... I just think it's awful. I don't want this to turn into a hate-filled game, but I've not been enjoying myself at all playing this. I've loved all the previous Saints Row games. Granted I'm only a couple of hours into it, but it just feels more like a Saints Row 3 DLC pack than a brand new game. There's a lot here that's just too similar to the previous one for me - same side-missions, the character creation looks like it's not been changed at all - even the damn main-menu music is the same! Is there something about this game I'm just not "getting"? Or is there a part where it just kicks it into high gear? I feel terrible saying it, but I'm really not liking this game at all.

It's not going to be for everybody, of course, but there are all kinds of new and different side missions as it opens up, and the game doesn't feel quite so similar after you've started amassing powers and the missions get crazier.

As for the main menu music, it's not the same. It's a remix of the SR3 theme (probably not helping my case by saying that, but it *is* different).

@sgtreznor: wasn't the game begun as dlc which was then expanded into a new game? That's probably why it feels so similar. I've just finished the game and i agree with you. I didn't hate it but it was veeeeeeeeery similar to sr3 and it really shows. The city scape especially was just like sr3 very boring, but the game was a kind of dumb fun i guess.

The game is very much an old school expansion pack game, before DLC shrunk everything.

I think this game boils down to: do you want to play Saints Row 3 with super powers? The powers add an interesting twist to the series, but the underlying game has not changed.

I enjoyed it a lot - there is no other video game series that takes itself less serious and enjoys throwing stuff at the walls to see what sticks.

I got about 10 hours in, I thought it was pretty fun but switched to Grand Theft Auto V when that came out and I'm not sure I'll go back whenever the heck I actually finished GTAV.

6/10 from me. Would have been better as a 30 dollar expansion pack for SR3. It still has it's moments.

I totally agree gameplay wise. It was quite boring to me. The city is repeated from 3 and in 3 it was very forgettable anyways, there is no challenge, the powers feel tacked on rather than integrated into the gameplay in the way a game like Prototype or Infamous would handle them.

I liked the story a lot though. It was good in the same way 3 was, but the gameplay was a big let down.

The city itself was completely forgettable and I could care less about it. But there was something very fun about being a super powered gangsta president.

@baconandwaffles: old school expansions never cost full price. Definitely not 60 bucks. And they never passed themselves off as a sequel

It's fun for the most part but the way the side missions are constructed is definitely lame. I don't mind the tasks as they are, but having every interaction with your crew be a series of minigames is kinda lame. Should've put more effort into that.

Apparently the DLC was scrapped and they made a whole new thing with SR4. The first DLC for SR4 will be the DLC that was planned for SR3, but more tongue-in-cheek.

I think the structure is very clever, the whole lets parody Mass Effect.

Said so, that much craziness broke the spell for me, it went from good wacko, to just plain wacko. I don't know how to explain it, lets says SR3 obey a internal logic, I don't think there is any logic in SR4, it became kind of like Family Guy, the reference for the sake of the reference.

Also the plot is kinda lame, and yeah the city being a refurbish of Steel Port with nonsense Sci Fi elements... not cutting it for me.

I have the same feeling and i have completed the game.

especially when there already where mods for saints row the third who did almost exactly this. I played through the story and enjoyed it but expected a lot more.

There is nothing wrong with disliking popular games. I am unsure where people think there is something wrong with them if they don't automatically jump onto some bandwagon with a bunch of other people.

It certainly doesn't feel like a expansion pack for me.

I agree with you to a point. It is extremely similar to the last one. Even using the same map as the same map as the third one which i thought to be a bit cheap, but also it was just more saints row which is what i was looking for. The super powers were also a neat inclusion.

Weird, I feel the exact opposite. This game has spoiled all open-world games for me.

Even playing the new inFamous just made me want to go back and play Saints Row 4 again. Sprinting up buildings and gliding halfway across a city is constantly nagging at me in the back of my mind.

Plus, playing through as Hatsune Miku has probably changed my life forever.

@ike7779 said:

Weird, I feel the exact opposite. This game has spoiled all open-world games for me.

Even playing the new inFamous just made me want to go back and play Saints Row 4 again. Sprinting up buildings and gliding halfway across a city is constantly nagging at me in the back of my mind.

Plus, playing through has Hatsune Miku has probably changed my life forever.

That's both wonderful and terrible at the same time.

