Between Saints Row 3 and 4, which is better?
- Thread starter shogunblade
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+1 on SR3 over here too. SR4 was good, still had plenty of the elements that makes SR fun, but it was just a bit over the top ridiculous. And I can understand why, in the interview with the developer he said that they pretty much had nowhere else to go except make a super hero the protagonist. I did enjoy it nevertheless, (still use the dubstep gun theme as my ringtone), but if I had to pick one or pick a place to start I'd go with SR3, any day.Fox12 said:
SR3 is still what SR started with and is all about. Pimping cars, gang fights and territorial wars, ridiculous caricatures of various personality types, character customization engine and dressing up, ludicrous side missions. Sure SR4 has most of that, but fighting aliens and taking place in a computer matrix just didn't do it for me. You don't even drive around your pimped cars any more, just fly around and shit. Feels more like Prototype/Infamous than Saints Row.
Skip 3. Saints Row 3 was so un-grounded it made the wacky moments less punctuated than they were in SR2 because if Everything is nuts then whats the difference? Just as boring as a no-wacky game really.
Saints Row 4 however turned it all up twelve notches and went so far wacky it did an orbit and landed somewhere entertaining. It still didn't fix the gameplay issues with the previous games but it had enough variety and whimsy in it to keep me interested.
Saints Row 4 however turned it all up twelve notches and went so far wacky it did an orbit and landed somewhere entertaining. It still didn't fix the gameplay issues with the previous games but it had enough variety and whimsy in it to keep me interested.
I'm in the SR2 camp, but there's no vote for that... shame, because I enjoyed that one the most. The clothes and body-type controls meant that that was "really close to my body shape/face" me flying through the air after a five car pileup, and not "MMA/WWE wrestler" me. Watching the former has made friends who hadn't experienced the game laugh so hard they threw up.
I liked SR3 for being a sillier, crazier GTA.
SR4 I loved too but my main beef with that is you're in the "matrix", with all the good and bad that implies..Namely that the entire city you're in is basically an illusion along with its inhabitants.
To me that meant SR4 had a less compelling gameworld, also due to having superpowers the use of vehicles is somewhat marginizalised and the gameplay is different due to having superhuman abilities.
So ask yourself if you prefer a more grounded Saints Row set in "our" reality (albeit a lot crazier) or if that matrix setting appeals to you more instead.
SR4 I loved too but my main beef with that is you're in the "matrix", with all the good and bad that implies..Namely that the entire city you're in is basically an illusion along with its inhabitants.
To me that meant SR4 had a less compelling gameworld, also due to having superpowers the use of vehicles is somewhat marginizalised and the gameplay is different due to having superhuman abilities.
So ask yourself if you prefer a more grounded Saints Row set in "our" reality (albeit a lot crazier) or if that matrix setting appeals to you more instead.
Of COURSE someone with the name "EmperorZinyak" would say that...EmperorZinyak said:
Putting my smart-ass-ery aside, I agree wholeheartedly. SR4 is my personal fave in the series, followed by 3, 2, then 1 at the bottom. I thought SR4 was a true masterpiece of gaming.
I also have to agree with those saying that you should probably play 3 first, because it'll give you far more understanding of what goes on in the fourth installment. SR4 is the better game, but you really should play SR3 beforehand.
Saints Row 2.
Saints Row 3 is just Saints Row 2 but with worse gameplay, story, and characters, less feature complete, and less polished. (With better graphics and vehicle physics.)
For the genre, it feels very rushed (probably because THQ was dying).
If SR2 is out, go for 4.
SR4 is a pretty good game in its own right, even if it's not much like 2 or 3
The story is much better than 3, the gameplay is nothing like SR2/3 (more Prototype) but it's more enjoyable, and since it's constantly drip-feeding you action, you won't realize all the cut corners as they tried to rush it out to save the floundering THQ
Saints Row 3 is just Saints Row 2 but with worse gameplay, story, and characters, less feature complete, and less polished. (With better graphics and vehicle physics.)
For the genre, it feels very rushed (probably because THQ was dying).
If SR2 is out, go for 4.
SR4 is a pretty good game in its own right, even if it's not much like 2 or 3
The story is much better than 3, the gameplay is nothing like SR2/3 (more Prototype) but it's more enjoyable, and since it's constantly drip-feeding you action, you won't realize all the cut corners as they tried to rush it out to save the floundering THQ
3 has a better story and longer campaign. It also has vehicles that matter- when you call up a couple of tanks, summon some homies to crew one, then go on a mini campaign through the city you feel rather badass. In 4 vehicles pretty much stop mattering once you get super speed, and it feels like the whole mechanic is kind of wasted.
