What Would You Like to See In Saints Row 4?

[soren7550]

So, as I'm about to dive back into Saints Row the Third, I got to thinking about what I'd like to see in the next installment. Some of the things that I think would be nice are:

- A return of theaters [http://saintsrow.wikia.com/wiki/Theaters]. Why was this removed? I want to be able to replay a bunch of these insane fun missions!
- A cameo from Weird Al. SR3 had Burt Reynolds, and from what I've heard, SR1 & 2 had a bunch of cameos, so why not have Weird Al?
- More customization. Yeah, it's already kinda big and expansive, but I want moar! More hairstyles! More colors! More clothes! MOAR!!
(also, please make shirts and coats/jackets/etc. separate again, I'm sick of games mushing the two together in one torso category)
- A shuffle/random option for your mix tape, plus more music.
- Even if the game now has regenerating health, put some restaurants back in. I mean, in Steelport, the only food things you see are the one diner and signs for Joe Cola. You telling me a city wouldn't have anywhere to eat? Just looks weird.

So, what about you? Think certain things will happen now that the Saints Row franchise is owned by Koch Media? Any addition you want to see?

 

[Sack of Cheese]

I agree with most things you've written.

Being able to replay missions is a must for me. Also I want all the gangs to have separate storylines, SRTT makes it feel like I am fighting one gang instead of three.
They said the new engine was what stopping them from bringing back layering clothing, but I have high hope for them.

Spoiler: SRTT's ending

I also hope the Good ending was the canon ending, I like Shaundi, don't want the girl to die.

 

[BoogieManFL]

To be honest and yes I know I sound bitter but less SR3 and more SR2.

More cutscenes, memorable villains, more substance in general. I can't go into much more without getting pissed off because SR3 was a total let down for me. Saints Row 2 is in my top 5 favorite games of all time, 3 wouldn't place above 30.

 

[The Madman]

A story that's worth a damn might be nice. I know Volition can do it, they just choose not to with Saints Row 3. But there's no rule that says a game with silly over-the-top gameplay can't also have an interesting story and characters.

 

[[Kira Must Die]]

Well, for one, I'd like the option to mix and match different clothing to be back, and maybe even more clothing option. Also, and this is a minor nitpick, but I'd like it if your hair wasn't set on a fixed style when you wear a hat. Also, more hairstyles would be nice, with maybe more customization.

Other than that, I would like it to be more like SR2 than SR3. Now, I still liked SR3, but there were things that were a major downgrade from SR2, like the clothing thing. The story in SR3 I'm seriously hoping is non-canon, because I had some serious issues with it, like how..

Spoiler

... Johnny dies in the first 10 minutes... off-screen. Seriously, what the hell was that? If you're gonna kill off a character that has been a primary figure in all the previous games, you better know how to properly kill him off, not in some half-ass way.

You know, that theory about the whole game being a movie that Pierce wrote is becoming more and more believable to me, and I would give them major props if that was really the case.

Also, I didn't like how anti-climactic beating some of the gang leaders were. The first one I wasn't even sure if he was dead or not. Another thing is that, and this might sound weird, I'd like it if they tone down the whole over-the-top silly aspect a bit. Make it like SR2, where it's a bit more tamed but still fun.

As for gameplay, I'd like to see gun customization fleshed out a bit more, like instead of just upgrading them, maybe add an attachment feature, because sometimes I don't want incendiary rounds. I like the idea of respect being treated as more like EXP, so I'd like it if they tweaked that a bit more. I'd also like more variation with the combat.

Graphically, I bit more like SR3, but maybe stylize it a bit more. Adding more style to the visuals can help mask the technical faults that the series is known for. Also, not to sound sadistic, but I'd like it if they turned up the violence a bit. If your gonna make the rest of the game super over-the-top, why not make the violence just a ridiculous? It can make thing a bit more fun. For character customization, I'd like it to be more SR2, with the insane amount of detail and variations. Lose the whole STR-FAT-SKN triangle and just bring back the sliders. And yeah, I'd like the option to replay missions again, too.

