Between Saints Row 3 and 4, which is better?

[shogunblade]

Long and short, Playstation Network is having a sale on Deep Silver Published games, and the only ones I am mildly interested in are the Saints Row games, specifically The Third & IV. If I decided to buy both the games, I'd be spending less than $25 for the two with DLC attached to both, which isn't bad, but then I thought, "Why not go for the 'best' one?", so I have decided to come to my favorite gaming community to help me out.

I have been hearing the hype surrounding the games, and I won't deny that I'm mildly interested in them both, but I played maybe 2 hours of Saints Row 2 years ago and was not enthused, though my favorite memory of S.R. II was running over pedestrians to the song "Karma Chameleon" on the radio, which I found to be absolutely hilarious to me and my sick and twisted mind.

But what does Saints Row 3 and 4 do better than 2? Is the humor, pop culture references, ideas, gameplay different between the games? Is there less customization or strangeness to them? I hear the game has a strange assortment of weapons (The Penetrator and the Dubstep Gun are just two weapons I've heard of), are one or two weapons in a single game or in both? Is it a matter of I need to play all three games in order to understand the story, or is the story irrelevant?

The sale ends Tuesday, so I hope to get an answer by then. Thanks, everybody!

 

[Darzinth]

Saints Row 3 is like a newer SR2, with driving, gangbanging and whatnot. Saints Row 4 turns the entire formula on its head and turns you into a super hero to fight in the matrix.

Saints Row 2 is still the better game, but Saints Row 4 is unique.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Saints Row 4 is Saints Row 3 with a lot more stuff. If you're put off by the superpower matrix thingy then get SR3. Otherwise SR4 is a clear choice.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I never played SR3, but I will say that SR4 had me laughing harder within the first hour than any other game I've ever played. I actually recently bough it myself on PSN just to tied me over for the new releases, and I've been having a blast.

 

[Dalisclock]

I like SR3 and SR4, but SR4 feels distinct from the others, mostly due to the whole "You have superpowers in the matrix fighting aliens" now. Not to mention that SR3 feels a little bit unpolished in places.

SR3 is like 2, but with a new city to play around in, new characters, a different combat system, and there's quite a few more crazy missions. The first mission involves a bank robbery that ends with a massive shootout(while trying to steal the bank vault with a helicopter), and another early mission involves robbing a national guard armory to steal some guns(and a huge bomb). Essentially, SR3 went for "throw in more awesome setpieces" for the story missions, and since the saints are already built up in stillwater, you don't spend nearly as much time at the bottom, scraping away with nothing. Unlike SR2, Money is now used to buy weapon upgrades(you initial weapons are kind of crap) and Respect is now used to upgrade your gang/the boss(so you have to buy "Duel wielding" before you can do it). On the bright side, you now no longer have to run to a crib to get more cash, because you can automatically transfer money to your account with your smartphone.

SR4 is the same engine as 3, but now you have superpowers(so after you get them you will never use cars anymore). One of the big changes is that SR4 cribbed from Mass Effect 2, so now there are "recruitment missions", which involve rescuing your captured homies by going into their nightmares and helping them conquer them so they can help you fight the aliens. There's also "Loyalty missions" which are optional and involve you doing a mission tailored to each homie, and once the mission is finished, they gain superpowers(and a superhero-type costume) like you have, making them actually somewhat useful in combat. There's also a lot of running around collecting stuff/doing challenges to upgrade your super powers.

Don't get me wrong, both are a lot of fun, and if you can afford it, grab both. If you have to choose, grab 4. $25 for both games and DLC is totally worth it, since the major DLC are generally a lot of fun, even if they don't really fit into the main game("Gangstas in Space" in 3 has you acting in a cheesy 1950's style sci-fi B movie...in the present day. It's quite amusing.).

 

[Dalisclock]

Can I say... both?

I like Saints Row 4 just a lil' more because I have a thing for aliens. But many others liked SR3 more.

I highly reccomend you to start with Saints Row 3 however.

Agreed. Going in order feels like the natural progression. Going from SR4 to SR3 might make you feel let down.

That and a lot of characters are introduced in SR3 who show up in SR4, and if you jump straight from SR2 to SR4 you might be wondering who are all these new people?(Why does Kinzie hate Matt miller? Why is Cyrus pissed at the US/the Saints? Have to play 3 to find out, or read the wiki summary).

 

[Elfgore]

Saints Row 4. All of the wackiness of the third game, with superpowers and a dubstep gun. Ahhhh, the dubstep gun. Get infinite ammo for that bad boy and it's a non-stop party. And nothing beats leaping over massive buildings and sprinting faster than cars. The premise and story is fantastic as well.

