I loved Saint's Row 2.
Far less thuggish than the (in my opinion) dreadful Saint's Row, and gratuitously more fun, crazy and customisable. Sure, some stuff was whittled away, but otherwise there was a massive explosion of content.
So, Saint's Row 2 had a fun singleplayer experience, one of the best co-op sandbox experiences, and a multiplayer mode. Granted, I didn't enjoy the multiplayer very much. Played it a little, but otherwise avoided it in favour of co-op shenanigans. I know that people found SR1's multiplayer better, but I never played the multiplayer on that at all, so I don't know. What I do know is that it was cut down from the previous title, but given the overall expansion of content and entertainment value in the rest of the game, that's acceptable (seeing as the multiplayer wasn't incredible anyway, apparently).
Flash forward to the announcement that Volition was cutting multiplayer entirely from SR3. No tears were shed on my behalf, or anyone I know. Some where a bit pissed at it, but still intended to get the game due to it's sheer volume of content and madness. However, with that announcement, Volition decreed the reason:
It's not a bad game. It's just not as good as SR2 - And that's not nostalgia or any other buzzword coming into play. It is less of a game.
There is SIGNIFICANTLY less customisation in the game. The Escapist's own Yahtzee hit on this. Gone are multiple layers of clothing, customisation of military vehicles (and overall vehicle customisation has been toned down a little), and character creation seems more limited too.
Additionally, the short cutscenes before a new activity are gone, not to mention some of the activities themselves. There also appears to be less vehicles and weapons, and the first 1/3rd of the game's missions are literally activity tutorials.
Considering the game itself hasn't changed much (same fairly ugly but acceptable graphics, same physics, etc.), why has this content gone? Surely the customisation and other content could be copy-pasted over and added to, rather than axed and replaced with a sub-par alternative? The point being, WHY has the content been significantly scaled down? Sure, the over-the-top factor has gone up, but it's a much shallower game without what has previously been set as a standard. What is the reasoning (or excuse) for this apparently laziness?
It's a real shame. Have any of you Escapists encountered similar feats of laziness from developers, or (retroactively) obvious lies?
Far less thuggish than the (in my opinion) dreadful Saint's Row, and gratuitously more fun, crazy and customisable. Sure, some stuff was whittled away, but otherwise there was a massive explosion of content.
So, Saint's Row 2 had a fun singleplayer experience, one of the best co-op sandbox experiences, and a multiplayer mode. Granted, I didn't enjoy the multiplayer very much. Played it a little, but otherwise avoided it in favour of co-op shenanigans. I know that people found SR1's multiplayer better, but I never played the multiplayer on that at all, so I don't know. What I do know is that it was cut down from the previous title, but given the overall expansion of content and entertainment value in the rest of the game, that's acceptable (seeing as the multiplayer wasn't incredible anyway, apparently).
Flash forward to the announcement that Volition was cutting multiplayer entirely from SR3. No tears were shed on my behalf, or anyone I know. Some where a bit pissed at it, but still intended to get the game due to it's sheer volume of content and madness. However, with that announcement, Volition decreed the reason:
I (and everyone else) read that as the multiplayer being axed to allow for more work on the singleplayer and co-op. Great news! That was, until I picked up SR3 and played it for 15 hours or so with a friend.
It's not a bad game. It's just not as good as SR2 - And that's not nostalgia or any other buzzword coming into play. It is less of a game.
There is SIGNIFICANTLY less customisation in the game. The Escapist's own Yahtzee hit on this. Gone are multiple layers of clothing, customisation of military vehicles (and overall vehicle customisation has been toned down a little), and character creation seems more limited too.
Additionally, the short cutscenes before a new activity are gone, not to mention some of the activities themselves. There also appears to be less vehicles and weapons, and the first 1/3rd of the game's missions are literally activity tutorials.
Considering the game itself hasn't changed much (same fairly ugly but acceptable graphics, same physics, etc.), why has this content gone? Surely the customisation and other content could be copy-pasted over and added to, rather than axed and replaced with a sub-par alternative? The point being, WHY has the content been significantly scaled down? Sure, the over-the-top factor has gone up, but it's a much shallower game without what has previously been set as a standard. What is the reasoning (or excuse) for this apparently laziness?
Every mission and activity could be done in co-op in Saint's Row 2, and that had all the bells and whistles to go with it, AND a multiplayer. Saint's Row 3 shipped with less customisation, less content, and no multiplayer.
It's a real shame. Have any of you Escapists encountered similar feats of laziness from developers, or (retroactively) obvious lies?
