In this text I do not want to disparage this series of games or the people who like it. I still want to convey my thoughts about the changes in this series, many of which can hardly be called positive. However, let’s not delay the inevitable and let’s start.
Early Life of the Saints
Back in 2006 (damn, 9 years have already passed) I bought a wonderful Xbox 360 console. At the time it had better exclusives than PS3. It was only a couple of years later that the Japanese launched their conveyor of exclusives.
Then I got my hands on the game Saints Row. I can’t say that the game sunk into my soul, but in comparison with Gta: San Adreas, which was released on PC almost a year ago, Saints gave the player a more serious plot and a more complete world… However, in other respects GTA won. Seriously, who at a young age wouldn’t choose jackpacks and beating “fallen women” with a rubber dildo?? And so it turned out that after completing the story, the game went to gather dust on the shelf.
It’s 2008 and GTA 4 came out. And a couple of months later, the 2nd part of the Saints from 3rd Street quietly came out. At that moment, few people paid attention to her. For what? When you can go bowling with your cousin or drag a cop into bed. But then. When Liberty City was 100% explored and the player began to look for new experiences, then the time had come for Saints Row 2.
The 2nd part of the Saints continued the plot of the first part, which was unexpected for a game of this genre. The GTA series has taught us to expect a new story and new characters every time with the rare appearance of references to past parts. And here we are given the old protagonist (although we were free to change his race and even gender!) and are sent to the old year, which has nevertheless undergone some changes, in search of old acquaintances.
The original game had a serious plot, telling about the struggle for the territory of several factions, and rarely let the player have fun. In the second part, the developers clearly understood that Rockstar had moved away from carelessness to more serious gameplay, although still not completely, leaving the player more than one chance to indulge in madness. And therefore, the scriptwriters of the 2nd part of the Saints received the go-ahead to use hard drugs (although then their doses were limited, judging by the following parts), and at the same time they generously sprinkled coke on the rest of the team.
Thanks to this, we got an absolutely incredible set of missions, in which we constantly received endless ammo, killed hordes of enemies and stole plutonium from a nuclear power plant. We got many new types of part-time jobs in addition to the old ones that migrated from the first part. We’ve been set on fire and rode buggies around checkpoints, we’ve doused buildings with sewage to reduce their value, and we’ve even appeared on a reality show as a lawman…dispersing protesters with a chainsaw.
But despite this madness, we had a pretty good story with some drama! According to the plot, we led the “3rd Street Saints” gang, which we joined in the first part… Although it was easy to lead, because.To. the whole gang had disintegrated since the first part and for most of the game we reassembled people and recaptured territories that were divided between three gangs: the Samedi Children, who sell drugs, the Ronins, the local yakuza, and the Brotherhood, pumped-up rednecks on SUVs.
As we completed missions, we came into conflict with these groups, and.To. we could carry out missions against all 3 gangs at the same time, the level of drama went through the roof. We lost our fighters and took terribly revenge. Moreover, the showdown with the Brotherhood and the Ronins is something so cool that with each subsequent playthrough I get goosebumps again and again.
After a couple of missions against the Brotherhood, we learn that they have kidnapped our “sergeant” and are driving around in a jeep with him… tied by the leg with a chain to the rear bumper. We stop the car and brutally kill everyone in it, but it’s too late and our guy dies in our arms.
Naturally, we cannot leave it just like that and begin to take terribly revenge. Well, I won’t tell you how we will do it, you need to see it for yourself. Let me just say that it will be extremely spectacular and cruel. Moreover, this is not the ostentatious cruelty from Postal or Manhunt, but a much more thoughtful revenge.
It’s different with Ronin. In Stillwater, this gang is represented by a scion of a large Yakuza family. He is a “young and hot guy” who makes rash decisions…for which he will pay later. After a couple of missions, he decides to strike the house of our "sergeant" and closest friend Gatt. Gatt himself is wounded and his wife is brutally killed.
Later, when Gat leaves the hospital, http://casino-royale-online.uk/ our "heroes" decide to strike back. Again, I won’t tell you everything, but I will say that the video at the end of the mission in the cemetery is one of the most epic I’ve seen. Separated from the game itself, it doesn’t look so spectacular, but when you know the whole story up to this point… Damn, this game is worth playing for.
