(Disclaimer, This was written in Feb, 16, 2017 on my personal Wordpress, I have not updated the Agents of Mayhem Parts, because I have yet to actually play AOM, nor is it really relevant to the argument in the Essay)
So I remember my Junior year of High School, I was sitting in the Chess Club listening to my cousin ramble on about how he got a game for his new Xbox 360 that he thought was superior to San Andreas (which came out a few months prior). He was big into graphics and explosions, I was more geared towards stories, but I figured what the hell - I’ll give it a shot.
So I played it for a bit, he was new to games, where I’d been playing since before I could literally talk. So a few things I noticed right off the bat was the game was so much smaller than San Andreas, and that the gangs were just palate swaps of the GTA ones.
I remarked how I half expected the Saints to be running around in green (fun fact that was their original color, it was changed to purple when San Andreas was launched). I remember hating the fact the missions were almost an hour long and had no checkpoints. It was an insanely unforgiving game, and I just got bored of it. I remember thinking okay why can I customize but not play as a girl?
I remember being mad I couldn’t drive a motorcycle, ride a bike even. The only thing I really did enjoy was the random dialogue hostages made when you hijacked a car, or watching pedestrians shouting at my cousin’s rampages when a person shouted “you can’t hit me I was the homecoming queen.” I would giggled immaturely watching him slam on the breaks and chase after her. But then after a while the game just sat on the shelf.
Saints Row or now SR1 was just that GTA Clone that had less than GTA and was unforgivably difficult, the only thing that stood out was the bombing of the main character at the end.
Fast forward one year later, my cousin starts yammering again begging me to play the new Saints Row Game. He got SR2 and my only thoughts were “I hated the last one, why would I play this?” But to get him to shut up I agreed. He was so confident I would like it, he handed me the controller and told me to make my own save and go first. Glancing at him I nodded and started, it went through a recap of the first game, told you where the old gang was, then it got to the snarky humor like “for a dead girl she sure releases a lot of albums” which I had watched him play SR1 so the Aisha reference made me laugh.
Then we got the character customization, not only could you play a girl but gender was a slider, something I had never seen before. I was amazed at the sheer customization options available to the game. Not only that, the vehicles I wanted were in the game, well not bicycles but who cares, second checkpoints were included, and third the map was gigantic compared to the first game. I genuinely felt like Stillwater was a real place, I felt invested, and then I decided let’s play the brotherhood first.
Having to watch my character mercy kill Carlos, then trapping the gang leader’s girlfriend in her own car so he kills her by accident, then the torture of the gang leader’s friend with fireworks I just remember screaming "DAMN" at the screen. I wanted to play; I loved watching the game evolve around me. Hell F.U.Z.Z, Septic Avenger, and the mini-game where you whore yourself out literally in the gas station bathroom became some of my favorite side activities just because they were so damn creative.
I wound up replaying SR2 more than he did; to this day it’s still my favorite of the series. However this is where I have to ask the fans of SR2 to keep an open mind.
SR2 is still to this day superior to any GTA game ever made, not just in story, tone, and atmosphere, but also game play, creativity and customization. That creates the problem though. SR1 and SR2 are basically the same game. Both games you start from nobody to biggest threat in the city. Playing a third game like this again would have been boring, while I miss the sheer customization of 2, the awesome mini-games I want to return and so on.
I am glad it took a less dark tone. SR2 was known for its jaw dropping moments that caused the player to go “what the hell!” at the player character. They would do something so sadistic that it shocked you. Problem is we would expect this if the games followed the same formula, it would suffer the problem that Modern Warfare has, by putting a shocking twist in each game players were expecting it, and thus it lost its value and appeal.
SR2 came and went; I got invested in Mass Effect and more or less just remembered it as a rare gem that could never be copied. I didn’t want another GTA clone; I wanted the series to stand on its own, without GTA. Well come 2010 I saw the Kanye West: Power SR3 Trailer. From the moment I saw the billboard with Saints flow, to the bombastic nature of Kanye West playing, to the elevator guard getting stabbed, I was hooked. I wanted the series to keep going, I wanted them to keep getting better and this looked like it was trying. Finally in 2011, I played it on pre-order and despite problems it had, like fewer mini-games, some mild repetition, and less customization, this game did what I hoped. SR3 was not a GTA clone; it had ascended to an 80’s action movie you could play. It also gave us a reason for the boss being more mellowed out, something I appreciated since let’s face it if the boss stayed that sadistic we would have lost interest in them, like most people did with Manhunt.
It experimented with mixing the insanity of movies like Demolition Man, Mad Max, even the bullshit drama of wrestling. Was the game great? No, it had pretty much just two gangs, since all syndicate gangs worked together and didn’t feel too different, but I can say this I’ve replayed it more than I did of GTA 5. But then there is the interesting thing: most of the voice lines mention that the Boss got therapy between SR2 and SR3 so right there we could see a future instalment where the Boss didn’t in a parallel universe. But the game also gives us a choice between keeping the mellower boss or reverting back to SR2.
By taking down Killbane you are returning to your old roots, and this also makes a spin off point in the series for a parallel universe. Saints Row the Third is what happens when you let Jon Wu direct a video game, it’s Face Off meets Demolition Man.
So now SR4, the one people are torn about and for some reason still comparing to GTA. Let me stop you there - seriously stop comparing them. Saints Row hasn’t been a GTA clone since SR2 and back then, it blew them out of the water. Starting with SR3 Volition tried to make Saints Row into its own thing. Yes, you had gangs, a Sandbox, open world, but that’s it. SR4 made it clear that Saints Row would be known in the future for its own spin off clones. Saints Row, like Legend of Zelda, took an already existing style of game play and design and made its own thing with it. Hell, Saints Row is already doing its own parallel universe with Agents of Mayhem. Now the Boss is called Brimstone and is a woman in charge of an army using a logo almost identical to the Saints.
This is knowing your IP and evolving it, GTA will always be what it is. But if blowing up the earth and then sending the main character to hell so their enforcer can shoot Satan in the face hasn’t told you anything, Volition won’t return to its GTA clone roots, they already beat Rockstar with SR2. I look forward to the new Agents of Mayhem, I look forward to seeing how much more Volition can remind people “hey you are playing a video game, have some fun”.