On the other hand, 4 has awesome superpowers, and when it really gets busy losing its shit, it does so beautifully. And the battles with tons of powerful alien troops as you go flying around like a gnat on crack (especially the mission where you take a bunch of crack then fly around) are a sight to behold. But it ads almost nothing new to the city and the minigames start feeling samey way sooner.
Play both, but play 3 first.
On the other hand, 4 has awesome superpowers, and when it really gets busy losing its shit, it does so beautifully. And the battles with tons of powerful alien troops as you go flying around like a gnat on crack (especially the mission where you take a bunch of crack then fly around) are a sight to behold. But it ads almost nothing new to the city and the minigames start feeling samey way sooner.
Play both, but play 3 first.
I haven't played Saint's Row 4 because Saint's Row 3 was such a departure from the 2nd and I just didn't really care for more of that. Now that the honeymoon period is well and truly over though, it looks like SR4 is being looked back on more and more fondly. I'll probably end up picking it up now that there's a complete edition out on consoles.
If you can't get both, go IV. The game as a whole felt more polished and coherent compared to 3.
I never played SR3, so I have to go with SR4.
Something about running really fast and jumping from rooftop to rooftop while listening to "The Boys Are Back in Town" has such a zen-like feeling to it for me.
Something about running really fast and jumping from rooftop to rooftop while listening to "The Boys Are Back in Town" has such a zen-like feeling to it for me.
I felt that 3 just flowed better. 4 Was okay for me, but honestly? I wasn't that in love with the super powers.
I haven't played 3, but I enjoyed 4 a lot. It's hilarious and messing around with your super powers is extremely fun. Also, the dubstep gun is one of the best weapons I've ever used in any video game, and I normally hate dubstep.
There's no better one between the two...
They're similar games but one is more GTA like and the other is more like Prototype ("realistic" vs running up buildings)
If you want something more like GTA where cars have functionality, you shoot people with a wide array of guns ranging from shotguns to a gun that fires chum...that summons a shark to bite the target in half and vanish. Vs grabbing someone with telekentic powers, running up a building and firing the person a mile away.
Mind you when I say 'realistic' I mean cartoonish, but more realistic than the insanity that is Saints Row 4.
They're similar games but one is more GTA like and the other is more like Prototype ("realistic" vs running up buildings)
If you want something more like GTA where cars have functionality, you shoot people with a wide array of guns ranging from shotguns to a gun that fires chum...that summons a shark to bite the target in half and vanish. Vs grabbing someone with telekentic powers, running up a building and firing the person a mile away.
Mind you when I say 'realistic' I mean cartoonish, but more realistic than the insanity that is Saints Row 4.
Take this lightly as I've only watched the ever so lovely Jesse Cox play both of them, but 3 is defiantly a winner for more. The overall reason with that is that 3 is basically Saints Row 2 on cocaine, but Saints Row 4 is 3 on several lorries worth of cocaine snorted through a vacuum cleaner attached to all holes in your body.
In 3, you could get super powers. They existed for a mission or two and were AWESOME. It was a HUGE way to ramp up the action as you are suddenly super speeding your way to save a homie. But in 4 you have them the hole game, so not only do they get old, but they remove any reason to ever use a car, helicopter or plane, or even walk. Basically it turns the city into an annoying thing you jump over to get to the next rooftop.
If there were two main reasons I'd say 4 is worse is that the enemies were just boring. In Saints Row 3, enemies arrive in cars, helicopters, on foot and other such methods. All fun to watch, fun to explode and result in long chases. In 4, enemies arrive in small bubbles that they just keep jumping through until you shoot them. And that's it. I don't think they even have any vehicles, only the virtual police have some weird hover cars. Plus, all the enemies ended up either being really easy to murder and not remotely dangerous, or immune to everything and as tanky as an Abrams jacked up on tank-morphine.
The second is the mission structure was just weird. You almost always returned to your little ship in space after a mission, so it worked as a sort of hub. However, all of the missions were rather crap and boring. See, the first few missions were awesome. The recruitment and loyalty missions were awesome, and the ending was awesome. But everything in between was so, so boring. The missions consisted of mainly normal tasks. So, Kinsie would tell you to do a side mission (that you normally do while running around the city for extra dosh) and make up a weird story reason, then tell you to go to the next mission, then kill 10 zin, then go to the next side mission.
So basically, the middle of the game is taken up by a random homie telling you to do side quests, and then giving you a reward. No, no set pieces, no scripted missions, just a main story telling you to do side quests. It was kind of saddening.
