Been playing this since yesterday and let me share my thoughts.
Saints Row 3 + Prototype 2 = Saints Row 4.
This game is so much like SR3 that this could have been a DLC or expansion.
SR4's Steelport is nearly carbon copy of SR3's with a twist that it's virtual world and even the player character knows it. Once again player must fight his/her way to being top dog of Steelport, but what the game fails to do is create any importance in completing optional stuff. In SR3 you at least were in a "real world" where what you did actually had some meaning as far as the player character was concerned. But in SR4 the only reason you're in the virtual world is to beat the alien boss, everything else is irrelevant. So why exactly would player want to do anything but the absolute necessary in the virtual Steelport? The virtual Steelport lacks purpose beyond main objective of one upping the alien boss.
Superpowers in SR4 is a twist too, but I really don't think it fits the SR series even knowing it's virtual world like Matrix. Could just as well play Prototype 1 and 2 if you want to play with superpowers. With superpowers vehicles were made essentially obsolete, except when an objective absolutely requires driving a vehicle. Later in the game you could probably just grab target vehicle with telekinesis and super jump the hell away anyway. Not saying superpowers aren't fun, they are. But I had my fill of them in both Prototype games and I feel they have no place in SR.
Collecting data clusters is super annoying and cheap. Couldn't :v: really come up with anything better, seriously? This is the mommy of all goddamn gaming cliches and it's not even funny.
SR4 is still cheesy, crazy and fun as much as SR3 was. But I think SR3 was the better game out of these two. I think SR4's story would have worked better as a SR3 DLC than standalone game.
This game is so much like SR3 that this could have been a DLC or expansion.
It originally was; a standalone expansion, that is, rather than a complete sequel. Then they had too much content for that.
SR4's Steelport is nearly carbon copy of SR3's with a twist that it's virtual world and even the player character knows it. Once again player must fight his/her way to being top dog of Steelport, but what the game fails to do is create any importance in completing optional stuff. In SR3 you at least were in a "real world" where what you did actually had some meaning as far as the player character was concerned. But in SR4 the only reason you're in the virtual world is to beat the alien boss, everything else is irrelevant. So why exactly would player want to do anything but the absolute necessary in the virtual Steelport? The virtual Steelport lacks purpose beyond main objective of one upping the alien boss.
All distractions have the same purpose: destabilize the simulation in order to gain more control over it, therefore making it easier to finally overload it to gain access to Zinyak's mothership.
In a metagaming incentive, you get a different ending if you do all sidequests before the final mission (in another Mass Effect reference).
Collecting data clusters is super annoying and cheap. Couldn't :v: really come up with anything better, seriously? This is the mommy of all goddamn gaming cliches and it's not even funny.
I also found this really annoying, but once you get collectibles on your radar, it ceases to be even a minor inconvenience.
SR4 is still cheesy, crazy and fun as much as SR3 was. But I think SR3 was the better game out of these two. I think SR4's story would have worked better as a SR3 DLC than standalone game.
I don't really see how they could've made this a DLC, as-is (it took me more hours to beat SR4 than it did for me to beat SR3). Also, how would you get back to "regular" Steelport after the Earth explodes?