For now, let’s stop admiring the 2nd part of the Saints, after all, this is not a review, but something else, and let’s move on to the next part of the story.
The Second Boondock Saints The 3rd Street Saints gained more popularity than the first part, but failed to find the love of the masses due to the clash with GTA 4 and some seriousness of the plot… which really melts me to this day.
But the developers did not decide not to stop and, apparently encouraged by the effect of drugs on the scriptwriters, they brought a couple of dump trucks of all kinds of drugs to the offices. Everyone knows what happened in the end. The game received universal recognition and love from young and not so gamers around the world.
The reasons for such love are not difficult to understand. While the 5th part of GTA is being made, no other similar projects have come out… No, they have come out (the magnificent Sleeping Dogs, for example), but all of them were either completely out of budget or too serious. And the players started to miss something crazy. A t.To. the Postal series with the release of the 3rd part ceased to show at least some hope, and there were no other adequate (and also not adequate) contenders, then the public choice was obvious. Although even if there were other games of a similar genre, we must admit that by the 3rd part the game had made a big step forward in many directions. The picture, animation, control of cars and other equipment have been improved. It’s a beautiful picture, really? Then why did I decide to grumble about “the grass was greener before?”? Let’s figure it out.
What’s wrong with the Saints?
Reviewing the already written text, I am horrified by the final size of the post… I hope that at least a couple of people will read to these lines.
To begin with, I want to emphasize once again that I am not saying that the 3rd, 4th and… um… 4,5th parts are bad. No. I’ve passed them all. And more than once. I bought them all. And I even bought almost all the DLC. And if I choose what to replay from the series, I will give preference to the 3rd or 4th parts. What still makes me say that the new parts of the Saints are not as cool as they could be?
Let’s start with customization. Yes, to this day Saints has one of the highest quality editors, and it is even better than the character editors from some RPGs (let’s not point fingers at TES 4 and TES 5, they are getting kicked anyway). But let’s compare what we could do in the 2nd part and in the new 3rd ones.
But before that, I’ll say a few words about the new parts, namely Saints Row 3, Saints Row 4 and Saints Row…um…in hell, because the name is too pretentious. I will often combine them into one whole, because they are similar in many ways…too many ways. But this is also a little later.
If we talk about customizing the character itself (his appearance, physique, etc.), then we can only note the improvement of this editor. Hairstyles have become more…um…interesting and varied, sliders have become more adequate. And the overall appearance of the editor has become more pleasant.
Similar things can be said about the car editor, although there are both pros and cons. Because some of the features from the 2nd part migrated to the subsequent ones, some were removed, and some new ones are even pleasing. But the overall impression remains positive.
But then we go to a clothing store and see THIS. We used to have several "layers" of clothing. The upper one, which included jackets, coats, jackets, raincoats, etc., shirts, containing both basketball T-shirts and expensive shirts and T-shirts. Moreover, each item of clothing (okay, okay, I’m exaggerating, not every one, although this was rather an exception…) contained settings such as color, “style” there. Moreover, we could not only apply some kind of pattern or logo, but also choose exactly how we would wear the item. For example, a jacket could be buttoned with all buttons, just one, or even unbuttoned. Thus, by combining several layers of clothing, we could achieve many different clothing styles.
This may have been taken away from us from the 3rd part. We can only change the color, and sometimes not even all the elements, and that’s all. This will melt away, although it should be noted that if you are not so stubborn as to engage in such fine tuning of the “charm”, then most likely you will not notice this minus.
I also note that the choice of piercings, tattoos and accessories has also been reduced. Although in the case of tattoos this was only beneficial, because.To. the developers drew more impressive tattoos. Well, to conclude this topic, I’ll say that 3-4 types of stores are convenient, but there is no such joyful feeling when you were driving through the city to buy a new bra in a women’s clothing store with the accumulated funds, which existed in only one copy on the map.
