Saints Row IV Saints Row IV press preview followup

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[V] IdolNinja

Volition Staff
With a grand total of 35 hours invested in the Saints Row IV preview, in addition to the 25 or so with the alpha back in April, I thought this would be a good time to do a followup. I'll attempt to answer many of the community questions I've received, as well as add some extra info, and also my feelings about the open world and replayability. Keep in mind that this is mostly based on alpha/preview code, and I have not played the final game all the way through with all the the bells and whistles.

SUPER POWERS

Super power upgrades are not just tri-elemental firec/ice/lightning like I had originally thought. Looking through the upgrade menus revealed these:

Blast: Freeze, Fire, Mind Control
Telekinesis: Force, Lightning, Life Steal
Stomp: Rock, Gravity, Shrink
Buff: Fire, Lightning, Freeze

I didn't get to try any of them since they are later unlocks, but the menu for the powers has them listed as choices. I think the shrink upgrade for stomp is actually what the leaked achievements were referring to, and not a shrink gun.

Super Jump has an "Immovable Object" upgrade where cars no longer knock you down, that is via Saints Book style challenges.

Super Sprint has the Tornado upgrade at level 23, and the ability to run on water by completing Saints Book style challenges.

WARNING! Make sure to save before you purchase the Super Sprint Tornado upgrade and try it out first to see if you like it! In the current build it sucks up vehicles in its wake and has a couple of bad side effects that I do NOT like:
1. It's very difficult to boduken into cars since your sprint/awesome button messes them up and flips/pushes them
2. With all the random junk and cars flipping around it actually raises notoriety when other npcs/cops get hit with this stuff. I ended up feeling like the proverbial bull in a china shop when trying to peacefully explore and enjoy the city.

Death From Above has a level 50 upgrade called "Nuke" where "you can now devastate entire section of the city." Before you ask I didn't get to try it. I was only at level 29 or so after 35 hours of play.

When holding an object or npc with TK you can gently set them down by simply switching powers. I wound up using this to collect a huge group of npcs on top of a roof but then accidentally set them all on fire while using Buff. It was pretty hysterical.

Customization of super powers is not permanent. You can change them at any time with no penalty.

Gliding is now actually part of Super Jump and not a separate passive power like I thought in LA. There looks to be a blank 4th slot, so there may be one more passive power that hasn't been disclosed yet.

You cannot use superpowers while driving, only guns.

You can use Telekinesis on flying vehicles once you get the upgrade for it.


CLOTHING AND CUSTOMIZATION

There is a single cape in the game, but it's only there as part of Nyte Blade's costume which is now buyable at Let's Pretend.

For all you fellow Dragon Ball fans, there is a Cobra Kai gi (from Karate Kid) at Let's Pretend. If you color it orange and use the Super Saiyan hair (hat,) you can make a pretty close powered up Goku. Unfortunately, the shoes are attached to the gi, so no knee high black boots.

The Jedi robe I mentioned in the previous article is actually a Jedi tunic called the Desert Dweller (heh.) Sorry for any disappointment to anyone who was desperately hoping for Sith robes. A jedi robe with cowl might be a fun first modding project once we get the SDK out.


WEAPONS

Most weapon costumes also have different audio and visual fx when firing them which makes them feel like unique weapons instead of just skins. It really feels like you have a massive arsenal of unique weapons to choose from this time, far surpassing even what was there in SR2.

Tony Barrett posted a list of weapons and skins on Something Awful in addition to his Saints Row IV preview article.

