Saints Row IV

[Stone Daemon]

Now, I understand there is a bit of controversy on this game, because people dislike the direction it's taking the series. I hope to sidestep all that and not bring that argument here, though. Because we're better than that.

With that out of the way...

Having super speed and super jump back is making my inner CoX'er squee with joy  I've only played a couple hours of it so far, but as soon as I got my first travel powers I started bounding around the city collecting stuff to power up the travels. And guns? Forget guns, I speed all over a fight knocking out enemies in a scrapperlocking frenzy.

It feels good. 

[Botzo]

Yeah. Saint's Row been giving me some ideas for a personal future project, IF they manage to add in the mod tool support they've been talking about.Depending on how much power/ access to the system they end up giving out I could see a mod for just super powers. Maybe even a new map that may or may not look like Paragon city. Maybe a few costume pieces. Honestly though I won't know much as far as using such tools, I'm certainly going to be trying to learn. Just ideas of grandeur.

[Kaos Arcanna]

I've been thinking about giving that a try.

[doc7924]

I was just going to come and post about this game.

So far I am into the first few missions where you get Super Jump and Super Speed and Ice Blast.

And I tell you - I almost feel like I'm back playing COH. Almost.

I am not one of those that feel the Saints Row series has to stay the same. So I am enjoying running and jumping and super kicking bad guys in the family jewels 300 feet in the air.

[Stone Daemon]

I'm a little bit further along in the game--have done all of my optional side quests so far. I'm starting to notice scrapperlocking isn't really an option for the most part once enemies at different elevations (and any air vehicles at all) come into play. One of the neat things that I've discovered is that if you get any kind of air vehicle on your case, just throw an ice blast their way. The vehicle locks up, and falls out of the sky. Instant win. 

I've also upgraded the Dubstep gun that you get for doing the Vice President side missions. It's kind of fun to fire a gun that pulses to music--and once you upgrade it it causes pretty heavy destruction. Also! There is an easter egg hidden in the Southwest "Let's Pretend" store. Go inside and shoot at the "Employee's Only" door until it pops open and head down the stairs. Inside is some...neat stuff. Let's just say that you'll want to explore the room. There is a secret weapon in there for you to pick up. It's a MIB reference. 

Let's see, what else...I've upgraded the travel powers all the way. Gliding is cool, but I really wish I could fly. You can call down a helicopter/UFO/jet from anywhere once you've ridden in one and "saved" it to your collection of vehicles. They all seem to have two modes--a VTOL mode where you can hover around, and a flight mode that goes fast. But it isn't the same as real flight.

Loving the superpowers, though. Can't wait until I unlock fire blast and TK. Oooh, and footstomp. *drools*

[General Idiot]

Don't worry, the PC version is apparently going to be getting a full SDK for mods. And I'm sure someone will turn the glide into proper flight, or go even further and make the game all superpowers all the time.

[doc7924]

I'm a little bit further along in the game--have done all of my optional side quests so far. I'm starting to notice scrapperlocking isn't really an option for the most part once enemies at different elevations (and any air vehicles at all) come into play. One of the neat things that I've discovered is that if you get any kind of air vehicle on your case, just throw an ice blast their way. The vehicle locks up, and falls out of the sky. Instant win. 

I've also upgraded the Dubstep gun that you get for doing the Vice President side missions. It's kind of fun to fire a gun that pulses to music--and once you upgrade it it causes pretty heavy destruction. Also! There is an easter egg hidden in the Southwest "Let's Pretend" store. Go inside and shoot at the "Employee's Only" door until it pops open and head down the stairs. Inside is some...neat stuff. Let's just say that you'll want to explore the room. There is a secret weapon in there for you to pick up. It's a MIB reference. 

Let's see, what else...I've upgraded the travel powers all the way. Gliding is cool, but I really wish I could fly. You can call down a helicopter/UFO/jet from anywhere once you've ridden in one and "saved" it to your collection of vehicles. They all seem to have two modes--a VTOL mode where you can hover around, and a flight mode that goes fast. But it isn't the same as real flight.

Loving the superpowers, though. Can't wait until I unlock fire blast and TK. Oooh, and footstomp. *drools*

I have the fire blast and TK now. Fire blast is nice - like the level 32 Fire Blaster AOE damage-wise.
TK is fun and you can fling things, people around.

I need to go look in that store for that secret - thanks for the tip.

[Stone Daemon]

Ok, I'm pretty much on the final chapters of the game (the level cap is 50, isn't that cute) and have all the powers/weapons, mostly fully upgraded. Lots of cool things.

