Computer Game Summary XXVIII (Saints Row IV)

Saints Row 3 DLC.

In 'Saints Row the Third' had a DLC where are you went on to a movie production to direct an incredibly awkward looking science fiction Thriller.
Most of the DLC is a double joke on both; Pretentious snobby movie directors, mixed in with the generally awful industry, that is Hollywood and the incredibly bad screenplays that come out of most science fiction films.
The mechanics of the DLC are no different to that of the regular game. Tven tho missions are mainly just reskinned of already completed tasks. But it takes on a new form of enjoyment; Going into these strange-looking alien worlds, which are just movie sets, done in such a way as to let you experience the fun of the fictionalised universe. Made all the more entertaining by your characters lackluster performance. your character despite their best interests just doesn't have the Charisma for acting. While you're Co star is the real shining Beacon. But she's completely overlooked by the producer of the film who's more infatuated with your celebrity status than he is any form of actual talent. And watching the entire production breakdown over time as everyone's opinions of one another becomes more disjointed and annoyed makes for a pretty fun story. It's the only DLC I can remember from the third game and the only one that can be bothered to bring up here.

I wonder just how much of the mechanics and general theme of this one DLC went into making the next Saints Row game what it is today. Given its overemphasis on Aliens and all things associated with them.

Main Game:

Saints Row 4 had so much to live up to. Between it's ridiculous ad campaigns and the promise of being more Ludacris and insane, then what came before it. At this point it was all a matter of turning the environment up to 11 and hoping to keep the players entertainment throughout the whole experience.
I think it's exceeded its goal for the most part. Saints Row 4 is more entertaining than its predecessor and a bit more mechanically sound. The implementation of superhero Powers Alters the game just enough to give it a fresh new feel without completely disconnecting itself from the franchise.

However at the end of the day I still consider Saints Row 4 to be nothing more than a giant DLC for Saints Row 3.
The Saints Row Series has been reusing assets since the very first game. Practically all the secondary activities have remained the same throughout every game.
Sometimes they change up the Skin of the game but almost always you're playing the same: Insurance fraud or driving the NPCs from point A to point B while avoiding opponent C.

It was getting incredibly stagnant. Even with the Advent of superpowers. Saints Row 4 crowning achievement would be at the story. Giving a final conclusion to all the various weird and zany things that have happened throughout this long and Confused franchise. From picking up references from Saints Row 1 all the way to tying up events that happened in the last game.
At this point Saints row is kind of done. They literally blew up the Earth, destroyed almost everything associated with the former games and put the main player in a state of power so high that there's really nowhere else for him to go.

You begin the game as the u.s. president* Before being conflicted by an evil alien overlord who kidnaps you, sticks you in a simulation and has you run circles. While you and your old détachement of gang members try to figure a way out simulation and defeat the alien overlord.

Because of this extremely silly environment they're able to play long and loose with the rules that they couldn't even do in the former games. They're able to bring old characters back from the dead set you out on weird and bizarre missions that become spoofs of other games and even give you the ability to run around in the giant mechanised robot squishing small disk concerning aliens beneath your feet.
It all just feels a bit empty. The city of Steelport wasn't all that well designed to begin with. Its overall aesthetic was nice but the details were minimal and it just felt a bit generic. Now in this game half of what made that City interesting has been ripped out and replaced with awkward looking alien technology that's more a point of game play than it is environment. I did make the city even more pointless to Traverse as it's now lacking any bit of character it may have possessed in the first game.

In a way that's kind of the point. The simulated world that you're finally reduced to is nothing more than a generic video game. And the whole point is that you have to rip it apart in order to progress. It's a game about causing glitches causing problems and ultimately destroying the fictional world just to succeed.

It's an okay ending to an okay game series. I often wonder what could have become of Saints Row if they had taken a bit more time with the third game and perhaps developed at story a little more. Put some more effort into the city give us more reason to care about the characters maybe connect the two games together. To create one fantastic game instead of two okay games. My only true problem with this game is their big campaign push gave us the illusion that we were going to be running around Washington DC and instead we just end up in a city we've already explored.**

If anything I got more fun out of the game by pretending that my character was living out his last and final days going through an extremely ridiculous Adventure.

Row Quixote.

I had more fun with this game pretending that my character was living out the last of his days. He was now on death's doorstep acting as the commander-in-chief of a country after a long career of confusing and outlandish affairs.

He started a dismal career as nothing more than a simple street punk. Working for a low-end small-time gang in a city plagued with ethnic Warfare and criminal Enterprises. He had destroyed the Spanish cartel, desecrated a drag race syndicate and removed Benjamin King from being the predominant Powerhouse of the City of Stillwater.
However his rise to the top was short lived as he was betrayed by those around him and and was left for dead in the wreckage of a destroyed yacht.

However he's story had not ended here. As he woke many years later from a coma inside a federal prison. Doomed to live out the rest of his days in solitary confinement. But with the help of a loyal lieutenant and a string of luck, he was able to escape this life and land himself back onto the main shores of Stillwater. Where yet again had to rip down a new Legion of criminal entrepreneurs.

