Recent reviews by Blouc

This game is the epitome of the saints row franchise. Everything I found distracting or unfortunate about the previous games has been stripped out. Shallow clothing and gun options that do nothing? Gone. No more grindy or out of cannon minigames: Every game (besides the rare Pledge Rush) is honed to perfection. No more useless or clunky powers: I enjoyed every single power I got, and had a situation where every one of them was useful. I even could swear they tightened up the flight controls so you don't feel like some fast moving blimp.

The trademark offbeat Archer-esque humor is still there. Gat and Kenzie are given every oportunity to shine. The special sin gun unlocks are amazing, especially Gallows Dodger. (I must have killed Dex about a dozen times. He still talks ♥♥♥♥ and I still go out of my way to kill him.) The devil is a classic SR meglomaniacal villian--only slightly more blood-thirsty and "puckish" than the boss and thus totally fair game.

Why else play? Because you play as Johnny Gat. At the end of SR II, the Boss, Pierce, and Shawndi fly away in a helicopter. Where is Gat? Fighting police with an LMG, because Gat. In SR the Third, the most satisfying moment is dropping a giant metal ball on that Frenchie. Why? Because the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ killed Gat. In SR IV, you go to rescue Johnny from an army of aliens. Instead you follow the trail of corpses he created unarmed. You've been playing the protagonist for four games and you've always just wanted to be as cool as Gat.

I bought this game because I loved Ace Combat 5 and Zero--replayed several times, loved. I almost destroyed my controller in rage with this game. Complaints:
* Bugs and lag that make you fly into the ground when they let up
* Dogfighting mode segments that add enemies
* Odd minigame-ish modes for ground assaults and dogfighting
* Controls for gamepad that mean either certain things are too easy to hit accidentally or you can't actually satisfy key combinations you neeed to press
* Complete absence of a meangful sense of progress, planes unlock when they unlock
* Truly incompetitent AI wingmen, you'll "keep them off me"? Is that why I have four missiles in my back right now?
* Randomly shoving the player behind a minigun

So I have a list. I did not like this game. It made me angry with how cheap the gameplay felt.

I just stayed up too late beating this game. I'd say I liked it.