What happens when you sand down Saints Row into something more polished but lacking in identity? You get Saints Row: The Third. The problem with the first two games is that they required too much side content before you could progress the main quest. How does SR3 "fix" that? It removes the requirement entirely. What that results in is a lack of any incentive to do any of the side content and just going from mission to mission to mission. Respect now unlocks upgrades so buying clothes feels bad because there's always a gameplay upgrade you can buy that'll make the game better, you don't interact with the world because you're not going to different shops to see what's being sold where, you're just doing mission after mission after mission and the gameplay is honestly not amazing. Is this game super playable? Sure. Does it offer anything that isn't done better elsewhere? No.
A game that peaked in one of the first few missions, the style was there but the mission structure and open world aren't anything you can't get from a grand theft auto game better.
Unless you reaaaally want to use a dildo bat and laugh at the cockney character you made this game isn't worth playing for more than a few hours.
Unless you reaaaally want to use a dildo bat and laugh at the cockney character you made this game isn't worth playing for more than a few hours.
It's a pretty good game, the first saints row i played, but clearly not the best, it's still good but we can see the start of the licence becoming less serious and more.... stupidly epic? wanting to be ultra fun and over the top, but not nearly as good as the 2nd game, the 4th game follow this principle at the extreme and is just shitty