They where brutal, Psychopathic and vindictive. They was able to use manipulation and fear to destroy all that was around them. Every face he saw in those rival gangs was the face of fear and distrust to the rest of the city.
They were the monsters in the dark that kept the people down and scared them into submission.
But then this leader of the Saints came along as a force of unwieldy power. Originally he was seen as a savior. Someone to destroy the gangs. But only a small amount of time had passed before the people realize that what they were looking upon was the greatest tragedy in their existence.
He was worse than the gangs. More powerful, more cunning, more willing to destroy than they were. He would throw the world to a meat grinder just take one more morsel of power.

Yet again he had riped down a new Legion of criminal entrepreneurs.
With the desolation of these Urban gangs, he found himself at the Forefront of a massive corporate Empire. A system of multiple businesses merged under the mega conglomerate of the Ultor Corporation.

It was during his war with this Citywide Monopoly that he discovered the unsettling truth. One of the Ultor chairman had been his brother. He killed him unknowingly during a blood fuelled rage, as he moved across a mega mall, mowing down anyone and anything associated with this corporate monstrosity.

It was during this time that he came down with a deep sense of contemplation. Where was he going with his life? What was he doing? He had single-handedly conquered the city two times over from six different gangs and had managed to make himself a kind of unofficial ruler of the entire city.
No one could oppose him, nobody could stop him. What was there left to do?
He was getting up there in age. Into his late forties and now the ruler of the city's most powerful gang.

Then the answer I'd come to him. Revitalisation. There was no point to changing his morals or trying to atone for any negatives in his life. He had no interest for it. He was the meanest killing machine the city had ever known and it was now time to turn that to his Advantage.

So he took his image and that of his purple clad gang and produced it outwards into the world. Turning himself and His Highest Lieutenant into Mega celebrities.
Now he was no longer looked upon as the Demon of the city, but as something of a vigilantly cladded Demigod.

He gave himself a new face as to distance himself from the past. An image of power, Prestige and humbleness. With the aid of plastic surgery, hair plugs and the newly formed visual retina replacements. He altered his appearance to give himself with the combined likenesses of the two biggest Mega Stars in Hollywood. George Clooney and Marlon Brando.

Now the world looked upon him not as a criminal, but as an icon. With this brought a new sense of personal identity and wealth unknown to him before.

But a new threat emerged from Beyond the neon glowing mountains. Another gang, this one clad in fancy clothes and self-identified Swagger.
A gang led by a Belgian man claiming to be the biggest powerhouse on the planet. It was laughable to conceive of them as a legitimate threat. They were unknown to anybody. They acted arrogant and Cavalier. Shown themselves as the true criminal underworld and made the mistake of engaging in combat with the Saints Row celebrities.
They're supposedly all-powerful criminally brilliant Mastermind died within the first couple of weeks of fighting. Soon this gang (who had called themselves The Syndicate) Now they were led by a less intelligent, steroid taking, psychopath Luchador.
Who had proven problematic but ultimately destroyable by the Saints.
The Syndicate was nothing more than a brightly dressed costume affair. With the exception of a few eight-foot-tall brutes nothing in their Arsenal was effective against the Saints.

It was a golden age for them. They were seen by the world as the keepers of peace. They had made more money than dreamable in their past and were able to crush multinational syndicates with relative ease. Even the introduction of the United States crime-fighting division of hyper militaristic head-butting soldiers had proven inconsequential.

Indeed it all felt like a Magic Carpet Ride. The leader of the Saints was Unstoppable, invincible. Undefiable. It even taking it up to enter the realm of politics and throw his hat into the Ring of presidential nominees.

It was during the inauguration that the decline had started. Politics had proven difficult for the Saints. Their Celebrity Status could only take them so far. The stresses of running an entire country were detrimental to their health.
Now the President was really starting to feel his age. He was climbing close to 70. 20 some years of fighting, drug abuse, plastic surgery and extreme stress we're starting to catch up with him. All his efforts to keep up his new face were failing. And he was sinking back into reality.

Then it happened. The downfall. The United States was invaded and the office of the presidency was obliterated. The President was kidnapped and forced into a new world unknown to him previous. And even when he was able to escape it. He could only return to a Fractured existence of the city of gold.
Oh sure, he was able to defeat the overlord who had stuck him in this position. But all he had remembered was lost. Everything he fought to control, everything he thought to defend, everything he worked up to was now gone.
Left with the memories of the past. He now was what he had begun as.
Alone individual on the brink of death.

*At the time of this games creation I don't think anybody had the foresight to imagine an actual Superstar celebrity becoming president and making an ass of himself on the general world committee.

**My only other complaint is that Benjamin King was reintroduced into the franchise and doesn't have his Suave and sophisticated voice of Michael Duncan. There's not anything anyone can do about that as unfortunately Mr. Duncan is dead. But it's just kind of sad to see one of the most iconic characters of the original game return knowing that he can never truly be done Justice. But alas that is the world's biggest nitpick.
However they do kind of makeup for this by having BJ Blake playing the alien overlord and giving us the best rendition of the first chapter of 'Pride and Prejudice' I've ever heard. If nothing else I'd like to see this man do an entire audiobook of Pride and Prejudice.
I'd pay a pretty penny for that.