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Saint's Row was always better than GTA but lost its way

SolVanderlyn

SolVanderlyn

Thanos acquires the fully powered Infinity Gauntlet in The Avengers: Infinity War, but loses when all the superheroes team up together to stop him.
Saint's Row 2 was the perfect GTA game.

Gripping story and characters you care about. Satirical and funny but still down to earth enough to make you care.

Character, base, and follower customization.

The tried and true GTA formula refined.

SR3 was decent, but you could tell by that point that Volition was deliberately trying to jump the shark. SR4 was total crazy town. I loved the whole Ultor Corp., traitor Dex, Saint's Leader slowly turning to the dark side story. They fully embraced the silly side of the series and I think that, in the end, it was much worse off for it. And GTA V did not deliver on being better than SR2.

I enjoyed the funny segments of SR3 and SR4, but they felt more like weird spinoffs to me. I wish the series stayed more level.

Thoughts?
 
Corpsepyre

Corpsepyre

Banned
Yeah, no. Only GTA is better than GTA.

And Saints Row 4 is one of the best games I've played. Pure unadulterated fun.
 
eXistor

eXistor

Member
They used to be a poor man's GTA until SR3. With 3 they finally embraced the craziness and went all-out with it and it worked to a tee. They finally had an identity. They threw it all away with IV though, which was just...just terrible, it felt like a shitty expansion streched out to a full game. What a waste.
 
D

dskillzhtown

keep your strippers out of my American football
SR3 and 4 went completely off the rails and in the process became totally forgettable, kinda like Police Academy sequels.
 
D

Data West

coaches in the WNBA
SR2 is great but I've never htought of it was better than GTA.

SR2 is the only one in the franchise I'd consider truly great and that's not counting its numerous flaws and technical issues and I was a bigger supporter of SR1 than most people.
 
milkham

milkham

Member
the craziness of sr3 and 4 was the only reason i played them, I put down GTA games with vice city and never went back.
 
J

joms5

Member
SolVanderlyn said:
Saint's Row 2 was the perfect GTA game.

Gripping story and characters you care about. Satirical and funny but still down to earth enough to make you care.

Character, base, and follower customization.

The tried and true GTA formula refined.

SR3 was decent, but you could tell by that point that Volition was deliberately trying to jump the shark. SR4 was total crazy town. I loved the whole Ultor Corp., traitor Dex, Saint's Leader slowly turning to the dark side story. They fully embraced the silly side of the series and I think that, in the end, it was much worse off for it. And GTA V did not deliver on being better than SR2.

I enjoyed the funny segments of SR3 and SR4, but they felt more like weird spinoffs to me. I wish the series stayed more level.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

What?!

Good lord, all of those things you mentioned are much worse off in Saints Row. Especially the second game. The story is nonsense. Characters are all caricatures with the humor being of the lowest common denominator. Never did I care for one character in that game. It was all just fluff on a game that was fun to cause chaos in.

Even the city was poorly designed. I enjoy the games but I don't go to them for story or characters (even though by Saints Row 3 the characters are "starting" to grow on me).

But glad you like it OP. Huge step up from Saints Row 1.
 
T

TheAdmiester

Member
SR2s craziness and amazing depth was the closest they've ever came to beating GTA. It was an absolutely amazing game and I still play it now. The first game is great too but 2 is where it all took off.

It's just a shame that 3 and 4 went and ruined everything they strived for with 2. The franchise is dead to me now.
 
C

CecilRousso

Member
Didn't play SR2, but SR3 was pretty mediocre in every way - shooting, driving, city design, mission design, characters, story and so on. If the humour didn't click with you, there really wasn't much reason left to keep playing.
 
C

Conkerkid11

Member
Doesn't that thread title contradict itself? So Saint's Row had like one solid game to compete with GTA, and then it turned into an open world Superhero game.

Saint's Row was maybe slightly beneath GTA for one game in the franchise, and then massively dipped in quality after that. I don't see that as "always" or "better".
 