 

[Evonisia]

Saints Row IV, it's essentially a redo of Saints Row: The Third and making the tone consistent. Everybody is straight faced rather than self referential in the wacky parody story which makes it infinitely better than The Third. The Third's not a bad game by any means, but the jarring tone makes it a bit tiresome.

Plus Saints Row IV has blatant fanservice for fans of the three previous games.

 

[soren7550]

I'd say to go with SRtT first. If you like that, then you should like SR4 (plus you'll better understand what's going on).

I'd say that SRtT is better because it actually keeps to the 'you're in a gang' thing, and one aspect of the game doesn't render a whole other aspect pointless (the superpowers in SR4 makes everything with the vehicles pointless, which is a shame since there's a whole lot of awesome cars [but no Widowmaker]).

Having not played SR1 or 2, I understood 3 & 4 just fine. The humor in both is hilarious, there's some awesome music, the weapons are solid and fun, customization has been scaled back, but it's still fairly deep and enjoyable

 

[DoPo]

I'd personally say that the story was better in Third while the gameplay was better in 4. Or something along those lines - I guess it's down to power levels - in SRtT things are still grounded (well, relatively, compared to 4, at least) and when cool shit happens in the story, it's more impactful. The game pretty much opens with you shooting people in an airplane, jumping out, shooting more people on the way down and then going through another plane still on the way down. It's a really effective opening for a game, and stuff goes on in similar fashion, a mission later on (really, really insignificant spoiler here) has you jump out of a plane, parachute down into the chimney of a nuclear power plant, which is actually the base of a gang of futuristic emo hackers, and you do that in order to steal their chair that would let you enter the Matrix. Yes, that's a thing that happens. I thought it was absolutely awesome.

Then, however, in SR4, the gameplay is already way over the top - you can run faster than a speeding train, leap over a building in a single bound, and so on. Even though there are cool stuff that happen in the story, they are not as pronounced compared to the normal gameplay. On the other hand, the normal gameplay fucking rocks. I had so much fun just blitzing around town and using my superpowers, I did absolutely everything in the game, just because it was so much fun.

By comparison, SRtT is not bad, not one bit, but it's just...not that, really. You can go around killing people with some ridiculous weapons and you can, like, summon your own tanks or UFOs but it wasn't as fun as SR4.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

This is a tough one. After just finishing SR4 a week or so ago with my coop partner (the same as with SR3), it's a tough one to answer.

I played SR3 coop with a good friend and remember having an absolute blast. It was so much fun, not just because of the great game, funny goings on and ridiculous gameplay (tho it is in part), but because how enjoyable it was to have a friend there with whom things organically happen. Examples include me going AFK to get a drink, only to come back to find myself hemmed in by cars. I would be in a gun fight, in trouble by HQ and my friend, in order to get to me faster, leapt from the helipad. Only he forgot to parachute and splat in front of me. It didn't help that he was an obese man with make up, bunny slippers, blonde pigtails and the zombie voice set.

It was so much fun that I'd hoped playing SR4 coop would be a repeat. The game is great. The super powers, although vastly overpowered, are great fun, polished and well implemented. They do make cars almost entirely redundant, which is a shame and further makes the game somewhat shorter. I wouldn't have learned the city so well if I went straight to four. I didn't enjoy the story as much, and apart from Keith David (who I kept calling Admiral Anderson) didn't care much for the new characters. Asha was boring, Matt was better as an antagonist/frenemy.

I did enjoy the many homages to the franchise and pop culture references, thought the fourth wall breaks were funny (see EtD DLC) and was glad to have to Genki commentators back. While I missed a few weapons from SR3, the new ones easily make up for it. The black-hole and dubstep guns are both great fun. The side-missions weren't as fun as SR3, the wardens got very annoying, the PC's superpowers were a bit too OP I think (things in the game are thus either weedy and easily despatched or immune to powers and tough).

Ultimately, the superpowers changes the game somewhat. While SR3 was a "typical" if OtT sandbox (in my personal opinion, the best sandbox game period), SR4 was a super-power game in a sandbox. It drew many comparisons for me to City of Heroes, the sadly now defunct MMO. A big city, lots of superpowers with ice, fire, speed, flying/gliding, etc. They're both great, both very enjoyable. If I had to pick one, I'd say SR3 is the better sandbox, but while SR4 lost something compared to its predecessor, it gained a lot too. In my opnion it's the best kind of sequel...keep the map/models/textures of the sandbox and save time to instead make a whole new game with it.

Play SR3 first if you haven't already if only for the story. It's not vital but it would really help with understanding the main cast of NPCs you meet in SR4. You can enjoy SR4 without it, but it will add a little something (like how great it was to have Liara and Kaiden/Ashley back in ME3 after missing them for a game), like seeing old friends

 

[Something Amyss]

SR 3+4 streamline the gameplay and make the experience better in that sense. The humour goes from original to borderline meme bait, but YMMV.

