lemonous
2019
This game was unfortunately not able to intrigue me. Some of the puzzles were fun but as a whole it got boring pretty quickly. I wasn't really able to follow the story though that may just be my fault. The art style initially seemed intriguing as well when I got the game, but really it just seems to be that polygonal texturing that seems to have become pretty common within the indiesphere.
2013
I have about the same opinion on this game as I did the first few times I played it. Looking at it from a positive perspective, there is an insane amount of freedom to cause maximum carnage. Side levels were slashed to consist only of missions that cause destruction, which I don't think was a bad idea. Super powers are an interesting addition. They're fun to use and handle fairly well. I still think the concept of them is an incredible shock to a veteran of any other entry in the series (I had only played 3 when I started this one and even I was shocked by the drastic gameplay change) but once you get used to it they become a very easy to use mechanic.
I think the "side quests" are the weakest part of the extra content, since they are really just a list of existing activities will give you to play. If you do them all consecutively, they're pretty boring. Though, at the very least, you do get some good rewards for them (most of the time). The special mastery quests for each character vary in quality, but the majority of them are alright (again, MOST of the time).
The beginning of this game is probably the thing I dislike the most. It's pretty sloppily handled but once you get into the simulation it starts to pick up in terms of story. I don't think it's a great campaign, but it's decent enough to satisfy me. Is it all over the place? Yeah. Within the process of completely altering the tone and nature of their franchise Voilition forced themselves into a corner in which they have no other choice but to desperately try to appeal to fans of both formulas, AND try to reel in a new crowd with "new" ideas. So obviously I could go on and on about how Saints Row writes their characters into the ground by this point, but it's an infamous topic and not one that too many people outside of the more hardcore audience are focused on. I am disappointed that this is the direction the series ended up taking, but not surprised. Voilition as a whole has been stumbling every step of the way after SR2; cancelling projects, lacking tonal consistency, releasing half-baked games, etc. Despite all of that, SR4 somehow pulls through. Again, not amazingly, but decently. So here's to this game for being...pretty fun.
I think the "side quests" are the weakest part of the extra content, since they are really just a list of existing activities will give you to play. If you do them all consecutively, they're pretty boring. Though, at the very least, you do get some good rewards for them (most of the time). The special mastery quests for each character vary in quality, but the majority of them are alright (again, MOST of the time).
The beginning of this game is probably the thing I dislike the most. It's pretty sloppily handled but once you get into the simulation it starts to pick up in terms of story. I don't think it's a great campaign, but it's decent enough to satisfy me. Is it all over the place? Yeah. Within the process of completely altering the tone and nature of their franchise Voilition forced themselves into a corner in which they have no other choice but to desperately try to appeal to fans of both formulas, AND try to reel in a new crowd with "new" ideas. So obviously I could go on and on about how Saints Row writes their characters into the ground by this point, but it's an infamous topic and not one that too many people outside of the more hardcore audience are focused on. I am disappointed that this is the direction the series ended up taking, but not surprised. Voilition as a whole has been stumbling every step of the way after SR2; cancelling projects, lacking tonal consistency, releasing half-baked games, etc. Despite all of that, SR4 somehow pulls through. Again, not amazingly, but decently. So here's to this game for being...pretty fun.
Saints Row 3 is still a favorite of mine. I think it's a fun time and there's not much to complain about in terms of story aside from Voilition's terrible upkeep of continuity. Shaundi's motivations make no sense and Johnny dying was a shitty move. Main game wise I think the new characters they added were pretty good. Gameplay is still the fun sandbox shooter it always was. What still continues to disappoint me is the way this remaster looks. Not really the worlds or the vehicles, which actually are modeled very nicely, but the characters. I get that some of them completely change appearance every game (like Pierce), but some of these models just don't look at all like they used to (Johnny and Shaundi). I could forgive most of that, but the way they are animated during cutscenes is even worse. Facial expressions are non-existent, the eyes have this weird colorless glaze and barely move, and the mouth movement looks make them looks like muppets. It just ruins a lot of what I look forward to in this game.
Still remains one of my absolute favorite Wii games. Yeah, the controls can be a bitch sometimes. There's a certain level of tedium to puzzles that can require trial and error, as well as just dying from minor screw ups. But my god it's still such a solid puzzle game with some damn good characters and worlds.
2008
Yet another Saints Row 2 playthrough finished and I'll admit you start to notice some flaws in one of your favorite games after replaying it like 6 times entirely. I've realized more than ever how bad the PC port is as well. Even with Gentlemen of the Row, this game crashed on me way more than it should've. But still, when I tough through the bad port and get to some of the best scenes in the series, this ends up absolutely remaining one of my favorite open world crime games.
2022
Cosmo D is just so good at making enganging worlds and characters. This time I'm even more impressed by the gameplay though. I was a little skeptical initially of the gameplay taking a front seat in one of these kinds of games, but it's incredibly engaging. Most of it is simple dice rolls, relying mostly on luck, but there is definitely some strategizing that can be learned from multiple playthroughs. Also helps to have 11 endings, so there's more replayability to this one.
2006
I finally decided to try the first game. This may be one of the most deserving games of a remake. The gameplay itself is fine, but it is extremely tedious to play through and levels are mostly barebones. Respect takes extremely long to earn, there are no level checkpoints, and smaller aspects from the modern Saints Row games are missing but deserve to be there. Have no idea why they didn't just remake this instead of making a lazy reboot. Story itself I think is great and somewhat necessary to know before playing SR2.
Good game, awful remaster.
2010
Wasn’t realllly that impressed, but it was fun. Story was pretty all over the place but it’s a really good setting. It’s strange since the last 4-5 chapters are 90 times better than the rest of the game and the ending was a great cliffhanger. Vito and Joe were absolutely solid characters as well.
2022
This was a very cute game. I was not completely engaged with the story but it was very fun to look around and interact with everything.
1991
They forgot they advertised this as a game where you go super fast
2017
Merge games really did somehow make the appstore worse than it already was. Strangely, this one is not as much of a scam as the others, but it's still not fun. Quite literally the definition of "the grind".
The fact that this game has more Star Wars content (including legends) in it than Battlefront 2 is extremely sad.
2022
A very mediocre gacha with very little incentive for daily plays. Like most mobile devs for bigger franchises they're given more freedom to make more creative designs and use less recognizable characters, but the gameplay itself is uninteresting. it's definitely another gacha where I just put it onto auto. The problem with this one compared others, is that the content is nonexistent. Dungeons are tedious and training is boring. Hope they use the designs for something better.
Surprisingly deep but I wasn't entirely impressed. It is a very interesting world and the role of the player/character relationship was explained well. The puzzles are not really that good and the level design was not amazing. Charlotte and Felix, the two main focuses of the game, were extremely well written characters, especially for such a brief game. While the gameplay disappointed me, there is a longing to learn more about what exactly happened in this world and why things are in such a strange state. So overall I did still like it and want to continue with the future chapters.