D

Data West

coaches in the WNBA
joms5 said:
Even the city was poorly designed. I enjoy the games but I don't go to them for story or characters (even though by Saints Row 3 the characters are "starting" to grow on me).
Click to expand...

Compared to other open world games, yes.

Compared to Steelport? Absolutely not. Stillwater is the closest they got to making something that even vaguely resembled a city and not a collection of random buildings with no consistency or themes other than 'kind of port city'.
 
A

AWizardDidIt

Member
Saints Row 2 was something of a spiritual successor of San Andreas and if you wanted more of that then SR2 was pretty solid.

I prefer SR3 and 4 for their stronger identity, humor, and how they played with genre conventions (to the point that 4 isn't even the same genre as GTA). But I get why people might want more San Andreas.
 
O

opricnik

Banned
I have yet to see a open world game better then any Rockstar games.

Sleeping Dogs, Just Cause, Mercenaries,Yakuza,Shenmue(if counts),Saints Row list goes on.

They may exceed some features better but in overall package they all lack most things.
 
N

nachum00

Member
SR2 is the only good game in the franchise. And it came out at the right time. GTA4 had just come out and was God awful. The Housers were so far up their own asses that SR2 was a much needed breath of fresh air.

But the series went sour fast.
 
C

chrominance

Member
I think Volition took the most obvious option open to them when it came to competing with GTA, which was simply to... not. I like 2, 3 and 4 pretty much equally, and can appreciate that they all try to do different things. But though I think keeping the tone and narrative focus of Saints Row 2 would've made for some pretty good games, I think it's also likely the franchise would never have been able to get out from under GTA's shadow.

I know there are tons of people that don't like SR3 and SR4, and that's fine; as someone who likes what the franchise ultimately became, and knows there are many people who feel the same, I think it was the right choice. It's probably the reason we're still talking about it now, as opposed to the franchise becoming yet another dead cult classic that never gets a second shot (hello Sleeping Dogs).
 
A

Adam_Vania

Banned
i got into SRIV after trying GTAIV and giving up because it was no fun. SRIV was so great i beat it twice.

went back to play SR3. it was okay. not as good as IV.

never been able to play SR2, it's broken on PC.
 
B

Baron Von Beans

Member
Like some have said, other games have certain features or gameplay elements that are fantastic. Some of them I feel should be a staple in GTA style games (cruise control...!!!), but as a whole package, those games don't even come close to the package that GTA delivers
 
D

Data West

coaches in the WNBA
opricnik said:
I have yet to see a open world game better then any Rockstar games.

Sleeping Dogs, Just Cause, Mercenaries,Yakuza,Shenmue(if counts),Saints Row list goes on.

They may exceed some features better but in overall package they all lack most things.
Click to expand...

WD2's open world is very good. Ubisoft, one of the worst, has been getting better with their worlds. Syndicate was pretty choice as well.

note: I'm just referring to the city itself and its interactivity and AI. I still think GTA 5's is probably the best though.
 
B

Big_Al

Unconfirmed Member
Overall tbe GTA series is still better but I absolutely adore Saints Row 2. I fucking love that game and would prefer it over at least GTA 4. Saints Row 2s story and characters were great and I absolutely love it's pitch black sense of humour. Something that I thought 3 and 4 really missed. Saints Row 2 for me found SRs voice and then lost it with 3.
 
B

benzopil

Member
SR2 was so amazing that Rockstar even borrowed a couple missions from it for GTA V.

"Blowing up the Trailer Park" was just a copy/paste, even location looked the same
 
B

bobbychalkers

Member
Saints Row 2 is one of my favorite games ever and I'd put it above nearly every other city crime sandbox game. With that said, GTA is a much more consistent series in terms of quality.
 
MrS

MrS

Banned
Saints Row is lame and GTA peaked at 3. GTA V was a shitshow and took itself too seriously, as did IV, but GTA is still a better franchise than SR imo. GTA has more classics.
 
