*spoiler*


Did you get to the part of the main game where you can choose between keeping Josh Birk or having STAG resources to take control of one of the city's district?  Using the STAG City takeover option completes all activities in that district.


*End Spoiler*

Hey Imagine the USA if STAG were real

I'm of the opposite opinion.
Saints Row the Third felt like the worst game overall. It just didn't have an identity. So it felt awkward.
It's the in between game between 2 and 4. Which I would overall deem as polar opposites in spite of how silly some of 2 was.
So it doesn't know if it wants to be more serious game like 2, or the meta cartoon of 4. So it just comes off as half assed. That's before getting to the horrid changes to gameplay.

Tl;dr despite 4 being completely stupid it had a personality. An obnoxious one mind you, but thats more than 3 has. It's (3) a game that doesn't know what it wants to be and the mediocre downgrade in gameplay from its predecessor doesn't help.

Oh and the Syndicate was so fucking lame in comparison to the previous gangs from both 1 and 2.

3 was a nice case of buyer remorse for me.

At least 4 had stuff that wasn't in 2. And Steelports generic design accommodated superpowers better than Stillwater would've.

But pretty much everything 3 had 2 also had. But far more lame. And terrible. No amount of juvenile shit like Dildo bats was gonna fix that, but hey, lolsorandomamirite!? Sigh.

I prefer 3's over the topness honestly. While 2 had some good humor I hated 2's serious elements because they were just so horrifically written. They were either lol edgy, stupid or just plain anticlimactic.

Oh. We'll also need to add Burt Reynolds and Hulk Hogan so we can appeal to all the old people.

Despite the original demographic being like mid-to-late teens to early-to-mid 20s.

Because that makes sense!

He's the first character you meet in 2.
He's the reason the plot gets started in the first place. I cared but that's because I played the game alot. Carlos isn't the greatest character in the series. But Lin, Carlos, and a bunch of other character that get offed in the earlier games served a grander purpose.

It's better he got a good death scene when Johnny Gat get's killed offscreen by some lame goober you kill halfway through the game before he's replaced by a villain who's just as boring except he's a wearing a Lucha Mask (Dex should've been in charge of the Syndicate the whole time. But what the fuck do I know?). Big whoop.

These games aren't what I'd say are emotionally driven but there was some attempt at pathos in 2. The Boss isn't a complex character but there was an attempt to show his/her actions, his/her psychotic, narcissistic ways had consequences. Dropped in 3 because we're a goofy cartoon now, except when we take a break for Shaundi's grieving bitch hour (Because we ruined her character, but who gives a fuck!?). Grab your dildo bat and put on a Furry costume because who fucking cares anymore? We at Volition sure as fuck don't! Steelports a boring grey city with nothing in it but that's fine! The gameplay is a shallow, husk of it's former self, but that's fine, we have coat physics now!

At least 4 dropped all previous pretense of caring and just went for it. Becoming a parody of itself and contemporary Sci-Fi. 3 didn't know what the fuck it wanted to be.

Or you just didn't pay attention. Carlos wasn't Johnny, Pierce, or Shaundi but he had some character to him.

Yeah psychotics killers with no sense of conscience are kinda unlikeable dicks. Trying to glorify his behavior like 3 and 4 did was terrible, and only served to continue 3's big middle finger to 1 and 2. It's like when GTAV tried to make me feel bad for Trevor. Trevor can go to hell (Though so can Franklin and Micheal honestly. Rockstar followed up their best character, John Marston, with 3 of their worst). He's a disgrace to Canada.

Stilwater felt like an actual city. With proper architecture, diverse people, and stuff to do.
Steelport is basically interchangeable with any generic open world enviroment.
Chicago from Watch_Dogs comes to mind. But even then Watch_Dogs had more variety in its world.

Works better for Johnny than it did Boss tbh.

Meh. Just being alot of big rectangles accommodated the superpowers better.

They didn't add much. The city already felt artificial. So being a VR Simulation worked in its favor.