The first Saints Row game was nothing more than a cheap knock off, I liked the 80's metal soundtrack in the game but that was all it had going for it. The second game is when things got entertaining, they just started to parodize the whole gang thing a lot more and poke fun at some relevant societal topics. But the third game is when Volition really started to have fun poking fun at how weird the real world was. Saints Row: The Third wasn't only fun to play but the way it poked fun at the reality tv craze, and Stag was obviously a jab at how Bush handled the war on terror, and it was all done in a very National Lampoon way which was amusing. Well Saints Row IV, it merely picks up where they left off in three and takes even mroe jabs at a lot of the absurd things in the US, and it pays homage to so many things from the 80's you'll lose count. There's the level that totally pays homage to They Live and a Christmas Story (briefly), and then there's tons of weapons from 80's classics like Robocop, Aliens, and GI Joe. And the christmas expansion, the first level is basically a re-creation of the old studio lot where they shot Jaws, Gremlins, and numerous other classics. But towards the end when it pays homage to the animated Transformers film, and even uses the Stan Bush song from the film, that was just a golden moment in the game.

But I'm praising the satire and how they paid homage to so many great films and cartoons and not talking about the gameplay. Gameplay wise the game is pretty fun and the super powers the player can use in the viritual world add a whole new level of gameplay to the franchise since in earlier games, the player had to rely on vehicles to get anywhere fast and always rely on guns or grenades, but in the 4th game the player could still go the gun and grenade route or freeze people or turn them into gold or use telekenisis and throw them into the sky. In short, the game allows players to just go crazy when it comes to taking out pedestrians and the aliens. The controls are as smooth as the third game, which I'm thankful for since Saints Row 2 for the PC, the driving controls were just horrible. If one enjoys open world games where they can just go crazy, this game should please them. But I highly recommend getting the Game of the Century version, or at the very least the base game and the christmas expansion pack. While I adore Volition's sense of humor when it comes ot the SR franchise, Enter the Dominatrix gets a little too corny, while the Christmas expansion is hands down a far better expansion pack. I don't recommend playing any of the expansions until after finishing the main game though since the expansions will spoil a few things otherwise.

However, while I think the game is highly entertaining and totally worth dropping 10-20 on, it does have its flaws and they're the same exact flaws the third game had.

1. The game doesn't have the cool drug and booze thing from the second game, I found it highly amusing how the character could get drunk or stoned in the second game and was sad to see them ditch the ability to do that in the third and fourth. To be fair, it could have been because some countries ban games with drug content, like Australia.

2. The really cool interior locations like the mall in Saints Row 2 added a lot of fun to the game, it was a blast to ♥♥♥♥ off the security guards and then just cause tons of trouble. But Saints Row 3 and 4 just don't have any of those types of interior locations, which is a shame.

3. The player can still play in the water in three and four but it doesn't take long to notice the water isn't used by any of the npc's like in the 2nd game. There aren't any npc's jet ski'ing or driving boats or anything like that, the water is just lifeless.

If Saints Row 5 brings back just 1 or 2 of those three things, I'll love it to pieces.