 

[IronSuplex]

In the first game you could get really blinged out with giant medallions and other crud. Each passing game they cut down the options till we get to SRTT were we get painted on looking crap. So yeah more bling. Everything else that I would want has already been said, so yeah.
On the other hand, stuff that I would really hate to see...
Adultswim radio station, just egh. Theres also that DLC turned SR4 thing, the one about the aliens. From what I read about it, it sounds very lame. Not wacky or silly, just very lame.

 

[The Knightly Gamer]

I really enjoyed SRTT. I found that I had more fun playing it then SR2 (I still love it though). I glad the went in that direction could it have been toned down maybe but its over the top is what made it better in my eyes (expecially over GTA 4).

OT: If SSTR is canon I would love to see a Saints vs the world kind of story. You could have a country run by the saints or you could have the saints take over the planet lol.

 

[The_Lost_King]

I want Gat alive and the storytelling to return to Saints Row 2 style. I liked SR3 but SR2's story was great. I wouldn't mind if it stayed like SR3, but I like SR2's story better.

 

[MajorTomServo]

The one thing I can't believe they haven't had this whole time.

Spoiler: This outfit

 

[BrotherRool]

So for me the absolutely best fun I had with Saints Row 3 was the customisation. I'd bought out every shop in the game before even the introductory tutorial to stealing shops because I was addicted to buying clothes and expressing my character. I'd deliberately change into different outfits depending on the mission. She wore very casual hoodies etc in her own space where she was comfortable, but deliberately provactive/sexy outfits when taking on the main bad guys, because that was her way of showing she had power and then silly outfits to kill random thugs as a disrespect to them...


... so what I want are more ways to express yourself in the game on top of customisation. So
-More control over your gang.
-More natural midsteps, it felt good to take a region over and have your gang there, but I want it so as you increase influence in a district, you naturally see more of your guys pop up in places and start random fights, and more civs are fans of you. Maybe even a few buildings could be redecorated to show Saint dominance when you take control
-More sidequests and missions that express personality. This ones hard to define, I don't even know what I really mean, but I want more missions or things to do that say something about the person doing them. (and I don't mean story missions because story missions kill of bits of your characters personality to make it fix the story. The devs were smart to make very little of the story run on the personality of the boss)

So maybe I'm talking about possible romances? Or funny stuff you can do to screw with other gangs, crash their parties or something. It's hard to do but sometimes the game can make me feel like I'm all dressed up with nowhere to go.


-Finally this is the one I can't ever see happening, or other people agreeing with me on, but less straight up evil main missions. Most of them were fun cool stuff, I enjoyed the Saints turned Megacoporation dynamic that I thought helped stop it ever feeling too serious, but then every now and then you'd have a mission where you traffic people that made me feel a bit uncomfortable (because of all the games in the world, somehow Saints Row 3 managed to make me feel invested in my character =D)

 

[Shoggoth2588]

- More customization. Yeah, it's already kinda big and expansive, but I want moar! More hairstyles! More colors! More clothes! MOAR!!
(also, please make shirts and coats/jackets/etc. separate again, I'm sick of games mushing the two together in one torso category)
- Even if the game now has regenerating health, put some restaurants back in. I mean, in Steelport, the only food things you see are the one diner and signs for Joe Cola. You telling me a city wouldn't have anywhere to eat? Just looks weird.

It seemed to me that a lot of character customization was downgraded between Saint's Row 2 and 3. I'd love to see nuanced customization come back for the 4th: let me dress up as a mascot or super hero but also let me pick and chose my socks, underwear, etc. I agree with the food too! I liked being able to stock up on baconators in preparation for a mission.

---

Bring back pre-mission cinematics please. I like context for the missions and mini-games and really wanted to see what kind of person was behind Professor Genki (I was thinking he would be someone like Shigeru Miyamoto if he was a chaotic-evil type of person).

Make the enemy gangs their own entities instead of consolidating them like they did with The Third. If there's an overarching villain to be dealt with that's fine but each of the gangs you go up against should be their own entities working for their own best interests.

Retcon the Johnny Gat thing. Seriously. Retcon the Johnny Gat thing.