Baseball Bat (Nail bat)
Stun gun
Tentacle Bat
Energy Sword
Alien Pistol
Heavy Pistol (Cumia Magnum, DEK-RD Railpistol (Deckard, Blade Runner), The Captain (Mal, Firefly))
Quickshot Pistol (Renegade (Han Solo), Red Shirt Special (Star Trek))
Alien SMG
Heavy SMG (Gangland (Tommy Gun), Rubber Band Gun)
Rapid Fire SMG (Nail Gun, Cyborg Pistol (Robocop)
Thumpgun/Alien Shotgun
Pump Action Shotgun (Blunderbuss, Kardak Lasershot (???))
Semi-Auto Shotgun (Big Game (hunter’s shotgun), Ion Blaster (Boba Fett), Full Choke Silenced (No Country For Old Men))
Alien Rifle
Automatic Rifle (Mercenary LMG (M60), EM Railgun (Eraser))
Burst Rifle (Impulse Rifle (Aliens), Soakmaster)
Alien RPG
RPG (El Fugitivo (Desperado), Potato Gun)
Sniper Rifle (GI Sniper, Lever Action, Block Gun (Minecraft)
Abduction Gun
Laserarm Arm
Minethrower Arm
Singularity Rifle/Black Hole Gun is available in one of the diversions, but only once.


VEHICLES

An updated version of the Venom Classic is back, but this time called the "Rattler." I also found a Kaneda as well.

You can airjack vehicles, but it's tough to pull off.


RADIO

There are 7 radio stations:

* Four-20 - Reggae station returns from SR/SR2
* KRHYME - hip hop
* Mad Decent with DJ RiFF RAFF which is composed entirely of songs from artists on the Mad Decent record label.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riff_Raff_(rapper)
* The Mixx has a much better selection this time as compared to SRTT, though still not as good as the SR2 Mixx. It was nice to finally hear Men Without Hats - Safety Dance since it's actually referenced in both the SR2 and SRTT game files, but never actually in a game proper until now.
* GenX is mostly the same style alternative as the previous games.
* K12 with, believe it or not, DJ Jane Valderama who is absolutely hilarious discussing the the finer points of dubstep and EDM.
* Klassic with DJ Zinyak as he waxes poetic introducing opera and classical tracks. He also reads excerpts from great literary works and acts out all the voice parts. It is absolutely brilliant since he's gushing over human culture while at the same time sneering at and making fun of humans who don't appreciate it. It really gives him a lot of additional personality that any truly great villain needs.

NOTE: I was really surprised that there was no metal station this time. It's quite possible that it just didn't make it in to the preview build, since there looks to be an extra slot in the menu for an additional station.


ACTIVITIES , DIVERSIONS, AND SIDE CONTENT

The new activities are listed among the challenges, but I can't talk details about them yet since they weren't actually playable in the preview:
Super-Powered Fight Club
Platforming Rift
Speed Rift
Telekinesis Rift

The Saints book style challenges have a ton of extra stuff to do and also give you unlocks and bonuses for completing them. For example, complete any 1 challenge and you will unlock the Abduct-o-matic gun. Complete 12 challenges for a clothing store discount, etc. The challenge list also has activity unlocks as well. For example, getting all silver medals in all Blazing instances grants you fire immunity, while all gold medals in Blazin' gets you a set of flame weapon skins. There are other unlocks tied to activity medals like new homies, special super power upgrades, and other bonuses. This is another huge improvement over SRTT, since doing extras like these are actually worth it now instead of just for some stupid achievement. It seems like Volition have really made some thoughtful decisions on how to make extra content compelling this time around.

The virus Injection (survival) diversion had some insane stuff going on which made them a lot more fun than the SRTT ones. For example, some of them had all the npcs glitched out and screaming like horrible banshees; old ladies floating around in a T-pose, cars driving around on their roofs and unloading horrible deformed passengers with incorrect animation rigs and disturbingly long fingers, necks stretched up about 6 ft high, bugged out eyes, etc. I think Volition may have removed the glitch zones and put all of that stuff into these instances, and that's why I haven't found them in the open world proper. Other Virus Injection locations had you fighting a massive army of Professor Genkis, bikers, mascots, etc.

The Security Deletion (hitman) targets were equally as awesome. Many of the targets had superpowers and you had to fight them and their superpowered clones which was really challenging. Each target was also interesting, and not just regular boring npcs. For example, you had to assassinate a toilet, a crew of skeleton suits, etc.

