Saints Row 4

[Fiach]

Came out yesterday so only have a few hours in it, same saints row as in the previous games, either you love it or hate it, but now its been taken a stage further where you have super powers, which kinda renders the cars a bit pointless, but, when you can leap tall buildings in a single bound and run faster than a ferrari, it's totally forgivable.

I played a MMO a number of years ago called City of Heroes/Villains, the game was great in the superpowers and combat department, but the missions were all cut and paste versions of a couple of different warehouse layouts, SR4 has brought the good and totally fixed what was bad about that game and made a whole city your playground.

The nearest I could compare it to console-wise would be Crackdown, but with a decent storyline, more humour, with another ton of humour dumped on top of that for good  measure. From the character creation mode with hair do's like Croydon Facelift, and lots of nod's to pop culture from the 50's themed intro to the scifi outro, its got a lot of heart going on in it.

Fiach : Leaping tall buildings and giggling like a little schoolgirl, so you dont have to.

[Art Blade]

nice. :)

I am very tempted to try it, haven't yet played any of the SR games.

[PZ]

lol, I always look forward to your signature lines, Fiach  :-X

[Art Blade]

yep, I like to read those, too  :)

[Binnatics]

I'm also tempted by the game, same as Saint's Row the Third. It was on steam sale for almost nothing during summer sales, maybe 4 euros. I didn't get it because I wouldn't have time to play it. Now it's practically the same. Lookinf forward to more of your comments, and, indeed, the signature lines :) :-X

[Art Blade]

Having played through SR3 a couple of times and utterly enjoyed both SP and coop it became clear we couldn't wait any longer and now here we are. Stiku, Binnatics and I have purchased SR4 today (more or less) and we're up for more insane laughing-riddled gaming madness  :-D

[smg id=6523 type=preview align=center caption="infidels"]

[Stiku]

Forecast for the next few days seems to be Saints Row 4.
Well, time to warm up the HDD and get some videos going.

[Art Blade]

hehehe  :-D

[Art Blade]

yep, I'm having fun, game is taking place in Steelport again, same map layout, different designs. I was immediately at home :)

And of course, character customisation is again a nice feature of this game.

[smg id=6524 type=preview align=center caption="first SR4 avatar"]

[Stiku]

Just put out a video of the first mission if anyones interested in.
Maybe ill put some more videos out, when I get into the same game as Art.

Spoiler

Saints Row 4 : First mission.

[Art Blade]

nice :) +1  :-X

hehe, the steam message pop-up from Uzi <a friend of ours> in the beginning 

[Stiku]

nice :) +1  :-X

hehe, the steam message pop-up from Uzi <a friend of ours> in the beginning 

Without cutting the video there was like 6 of them.

[Art Blade]

Alright, I'm a little into the game now. At first it was confusing what to do (how to get money and so forth) but after a while of trying out some of the new stuff like weapons, cars, clothes, fights.. I am now a bit into activities and missions. The whole thing is a mixture of the film Matrix (the first one), Tron (well, both the old and the new one) and The 13th Floor. Basically aliens invade Steelport and capture you so they can put you into a virtual reality remake of Steelport (the town or map known from the previous game) and you achieve "super powers" just like in Matrix because it is all a computer simulation and rules can be bent and changed. You get that type of help from the computer nerd girly from the last game, she changes some code snippets and enhances your abilities. Basically she is modding you and you're cheating.  :-D

[smg id=6526 type=preview align=center caption="no problem"]

Like that, I can now jump up a house or run up a wall of a house and stuff like that which is fun because once on top of a house you keep seeing collectibles (some blue-white spheres needed for more upgrades) that can only be reached by bouncing around like a squash ball.  :-D

This game is CRAZY 

[smg id=6525 type=preview align=center caption="jumping around"]

[Art Blade]

It goes on with just two keys, let's call them "J" for jumping and "B" for (turbo) boosts, again let's just call it that, it is one key used for nitro in cars, running rather than walking when on foot and so on, I can now jump so fricking high, then glide, hit a wall but walk up the building and jump off again, glide some more in or rather on mid-air.. it is brilliant.  :-D

