• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

With the decline of Saints Row and Just Cause, does that mean we'll never have a "major" alternative to GTA?

The Alien

Banned
Saints Row?

...is that the franchise for pre-teen wanna-be bad boys too fueled up on Mountain Dew and acne meds to convince their moms to get them GTA?

Thought so.
 

VN1X

Banned
I think GTA is great when it comes to the characters and writing but the gameplay is a fucking slog. I returned GTA4 and despite hoping its sequel would be better I couldn't be bothered to finish GTA5 either. Saints Row and others are where it's at for me. They are far less ambitious when it comes to the overall scope, simulation, etc but they play so much better.

Really wish we could get a Saints Row 1 & 2 remaster (or dare I say, remake).
 
Last edited:

Tschumi

Member
Yakuza fans be like:

Say What Saturday Night Live GIF
 

NickFire

Member
I think a significant issue would be getting something controversial enough to compete greenlit by a company with the resources. If that can be successfully navigated, I think there is room for an alternative as long as they get the game in people's hands before Part VI is on the horizon. But trying to compete on scale from day 1 would probably lead to a flop from trying to do too much and ending up with a lot of mediocre. If a competitor could start with a smaller map and really nail the mechanics, they could use the revenue to keep building out. Difficult, but possible.
 

cormack12

Gold Member
GTA is its own thing. I think it's showing it's age now with shitty jpegs on buildings instead of actual interiors. Chicago in WD1 had potential. San Fran was worn out by the time I got to WD2.

I did consider loading up SR3 Remastered as I've never played one but looks a bit cartoony?? JC4 is on gamepass and i think I played it at an expo when it came out but not completely sold on it.
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
Considering how long it's been since we got a new GTA I'm not even sure about the viability of the genre. I mean we got RDR2 and it was successful but in general there hasn't been much good content in this space in years besides Rockstar titles.
 

Rikkori

Member
They're full steam ahead working on SR 5 so we'll get that. Hopefully they'll have learned their lessons from the failure of Agents of Mayhem & will have seen the enduring popularity of the old formula with SR3 Remastered.

Tbh I don't really get the appeal of the "GTA systems" like police/wanted, even in GTA I found them to be really boring and never really engage with them past the time I tried cheat mass-spawning police in GTA 3 (which would always crash the PC within the minute). After that - meh, they're just lame. None of the games really have strong enough emergent gameplay possibilities for that to be a major draw.

Besides that what else is the appeal? For an open world game - decent writing, well scripted missions and overall a lot of freedom to explore & stay in the world. All hallmarks of every AAA open world game that's released. The satire edge that GTA had has certainly disappeared already in 5, so besides its cult status as a series I don't see the big appeal of it anymore tbh, at least in SP. Not that it matters, they're gonna MTX the shit out of it and focus on MP for GTA VI anyway, so old GTA is dead regardless.
 
Absolutely loved SR2, only played SR3 a little but I liked it.

Couldn't say how many hours I wasted just luring the police into an area I controlled so as soon as I started fighting them, all of the ai saints would start attacking them too. Just endless dumb fun.
 

rodrigolfp

Haptic Gamepads 4 Life
Good thing we don´t have a GTA competitor also with that annoying gameplay with animation priority... :messenger_winking_tongue:
 
Last edited:

Mithos

Member
I'd love a remake of SR2. (keeping the style it has but up to date, not the SR3 anime/cartoon style)
 
Last edited:

whyman

Member
Just Cause 3 was the best Just Cause game. 4 was the worst by far. 5 will be awesome. Nothing to worry about.
 
All Gta clones iv played
Just cause was good 1 and 2 were excellent 3 had performance issues but was very unique with the wing suit never played 4
Saints row 1 and 2 were solid 3 is really good 4 was suppose to be dlc i would say there way better in the mayham department then gta since gang actually attack dynamically.
Saints Gat was the gat in hell dlc really fun expansion kinda explains why he wasnt in 3 mayham i never played but here a good video that sums it up Saints row doesnt exist because of thq



sleeping dogs is good pretty much the last of the true crime games were never getting a sequel because of activision holding the licenses hostage anyone asking for 2 your never getting it

Mercinaries 2 world in flames and the saboteur are solid



mafia games are also pretty good 3 has better gun play then 1 and 2


You could put cyberpunk 2077 in this list but it leans way more on the immersive sim aspect then just mayham


we could have multiple open world sandbox type games but it seems like most people just want gta and thats it and to that I saw keep playing gta online with griefers and shark cards and expect gta6 to be either online only or be very heavily tied to online play.
 

NullZ3r0

Banned
The development effort of a game as expansive as the GTA series requires a significant investment that requires very large sales to recoup. It's too risky for most publishers.
 
The development effort of a game as expansive as the GTA series requires a significant investment that requires very large sales to recoup. It's too risky for most publishers.

dingdingdingding

Plus, it takes even Rockstar, who is the best at this, an eternity and the GDP of a small country to develop these games.
 

