Why don't I make this another two in one blog entries? You're getting two Saints Row theme blogs in one entry is a pretty sweet deal that costs virtually nothing. I also wanna do some SR comparisons why the reboot just doesn't work at all? Either way you can tell how much this franchise meant to me. It's a shame we don't know when it'll return following Volition closed down.
1. My thoughts on original fifth Saints Row plans
The original title was going to be Saints Row Cinco. Cinco is the Spanish/Portuguese word for the number five I looked it up. The original Saints would've returned. They were planning to change the story earlier within Saints Row: The Third's story. Which prevents any further events of that plus SR IV from happening altogether.
To be honest, they also could've recreate this through simulations following SRIV. But I also felt more SR fans would've welcome that more. A lot of people didn't like Gat supposedly killed off in SR3. They would've left Steel Port for Santo Ileso instead. I do like they were going to include a secret mission to confront Dex.
This would've been fitting regarding SR2's secret mission. Where Dex through the company attempted killing off the two men led the gang in one shot. It also would've made up for him being such a forgettable side missions in Gat Out of Hell. A lot of SR fans wanted Dex to get taken down.
They were going to do more of the classic SR style with just enough The Third style. Basically not what the reboot done. I actually felt if that's the right ratio. The actual game play would've been a contender for one of the best in the franchise. Pierce's voice actor had voice overs recorded for the scrapped SR game.
THQ Nordic didn't like any of this. Forcing Deep Silver to come up with a different story. There's even another confirmed scrapped SR story. Again rejected by THQ Nordic possibly for some of the same reasons. This version also would've brought the original Saints back.
Ultor would've returned now that easily could've been interesting. Marshalls seem like a cheap set in for them. Also I never understood why they were treated as one of the main gangs of the reboot either? Obviously they were security above everything else.
Skill Tree would've had a few sections to spice things up. They were going to bring back Body Shields. However Deep Silver felt that was going too far. Criminal Ventures originally going to heavily impact the city itself. Now this easily could've been a rather cool concept.
Proclamation system could've been somewhat interesting as well. Just imagine some YouTubers abusing such an system lol. They originally were going to have Full Cribs with customization for them. Now this personally was a huge mistake to cut from the game.
You can't make several bigger cribs feel like home without customization. It also sounds like you could've went full customization this time. Even the church wasn't off limits to this. Buying furniture from furniture stores could've been interesting. I'm assuming NG+ is short for New Game Plus.
Why would you consider cutting away possible replay value like that? Some people would love to go through the campaigns again with upgrades. Suddenly some of their least favorite sections during their 1st playthroughs is a bit more enjoyable. Cheats would've been an endgame feature.
Although you have to discover an secret massive Genki pyramid. The same line of text in the famous post stated. I can't even believe I'm going to include this in here. "Final game shipped without cheats at launch." Now let that stick into your heads for a moment.
Not only that's a huge sign whatever we ended up with was notably rushed out the door. How did something like this happened in the first place? In some games' cases, having cheats makes em more fun. Some games can just be rather unforgiving at times.
Simply not having cheats in there should've been a crime. The entire larping concept in the reboot was originally going to be just one mission. To be fair, these ended up being surprisingly "better missions." I never said they were a master piece. If it would've been just one mission.
I strongly felt people probably forget about it within reviews or ranting on the game. When you gotta deal with something like that more than once. Especially in a heavily criticized game people going to keep mentioning it. All of this info came from a famous YouTuber named MrSaintGodzilla21.
Whose a huge name within the Saints Row community. According to the famous post, this guy was shown the scrapped version. Mostly described within this long post. I felt pressure played a major role in this. THQ Nordic execs were desperate for success.
It's also possible they weren't familiar with the franchise. Going by all of this it's fair to assume they didn't know Saints Row period. Another huge possibility came into play when Embracer gotten involved. It seems following SR2, the team's control over their franchise kept getting smaller.
Let's be honest if all of that was the main scrapped SR5 game. I probably would've absolutely loved it!!! I would've be fine with retconning SRIV. Where it stands even Gat Out of Hell better than the reboot. I know it's sucks things played out like this. At least we now know what almost could've been despite things.
2. A few Saints Row comparisons
I been putting a lot of thought into this. There's two particular Saints Row games I wanna compare to the reboot. I know most of the internet called it Saints Row 2022. Just to differ it from the original I just prefer Saints Row reboot myself. The first Saints Row game going to be Saints Row 2. I know some might be mixed why not the original?
We can agree SR2 simply done everything better than the original. Therefore, I felt it was a better choice for this. In virtually every possible way SR2 absolutely destroys the reboot. I can't even pick one small positive either. In terms of the story, not even close!!! In the reboot it's about the new Saints. They had to pay their student loans with three previously members in the three main enemy groups.
If it sounds bad already we still got more to cover. Later, The Nahualli attempts to kill the Boss while stealing your closest allies. Of course, the Boss ends his life after a lot of fighting. The Nahualli had his own group you gotta deal with. This is excluding the DLC taking on an actor. A very poorly done story DLC for that matter.
I don't plan to cover any story DLCs in any comparisons. Even if I were going to the reboot sucks period!!! Let's compare that to SR2's story. Following the events of the first Saints Row. Playa aka the Boss by members in the same gang became their new leader. Three more rival gangs shows up in Stilwater.
