In defense of Saints Row 4s story

So. Saints Row 4. I make no secret I love this game.
I spent hundreds of hours dicking about in the open world. But I never fully played through the story again until just recently. The common criticism is that 4 is incapable of showing drama and that quote "Saints Row 2 has had the perfect Balance of seriousness and comedy." While it is true SR4 has far more moments devoted to comedy and parody, one moment stood out to me as a counter argument. and while the drama and seriousness is less frequent... quantity was NOT the intent. This one, singular moment was all the game needed. And there was no possible way it could have been done while Saints Row was still semi-grounded in the real world. And it was happening in what appeared to have been a VERY affectionate parody.

Johnny Gat. In recent years, people seemed to be split on him being brought back in 4. People tend to write off a fan favorite being brought back as catering to the fanbase that was lost in said characters death. While, admittedly, a reason for this was fanservice, really think about how he was brought back. Zinyak abducted him and placed him in one of many nightmare prisons to break him. Only this particular simulation was far more sadistic than the others seen.

for those of you too young to remember, Johnny Gat was in a very good relationship with a woman named Aisha. about one of the few people outside his gang he cared about. she met her end, right in front of gats eyes, at the hands of the ronin.

now, cut to the time johnny was abducted moments before he would have died at the hands of the syndicate. Zinyak has put him in, what appears to be a re-creation of his moments with aisha throughout the first two games. this always goes the same way: gat is given the chance to save her from jyunichis blade. but every time, EVERY. TIME. he always arrives just seconds too late. and then the simulation resets. this goes on for years and years until the boss was able to rescue him. the boss shows a very rare moment where he/she isn't a snarky jerkass or sociopath and consoles their best friend.

and even when the boss saves him from his virtual hell, zinyaks damage to him has already been done.
how do I know this? well, audio logs are found throughout the open world, fleshing out characters. Gat is shown talking about different things about him and the boss. then he mentions Aisha. the very mention of Aisha causes him to break down. That's right. the one everyone thought was an invincible baddass incapable of emoting beyond "snarky jackass," the one so powerful he could have ended zinyaks reign, is still human. with psychological trauma that will probably never heal.

this one moment more than meets the quota for drama this game has. and this was a simulation. or hell, could have been thought of as an afterlife for gat. because everyone thought he was dead. and, if not for zinyak invading earth, he might have had to endure zinyaks torture for far, far longer.
 
Although Saints Row IV is my least favorite Saints Row game, I do like the fact it brought Johnny Gat back. And Fun Shaundi too! :D
they also brought him back in a very smart way.
 
they also brought him back in a very smart way.
I agree. They really built up and then maintained the suspense. Actually, my favorite part of SR4 is the campaign. The open world is boring as hell because it's just a copy of SR3 with all the fun stuff removed. I do like Pleasantville, though, and the awesome North Pole in the Christmas DLC.
 
SR4 is probably the "weakest" game of all. I must admit, when i first played the game, i was excited to see a new world, but uh-oh, the sandbox was just a downgraded version of steelport. Maybe this is why people dislikes it. because most of the game is a copy paste from SR3.

However, what caught me into the game was its campaign, the history, the goofynes, superpowers, culture pop references, (I almost peed my self with that execute order 66 line). The simulation for each character is just amazing and how we get to know them better by looking at their past, how they interact with each other, its really well done. XMAS dlc is amazing, and ETD is just hillarious. But, the most amazing part of the game: Zyniak.

Is SR4 a bad game? IMO, no. It could have done better? Yes. They can say what they want about this game, i may agree with some arguments, prob no with other. But what im sure of, is that Ill prob never get bored of this game.
 
SR4 is probably the "weakest" game of all. I must admit, when i first played the game, i was excited to see a new world, but uh-oh, the sandbox was just a downgraded version of steelport. Maybe this is why people dislikes it. because most of the game is a copy paste from SR3.

However, what caught me into the game was its campaign, the history, the goofynes, superpowers, culture pop references, (I almost peed my self with that execute order 66 line). The simulation for each character is just amazing and how we get to know them better by looking at their past, how they interact with each other, its really well done. XMAS dlc is amazing, and ETD is just hillarious. But, the most amazing part of the game: Zyniak.