I can't figure out how to get past bronze on the stomp mayhem mission. It gives you a gun and the stomp power, and you have to somehow rack up hundreds of thousands of points. I've barely made it to bronze before the timer gives out. 

My go to weapons, if anyone needs an opinion on which guns to upgrade first, are the submachine pistols (the electric upgrade is pretty sweet in the early game), the Dubstep gun (it will be crazy effective throughout the game once you upgrade the damage and get the explosive add-on), the combat shotgun (mostly for wardens/bosses), and the easter egg gun (The Loud Locust--really huge radius, can destroy a large mob and only takes a second to activate).

I like the blasts and buff super powers, but TK and stomp seem underpowered in comparison. And death from above...if you can't get an obscene amount of height, it's not really worth using. 

My game seems to have a memory leak or something, too. I play for a couple hours, and then the game starts randomly freezing, usually around loading/saving points. So be careful!

[Arachnion]

I'm about 40 percent or so done into the game.

Got all towers finished, all stores hacked, 35 hours or so total play time.

64 percent of the city or so is in my purple/blue light control.

I agree, the activities can be major BS.

Most notably IMO, the jumping platformer and racing for purple points ones.

I'm enjoying the game largely, however.

[Stone Daemon]

I'm about 40 percent or so done into the game.

Got all towers finished, all stores hacked, 35 hours or so total play time.

64 percent of the city or so is in my purple/blue light control.

I agree, the activities can be major BS.

Most notably IMO, the jumping platformer and racing for purple points ones.

I'm enjoying the game largely, however.

Nice

Yeah I agree with you there, the jumping platforming kind of irks me. I don't think I've got beyond a silver on any of them. As for the racing...I had problems with it at first, but I guess it just took getting used to because after playing it a couple times I was able to gold them all. Likewise with the Fraud mini-game--it was crazy annoying until I learned the trick to it. Just air dash and go ragdoll  on the north freeway. Easiest activity ever.

And if you have any difficulties with the wrecking ball TK challenge, do what I did: Don't throw the ball. Just run (not superspeed--that can cause non-ball related damage/knockback to the cars and inhibit your score) into cars with it held in front of you. (This works better if you get the immovable object upgrade from Fraud activities first, so the explosions won't knock you down, but it is still doable without it.) I found that throwing the ball often (if you missed or only struck a glancing blow) wasted precious seconds, but just holding it let you be much more accurate and it destroyed cars pretty easily.

And I'm just awful at the Genki mini-games. I think I'm just no good at quickly finding and aiming at those darn rings. 

[Stone Daemon]

Ok, beat the game. The last third of the game I got so many freezes it was starting to get annoying, but I had a good time regardless. I liked the (true) ending, it was...perfectly in character for the main cast. I had a good chuckle. 

Make sure to watch the first minute or so of the credits if you get the true ending, it's pretty funny.

[Felderburg]

Now, I understand there is a bit of controversy on this game, because people dislike the direction it's taking the series.

I haven't played any of the games in this series, but I have to ask - is it because of the aliens? I read about the games, and that honestly seemed really weird to me. I, II & III are about street gangs, then IV is about fighting aliens? I don't really understand that.

[Stone Daemon]

I haven't played any of the games in this series, but I have to ask - is it because of the aliens? I read about the games, and that honestly seemed really weird to me. I, II & III are about street gangs, then IV is about fighting aliens? I don't really understand that.

From what I understand, it's because apparently the game is taking a more slapstick/humorous direction than the first two games, and people don't like that. Nor do they like the inclusion of super powers. Frankly, I never bought any of the previous games because they looked like GTA clones, and I haven't liked any recent GTA titles.

Not because they aren't good, mind you. Because I suck at racing missions, and I bought the game to shoot people and steal cars, not to play Grand Turismo with pedestrians getting in my way. And putting those missions as a prerequisite to finishing the story means I can't play past a certain point.

Another part of the controversy is apparently the makers of the game had promised super powers (or the basic idea of SR4?) as the premise of a DLC that was supposed to release for SR3. So people feel ripped off into having to buy a new game. I don't know the facts behind this, but it is an understandable grief, if true.

[Canine]

I can't figure out how to get past bronze on the stomp mayhem mission. It gives you a gun and the stomp power, and you have to somehow rack up hundreds of thousands of points. I've barely made it to bronze before the timer gives out. 

