Saints Row 4

[goh]

Ironically enough the same inital report they had as Saints Row 3. They're dropping the ridiculous.

What would Saints Row be without the VTOL jets and giant purple dildos? I'm not sure myself, but recently crowned THQ president and Naughty Dog co-founder Jason Rubin wants to find out. In an interview with Polygon, Rubin aired his grievances over Saints Row 3's tone and crass humor and his intention to change that in future entries.

"Why couldn't that be a Red Dead Redemption or a Skyrim?" Rubin asked. "I look at that title and I say, ‘Who cares what it is and why it got to be what it is? From that team we can make something that isn't embarrassing."

For clarification, Rubin is not saying the quality of the game is embarrassing but that its mature comedic presentation, that limits the game's potential audience, is embarrassing. That Rubin would openly state his dislike of the game's humor and his intentions to change the game are a bit upsetting as a series fan. Before Saints Row found its voice and over-the-top sensibilities, it was just a next-gen Grand Theft Auto clone. In this instance, bringing Saints Row back to its roots would not be a good thing.

"[Mature humor] works for South Park, but I'm not sure it does elsewhere," Rubin said. "I don't think (Volition) chose to do what they did because they had all of the options available to them. It was the environment at the time ... I know I can change that."

As THQ's new president, Rubin seems pretty gung-ho about expanding its brands' audiences, instead of focusing on the niche audiences the company has appealed to in the past.

http://www.destructoid.com/new-thq-president-wants-an-adult-humor-free-saints-row-229326.phtml

Of course Saints Row 3 ended up being the most ridiculous yet. Tried too hard in some places.

[kingkilla56]

Re: Saints Row 4

Wow I give the President of the company credit for coming out and making such a strong declaration about the series.

I did think it got way too out of hand but thats what Saints Row is. I am very curious to how this title will turn out under his direction or at least his orders.

[HealyMonster]

Re: Saints Row 4

I agree with him. What makes GTA great is how subtle it is. Certainly over the course of the last 10 years GTA has had its moments, but it didnt set out to be....stupid. Its had its "black coffee" moments, naked dudes doing drugs or just acting stupid, but The reason I didnt care to even try SR3 is because its like who cares what the story is when your doing it in some stupid outfit with dildos strapped on you and whatnot.

[TracerBullet]

Re: Saints Row 4

I think I'd be happy if it went back to the amount of ridiculousness in the first two games. The Third was kind of out there, even for them.

[areobee401]

Re: Saints Row 4

I'd welcome a more realistic Saints Row. Interested in seeing what they can come up with.

[Sandman42]

Re: Saints Row 4

The thing that draws me to Saints Row is how ridiculous it gets. If I wanted something more grounded in reality I'd play GTA or Mafia or whatever other sandbox game.

I need helicopter jumps set to "Power", autotuned sex slaves, exploding rickshaws, Tron levels with text adventures, and Apocofists in my Saints Row. I don't know if they could get more ridiculous than Saints Row 3, but I think it would be a bad choice to abandon what they had going.

[Behindshadows]

Re: Saints Row 4

I honestly respect the guy trying to change the direction and get the series back on track.

I will say Saints Row 3 was indeed a fun ride and I loved every second of it, my only problem with it, is it kind of went left with everything and also it strayed away from story in replacement with comical corners.

People use to pick on me on OS when I said you had to play the original to honestly understand the others. Mainly because the stories, tie together and there were developed characters that were linked to the other games. Some dead and some alive.

Saints Row had a developing story tied behind all the crazy action and gun battles and hood take-overs.

Spoiler

Saints Row 1 was about you being a saved individual who was asked to join the Saints. Supposedly you were helping them clean up the street from other gangs who were considered corrupt.

After making the Saints bigger than life and cleaning the streets up, you were setup on a suicide mission which lead to your supposed death!

Finding out that the guys who recruited you were cops and feds undercover, allowing you to kill the gangs in ways they couldn't by law. In the end getting rid of you once the jobs were done.

This is where everything leads to Saints Row 2, where it continues where part 1 left off.

Tying all events together and bringing back memories and original characters to further into a continuing story.

Part 3 kind of strayed away, while still bringing up events in part 2, there was a lot missing and so much was left out.

I hope Part 4 will get back on track with the story and still be enjoyable.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: Saints Row 4

For Rubin:

Spoiler

So, he wants to go back to being another IP clone? It's cool that he wants a "serious" and "respected" IP, but why does he think its a good idea to take an already established IP that is pretty much the only game of its kind and make it like everything else? Did SR3 not sell well?

[TheBleedingRed21]

Re: Saints Row 4

I could not even think about purchasing SR3 after seeing some gameplay. Maybe for $10 I would but to me it seemed too stupid, I would welcome a more GTA approach but then again, maybe if I played SR3, I might like it!

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: Saints Row 4

If people want GTA, they can buy GTA. Why does everything have to be a version of something else? I thought the point of this series was to have wacky, wild, cartoony fun? Sure, SR3 may not have been the best story (neither was GTA), but if I worked on that game I would be pissed right now. SR3 did have a ton of goofy, over-the-top ridiculousness, but it was FUN and the missions were pretty creative in all their circus stirring glory. Why they would want to steer into a more sterile, straight-forward direction is dumb. GTA 4 might have done a lot of things right, but it wasn't as fun to play to me as Saints Row. If that's the way they go then I guess I won't be playing.

[Blzer]

Re: Saints Row 4

I could not even think about purchasing SR3 after seeing some gameplay. Maybe for $10 I would but to me it seemed too stupid, I would welcome a more GTA approach but then again, maybe if I played SR3, I might like it!

I made a blind pre-order for it, and have logged 55 hours into it in total. Awesome game.

[michigan21]

Re: Saints Row 4

SR3 sucked ***. Way too over the top and frat boy for me. The first two had Stillwater, a city alive with activity and corruption. I played sr3 for a few days and hated it. The super steroid guys. Come on man.

[TracerBullet]

Re: Saints Row 4

I don't think it needs to be serious at all, but I still feel like I enjoyed the story and side stuff a lot more in SR2 (I want more FUZZ).

Also, I don't consider the helicopter drop too ridiculous at all. It was easily a high point for me. Maybe it was just the fact I thought the other two had a much better storyline without being as random as SRTT that made me like them a little more.

I do hope they don't make the missions as linear at the very least. I missed picking which gang to take out first.

One last small gripe is that I hope they get a better soundtrack for the next one. The first two games had much better ones to me.

[areobee401]

Re: Saints Row 4

The Power mission in the last game was one of the coolest things I've done in video games in some time.

The game being even more over the tap didn't really bother me much. It also wouldn't bother me if they went to a more realistic approach. Those guys are talented enough to come up with something fresh and interesting.

[IlliniM1ke]

Re: Saints Row 4

I haven't played SR3 yet (actually just got it in the mail yesterday after finally ordering it) but loved the first two.

SR3 is obviously way more over the top than the first two, but if he plans to drastically alter the series I hope its just to go back closer to the roots of the first two and not so over the top like the 3rd one seems to be.

I just hope they don't turn it into a regular GTA knockoff, I like the sense of humor in the SR's, the fact they don't take themselves too seriously, they aren't the most realistic but I like that.