Kicked off a mission that had a warning attached to it, turned out to be the final mission. It's long-ish but not nearly as difficult as Saints Row 1 or 2, or any of the GTA III, VC, SA, or IV missions were. Those were maddening, and I'm grateful for games that put something I can finish as the final story mission. Shit, just save the hard stuff for the side missions, let regular joes finish the fucking game.
Watching the SR2022 staff roll, it starts with a dedication to two devs who died during the making of the game, both younger than I am. Then it moves to a long set of credits with lots of pictures of the devs teams at all kinds of events and settings, it looks like they tried to get a picture of everyone in there. Thinking about players pissing on the game when these are the people who put everything into the game, only to have it come out, get trashed, and then Embracer shutters the studio -- well, it hurts. They deserved better.
Though I finished the game, I am going to keep playing through the activities, maybe try for platinum, though I usually don't care about trophies. A lot of heart went into this game.
Pros
- It's a SAINTS ROW GAME. It's a return to more grounded SR 1-3 era gameplay, with an emphasis on Activities.
- Boss customization is wild, though not as nuts as SR2's, which caused heaps of problems with cinematics. I played the final mission as Mystique from the first X-Men movie.
- Heaps of stuff to do in the open-world.
- Heaps of unlocks - almost every side-gig or Activity unlocks a weapon, clothes, or material for customization
Cons
- Base/HQ customization is limited compared to previous games. There's one HQ, and items around the map can be found, snapped with the camera, and then set up in alcoves or pedestals at the base. It's an OK concept, with limited visual effect. They could have assigned materials to the building, like they have with the clothes and vehicles.
- Visual language in-game is inconsistent. Placing a business on the map brings the player to the business' location, but doesn't clearly state that THAT LOCATION is not where the player carries out that business' operations. There are new pips on the map showing where the Activity is, but there are SO MANY icons on-map at that point, it's not clear. Once arriving at the location, finding the EXACT spot to launch the Activity is not clear. Sometimes there's a consistent prop, but it's not highlighted and can be mistaken for the regular landscape. More often than that, there's NOTHING. I just use the mini-map to move close to the icon's center, and then meander until a prompt appears on the main screen. Like I said, lack-of-polish. It wouldn't surprise me if some Art Director fought with the Designers about having an "immersion breaking" highlight on the screen.
- Gunplay feels stiff, and the default haptic triggers are ridiculous. Sometimes there's lock-on, most times not.
- Perks, skills, power-ups are almost an afterthought. It's like they started making a load-out focus, then abandoned it, but not entirely.
