Saints Row IV

A slight dip off from the third this is still an impressive feat, obviously not safe from its bugs and issues the decision to make the gang into legitimate public figures then superheroes is extremely brave but ultimately encapsulates the series' goal: wacky fun and to be honest not much more can be said it's a truly fun experience

The ridiculous fun of the series comes to a crescendo in this superhero romp. The game makes good use of the map from the previous game, with enough changes to keep it from seeming stale. Adding super powers speeds up the game-play and helps avoid the dull commutes that mar many sandbox titles. Again the story and characters are funny, which is rare in most games. I would recommend playing Saints Row 3 before you tackle this one as they're deeply linked but be sure to add this one to your wish-list.

Dumb fun. If you're looking for a dumb fun game, this is your game. Cause that's what this game is: dumb fun.

Dumb fun/10.

You want full control? You got it. You want hilarious dialogue by fantastic voice actors, epic Tron and Streets of Rage and Mass Effect nods, really super fun gameplay that even makes the game's collect-a-thon part fun? This is the game. A really, really special game.

But that annoying, unrealiable, absolutely horrible saving system screwed me over 4 times just today. Over and over having to replay the same missions and losing my progress because evidently that SAVING message means nothing, and I have to do it manually to be sure... Really almost made me delete the entire game.

But that's a small issue there. I first played it on Xbox with Xbox Pass where it was fine, I'm only having those issues now that I bought it on PC. I saw on Wikipedia that they're working on a next one and I'm excited.

I'd love to see the same people who wrote this, the same people who designed and programmed it, and the same voice actors, especially my girl Female Voice 3 and my dude Keith David return.

But I can't possibly shout out just two voice actors, because looking at the credits now, this game features some of the biggest stars, and generally peak voice acting talent. Dee Bradley Baker (American Dad and all kinds of cool stuff), Nolan North (every Triple A game), Amanda Winn Lee (from Oni, first game that made me fall in love with this art form), and the rest everyone knows - Troy Baker, that chick from Blood Rayne, etc etc.

Also, can't gloss over the great original, and licensed music. Some amazing classics in there, I can't believe they even managed to get them. Some of that EDM / trap / dubstep on the radios is pretty great too, especially on Four 20. Good stuff all around.

Saints Row IV tries to expand on its predecessor by adding new content, new types of missions, new mechanics but keeping too much of everything else as it was.

It seems too generous to call IV a separate game, since it's pretty much more of the same. There are some additions, mostly to do with plot devices and gameplay. Notably, superhuman abilities make things feel more like Prototype than SR3 and add a different layer to moving through the city. Other than that, the action still revolves mainly around driving and shooting, both core mechanics that get ironically dropped to the background since no one wants to shoot a gun when they can throw a fireball or take a joyride when they can run like The Flash.

The fourth installment in the franchise doesn't really add anything incredibly innovative to the table, but if you enjoyed Saints Row: The Third, you can think of this as one huge DLC. The question you need to ask yourself is if you're willing to pay full value for a game that's pretty much identical to its predecessor plus some gimmicky features.

Sure. The main storyline is still whacky, fun to play through and mission design is as good as ever, but sidemissions (which still make about 75% of the content, mind you) get extremely repetitive after a while, as they did in SR3. On the other hand, there's now a cooperative mode and some co-op-only missions that might add some fun if you have a buddy to team up with.

There are also other, somewhat minor imperfections like texture popping due to the old engine not having been fully upgraded to handle the now large-scale movement, graphical glitches, subtitles not matching the script at all and the occasional crash. Mostly, they're not a huge deal but do give out a very unpolished and unfinished feel to what should be a platinum game.

As a final note, there are many references to the previous games in the series, so, if you're a hardcore fan, you might get off on the nostalgia of seeing some old characters make a reappearance.

The bottom line is Saints Row IV trying to cash in on what made Saints Row: The Third great, adding a Matrix-esque twist on gameplay but in the end not having enough substance to warrant paying 50 bucks for something that's pretty much a modded version of the previous game.