In classic Saints Row fashion, you gotta wipe em out. I know I gotta discuss a rather important thing before I dive further. At the end of the first game, Playa gotten blown up on a boat. Possibly being the only survivor of that explosion. It turns out the former leader of your gang, Julius attempted to kill Playa off.
This gets revealed in a well hidden story mission leading up to confrontation with Julius. After the rival gangs fallen, the Saints directly takes on Ultor. This organization that's been involved to a degree with the events of the game including both story DLCs. In the end, a high ranking member within Ultor Dane gets taken out by Playa.
Funny enough just for reference purposes. He becomes a surprise ally in Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell. We all can agree SR2 had one of the finest stories within the franchise. The Saints were absolutely amazing in that. Unlike the newer Saints that's kinda lackluster not to mention suck to a degree. They just did not work for the game at all.
The Boss just doesn't work at all. Customization can only get ya so far here. You have a nerd friend that's obviously the smart one. A bi DJ friend that used to be with the Idols. Another friend whose in a gang whose all into cars. All of them are room mates no less. The main reason they started up the gang is paid off their student loans a rather stupid concept for a game like this.
I also gotta mention, the Boss doesn't kill one of the leaders. I gotta clarify several things it's a little important. The Idols has six leaders that could be killed in the game. Some appeared in places you wouldn't expect a huge hint on that. You get the choice to kill the guy who ran Marshall or just fire him. Either outcome they moved away while you reclaim your gang legally.
The last major leader Sergio gets taken out by the Nahualli during a mission. This simply was a horrible idea to allow in the game. Usually the Boss aka Playa kills majority of the leaders. Now officially Killbane gotten killed offscreen confirmed in another SR game. He still was mostly defeated by Playa prior to that.
Another reason that was fine is in a few ways you could kill him. There's a sci-fi movie ending where he's the final boss. There's the other ending you prevented Killbane's escape to end him. But at the cost of Shaundi's life. I still liked they designed it to allow us to play both these endings. Instead of being forced to start a new game to do that.
There's no real point to compare anything else. You already know how much SR2 a way better SR game before reading any of this!!! Now the assumption comparison would've been the reboot against Saints Row: The Third. Which there's some truth to that logic. However I felt some might view it like me. Where you gotta compare the reboot to the previous entry.
In this particular case I mean comparing that to Saints Row IV. Once again not even close!!! Saints Row IV had some strong criticisms from fans as well as critics. Back when critics actually played the games they're reviewing not sorry. The story for Saints Row IV is quite a weird one. The Saints became the main staff running the United States.
This also means Playa was the President of the United States. So we went from a street gang to an corporate empire to this!!! I know that's already a lot to take in. Sadly I got a lot more to cover. The actual weirdness about to show up. Usually the Saints takes on rival gangs or bigger in The Third's case. They ended up facing aliens I'm not kidding.
I'll try to summarize a large amount of the story. Each member of the Saints with some of their allies were forced into simulations. Eventually they gotten free to finally take the fight to Zinyak in the real world. Of course, a lot of crazy moments happened on the way. The most important being Zinyak destroyed the Earth!!!
Saints Row IV was as far away from reality. You actually use super powers in the game play. Mostly in simulations unless stated otherwise. There's an end game loop hole with a suit allowing super powers in the real world. Playa ends up killing Zinyak to take over his empire. Originally that would've been the ending.
Unfortunately there's an stand alone expansion Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell. This differs in terms of being more important to discuss within the actual comparison. The other story DLCs simply could happen within the simulation being more side stories if anything else. It was Kenzie's birthday sometime following the main campaign of SRIV.
Suddenly Playa gets sent to Hell forcing Johnny and Kenzie to go rescue their boss. They get some rather interesting allies you wouldn't expect. All of this led to Gat taking down the Devil!!! The true monkey wrench is regarding the five endings. At this point we can only assume one or two of these endings happened in some form.
Even comparing Gat Out to Hell beyond the story is way better than the reboot. Despite how much shorter the campaign is. Going back to SRIV, a lot of past moments from the first three SR games gets referenced. This was largely was I chosen SRIV for this comparison. Some view SRIV as an expansion or The Third with some notable changes.
At the same time, SRIV despite getting rushed out turned out absolutely amazing!!! It's not often you could praise a game with rushed game development like this. Which was another notable factor for this comparison. I simply felt stuff like this made comparing the two SR games make more sense. You actually get to care for the old Saints in comparison.
They were forced to relived not pleasant moments digitally recreated. The way the story plays out in SRIV is way more interesting. If you're playing this for an first time not knowing anything. What an experience you're about to receive!!! Sadly I really can't say the same for the reboot. I'm only comparing the stories here.
There's virtually no real point to go beyond that in either SR comparisons. We all can agree the reboot really missed the mark. It just wasn't "Saints Row" at all!! It felt more like a cheap generic GTA clone than anything else. Even The Simpsons: Hit & Run was way better than this!!! I felt I made my point the reboot fails so hard at virtually everything.
I know SR2 fans that believes beyond SR2 the franchise sucks. Even some of them shown some of the other SR games much more respect. The length of the campaign or just the story portions within the reboot really over stayed their welcome. I don't even like the new Boss either yes I tried. We all can agree it's the true worst Saints Row game period!!!