Both streaking and vehicle surfing return.


TIME OF DAY AND PERMANENT NIGHT

I keep seeing a lot of questions from people not understanding how the time of day works despite my best efforts to explain it. To clarify, most of the game is played at night. Things do get progressively lighter as you complete missions though. It's like the story takes place over one long night until morning and daylight for the climax. By taking out hot spots and control points in the open world, you are actually changing the color of the lighting from a harsh oppressive red to a cool relaxing blue. Doing that open world stuff does not advance the time of day or make it brighter in any way though; only the story missions do so.

Jon Criner from Volition also had this to say about the endless night and lack of a proper cycle:

Jon Criner said:
I'm Jon, a new Lighting Artist at Volition. While I probably can't say a lot about what we're doing, the lighting is definitely motivated and thought out; it's not just night for the sake of night. The city wide time of day is changed by player action and by how you far along you're getting toward breaking down Zinyak's simulation. We used color to drive a lot of the player feedback - hotspots and flashpoints are lit with harsh, oppressive reds and when taken over by the player, they turn to a soft, safe feeling blue. It's one of the first times I've been motivated to actually really push toward 100% city takeover because the visual change accompanies it and I feel like I'm actually accomplishing. It's a pretty refreshing addition that's subtle, but brings a great mood and feeling. Same with time of day - can't go into full detail, but the nighttime that you're seeing isn't the only time of day you'll get in the city and there's a pretty cool surprise when you beat the game as well.

I can confirm that the "cool surprise" that Jon is talking about is pretty neat, and no... it's not a true day/night cycle.


OPEN WORLD

I finally feel comfortable confirming that the Virtual Steelport open world is definitely more interesting than the SRTT version, and has replayability. I am having more fun exploring and poking around than I ever did in SRTT. In fact, 15 of my 30 hours in the preview were spent free roaming, and I simply couldn't get enough. I was absolutely crushed when the timed preview was up and I was forced to stop. This is an excellent sign that the game will hold up and still remain fun in post-game. For everyone who keeps asking, it still doesn't come close to approaching the varied environments and details of SR2 Stilwater though. Volition, we need more interesting stuff like underground caverns, cemetaries, universities, mountains, hotel interiors, more stores, and a mall! These are the kind of things that keep the open world fresh and interesting!

NPC Behavior is vastly improved from SRTT and functions more like SR2. As an example, I was standing in an intersection, and a drunk driver in a Raycaster smacks into a preppie who goes flying over the hood and lands in the street. A biker on a motorcycle then runs him over but gets stopped by traffic just ahead. The preppie gets up, pulls out a bat, runs up to the biker and yanks him off his motorcycle. The biker freaks out and throws his hands up in the air and starts running away. The preppie chases him down and corners him next to Rim Jobs where he proceeds to beat him with the bat until he's dead. I didn't do anything to instigate any of it. I was just standing there bemused while watching it unfold. Interesting emergent npc stuff like this happened quite frequently while wandering the city.

Regular saints do roam around controlled areas, just like the original games. I actually got into a big firefight again Zin/police with them backing me up.

I ran into Professor Genki in the open world and he was using superpowers to do horrible things to npcs. I ended up hanging around for a good 20 minutes just watching him murder the innocent with gleeful abandon. It was a riot.

You can still swim in the game and warp to shore. It's much easier and quicker to just super jump out of the water though.


FINAL THOUGHTS
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Ack, sorry.

Any idea what the fight club activity will be like? Cause I loved them in SR2 (I'm willing to overlook the fact that QTE I had to do sucked)

So are the unlocks bought with money (or cache as they seem to be calling it now) or something else? Y'know, like SRTT?

Do you have to do something in order to flush out the assassination targets like you did before?

Can you explain a bit more about 'air jacking?' You mean you can hijack flying vehicles now?

Is Jane Valderama (did I spell her name right?) still voiced by Lauri Hendler?

Also, I'm assuming that dubstep gun was not in the preview build? Because I've seen some videos out there that had them.

