it up when it's half priced though.

It's not Enter the Dominatrix if that's what you're thinking. It's so not Enter the Dominatrix that they are releasing that later as DLC.

The cities in Saint's Row have always been bland and uninteresting. The menu was fine in 3, did they really need to change it to justify a purchase? Sure if this was released in the 90s it could have been an expansion but they don't really exist anymore. There's more than enough to justify a purchase if you enjoyed past Saint's Row games. The highpoint of Saint's Row has always been the characters, story, and missions and they're all new. The way you actually play the game is also completely different.

Wasn't the biggest fan of 3 but did enjoy parts here and there, so I will get it when its around $20. With GTA5 around the corner and still needing to play Sleeping Dogs soon, I just don't need another open world game anytime soon, also considering Watch Dogs comes out in a few months as well. I probably won't get to SR4 for a year or 2.

@nightriff: i just finished sleeping dogs. completely loved it. enjoy.

I agree with your assessment to an extent, but what the true question is that i have not seen in any reviews, is it a full price game? After playing FC3 Blood Dragon and GTA4 DLC and paying $15 the answer is no.

Why the campaigns are too short? :(

It's a game based around the story and the characters, In my eyes the fact that the engine, graphics and settings haven't change much doesn't make it that bad.

As far as I'm aware, the people "blowing their loads" over Call of Duty are not people that even know what Giant Bomb is, and they are definitely not people who would ever even consider whether something is a true sequel or an expansion pack. The people who follow games, pay attention to reviews, and frequent video game forums are, for the most part, not the people getting all worked up over Call of Duty every November.

It'll be like Crackdown 2 if it's also way less fun to play. That was the worst sequel I've ever bought.

I don't really care to bother with convincing you. Instead, I'll say that you can go on YouTube and watch plenty of gameplay videos that can help inform you of what you want to know.

@rick_fingers: I can't imagine how deluded you must be to think Call of Duty gets the type of positive attention you think it does on sites like Giant Bomb.