You actually need those abilities. Look at the city (a NY lookalike) down there!
[smg id=6527 type=preview align=center caption="really no problem"]

Upgrading those super powers also change melee combat. I can now knock over a car and when I hit someone, he explodes like pressurised tomato ketchup  (the effect looks like the one of the melee weapon "Apoka-fist" in SR3)

And there are races that require speed and jumping. Fun!  :-()
[smg id=6528 type=preview align=center caption="golden girl"]

[Art Blade]

The game also uses elements of Mortal Combat and Highlander. Kind of funny, while playing I was constantly reminded of different films and sometimes games. While playing I thought, the devs must have had a brainstorming meeting and the kick-start phrase must have been something along the lines of, "what are your favourite games and films, the best scenes and parts, throw them in and we'll try to patch them together and create one massive game out of it."  :)

Here is the training ground just like in Matrix and the weapon is an energy ball forming in your hands and tossed at the enemy which freezes and locks them in place so you can shatter (or shoot) them. Please ignore the shotgun and the towel I'm wrapped up in. :-()

[smg id=6529 type=preview align=center caption="Matrix and Mortal Combat"]

Fragger and PZ, you won't like this.. there are at least six events that will end up with a boss fight. You need to freeze him in order to disable his shields but the ba$t@rd will dodge your ice balls at lightning speed if you're too far away which means (at the point of the game that I've reached so far) that there is no safe distance and you will have to battle quite a bit. Of course the enemies will keep spawning (at least it seemed that way) until you finish the boss which isn't just a last shot to his coconuts but, what else could there be with a boss fight.. you need to fiddle with your keyboard and hammer a couple of keys to "wrestle him down" which you can see in the pic below, ASWD and spacebar are apparently the favourite sets of keys which at least isn't half as frustrating as it was with Hoyt in FC3.

[smg id=6530 type=preview align=center caption="boss fights"]

Well, having finished the boss you'll get to see a Highlander effect sucking up the dying bosses energy, "THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE, AAAAHAAAARGGGHHH!"  >:D

[smg id=6531 type=preview align=center caption="highlander"]

[Art Blade]

Oh another game springs to mind, The Elder Scrolls IV -- Oblivion -- where there were bad guys and portals to close and the sky that changed its colour just like here. And there's Assassin's Creed. When you climb those towers and on reaching the top, you get to see that eagle surround view, same here. :)

Yeah! I'm on top! Ready to activate that blasted thing.
[smg id=6532 type=preview align=center caption="AC towers 1"]
My blue cleansing super power forming in my hand..
[smg id=6533 type=preview align=center caption="AC towers 2"]
..and after slamming it into the top it all turns blue. Camera goes a full circle around the tower.
[smg id=6534 type=preview align=center caption="AC towers 3"]
Here you can see how bloody tall those towers really are.
[smg id=6535 type=preview align=center caption="AC towers 4"]

[Art Blade]

By the way, it is possible to avoid boss fights. Just don't reach the maximum notoriety level and regarding those six events, if you are quick finishing the last bit the boss won't show up, either.  ;)



OK, Stiku and I..
[smg id=6536 type=preview align=center caption="we did it again"]

Congrats Volition and DeepSilver, you did it again, too. They managed to stick with everything good from the prequel AND IMPROVE all the details I wasn't so happy about in SR3. For example, now in coop both players gain XP and awards while playing even if the respectively other player achieved something alone and for himself while in coop. Before, it was a bit messy. Many little details, great effect. Apparently the SR3 police car wasn't only my personal favourite car. Now it is a civilian car (although you can still buy the police stickers and lights) and therefore more modding options are available. Also, we can download SR3 characters into SR4 (and vice versa!) which is cool if you were used to "your" character from SR3. In the pic above, Stiku is actually using his SR3 character. :)

He recorded quite a few videos while we were playing but editing out all the audio stuff (err, mostly swearing) or replacing it with beeps would render the vid a constant beeping orgy so we're better off without those vids. During a private coop it was just great fun but then again, nobody else was listening (well, except some government facilities..) so we were just being and enjoying ourselves. Great game.  :) :-X

[Art Blade]

This game surprised me. At first I thought I'd be stuck in that simulation but now I have escaped and will be travelling between the simulation version of Steelport and some space ship like that Nebuchadnezzar in Matrix and I'm going to use something like the Animus in AC to get back into the simulation.