One more thing... It's not necessarily related to the preview stuff, but do you think people who claim that SR4 will suck because it's way too crazy and not serious enough are justified in their opinions or just uninformed and overreacting?

Cheers.
 
Ack, sorry.

Any idea what the fight club activity will be like? Cause I loved them in SR2 (I'm willing to overlook the fact that QTE I had to do sucked)

So are the unlocks bought with money (or cache as they seem to be calling it now) or something else? Y'know, like SRTT?

Do you have to do something in order to flush out the assassination targets like you did before?

Can you explain a bit more about 'air jacking?' You mean you can hijack flying vehicles now?

Is Jane Valderama (did I spell her name right?) still voiced by Lauri Hendler?

Also, I'm assuming that dubstep gun was not in the preview build? Because I've seen some videos out there that had them.

One more thing... It's not necessarily related to the preview stuff, but do you think people who claim that SR4 will suck because it's way too crazy and not serious enough are justified in their opinions or just uninformed and overreacting?

Cheers.

The first rule about Super-Powered Fight Club is that you don't... you know the drill. Seriously though, I can't talk about it since I'm still under NDA for the LA trip and that activity was only in the press preview menu and not the game itself.

Unlocks for the player are bought with cache with a minimum xp level needed just like SRTT. Superpower upgrades are either bought with clusters or unlocked through completing special saints book style challenges.

No flushing out of hitman targets like sr/sr2. Sometimes there are multiple decoys though.

The control is tight enough where you can land on alien flying vehicles and enter them; even the small hoverbikes.

Jane Valderama has the same voice actress and is still absolutely hilarious.

The footage you saw was b-roll footage that Deep Silver supplied to the press to use in their reviews. The dubstep gun itself was not in the preview build to play with.

I think people who are dissing the game will have a big wakeup call when it's released, especially the fans of the original SR/SR2. In addition to be being an amazing fun game on its own, it also honors the past and the gangsta stuff and is more of a true sequel than SRTT was. Hard to believe, I know. I wouldn't believe it either if I hadn't played through the entire game myself.
 
The first rule about Super-Powered Fight Club is that you don't... you know the drill. Seriously though, I can't talk about it since I'm still under NDA for the LA trip and that activity was only in the press preview menu and not the game itself.

Unlocks for the player are bought with cache with a minimum xp level needed just like SRTT. Superpower upgrades are either bought with clusters or unlocked through completing special saints book style challenges.

No flushing out of hitman targets like sr/sr2. Sometimes there are multiple decoys though.

The control is tight enough where you can land on alien flying vehicles and enter them; even the small hoverbikes.

Jane Valderama has the same voice actress and is still absolutely hilarious.

The footage you saw was b-roll footage that Deep Silver supplied to the press to use in their reviews. The dubstep gun itself was not in the preview build to play with.

I think people who are dissing the game will have a big wakeup call when it's released, especially the fans of the original SR/SR2. In addition to be being an amazing fun game on its own, it also honors the past and the gangsta stuff and is more of a true sequel than SRTT was. Hard to believe, I know. I wouldn't believe it either if I hadn't played through the entire game myself.


Awesome. Good to know that it's not going to be SRTT all over again. When I first played the third, I thought it was a brilliant game... then I calmed down enough to see that 3rd took a lot of step back when I went back to playing SR2. So I guess the whole thing about game packing shitload of content in the openworld that Steve Jaros often talked about in the interviews is NOT bullshit?

Also, what is this super cool mod-related announcement that V is going to do that you mentioned on twitter? I know you're not going to say it but any idea when we can expect it?

PS: regarding the French voice actress... I kinda vaguely remember there was this French chick in one of the Septic Avengers activity in SR2... Could they be the same voice actress?
 
Much agreed on your final thoughts man. My hype train is through the roof now.

Funny thing about your article is I was just bitching on the official forums about how the activities were like...'Race, Genki MoM, four variations of Mayhem' and said that they probably could have trimmed it down to regular Mayhem and Tank Mayhem, and then put in a fight club with super powers. Imagine my surprise when mere hours later you say there IS an activity like that in the final version!