So yeah - huge rant just to say, Saint's Row 4 is awesome, but Saint's Row 3 is so much better.
In 3, you could get super powers. They existed for a mission or two and were AWESOME. It was a HUGE way to ramp up the action as you are suddenly super speeding your way to save a homie. But in 4 you have them the hole game, so not only do they get old, but they remove any reason to ever use a car, helicopter or plane, or even walk. Basically it turns the city into an annoying thing you jump over to get to the next rooftop.
If there were two main reasons I'd say 4 is worse is that the enemies were just boring. In Saints Row 3, enemies arrive in cars, helicopters, on foot and other such methods. All fun to watch, fun to explode and result in long chases. In 4, enemies arrive in small bubbles that they just keep jumping through until you shoot them. And that's it. I don't think they even have any vehicles, only the virtual police have some weird hover cars. Plus, all the enemies ended up either being really easy to murder and not remotely dangerous, or immune to everything and as tanky as an Abrams jacked up on tank-morphine.
The second is the mission structure was just weird. You almost always returned to your little ship in space after a mission, so it worked as a sort of hub. However, all of the missions were rather crap and boring. See, the first few missions were awesome. The recruitment and loyalty missions were awesome, and the ending was awesome. But everything in between was so, so boring. The missions consisted of mainly normal tasks. So, Kinsie would tell you to do a side mission (that you normally do while running around the city for extra dosh) and make up a weird story reason, then tell you to go to the next mission, then kill 10 zin, then go to the next side mission.
So basically, the middle of the game is taken up by a random homie telling you to do side quests, and then giving you a reward. No, no set pieces, no scripted missions, just a main story telling you to do side quests. It was kind of saddening.
So yeah - huge rant just to say, Saint's Row 4 is awesome, but Saint's Row 3 is so much better.
I say 4 is better, but only if you played 3. I never played the original (it never got ported), but grabbed the other three in a package deal and played them in rapid succession. This may have influenced my perception. 3 felt like a game trying to up the stakes from its predecessor, and while it may have succeeded in story terms, the gameplay was hampered by the new limitations- the combat was horribly clunky in comparison to 2 and, well, I have to tell the story: at certain points around the city, you'll run into fans looking to take a picture of you (you being something of a celebrity). Unfortunately, it's a context-sensitive button prompt, and the button pressed is the same one for taking hostages to use as human shields, who you can't release peacefully. A few hours into my first game of 3, I saw a fan, ran up, pressed the button too far out, and grabbed them. I didn't want to kill them, so I pressed the 'toss' button instead, whereupon they flew out into the street, just in time to get hit by a semi, which flung them into the ocean/lake. Whoops. Luckily, they respawn.
Four has some pretty serious gameplay problems too, a lot of the character missions are just padding, running through map-clearing activities you've probably already done (more than once, I had a character assign me a mission I'd already completed all the subcomponents of, so I immediately turned around and handed it in), but it made up for it in the story. It very much feels like an ending, and that's exactly what it is. As an individual game, 2 beats both of its sequels. As part of a whole, 4 beats 3, but without 3, it's not a whole, and I don't know how much less you'd get out of it.
Same yourself the strain; buy both.
Four has some pretty serious gameplay problems too, a lot of the character missions are just padding, running through map-clearing activities you've probably already done (more than once, I had a character assign me a mission I'd already completed all the subcomponents of, so I immediately turned around and handed it in), but it made up for it in the story. It very much feels like an ending, and that's exactly what it is. As an individual game, 2 beats both of its sequels. As part of a whole, 4 beats 3, but without 3, it's not a whole, and I don't know how much less you'd get out of it.
Same yourself the strain; buy both.
I enjoyed 4 waaaaaay more than 3.
3 is very gimmicky and gets old & repetitive quite quickly.
4 is sheer brilliant OTT fun, and one of the best games I've played this year.
3 is very gimmicky and gets old & repetitive quite quickly.
4 is sheer brilliant OTT fun, and one of the best games I've played this year.
I'd throw my vote in with the SR2 camp. As someone who has played all four of the Saint's row games I'd say SR2 was my favourite even now.
If your not interested in it then I would vote for 4. I was a bit disappointed in 3, the story seemed to end quickly and I didn't enjoy a lot of the new city or side missions as much as I did for SR2. SR4 throws any pretence of realism out the window and goes full on over the top wacky superhero adventures, it?s quite fun.
If your not interested in it then I would vote for 4. I was a bit disappointed in 3, the story seemed to end quickly and I didn't enjoy a lot of the new city or side missions as much as I did for SR2. SR4 throws any pretence of realism out the window and goes full on over the top wacky superhero adventures, it?s quite fun.