You don't HAVE to use the stomp power

Make sure you have the whirlwind superspeed upgrade, and you can get Bronze/Silver easily by haring around like your arse is on fire just knocking over fences, cars, pedestrians, etc.  Stop every so often to footstomp a tempting group of targets, then get back to high speed collateral

Myself, I've got two of the platform rifts and the final M.O.M. to get gold in, then I'm done, bar the annoying as hell to achieve DFA kills, which only count for Zin, not pedestrians (same as all the individual weapon challenges).

[Stone Daemon]

Never even thought of whirlwind induced damage/chaos. I'll have to try that, thanks! 

[ParagonKid]

Now, I understand there is a bit of controversy on this game, because people dislike the direction it's taking the series.

The opening text crawl of SR4 addresses this in a wonderfully meta way:

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that every now and again a situation arises that defies explanation. And so it was with the ascension of the Third Street Saints. When the Saints made their presence known to the world in 2006, they were decried for being pretenders to the throne."

When the first Saints Row game came out, people dismissed it as a GTA clone for the next gen consoles.


"The people were confused. Were the Saints sociopathic killing machines hell-bent on destruction? Or puckish rogues living a life of mirth and whimsy?"

The first two games were trying to be a serious urban crime sim with gritty street gangs, but also had zombies, missions with septic trucks, over the top action and pop culture humor.


"The Saints needed clarity of purpose, and so the course was set... More fun, less mercy killing. This simple choice revitalized the Saints, transforming them from a degenerate street gang into beloved pop culture icons."

The developers took the road of making the game more over the top to differentiate itself from GTA. They fully embraced the pop culture and over the top aspects for SR3 and made the Saints rich celebrities who fought, among other a sci-fi paramilitary organization with laser armed VTOL fighters to save themselves and a city.


"But even then the Saints were not satisfied... For it's one thing to be revered as a hero, it is another to be a hero. And that, my friends, is where our journey begins."

The only place to go from there? Have them rule the world and then make them full on superheroes fighting alien invaders.


Personally, I love the direction. Having Saints Row 3+4 operate on the Rule of Cool as opposed to what GTA IV (aka Depressed Immigrant goes to Crapsack World) was doing at the time is what won me over.
 

[JaguarX]

whoa whoa,


Gangsters with super powers now?

[Canine]

Never even thought of whirlwind induced damage/chaos. I'll have to try that, thanks! 

You're welcome, also, there's a little 'wrinkle' to the insurance fraud missions.  So long as you're mid tumble, the mission won't time out, so find a route with nice wide roads you can follow while ragdolling, Superspeed, slight SJ hop, then ragdoll, and you can tumble in one run for as long as you like, racking up score so long as you don't come to a dead halt.

Also, yes, freeze blast will drop any flying mobs out of the sky, but so will the abduction beam, as it removes the pilots from the UFO's, and I find abducting the pilots to be more amusing than freezing the craft

And so far as the 'it's not a saints row game' crowd go?  Meh, stuff 'em.  It's *fun*.  The misery (and stupid difficulty curve) in GTA IV stopped me from finishing that game, I've finished SRIV.  I'll take superpowered fun and idiocy over depression by the numbers, thanks.

However, if/when I replay it (even if only to hear a different voice actor do 'Opposites attract') I'll strictly follow quests until I get to the end, because going all sandbox meant that I had half of the quest objectives complete before I got the quest, and thus missed out on some voice acting/ character interplay.

Oh, and so far I've spotted in CoH terms:

Dual Pistols, AR and Munitions for the basic shooty shooty bits and the body armour aspect of the upgrades
Superspeed and superjump (obviously)
Sort of Hover/flight for the glide, but it's not true flight
Ice blast, Fire blast, Mind control for the three elements in the blast power.
Gravity control (Telekinesis, throwing random things at mooks)
Electric Blast (Electric element on TK sort of gives youa Voltaic Sentinel)
Kinetics (Health Leech TK is sort of stealing health while debuffing mobs)
Super Strength (Foot Stomp and the upgraded melee)
Gravity Control again (The Levitate element on Ground Stomp holding targets helpless in midair)
(I can't think of any obvious analogues for the shrink stomp)
Fire Armour, Ice Armour and Electric Armour for the buff powers, which also include aspects of Dual pistols ammo types.
War Mace (Baseball bat and tentacle bat)
Katana (Energy Sword)
Electric melee/Shield Defence are as close as I can get to Death From Above.
Thugs MM for the Saints Backup.

Anyone got any I've missed, or objections?