O

opricnik

Banned
Data West said:
WD2's open world is very good. Ubisoft, one of the worst, has been getting better with their worlds. Syndicate was pretty choice as well.

note: I'm just referring to the city itself and its interactivity and AI. I still think GTA 5's is probably the best though.
Click to expand...

Yet to play WD2 but Syndicate felt most boring Asssasins creed game to me. A
 
K

Kinyou

Member
I couldn't get into Saints Row 2 at all. Always felt like a low budget GTA. The departure that 3 & 4 took was very welcome to me.
 
Demoskinos

Demoskinos

Member
Saints Row 3 was the pinnacle of the series IMO. 4 was good but I think it had some design issues. Although boy did it have some really good bits.
 
Plumpbiscuit

Plumpbiscuit

Member
I always preferred Saints Row to GTA, even to this day. SRIV is my favourite one, followed by SR2. GTA tries to emulate realism but in an exaggerated manner, whilst SR2 is b-movie whacky-whacky and has comedy in it. Not to mention its powerful character creator was totally a game changer for me for modern era open world games.
 
S

shoreu

Member
Saints row was like an extension of San Andreas for a lot of black folks I knew. But then they abandoned us for all that cooky shit and lost us they'll never get a dime from me with games like SR4
 
D

Dabanton

Member
I don't think it was 'better' than GTA it had more wacky things to do vs GTAIV.

Although SR2 was the last actually good game in the series in terms of what it was supposed to be about low level street gangs. But the main problem with them is the cities are just not fun to explore, which is why GTA will always be superior imo.

The research R* put into stuff like building types and how different neighborhoods look different down to character models is insane. And I suppose making it fairly close to real cities makes it feel 'real' rather than somewhere that things are plonked down with no rhyme or reason.

After that SR2 the games turned into a jack of all trades game and not particularly good at any of them at least Volition games have finally broken off the superhero stuff to it's own game which needed to happen about 2 games ago.

I'd love to see a SR reboot.
 
Roufianos

Roufianos

Member
I enjoyed the original Saints Row a lot more than GTA IV, that's for sure.

Doesn't come close to V though.

It's really a shame what that series has become.
 
J

jrush64

Banned
Saints Row 3 game play with Saints Row 2 story and tone would have been perfect. Saints Row 3 and 4 overdid the silliness.

GTA 5 blows all all of them away... except the story. Saints Row 2 was still superior.
 
Z

Zaru

Member
I didn't expect them to turn Saints Row into a superhero game but they actually did it with 4. And I loved every second of it (and Gat's expansion)
 
H

Hoo-doo

Banned
benzopil said:
SR2 was so amazing that Rockstar even borrowed a couple missions from it for GTA V.

"Blowing up the Trailer Park" was just a copy/paste, even location looked the same
Click to expand...

Meanwhile the entirety of Saint's Row is basically lifted 1:1 from the mold that GTA created, so this really isn't as meaningful as you think it is.
 
U

UrbanRats

Member
2 was the peak, but 3 was pretty good still.
4 was too much nonsense, and the gameplay was just not very fun after a while.

Some of the missions were cute though, like the They Live one.
 
S

Sulik2

Member
Saints Row 3 was a top 5 game of last gen. The funniest game I've ever played and one of the best open world games ever made. You are crazy if you think SR lost its way. SR4 wasn't as good, but its the actual sequel to Crackdown in my heart, still had great open world gameplay and was still pretty hilarious in its own right.
 
LordRaptor

LordRaptor

Member
I actually feel GTA lost its way, probably around San Andreas, and started taking itself more seriously than it deserves and its satirical undertones becoming clumsier and less pointed.
 
M

MisterShine

Member
Saint's Row 1 - A bad GTA knock-off

Saint's Row 2 - A good GTA knock-off

Saint's Row 3 - A good Saint's Row game

Saint's Row 4 - The best superhero game ever made


I'm glad they decided to leave GTA behind and become more their own thing.
 
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