Initially Saints Row IV struck me as reaching too far, but by the time I was done it had grown on me and they grounded things enough that the pure silliness eventually had some kind of weight behind it. Ultimately it still didn't reach the great balance that The Third had, but for a game that was as much about celebrating its own history as it was making fun of American culture it came together quite nicely.

Unfortunately, while the superpowers were nice enough to use they also rather undermined a lot of what the series previously had to offer. This time around finding helicoptors and jets just felt like random junk which got in the way, as what point do vehicles have when you can run faster than cars, glide as fast as jets, and jump over buildings whenever you want? Many of the game's best moments occur when the powers get locked away for whatever reason and it reverts back to classic Saints gameplay, riding around with homies and shooting rockets at whatever gets in the way. With the powers turned on the player is just an invincible god who doesn't need any help, to the point where I didn't even realize I could still have homies until over halfway through the game.

Thankfully, missions like He Lives help keep this game from faltering too far behind The Third, and the parodies of other genres later are spot-on enough to work. This series definitely needs a breather (which it seems to be getting whether it wants to or not), as it's trying so hard to one-up itself that it's straining to find an identity at times. Nevertheless, totally worth the playthrough.

A beautiful little game in which two brothers go on a quest, initially presented almost like a child's storybook where bad guys are defeated with poofs of smoke and the world is detailed in a manner that almost look painted. Despite the content of the introduction, this sets the tone which makes many of the later discoveries hit so much harder than they otherwise might. While only about the length of a movie, that also makes sure that nothing ever overstays its welcome and the pacing is consistently spot on.

Thankfully, it takes a gameplay route somewhere between The Adventures of Cookie and Cream and Ico, giving it a proper feel of interaction and exploration without saddling itself with half-baked and overdone combat as many cinematic games are wont to do. Perhaps not as remarkable as similar games such as Another World and Journey, it nevertheless certainly deserves a playthrough for fans of that style.

The opening moments of the game, much like most every title in the series, begins with the display of the virtual world being constructed in front of the player. As soon as the first civilian is rendered he immediately walks into a giant wooden pole right in front of him, stumbling back slightly and then tries to figure out how to walk around it. I'd say this sets the stage for the rest of the game pretty well.

While not as pointless and forgettable as Brotherhood's campaign, I'm glad I skipped the Vita version because even with the improvements it's still a glitchy, boring game. I've fallen into bottomless pits and just landed on my feet to walk around down there, I've had missions break thanks to AI groups that were supposed to stay together who then split up because they got caught on each other and couldn't walk forward, I've had the battle icons just vanish entirely making counterattacks and such literally impossible, there's typos in the text, and so on. It's nowhere near the mess that ACIII was at launch but even overhauled it's still pretty janky. The three guises that can be donned are probably the most interesting part, although they feel almost completely ignored as a gameplay element for most of the missions.

The compatively small areas for the series are also a drawback, and combined with the same lackluster low vertical height for climbing that ACIII had ends up with the game feeling more like a rushed cash-in instead of a major entry. The interesting additions and okay campaign put it somewhere in the middle-to-low range of this series, better than the original to actually play but well below ACII and Revelations. However, just like Brotherhood, it adds nothing to the series as a whole and can be completely ignored until one has finished all the other main titles, and even then only if they're still hunting for more.

The only positive I have to offer is that this game did not corrupt my hard drive. Everything else I would have to say is negative, because this game is complete garbage in every way and barely even runs properly.