SRIV is like SRTT when it finally starts to get good, only with SRIV that's at the very beginning. I mean SRTT's opening bank robbery mission was alright, but SRIV's was a whole other beast. Plus with SRIV the laughs have been pretty consistent thus far, instead of being bogged down by a bunch of a boring tutorials. The way the opening mission ends in particular and how you ''unlock'' the Presidency had me bawling, and the incredible Armageddon reference only seconds before certainly helped. Then it goes and leads into a 1950s sitcom parody, with you jovially swinging with every step, equipped with a 'thumbs up'... Where there's also a reference to fucking Dex of all things, because why the Hell not!

So far it's been like the Airplane! of video game stories, where there's an almost overwhelming amount of funny to take in. Sticking with Robin Atkin Downes has been the right choice at that, as his performance is just as riotous as it was in SRTT.

Gameplay wise there's such a swath of improvements across the board, too, both big and small. Stuff like all of the weapon cosmetic options (Robocop's pistol!), the ability to listen to the radio across the entire game (listening to the classical music station is a must), and even the core shooting and driving feels a little better than it did in SRTT. Of course, none of that shooting and/or driving matters much because of the super powers, but it's appreciative all the same. And speaking of the super powers... my God, the super powers.

Frankly the reason I was mostly disappointed with SRTT was because to me it was like a lesser SR2; less guns, activities, customisations options, and the city itself was really boring to play around in. The stuff that I really liked about that game were missions from the latter half. SRIV on the other hand... it's completely shackled away any pretense of being a regular GTA-esque open world and has become something completely new -- new within the scope of the series anyway, as it's still primarily a Prototype clone. A Prototype clone with a helluva lot more personality and humour, though. The core gameplay itself is still just so much fun besides, and it's addicting as ever to go around collecting clusters or whatever.

Much like my time playing inFAMOUS games, as soon as I unlocked the first set of powers I've instead been mostly gallivanting around just wreckin' shit and collecting stuff rather than pushing the story forward, which I'm still looking forward to getting deeper into. In fact I've only just unlocked the HUB world I'm still that early.

The gameplay has managed to be so fun that I often forget that I'm also still stuck in Steelport. Because of the increased verticality and the fact that you're pretty much always whizzing about everywhere, I barely even notice that this is still the same city. The Zin makeover helps to give it a bit of leeway in establishing its own identity at that.

It's even managed to make Insurance Fraud even more fun, as I'm often taking advantage of the crazy amount of momentum you can get to awkwardly cartwheel across the entire city in ragdoll. God, and Zin is so perfectly portrayed as well. He's like if Frasier Crane was an evil alien overlord. Great music as well, both original and for its selection of licensed stuff.

I should note that I'm playing on PS3, and while the framerate certainly isn't as smooth as I'd like, it's been perfectly playable thus far. It's a little jarring when the framerate does get to be super smooth, though, like during the early super power training portions or when you're running up a building. Unfortunately the PS3 version also tends to hitch up during certain autosaves, specifically the ones involving the side-quest sets, but otherwise it's still technically alright. If anything it's the amount of jaggies during the cutscenes that irks me more so than the inconsistent framerate.

Anywhoo, SRIV's pretty good. I'm now quite happy I didn't decide to cancel my preorder, and I'm looking forward to more super powers, fanservice (...was that the SR2 default male character I just killed?!) and referential humour.

as a person who has been worried that IV would be nothing but a souped up Third DLC pack, im starting to have a better outlook on this game....but still waiting for the price drop :)

I'm still not completely sold. One of the reasons I like games like GTA or Saints Row is driving around town, hitting jumps, smashing into cars. It seems like without vehicles everything will seem very arbitrary. I really liked SR3 and was glued to the screen for many hours. But that was mostly because all the absurdity was still centered around grounded gameplay of driving and shooting. I will give it a shot but I dunno, everything that I see about the gameplay isn't really speaking to me.

