More of the same with superpowers

Went into this with great anticipation after loving the 3rd game and feeling lucky to get it at all after THQ's collapse. However upon starting it, it felt like a continuation or expansion pack of the exact same game. Same engine, same world (mostly), same mechanics, same vehicles, same abilities, mostly same weapons, mostly same characters, same rewards scheme, same logistics, etc. Only differences are the plot, main enemy, the addition of superpowers and some new vehicles and guns. So starting off from scratch at level 1 again having to regain all abilities, money, weapons, upgrades etc felt like a bit of a kick to the nuts.

It did start to improve as it went on and more powers were unlocked, but it felt like they were being drip fed and feeling that I should have been able to keep everything from Saint's Row 3 never really went away. The story was cool with lots of back references to the previous 3 games. I got most of them, but not the ones to the first game because I didn't play it. Thankfully in this game, the optional side missions and main missions were separated and labelled so you could avoid the small ones if you weren't so keen to do them. There were also a lot of nice piss-take references to other games like Splinter Cell, Mass Effect, Metal Gear Solid as well as films like Armageddon, They Live, The Matrix, etc etc. Overall lots of mad-cap fun that turned the insanity up even beyond what was in the 3rd. Many parts were awesome, but it still ended up somehow feeling tiresome compared to the 3rd because much more of it was the same than was different and yet you had to start out all over again.

There were also quite a large number of technical issues when I played this co-op online on the same network. Many repeated crashes, lock-ups, events not happening, necessary NPCs disappearing textures disappearing and so on and so on which added to frustration.

It's good to have the Saint's Row franchise as an alternative to the more serious things like GTA because it's just pure madness. But after the setting and plot line of this game, I'm wondering where is left to with Saint's Row 5....If there is one....I still preferred the 3rd game to this though for some reason. It just felt more coherent, tense and epic.

Side note: This is the 122nd game I have finished this year. Already taking me over 2011's total of 121. And we're only 2/3 through the year. Plenty of time left to beat 2012's total of 138.

[Edit] As I was requested to state: there were many many wubs in this game also that greatly added to it's hilarity.