Meanwhile, Saints Row 4 was more interested in parodying Mass Effect and letting you sleep with all of your crew members for the sake of a bit. A drone strike is cool at the start of the game, but it feels a bit boring when you can give it unlimited ammo and never worry about another weapon again. The dub-step gun is funny, but it’s a bit on the nose, whereas something like the Pimp Cane can balance the humour without jumping the shark (or in Saints Row the Third’s case, shooting shark guts from a blunderbuss). Sure, it’s silly, but it’s a little bit more grounded which honestly makes it funnier. When you weren’t taking down rival gangs, you were spraying buildings with waste, streaking down the streets, and running around in a hot-dog costume. To go from space aliens to petty crime might seem like a massive leap in tone, but Saints Row 2 was plenty silly enough in the first place. Superpowers are fun, but I’ll take grounded gameplay with a better balance any day. Specifically, the next Saints Row game needs to take more inspiration from Saints Row 2, which is still the best game in the series and the one that mastered the balance between serious and silly.
