Just like its predecessor, as a game, this is no more than passable, but as a business move, it's kind of a masterstroke.
GRAND THEFT AUTO IV had finally come out, and while it was widely celebrated, you could make an argument that it was certainly a hell of a lot less FUN than previous entries in that series - focused as it was on (relative) realism, a "gritty" story, and the colors brown and gray. There was a segment of the gaming community that, while they enjoyed and appreciated their dour, gross, frustratingly checkpoint-less time with Niko Bellic and all those other desperately unlikable pricks, they longed for the salad days of SAN ANDREAS' jetpacks and eating fast food until CJ was fat.
So, once again, the SAINTS ROW guys stayed ahead of the curve and steered their series right into that lane, cranking everything about their sequel up into cartoon territory. The glimpses of humor seen in the otherwise run-of-the-mill video game crime narrative from the first one are immediately the focus of the whole thing here, and before you know it, you're spraying cop cars with poop, intervening in a battle between armies of pirates and ninjas, and prostituting yourself. Any grounding in the plot is long gone, and it's a high-flying, ultra-violent, juvenile quip-a-second action movie that pauses every once in a while to continue a thread from the first game or make a crack about evil corporations and gentrification. It's ... fine. The humor was a little cringey and a lot retrograde even in 2008, and time certainly hasn't been kind to it, but as an attempt to do its own thing and set itself apart, it's successful enough.
Much more successful are a ton of small gameplay tweaks that directly fix a bunch of annoyances from the last game - all clearly purpose-driven to make the game more fun and accessible. Everything from mid-mission checkpoints, to easy restarting for minigames, to tangible, fun rewards of unique weapons or character upgrades for close to anything you can accomplish seems like a response to any and every complaint anyone had, and that's a great place to put your focus. If you boil it down, it's pretty much the exact same game, structure-wise (and even most of the locations and activities are lifted straight out), but it feels brand new just from the mountain of smart little adjustments that were made. They managed almost a full-on copy/paste, but you couldn't be happier about it.
It's still really rough around the edges - it's clear that polish was not a priority, but maybe that's okay. An identity, QOL, and giving people what they want can trump that sometimes. The fact that this, a mechanically not-that-different sequel to a certified "GTA Clone", was a huge hit only a couple months after the real deal launched seems to prove it!
GRAND THEFT AUTO IV had finally come out, and while it was widely celebrated, you could make an argument that it was certainly a hell of a lot less FUN than previous entries in that series - focused as it was on (relative) realism, a "gritty" story, and the colors brown and gray. There was a segment of the gaming community that, while they enjoyed and appreciated their dour, gross, frustratingly checkpoint-less time with Niko Bellic and all those other desperately unlikable pricks, they longed for the salad days of SAN ANDREAS' jetpacks and eating fast food until CJ was fat.
So, once again, the SAINTS ROW guys stayed ahead of the curve and steered their series right into that lane, cranking everything about their sequel up into cartoon territory. The glimpses of humor seen in the otherwise run-of-the-mill video game crime narrative from the first one are immediately the focus of the whole thing here, and before you know it, you're spraying cop cars with poop, intervening in a battle between armies of pirates and ninjas, and prostituting yourself. Any grounding in the plot is long gone, and it's a high-flying, ultra-violent, juvenile quip-a-second action movie that pauses every once in a while to continue a thread from the first game or make a crack about evil corporations and gentrification. It's ... fine. The humor was a little cringey and a lot retrograde even in 2008, and time certainly hasn't been kind to it, but as an attempt to do its own thing and set itself apart, it's successful enough.
Much more successful are a ton of small gameplay tweaks that directly fix a bunch of annoyances from the last game - all clearly purpose-driven to make the game more fun and accessible. Everything from mid-mission checkpoints, to easy restarting for minigames, to tangible, fun rewards of unique weapons or character upgrades for close to anything you can accomplish seems like a response to any and every complaint anyone had, and that's a great place to put your focus. If you boil it down, it's pretty much the exact same game, structure-wise (and even most of the locations and activities are lifted straight out), but it feels brand new just from the mountain of smart little adjustments that were made. They managed almost a full-on copy/paste, but you couldn't be happier about it.
It's still really rough around the edges - it's clear that polish was not a priority, but maybe that's okay. An identity, QOL, and giving people what they want can trump that sometimes. The fact that this, a mechanically not-that-different sequel to a certified "GTA Clone", was a huge hit only a couple months after the real deal launched seems to prove it!