If I had to pick one, I'd pick IV. If only because super-powered sandboxing with customisation and guns.

Also, half the story of 3 was tutorial. There's still a lot of tutorial, but it's not as bad in IV.

 

[Dalisclock]

By comparison, SRtT is not bad, not one bit, but it's just...not that, really. You can go around killing people with some ridiculous weapons and you can, like, summon your own tanks or UFOs but it wasn't as fun as SR4.

I forgot about that. SR3 allows you to buy(with respect)the ability to summon:

-A group of random saints(you know, if you need someone else for the enemies to shoot at).
-Any of your homies(any named characters that you've gotten to join your side, including some really obscure and unimportant ones)
-Any vehicles you've put into storage(which is so much better then finding the nearest crib).
-An attack helicopter.
-A tank.
-A VTOL(Futuristic Harriers armed with Laser cannons and muti-rockets).

Also, among the more interesting weapons, the game gives you:

-an RC controller that allows to you control other people vehicles(sadly you can't control your own at the same time), if you've ever wanted to commandeer a police car, with the cop still in it, and start running over random pedestrians...and it doesn't add to how angry the police/gangs are with you.
-A control box for an armed military drone(straight out of the CoD games). Death from Above indeed.
-An airstrike laser designator. Makes a very nice opening salvo to a big gunfight.

 

[DoPo]

-A control box for an armed military drone(straight out of the CoD games). Death from Above indeed.

Yeah, and you get that ever so slightly after the beginning of the game. It's still just at the start, though. The game goes "Hey, you what's cool? Blowing stuff up. Here, have at it"

Man, I loved SR3 when that happened.

 

[EmperorZinyak]

Saints Row IV by far. The freedom of movement, the fun powers, and the expansive upgrade system make it easily the best experience I've had with an open world game ever. It overshadows III in almost every way. III was good, but it was a tonally confused and subpar game that was surpassed in many regards by II, and surpassed in every way by IV.

 

[Rebel_Raven]

That's a tough question.

Saints row 3 is like GTA with much more comedy, and is pretty out there.

Saints row 4 is like Crackdown but with much more comedy, and weirdness, and more to do.

Both have near identical character creation engines which are pretty dang good, IMO, (And one of the best in the industry IMO) aside from an occasional glitch in SR4 (I'm looking at you lace gloves.) but it's pretty much just clothes.

"better" is pretty subjective.
Do you want to spend time driving vehicles, or generally running real fast, and hulk jumping?
The weapons are kinda normal in SR3, but there's some high tech stuff like tron style SMGs and laser guns.
SR4 has a homage to the noisy cricket (a tiny pistol that has enough recoil to throw you back like the movie), a dubstep gun, and a black hole gun... and of course, super powers like telekinesis, and the ability to clear out a city block via falling from high enough.

Both have celebrity cameos. I kinda like 4's more, but I'm biased towards wrestling, and 80's sci-fi. <.<

SR3 doesn't do a ton to let you know what happened in the past, but SR4 kinda gives peeks at earlier games.

Both games have cheats to them, but SR4 lets you turn off super powers and clean up the screen. Regardless of it, Saints row 3 has a more organic city.

They're pretty different, but both are good.

I'd suggest picking up Saints Row 2, too.

 

[Fox12]

I found 3 better. It was JUST grounded enough in reality for the absurdity to still be hilarious.

Saints Row 4 ruined the formula for me. I turned the series into a super hero/matrix game. unfortunately, when your stuck in a computer the absurdity isn't as funny. Random Zombie outbreaks in the real world are funnier and more surprising then random zombie outbreaks in a computer prison. It was still good, but it didn't make me laugh as much. I think I'm in the minority though.

 

[Llil]

I really liked 3, but wasn't a big fan of 4. The superpower stuff is fun for a while, but it gets old. Because you don't have the difference between the driving and shooting parts anymore, the gameplay gets repetitive much quicker. And the normal gameplay is so over the top already, it's like a constant high all the time. That gets tiring, because you don't get those great moments where the game ramps up from normal gameplay to something crazy.

A bigger problem with 4 was that the story stuff didn't work at all. It seems like they had a bunch of wacky missions that they just threw together with no context. You're jumping around from location to location with no sense of what you're doing or why. Random stuff just happens, because simulation, I guess. In 3 there was a lot of nonsense, but the game always gave a reason for it and the missions felt at least connected. And the side missions in 4 are really dull.

Also, they basically reuse all the jokes from 3. You can't keep repeating the same jokes and expect to get the same reaction. It's annoying.

So for me, 3 wins by a mile. I had fun all the way through, where as with 4 I got sick of it about half way through the main story.