Saints Row thread

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The death of Saints Row wouldn't sting quite so much if open world crime action games weren't functionally a dead genre as GTA 6 drunkenly stumbles toward the finishing line as the only example of the genre coming out in the last ten years.

No Sleeping Dogs sequel, no Saints Row, no weird movie tie-ins like Scarface or the Driver games, all dead.

It's just too edgy of a genre to exist these days, which fucking blows, because with today's tech we should be able to blow those old games out of the water.
 
Deus Exica said:
No Sleeping Dogs sequel, no Saints Row, no weird movie tie-ins like Scarface or the Driver games, all dead.

It's just too edgy of a genre to exist these days, which fucking blows, because with today's tech we should be able to blow those old games out of the water.
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The open-world crime genre is too risk-averse because of cultural sensitivity and oddly enough, GTA (Online.) Movie tie-in games are practically done this era because the licenses for those properties would be too expensive to risk investing for little return. Not to get political, but crime itself is politicized where despite a particular demographic participating in it, it's easier to handwave it because REASONS then to recognize a trend.

In that, game writers now want to sanitize storytelling and character development, yet want to be obnoxiously crass and "relatable," hence the Saints Row reboot. You cannot write or create a "safe" crime game since crime revolves around criminality and undesirable people.

Rockstar has proven themselves as THE de facto pioneer and creator of the open world crime genre from GTA. Therefore, no other company would want to attempt to compete with the juggernaut of GTA Online. It doesn't help that GTA Online is practically a griefing, business simulator more than a crime game.
 
Saint's Row 1 had plenty of racial stereotypes, but they balanced it out, you had the white gang that raced cars and were douchbags ala Need for Speed, a cartel gang in The Los Carnales (It's not THE Los Carnales, Jesus, what's wrong with you?.), and a black gang that was practically just Death Row Records. Despite being gang stereotypes they all still had real character and devolvement. The second game expanded on this in clever ways, with the reggae voodoo gang, the Brotherhood, and the Ronin. The third just had... Hookers and hitman THE GANG, Wrestlers THE GANG, and Lame Ass Haxxors THE GANG. The ending where you killed Killbane while sacrificing rip-off Shaundi was trying to capture the violent "fuck you" energy of the SR2 Boss, but it ruins it because in that game the Boss would've already violently killed the gay wrestler and had time to save their friends, the SR2 boss was extremely loyal to the gang.
 
Buster Scruggs said:
This is what personally killed the Third for me, I had fun with the co-op and Whored mode, but the boss wasn't even flanderized, they're just a whole different character in TT. The most accurate, self aware line from that game was "we traded our dicks into pussies", proving Gat was the most based by talking shit about these essentially new characters who barely even acknowledge the previous game, before promptly dying. (Or getting abducted because Volition ran dry of ideas.)
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I'd have killed for at any point in SRt3rd or SRIV if the boss snapped back into their old attitude. The first time I played SR2 and did the Julius mission it hit me all at once that we're the baddies. That the Saints at that point are miles removed from any kind of just cause like pushing gangs out of our neighborhood. Even if you only count cutscenes and mission objective kills, the Saint's were leaving huge numbers of collateral casualties. And in SR2 the Boss wasn't some goofy jerkoff that treated the gang like their friends. Basically everyone but Gat and Aisha were afraid of you. I kinda had trouble vibing with it at first but now I'm desperate for any other protagonist to be like the OG Playa.
 
I'm surprised there's still not a way to play SR2's DLCs on PC. I don't remember them being amazing but I'd still like to experience them again.
 
moosemeese said:
I'm surprised there's still not a way to play SR2's DLCs on PC. I don't remember them being amazing but I'd still like to experience them again.
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Well, the Saints Row 2 port WAS outsourced to CD Project Red, so I take it was a quick rush job, then they moved on to other pastures.
 
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