Bring it to the Wii U! The gamepad can be used for customized tagging yo! Same with car customization as another optional mini-game.

More video games. Actual games too like a Tetris Clone, a Peggle clone, etc.

BRING BACK SEPTIC AVENGER!!!

BRING BACK CROWD CONTROL!!!!!!!!!!

BRING BACK SEPTIC FUCKING AVENGER!!!!!!!!

 

[LGC Pominator]

Honestly I want SRTT declared non-canon, Johnny Gat brought back, and a return to the fight against Ultor's masako team, leading to Boss finally getting some kind of revenge against Dex... seriously, the fact that that storyline was roundly ignored by Volition in favour of going even more "wacky" and "crazy" was ridiculous

And honestly I partly blame Yahtzee for that
not in any major way obviously, I mean, game developers have to know better than to just act on a stupid impulsive desire to pander to a particular reviewer (who we just KNOW would be quoted on the post-release box art and DLC announcements if he said it was good), however Yahtzee himself laid the seeds for that happening.
By which I mean, the fact that SR2, which was a brilliant game for numerous reasons, many of them related to how well the gameplay and story blended together, was roundly praised by ZP for, basically, being over the top, wacky and stupid, when also criticising GTA IV for trying too hard to be "gritty and realistic", ignore then the fact that some of the most amazing scenes in SR2 were the ones featuring Carlos and Jessica, not to mention the fate of poor Donny... That being ignored in favour of going all out with the stupid and wacky stuff, even before release I got to thinking this game won't do too well. It tried so hard to just play into the niche it built for itself by the previous game being a more lighthearted GTA, and instead it just doesn't even compare.
[/rant]

So yeah, more of a mature tone, keep the crazy stuff, but make the game less about being some all powerful gang warlord in a floral print dress, and let the game follow the story it was originally going for.
Also...
The upgrade system...
FIX THE UPGRADE SYSTEM!
The fact that by the time I have played through half of the games paltry collection of minigames, I am able to "upgrade" my character to immortality just takes away any of the challenge the game might have possessed if the missions weren't so infuriatingly simple.
If a player wants immortality and to just jump in, spawn 1000 Vice Kings and Westside Rollerz and just get mad wae it, fine, then enter a cheat code on the phone, not that hard, making the ability to be an immortal player an unlockable progression bonus for your character is ridiculous, and not even the funny kind.

Since the whole city mechanic from SR1 and 2 worked so well, I would be happy to see an expansion of this to a larger scale, where you can actually battle across fictional America and take multiple cities and go on an all out gang war against Ultor.

And before people say that it would take too long to make multiple cities, I refuse to believe that making Steelport took more than a few weeks AT MOST, the city felt entirely like a copy-pasted Stilwater with the fun surgically removed.

Finally, though there are a thousand things more i want in SR4, the most important thing I want, is the game that was demoed in the SR3 "power" trailer... That. Game. Looked. AWESOME
WHY COULDN'T WE HAVE THAT GAME?!

 

[bossfight1]

I thoroughly enjoyed Saints Row 3, but I think the co-op could have really used split-screen; not all my friends have a PS3 and if I have em over it would be nice to have em jump in to assist in the dildo beatdowns.

 

[ShinyCharizard]

A bigger and more alive feeling city.

 

[xShredd]

Are we sure that the fourth game will be released? Previously, I've heard that Activision was going to stop publishing and end the Saint's Row series. It would be great if they continued to do so.

I would prefer a better engine and action flow, even though it was a pretty fun game to play, I couldn't get over the fact that the action pace gets cut from time to time.

 

[Hagi]

I honestly don't know the first thing about Saint's Row except what's seen in some news stories.

But I can say that, for the cause of gender equality, this game desperately needs a Boob-Bat. A long, floppy, hanging Boob-Bat. It'd probably function somewhere more akin to a whip than a bat though.

 

[Patrick Buck]

Well if they made the series a bit more serious... but with a wacky streak, like they did in saints row 2....
And basically the ability to replay missions, maybe a few ways to complete the mission as well, to add to the replayablity. I finished the game, and didn't really want to play it again.