Verchod

Member
Why do you need one. I don't see the point of copying for the sake of it. Saints Row always felt like a cheap knock off, and Just Cause isn't the same type of game other than open world. This is the mistake Ubisoft made with the Watch Dog games, adding pointless gameplay elements that mimic GTA but aren't needed in an action game about hacking.
There are many games that have large open worlds but it doesn't mean they're the same genre. Many RPGs are open world but they're not competing with GTA.
 

LOLCats

Banned
where you get those numbers? i feel like saints row 3 and 4 have sold wwaaaaay more than you noted.
 
Last edited:

ItsTheNew

I believe any game made before 1997 is "essentially cave man art."
Why do you need one. I don't see the point of copying for the sake of it. Saints Row always felt like a cheap knock off, and Just Cause isn't the same type of game other than open world. This is the mistake Ubisoft made with the Watch Dog games, adding pointless gameplay elements that mimic GTA but aren't needed in an action game about hacking.
There are many games that have large open worlds but it doesn't mean they're the same genre. Many RPGs are open world but they're not competing with GTA.
I was going to give you a real response but c'mon, think.
Did they stop writing dramas and comedies after Shakespeare dropped ? No. People like choices and those choices cater to different tastes.
 
Woops, sorry, wrong title.

It was this one:

60813-driver-parallel-lines-playstation-2-front-cover.jpg


Here's some gameplay:



So yeah, that one.

You're still not doing anything outside the car.

lol it's as much gta as phantom pain
Punished CJ Johnson

It was actually not bad at all if i recall correctly from when I played it.

It was a good enough of a wannable GTA clone, but obviously much more barebones based on the series trademark of being more vehicular focused.

But I guess they just gave up trying to compete against Rockstar and did their own thing, Assassin's Creed and Watch Dogs.
They only had one GTA clone parallel lines is nothing like GTA. Only Driv3r.
They're full steam ahead working on SR 5 so we'll get that. Hopefully they'll have learned their lessons from the failure of Agents of Mayhem & will have seen the enduring popularity of the old formula with SR3 Remastered.

Tbh I don't really get the appeal of the "GTA systems" like police/wanted, even in GTA I found them to be really boring and never really engage with them past the time I tried cheat mass-spawning police in GTA 3 (which would always crash the PC within the minute). After that - meh, they're just lame. None of the games really have strong enough emergent gameplay possibilities for that to be a major draw.

Besides that what else is the appeal? For an open world game - decent writing, well scripted missions and overall a lot of freedom to explore & stay in the world. All hallmarks of every AAA open world game that's released. The satire edge that GTA had has certainly disappeared already in 5, so besides its cult status as a series I don't see the big appeal of it anymore tbh, at least in SP. Not that it matters, they're gonna MTX the shit out of it and focus on MP for GTA VI anyway, so old GTA is dead regardless.
SR3 isn't the old fouls though.

The development effort of a game as expansive as the GTA series requires a significant investment that requires very large sales to recoup. It's too risky for most publishers.
That was true pre GTAV but guys still tried. Once you put out a good game you can build things up with sequels.

Just Cause 3 was the best Just Cause game. 4 was the worst by far. 5 will be awesome. Nothing to worry about.
The series and Studio are both dead.
 

coffinbirth

Member
You're still not doing anything outside the car.


Punished CJ Johnson


They only had one GTA clone parallel lines is nothing like GTA. Only Driv3r.

SR3 isn't the old fouls though.


That was true pre GTAV but guys still tried. Once you put out a good game you can build things up with sequels.


The series and Studio are both dead.
Parallel Lines had on foot sections and gunplay, it was basically a better Driv3r.
 

coffinbirth

Member
IMO, the best GTA clones were Scarface, Sleeping Dogs, and SR 3.
I also thought Mad Max was the best Just Cause game, haha.
 

coffinbirth

Member
Werent those just a few segmented sections and you didn't have complete access to the world on foot?
Not that I recall...it's been a long time, mind you, but I'm pretty sure you can traverse the entire map on foot if so desired. I mean, you were able to run around in ALL the Driver games except for the 1st one and SF. Not counting the mobile games, never played those.
 
Not that I recall...it's been a long time, mind you, but I'm pretty sure you can traverse the entire map on foot if so desired. I mean, you were able to run around in ALL the Driver games except for the 1st one and SF. Not counting the mobile games, never played those.
Yeah but most Driver games you barely did anything on foot.
 
J

JeremyEtcetera

Unconfirmed Member
GTA is so far away in market share that any competition becomes a niche game basically. Only Rockstar can destroy GTA.
They already are. GTA V being released on 3 generations of consoles and them focusing on multiplayer-only is slowly killing the single player franchise.
 
GTA V being released on 3 generations of consoles and them focusing on multiplayer-only is slowly killing the single player franchise.
Well, Online is strong enough to carry on the community and there is no similar game in multiplayer genre. I think most of the sales are coming from the purchases for multiplayer component of the game.
 
Last edited:

KungFucius

King Snowflake
Saints Row is not really a GTA clone. I like how it got more and more absurd, but I think they ran out of ideas. It was nice to play a series that was similar but different each outing. There really should have been a proper GTA clone because there hasn't been a new GTA in over a gen.
 
Top Bottom