I've been playing it. I think I like it more than the previous games. Oh, it's got problems, big fucking problems, but this game is practically broken from the start and I love it. Its problems haven't really bugged me at all because I'm running incredibly fast along streets and up buildings, gliding pretty far, knocking cars out of the way like they're made out of styrofoam, throwing fire and ice balls at aliens, and more. Fortunately, it seems like the game doesn't have enough content for that to get boring before it's over.

Most of its problems stem from the fact that this was once a DLC add-on for Saints Row the Third, but I don't care. The superpowers they've added make traversing across the city so much fun.

I'm sure part of the problem is me, but everything I have seen of SR3 and SR4 simply does not appeal. meaning it in a strictly neutral way, personal taste. Never liked Gat, thought the Ql's boring.

I don't hate the game but it never really drew me in either. I just picked it up on a steam sale so I'll try to play through it again. I enjoyed jumping and running through the city for an hour or 2 and thought the beginning had some really hilarious parts in it (that walking animation when you first enter the simulation almost killed me). I don't know, it just didn't drawl me in like the other games did but maybe I'll give it another shot.

IV is all about fan service. It's kind of a half step as far as a technological leap goes, but narratively it is probably more cohesive than any of the previous games. It's actually one of the rare examples, in this medium, that does homage well. It has lots of pretty obscure references that you don't have to have experience with to find funny. The fans get to think back to how far the series has come and newcomers can laugh at some, mostly, well-written jokes. Vinny pointed out in a podcast how all of the side missions are somehow tied into characters in a logical way, how the collectibles have narrative reasoning behind them. It's ironic how Volition parodied the Empire review of Last of Us by calling their Saints Row IV trailer the Citizen Kane of video game trailers, because if what we take away from Cititzen Kane is that everything in that film - even often secondary art forms like cinematography - works towards a cohesive narrative, Saints Row IV kind of takes a step towards that in this industry. Far too often are collectibles and side content completely tertiary to the rest of the experience, detached from narrative. I think this game kind of nailed the aspect of having something that you don't need to experience, but it still being totally valuable if you do.

From a gameplay perspective it does feel a little rough. The progression doesn't pace itself quite as well as The Third did, and it doesn't go as far as The Third did either. At a certain point pretty early on your character kind of becomes good enough, and it doesn't go to any extremes beyond that. At least not the extremes that The Third went to (e.g.: bullets don't hurt).

I didn't dig SRIV myself, I thought it was really boring and samey, the minigames were boring, the story was ok, the gameplay was ok, my main problem was lack of verity and after playing the previous games and getting my open world itch scratched, SRIV felt like a complete retread of SR3 but with uninteresting aliens and boring super powers, it was my most disappointing game of 2013, I wanted to love this game but I did the complete opposite. I hope the reboot/SRV draws me back in, I mean I am automatically on board for it so far I just hope as it's announced and things are revealed I stay on board.

I enjoyed SR4 but it kind of felt like a downgrade to me. I had some serious performance issues (PS3), but that's fine. The traversal is fun and the powers are neat but it makes it too easy and I found myself missing using more normal weapons and driving in the older games. I enjoyed the hell out of both SR2 and SR3 and I probably beat both of those games between 5 and 10 times each, whereas with 4 I had no desire to go back upon completion and in the months after. In 3 I liked the silliness and found it sort of refreshing, but at the same time I sort of missed the more serious nature of 2 (Also I think I preferred Stillwater to Steelport).

One big thing about 4 was that I really loved doing the side missions and collecting clusters and I did so SO much of that before getting deep into the story, and that hurt it for me cause I enjoyed all that side content way more than I enjoyed the main story missions, with a few exceptions. While I do play the other games similarly I do play them with a bit more variety and I felt the story missions were very enjoyable.

One of the big draws for the earlier games was the variety with the 3 gangs. Having the focus just be the aliens really hurt 4 for me. Also while 3 did have the multiple gangs I was really missing being able to do the 3 gangs in my order of choice (or all 3 mixed together) like you did in 2 and 1.

I thought it was alright and enjoyed myself for the most part but 3 is still my favorite. Driving around in an open world game is half the fun for me and Saints Row 3 had pretty fun car physics. The super powers were neat but they eventually made traversing the world feel like busy work to the point where I just wished I could quick travel from mission to mission.

Completely agree.

It's not that funny, that fun, or exciting.

It's just kinda poor gameplay with nonsensical dialogue aimed at cheap laughs.

This nonsensical dialogue works in shows like South Park because it is all based on a well based and well build satirical storyline.

It just doesn't quite work, and therefore doesn't impress.