My personal feelings on the Reboot is simply it doesn’t feel like Saints Row and you can tell that’s the case due to the fact that elements of AoM are still apparent in them.
Combat and Overall Gameplay never felt right.
Side-Diversions became a shell of their former self. For example review bombing survival just isn’t fun compared to stuff in the past like Zombie Uprising and FUZZ (even if FUZZ would never be made today cause of the discussion regarding Police Procedures).
It’s also a sense of Reward for the stuff you do. Saints Row 2 encouraged the player to do just about everything the game had to offer with the game cause you could unlock various Passive Abilities such as Shop Discounts, Improved Health Regen, Unlimited Ammo, Fire/Bullet Resistance, Unlimited Sprint, and a series of Cars and Outfits. Saints Row 3/4 streamlined this with the Respect Upgrade System which IMO isn’t rewarding but that’s just me.
Story
Saints Row 1 and 2 are two perfectly compatible stories that compliment one another. It has friendship, betrayal, you simply get to see how The Playah (soon to be the Boss as of SR2) gets molded into a very jaded and apathetic individual that borders the line between a remorseful human being to a full fledge Psychopath. Saints Row stories aren’t anything special, but there’s more interest in the characters and definitely stakes with them compared to later entries where they die and get retconned to be back alive or you die and a magical ending from god resets everything.
3 and 4 is when the series got more mainstream and simplified. By extension the story too were in 3 they rarely mention the past games. And 4 where they use the past games as nostalgia for levels cause they decided to throw the kitchen sink at the wall.
The Reboot and it’s story is messy, there was a very clear direction they wanted to go, but in the process they made a very non saints row story that could of been a completely different game. I don’t like the characters and writing personally but that’s cause it tries to be relatable and quirky when it’s just cringy and tone deaf.
Saints Row is is allowed to have quirky elements to it. There’s a mission dedicated to getting drugged in Saint Row 2 and various Easter Eggs/ Diversions that exist, but they don’t take away from the main story. They’re side content for a reason. The Reboot makes a whole game out of it to a lesser degree since SR4 exists, but I can say SR4 has better writing even if it isn’t good.
The point is from the start we got a good idea of what we were getting into with the whole “balls, balls, shit balls, holy cow balls” I didn’t like it, it was an attempt to be funny and it well and simply bombed.
I’ll end what I have to say here, but I was really hoping they fixed up the reboot in terms of balances and while they made changes the game still never felt right to me. It’s a shame Saints Row became this, but what can you do. Even the best games fall short and it will take a new team with a clear vision and total creative control to make a good Saints Row game.
