This game is rediculous in many ways, although that's not uncommon for the Saints Row games.

Like the previous Saints Row games it has humor and lots of it. It's really the main reason why I play them. Many things about the game are completely over the top, but in a way that is amusing. The visuals and great voice acting contribute a lot to this. The characters are all likable and the story is interesting. If you played the previous games it ties back and revisits many of the events that have taken place earlier. As the world of which the game takes place in is more open to unreal and weird things the developers took this to heart and made some truly strange missions and events. These are mostly in the main quests.

It's the 'nature' of SRIV that makes it worth playing. It's generally just fun to play and fool around in. That's good because there are other aspects of the game that aren't so great.

Some things I don't like all that much:

Game balance is a problem. The super powers are what I blame for this. The 'super powers' are fun at times, but they tend to make the game often too easy, and you gain them quickly. They really should reduce the effectiveness of the powers and speed at which you get them. The game is still challenging at times, but it often feels like you can swoop in and kill all the bad guys in a minute without breaking a sweat. It can be fun to be this super powerful super hero-like person (go and get a good costume to match!) but if you have all these powers and the enemies don't scale to keep it challenging the game can become less engaging. On the positive side, there are some fun mini-games that you can put your powers to good use!

The atmosphere and immersion of the game is also a problem. Things look pretty generic to me. Steel Port doesn't really feel like a place that I want to spend the time to explore. Componding this, once you get super speed and jumping powers you really don't need to spend time exploring. Just race across the map. Again, the powers are fun at times, but it detracts from the immersion of the city. Why steal a car or take time to explore when you can dash across the map and get to your objective so much faster? Furthermore, SRIV takes place in the same 'location' (or map) as Saints Row the Third does. It's pretty much exactly the same. I wish they spent the time to create a new map, like DC. If you played through the Third it makes it that less compelling to explore.

I noticed all these issues while playing, but I felt the story, characters, and just plain over-the-topness of the game kept me interested in continuing to play. They could have made the game even better if they spent more times working out the balance issues to make it more 'passively' entertaining.

Conclusion / TLDR

Overall, my recommendation is to give the game a try. The story, characters, voice acting, and main quests are fun and entertaining. I would stick to the main story quests and the character's personal quests. There are side-missions you can do, but they can get a bit repetative. The city isn't that exciting when it comes to lingering, exploring, or doing things like stealing cars. The powers are fun and convenient, but ultimately detracts from immersion and makes the game much easier as the enemies don't scale to compensate. If you're concerned about getting the best end, what you need is to complete all the chacter's personal quests before the final quest.

I also recommend playing Saints Row the Third. That game is better when it comes to parts of the gameplay that the super powers hurt in IV, and IV is a good follow-up to the Third.

This game is rediculous in many ways, although that's not uncommon for the Saints Row games. Like the previous Saints Row games it has humor and lots of it. It's really the main reason why I play them. Many things about the game are completely over the top, but in a way that is amusing. The visuals and great voice acting contribute a lot to this. The characters are all likable and the story is interesting. If you played the previous games it ties back and revisits many of the events that have taken place earlier. As the world of which the game takes place in is more open to unreal and weird things the developers took this to heart and made some truly strange missions and events. These are mostly in the main quests. It's the 'nature' of SRIV that makes it worth playing. It's generally just fun to play and fool around in. That's good because there are other aspects of the game that aren't so great. Some things I don't like all that much: Game balance is a problem. The super powers are what I blame for this. The 'super powers' are fun at times, but they tend to make the game often too easy, and you gain them quickly. They really should reduce the effectiveness of the powers and speed at which you get them. The game is still challenging at times, but it often feels like you can swoop in and kill all the bad guys in a minute without breaking a sweat. It can be fun to be this super powerful super hero-like person (go and get a good costume to match!) but if you have all these powers and the enemies don't scale to keep it challenging the game can become less engaging. On the positive side, there are some fun mini-games that you can put your powers to good use! The atmosphere and immersion of the game is also a problem. Things look pretty generic to me. Steel Port doesn't really feel like a place that I want to spend the time to explore. Componding this, once you get super speed and jumping powers you really don't need to spend time exploring. Just race across the map. Again, the powers are fun at times, but it detracts from the immersion of the city. Why steal a car or take time to explore when you can dash across the map and get to your objective so much faster? Furthermore, SRIV takes place in the same 'location' (or map) as Saints Row the Third does. It's pretty much exactly the same. I wish they spent the time to create a new map, like DC. If you played through the Third it makes it that less compelling to explore. I noticed all these issues while playing, but I felt the story, characters, and just plain over-the-topness of the game kept me interested in continuing to play. They could have made the game even better if they spent more times working out the balance issues to make it more 'passively' entertaining. Conclusion / TLDR Overall, my recommendation is to give the game a try. The story, characters, voice acting, and main quests are fun and entertaining. I would stick to the main story quests and the character's personal quests. There are side-missions you can do, but they can get a bit repetative. The city isn't that exciting when it comes to lingering, exploring, or doing things like stealing cars. The powers are fun and convenient, but ultimately detracts from immersion and makes the game much easier as the enemies don't scale to compensate. If you're concerned about getting the best end, what you need is to complete all the chacter's personal quests before the final quest. I also recommend playing Saints Row the Third. That game is better when it comes to parts of the gameplay that the super powers hurt in IV, and IV is a good follow-up to the Third.