Basically I've enjoyed the hell out of SRIV <grin>

[Stone Daemon]

The opening text crawl of SR4 addresses this in a wonderfully meta way:

(snip)

You know, I remember reading this, and you're right--that translation does kind of pre-empt their complaints. I hadn't really thought of it after the game started. That's neat. 

whoa whoa,


Gangsters with super powers now?

Oh yeah. And it was fun. 

You're welcome, also, there's a little 'wrinkle' to the insurance fraud missions.  So long as you're mid tumble, the mission won't time out, so find a route with nice wide roads you can follow while ragdolling, Superspeed, slight SJ hop, then ragdoll, and you can tumble in one run for as long as you like, racking up score so long as you don't come to a dead halt.

Also, yes, freeze blast will drop any flying mobs out of the sky, but so will the abduction beam, as it removes the pilots from the UFO's, and I find abducting the pilots to be more amusing than freezing the craft

And so far as the 'it's not a saints row game' crowd go?  Meh, stuff 'em.  It's *fun*.  The misery (and stupid difficulty curve) in GTA IV stopped me from finishing that game, I've finished SRIV.  I'll take superpowered fun and idiocy over depression by the numbers, thanks.

However, if/when I replay it (even if only to hear a different voice actor do 'Opposites attract') I'll strictly follow quests until I get to the end, because going all sandbox meant that I had half of the quest objectives complete before I got the quest, and thus missed out on some voice acting/ character interplay.

Yeah, as soon as I took all my fraud activities to the freeway, I had over two million points easily within the time limit. Wasn't hard at all, was all about location, location, location.

I only used the abduction beam until I finished the challenge, and then I switched back to the dubstep gun. 

It's the hipster crowd, I tells ya! Those people are allergic to fun. I still remember the mission that made me give up and put away GTA IV. I had to chase some guy through a freeway on a motorcycle (the guy was in a car). After repeatedly failing the mission from getting hit by traffic and flying off my bike, I decided I'd had enough. And it was a story mission, so yeah, I have no idea what the rest of the game was like. I heard good things. 

I loved that part where they were singing in the car! My favorite part in the game, I think. I'd just switched over to the female avatar a couple missions prior (partly for the badge, but also because I was getting tired of the male voice/body--and the females had so many better/unique costume pieces!), so it was perfect. I liked the game better having the main character as a female, it made some of the things she said and did just so much ballsier. And hilarious.

[Arachnion]

I've beaten the game now, nearly 100 percent.

Got gold on every activity.

Only thing left now is Challenges.

Great game.

[Canine]

I've beaten the game now, nearly 100 percent.

Got gold on every activity.

Only thing left now is Challenges.

Well, have fun on the DFA Zin kills one, now that you've not got any large clusters of Zin easily available... 

Managed the Platform Rift Golds tonight, hurrah.   I've still got that last bloody Genki M.O.M. that I'm 40 seconds to a minute slow on for Gold and the last Super powered Fight Club that I'd forgotten I hadn't got Gold to finish off before I'm done on side missions.

[General Idiot]

The DFA kills one is actually pretty easy. Do either the medium or hard superpower fight club activities and on the king of the hill round don't complete it, instead gather up enemies. The freeze them with blast or buff, and DFA into them from any height for an instant kill. And yes, they do count for the challenge despite not being aliens.

[Stone Daemon]

The DFA kills one is actually pretty easy. Do either the medium or hard superpower fight club activities and on the king of the hill round don't complete it, instead gather up enemies. The freeze them with blast or buff, and DFA into them from any height for an instant kill. And yes, they do count for the challenge despite not being aliens.

[General Idiot]

Yeah, you wouldn't think it'd work but it does. Sadly you can't use that for many other challenges since you're limited to powers only in there (Not a bad thing) and most of the other superpower challenges are easy and likely things you picked up before even knowing they were challenges.

[ag88t88]

Really enjoyed this game, and while the running up buildings and running on water was a nice touch, to me it just reminded me of CoH and unfortunately, it was more CoH light. Though I did say for a long time on the old boards, I think CoH could make for an excellent single player open world game, where the player could choose power trees and create a character like in CoH but instead of being an MMO, go on some epic adventures in a section or two of Paragon City. It'd be a cool create your own hero then do the available missions type of story and SR IV has come very close to doing that here. You don't get to pick your power styles like CoH and customize to that extent but it's a game where you get powers and can go on missions and the like. I really think a single player, open world CoH game would have worked big time.