Now let’s touch on another area of gameplay. Hardcore. This is not to say that the game was extremely difficult. For example, the same first Uncharted, even at an easy difficulty level, forced the player to tense up during firefights. But at a high level of difficulty we had to wait in shelters (and in the second part there was no “sticking” to shelters, like in some Gears of War), use hostages or… become a god. I mean various bonuses that increase our regeneration, the number of cartridges, fire protection and many other “passives”. All of them migrated to subsequent parts and are now purchased through a mobile phone, although for some especially tasty abilities, you need to fulfill some conditions.
In the second part, we had to do “part-time jobs”, these are side quests that had 6 levels. Each subsequent one was more difficult than the previous one, but the rewards were appropriate. We were given money, authority and all sorts of bonuses for completing 3 and 6 tasks from the series. Both money and authority were a very good bonus, but the main goal was precisely in abilities and weapons. For example, when completing all 6 tasks for collecting prostitutes, we received accelerated regeneration, which would save our lives more than once, and after completing 6 levels of “drug trafficking” we were given endless ammunition for SMGs, and this was just very cool and allowed us not to worry about the lack of ammunition.
And the tasks themselves were often more difficult than the missions in 3 Saints. The boss battles are especially memorable. Either we had to fight in the arena against rednecks in giant SUVs, then we had to run from a mad black man in a Hummer with a machine gun through a supermarket, or even make our way to the top of a skyscraper under fire from attack helicopters.
I can’t say that in the 3rd and later parts I had to replay the main mission…except for cases accompanied by NPCs, but there’s nothing to criticize the game for, because there are few games in which such missions do not make you want to drown the developers.
Holy Trinity from 3rd Street
What else can be noted? Plot? Yes, why not. It cannot be said that the plot of the first parts was a stunning drama with elements of a thriller and detective story. No. But the presence of some drama and at times the increasing seriousness of what was happening played well on emotions and made it possible not to lose interest in what was happening until the final credits.
In the 3rd and 4th parts the plot became more crazy and on the one hand this is good… Or rather it would be good if ALL story missions were like this. But no. After the first 3-4 missions, which set you up for a certain pace of the story and you already expect that there will only be more to come… and you get missions teaching tuning, completing side quests and other trash. Then the game returns to its previous pace, but after the storming of the first gang’s base, everything slows down again and we again complete several boring side-quests under the guise of story tasks.
Although I will say in defense of the game that towards the end everything picks up momentum sharply and does not let go until the very end credits. And already the song “I need a hero” in one of the versions of the final mission is a masterpiece.
But it’s still a pity that the developers have completely moved away from seriousness towards frenzy and sodomy, although I can’t say that this is bad. And it’s largely thanks to this nonsense that she became so popular.
What else can you grumble about?? About the engine? Quite. As you might guess, all parts after the 3rd are developed on the same engine. Can’t say it’s completely bad. After all, the game looks neat and quite beautiful for its niche (although the guys from Rockstar, with their 5th part of the car thief with nexgen, hint that it’s time to do something new). And unlike the careless developers of one famous RPG series… even two series, the Saints have normal pictures, animation, and physics (yes, yes, again I’m not pointing a finger at the Gazebo with TES and Fallout).
But still, when you change the number in the name of the game, you want to see something more than just a new plot. And for the third time we are being fed the same city with some minor changes, but by giving new abilities they are trying to hide this sad fact from the player.
But you know what? I started typing another paragraph and realized. Why is all this? I really love this series. I love part 3 for the opening missions and the federal ending… finales. I love part 2 for the great mix of madness and good drama in the plot. I love part 4 for the many references and great music (and there is a radio OUTSIDE THE CAR!). I also like the new part, although I haven’t even finished half of it yet, but I always liked Gat as a character, and I still like the theme.
So I think the time for grumbling is over. It’s time to accept that everything is changing (except for the terrible animation in TES). And we have to accept it. Look for the good in the new and don’t forget the good in the old. While we love old games, we should not refuse new toys just because of the “color of the grass”. Heh, in relation to the Saints, the word “grass” has several meanings.
So thank you to everyone who read. I hope to read your interesting comments.
P.WITH. the next grunt will be on one of the following series: The Elder Scrolls, Gothic and Fable. Which one exactly?? You can influence this with your comments.
Shaundi and her extraordinary… um… abilities
Thank you for your attention and time.P.P.WITH. Tomorrow I’ll add some formatting and look again for errors. But that’s all tomorrow. Good night everyone.