Is SR4 a bad game? IMO, no. It could have done better? Yes. They can say what they want about this game, i may agree with some arguments, prob no with other. But what im sure of, is that Ill prob never get bored of this game.
really the worst part of the game IS the recycled steelport.
i mean, steelport was fairly bland in sr3, bringing it back and adding nothing new other than admittedly funny propaganda edits of billboards and stuff was not a very bright move. i mean, the superpowers lessen the blandness, as you are moving far too fast to really care, but still.
literally the recycled steelport is the only legitimately BAD thing i can see with sr4. the vehicles, while pointless, are still as fun as ever to drive about, take to rim jobs, and trick them out.
the sheer amount of options you have in the open world, useful or not, are really fun to use.
the story itself is a LOT stronger than the sr2 purists can swear by. in fact, gat out of hell itself is great when you realize it is JUST a bit of dlc (GOH is a standalone expansion...similar to what sr4 was originally supposed to be) meant to tide people over til whatever volition was planning for saints row. i mean, people saying sr4 should have remained an expansion to sr3 sure are sounding...rather hypocritical in hating gat out of hell. id argue gat out of hell itself could have easily been its own game. maybe have the boss be freed halfway through to really open up the customization options in hells stores.
sucks that well prolly never get an sr5 now. it's been years, and the sr2 purists fail to realize they might have actually killed their beloved franchise.
 
really the worst part of the game IS the recycled steelport.
I guess that's the main reason it's my least favorite. For me, the open world is the most important aspect of an open-world game's longevity. I think other people don't have the same priorities, so they have different opinions of the game. I agree the campaign was fun, but once it's over, there needs to be something to maintain my interest. In that regard, I find the older Saints Row games more interesting.

I will say, I enjoyed the SR4 campaign much more than Agents of Mayhem, even though I do like the original AOM open world.
 
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For me if you cap the Imagination, you lower how many new things you can add, what Source Material you can draw from and mostly end-up saturating the market cause your IP == Someone else's IP (If you make a Apocalypse game in Past vs Future).
Their maybe no such thing as a New Idea, but that shouldn't stop people from going beyond what has already been done + do what is tried & true like Red Faction.

Yes, you can stay closer to the ground & still be realistic like how Rockstar used Drugs in order to be like the Saints Row Series...I think SR should stick closer Gangsters, Customization & Technology/GremlinTECH/Gadgets-based Powers like Suits/Sub-Weapons that get a dedicated Menu/Key like SR4Power (Even though its Simulation so technically they are being realistic...now that I think about it) & Angelic/Demon Based Powers (GOOH is like SR4 too...they are both like Simulations...funny though Gat's is more real than the Boss's) when they bring SR back into the Real World.

Volition was smart to make SR focus on Gangsters...it was like they saw 10 years into the Future of how people were going to be upset at GTA4 & GTA5's lack of Gangs. Now though as someone said it also all most feels like THQ or Volition got bought by Rockstar to slowdown the series from beating GTA (Look at the Time Volition could have released a SR game while GTA wasn't coming out).
 
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Now though as someone said it also all most feels like THQ or Volition got bought by Rockstar to slowdown the series from beating GTA (Look at the Time Volition could have released a SR game while GTA wasn't coming out).
I know. I remember when I first played Saints Row, it had all the things I liked about GTA but it was so much better because it had customization and gangs and good stories and lovable characters and over-the-top humor. I'm not a GTA fan but I do love their open world. But I became a SR fan because it had the great open world PLUS all those other things. SR2 was just better than GTA, and it had all the potential to just keep out-doing GTA. But then they took the over-the-top thing too far, and lost the GTA thing, and it just wasn't as fun anymore.

They need to concentrate on making the open world fun again, like it was is the older games. Once you have a great open world with lots of things to do, you have something to build upon like GTA did. If you start with a fairly boring open world, it becomes a dead end. Superpowers by themselves don't make the open world fun. That's something that can be added to a game later. They just need a great open world to build on.

That's why I mod SR3 but I don't really have an interest in modding the later games. The open world in the later games are just less interesting to me.
 
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That's why I mod SR3 but I don't really have an interest in modding the later games. The open world in the later games are just less interesting to me.

I cant agree more, i wish there was a workshop version of SR3. I have been wanting to port some of my mods from SR4, but i just havent succed. :(
 
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