I really do hope we're able to mod in toggles for the super powers (In general), dual-wield, and superpower abilities. Not workarounds like Sandbox+ but actual toggles. Seems like I'd enjoy that Tornado bit but like you said there are some issues with having it on. Also glad to hear that Glide is now integrated with Super Jump...so now we have a fourth hidden power to look forward to. Part of the DLC perhaps?

Love the new clarification on elements. Wonder how the Mind Control blast works...weird. I gotta say I hope someone mods in a simple Force Blast, or it's part of the EtD DLC. The old Fus Ro Dah is simple, but still remains funny to this day.

You didn't mention anything about the vehicle theft sidequests, so nothing new to report from your initial article then? Speaking of the Venom Classic, I mentioned to you in the other topic that you get it as a gang car in one of the older games? Well, turns out I was wrong, it was the Venom, not the Venom Classic, that you get in Saints Row 1 as Johnny Gat's car, that's why I got confused.

Now if you'll excuse me I have to go rein in my hype so I don't die of an awesome-induced aneurysm before August 20th..... My birthday is August 2nd, think Volition would hand me a preview build around then? XP Nah, I kid, I kid.
 
So I guess the whole thing about game packing shitload of content in the openworld that Steve Jaros often talked about in the interviews is NOT bullshit?

Also, what is this super cool mod-related announcement that V is going to do that you mentioned on twitter? I know you're not going to say it but any idea when we can expect it?

PS: regarding the French voice actress... I kinda vaguely remember there was this French chick in one of the Septic Avengers activity in SR2... Could they be the same voice actress?

Steve Jaros is a straight up g. If you can trust anyone it's him.

Patience, Daniel-san. We're working through some stuff first.

It sounds exactly like the girl from SR2 Septic Avenger.

Much agreed on your final thoughts man. My hype train is through the roof now.
You didn't mention anything about the vehicle theft sidequests, so nothing new to report from your initial article then?

Nothing new. Awesome rewards make them all worth doing for unique vehicles, including the Rattler.
 
The first rule about Super-Powered Fight Club is that you don't... you know the drill. Seriously though, I can't talk about it since I'm still under NDA for the LA trip and that activity was only in the press preview menu and not the game itself.

Unlocks for the player are bought with cache with a minimum xp level needed just like SRTT. Superpower upgrades are either bought with clusters or unlocked through completing special saints book style challenges.

No flushing out of hitman targets like sr/sr2. Sometimes there are multiple decoys though.

The control is tight enough where you can land on alien flying vehicles and enter them; even the small hoverbikes.

Jane Valderama has the same voice actress and is still absolutely hilarious.

The footage you saw was b-roll footage that Deep Silver supplied to the press to use in their reviews. The dubstep gun itself was not in the preview build to play with.

I think people who are dissing the game will have a big wakeup call when it's released, especially the fans of the original SR/SR2. In addition to be being an amazing fun game on its own, it also honors the past and the gangsta stuff and is more of a true sequel than SRTT was. Hard to believe, I know. I wouldn't believe it either if I hadn't played through the entire game myself.

I'm glad they are bringing back a lot of content.

More toward the the last paragraph. Honestly can you blame them. SR3 was a big misstep for a lot of the Sr/SR2 fans which seemed to be a smack in the face in terms of content and story. So I can see how a lot of fans are down playing this game or not buying it day 1. Myself I'll wait a while and see what others day about this game because I'm still not sure about it. I guess personally its weird to see super powers in a game that had gangs in the previous 3, but that's just me. Hopefully SR4 does okay enough to make a SR5 and possible make a happy medium for SR/SR2 fans and SR3/SR4 fans.
 
The Virus Injections sound AWESOME, but I'm guessing like with SRTT's Survival, it's not unlimited, and will go away after completing about 25. Sucks. I also hope these glitched out areas actually do happen when free roaming causally.
 
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