I'm not liking SR4 as much as Saints Row The Third so far. I'm only a few hours in, but so far everything feels kind of lazy.Here's a few of my beefs:

• Fewer radio stations, all of which are dubstep, classical, bad gangsta rap, bad 90's music, or reggae. In a game that is literally ripping off The Matrix, I would have expected some good heavy metal or rock stations since this is more fitting with the theme. This is probably the most common complaint I see on the Steam forums. If I could create a custom soundtrack, this would be a moot point, but all I can do is make a mixtape of the bad music that is in-game. :(
• The super powers come too early. One of the first tasks you are given is to steal a car and customize it. I spent a good 10 minutes making a sick looking ride. Immediately afterwards, I get the ability to run, jump, and fly... meaning I will never enter a vehicle ever again. There may as well not even be cars in this game. I would have expected this to happen at a third or half way through the game, not right at the beginning.
• Only one enemy type. In SRTT, it was fun seeing the different gangs, and you can tell which area of the city you are in based on which gang members you are fighting. In SR4 (at least so far) there's only one enemy type, so there's no diversity. One part of the city feels like every other part because you're always fighting the same aliens.
• The city is boring. In SRTT I would notice little things like clever advertising, interesting sex shops, and a sense that I'm in an actual city. This is because I was driving or walking around and had time to look around. In SR4, the city has lost all character because I'm zooming around so quickly. They could have replaced the city buildings with flat square boxes and it would have the same impact on me. The city is lifeless now where it was so full of life before. Even if it were a whole new city instead of Steelport it would have the same problem.

Now, I'm only a few hours in... my opinion might do a full 180 and I'll end up loving SR4.

I bet you do...

@chiablo: In a livestream the day before release the audio crew explained that the least listened-to radio stations had to be dropped for budgetary reasons.

Your other concerns are likely due to being at a very early stage in the game still. A lot of the story and loyalty missions take place outside of the main Steelport simulation, and SR4 is very much not a game about street gangs and acquiring territory anymore. The variation and diversity comes more from the number of bespoke locations you visit over the course of the game. While there are more enemy types they do still belong to the one faction.

They made the best open world crime game that they could with SR3, this game is more of an infamous/prototype open-world superhero cyberpunk space-opera.

• There's only one less radio station than in SRTT, but still, that's a little sucky I suppose. I honestly never even realised at first because I mostly only listened to three of 'em in SRTT (The Mix, Classical, and K12) and they're all fortunately still here in SRIV.
• Customising a car only to then unlock super sprint I'm pretty sure was specifically set up as a joke. Because, yeah, cars are useless now. SRIV is about crazy super powers and laying the 'power fantasy' on as thick as possible, so naturally they're going to start dumping such stuff like super sprint so early. There's still plenty to unlock down the line, and a whole host of upgrades to account for the game's progressive system at that. And besides, you can still drive vehicles if you really want to.
• By Saints Row terms it's true that you could say that SRIV (at least so far) only has the one 'gang', but I think it's pretty obvious that SRIV's elevated itself beyond taking down gangs. You also say there's only one enemy type, but from what I've played, while there's only one variety of 'Zin' unit, there's still a lot of different vehicles that they use depending on how high your notoriety is. Plus, they'll eventually send a 'Warden' after you, which is fast enough that it can follow you across the whole city until you kill it. I would hope that there'll be more enemy variety down the line all the same, though.
• Wow. That's... a weird one for me, because I thought Steelport in SRTT was terribly bland and lifeless, especially when compared to SR2's Stilwater. And I'd say SRIV's Steelport is actually just a teensy bit more active, since there's a little bit more pedestrian variety and there's some actual ambient dialogue you can hear on the streets, whereas SRTT was pretty much silent all over. Besides, you can always just walk or, again, drive if you really want to take in the 'atmosphere'.

Indeed.

;)

There is.

@donchipotle: Great!

@yummylee: im with you on everything except radio station choice. Mad Decent is where its at for me.

I'll just put it this way: I played all day yesterday. The only thing that got me to finally stop playing was the game freezing, so it was an involuntary quit. (Also, don't freak out. That was the only freeze I've experienced in over a dozen hours of the game.)

I have one question for you: how's the humor if I'm not as familiar with the references? I'm relatively oblivious to North American culture (except video games), I kinda worried i won't catch half the geeky reference jokes the game throws at me,

@themangalist: It might not catch you AS much but there are a lot of blatant homages to video games so you might get those jokes. A lot of the character specific loyalty missions have callbacks to Saints 2 and 3 as well.

@yummylee: I'm with you completely. Although I loved SRTT when it came out I played it again to completion last week and did not enjoy it nearly as much. I'm only 2 and a half hours in but so far I think it's just a much better game, it's funnier, the shooting feels a hell of a lot better and it's just more fun to play. I am also playing on ps3 and after having heard how bad the frame rate is on consoles I was pleasantly surprised at how much I haven't noticed it, it's not prefect by any means but it's a lot better than I was expecting.