[smg id=6543 type=preview align=center caption="AC Animus"]

And some more film reminiscences:
[smg id=6537 type=preview align=center caption="matrix 01"]
[smg id=6538 type=preview align=center caption="matrix 02"]
[smg id=6539 type=preview align=center caption="matrix 03"]
[smg id=6540 type=preview align=center caption="battlestar galactica 01"]
[smg id=6541 type=preview align=center caption="battlestar galactica 02"]
[smg id=6542 type=preview align=center caption="star trek"]

[PZ]

Nice!  :-X

[Stiku]

Here's some clips with Art as the co-op player.
This is just 15mins of us yesterday.

Spoiler

Saints Row IV : Co-op

[Art Blade]

nice one :)

Basically Stiku and I agree that a lot of those coop activities are not exactly fun to play, particularly those the vid starts off with, "kill your coop partner." Why do you guys think it is called cooperative when you have to kill your partner? No idea. And, it is a very unfair game play. For instance, Stiku finished me off during previous first try not captured on vid when I had no chance to ever gain control because he could keep me in a frozen state, then there were "cat and mouse" with horrible steering characteristics of a mouse-shaped quad while the cat was using something like a battleship of a chopper to shoot that quad. Once the tyres are shot out, there is no steering any more at all and you're screwed.

In this vid Stiku was in the unfortunate situation that he caught on fire while I did not so it was basically impossible for him to escape despite my clumsy attacks (I was trying to punch him rather than using firearms) and my weapons were too crappy for a quick kill. Unfair, unfair, unfair, the one who gets the upper hand first wins, basically, but it may take forever. Or, why could he not use fire on me? No idea, I was fireproof and he wasn't. Unfair, unfair, BORING.

What still is fun are real coop activities, not player vs player. You saw the tank mayhem, there is UFO mayhem and other stuff like insurance fraud the goal of which is to accumulate money by getting hit by vehicles, the more often, the more money, you can chain them up and get a big combo bonus.. crazy, funny, hilarious :) Insurance fraud already existed in SR3. So generally, SR4's coop activities are not half as funny as those of SR3.

Nevertheless, playing together is still a lot of fun and we're going to try some "real" missions together. :)

[PZ]

Hardly sounds like co-op when you are killing your partner.

[fragger]

Indeed. Apparently "co-op" has a whole new definition - to co-operate in the way that a pair of gladiators would ????

The game looks great and looks like fun, btw :)

[Binnatics]

Hi folks, good to read up your experiences so far. I haven't played the game much yet. With a few tips Art gave me I managed to get a lot of those clusters and upgraded my moving skills a lot. It makes me some sort of Batman in a version of Arkham City that is bigger and crazier than ever. I found it funny my character commented the pointlessness of doing all sorts of stuff in order to upgrade myself in this digital world when getting instructions from Kinzie, while she was hacking the game anyway.  :-D
I can imagine that becoming a digital super(wo)man will be merely preparation in a next episode of this weirdness.  8)
I do like the new way of moving around, but some things have become a bit snowed under. Like indeed the cars as Fiach mentioned, and also the character customization. Most of the time I can hardly enjoy being customized because the screen is flashing in all sorts of blue lightning whenever I pick up clusters or do something with my superpowers (which is constantly, heheh).  ^-^
Haven't played many missions though, and only a couple of activities, So maybe I'm a bit fast with my conclusions. For now I'll just continue the fun and hope for more wholeness in the rest of the game. I can't deny a tiny voice in the back of my head saying; it's just another SR3 DLC that got dumped as being an entire new title ::)

[Art Blade]

I'm level 50 now and pretty advanced in the game. Stiku told me there wouldn't be a sequel (old company went bankrupt -- Before, it was THQ and now DeepSilver) which is sad but then again, I think you really can't top this any more.  :-D

For some reason this game feels bigger than SR3 but I might be mistaken because with this game I had more breaks in between which extended the overall gaming time. I miss day and night in it, always that dull moon..