What happened to saints row? Let's start by taking a look at the old antagonist deaths, in SR1 and SR2 they were mostly impactful and well written. Each major antagonist death mostly having major cinematic cutscenes. Then the Saints Row: The Third comes along, and excluding Phillipe and Kiki's death it's just a lack of cutscenes or worse; quick time events. The fourth is worse, with a complete lack of death cutscenes and even more quick time events.

To an extent I enjoyed saints row 3 and 4, don't get me wrong, but they didn't feel like a saints row game. They felt like a fanfic to me personally. And that feeling is only fortified by the fact SR3 kicks off with leaving Stilwater, and "killing" off Gat. I looked forward so much to the third installment to the series, I was so excited to see what they would do now that the Saints have taken over Stilwater for real. I remember skipping school just to play the game on launch. After they killed off Gat, ripped us out of Stilwater, and I got to the cloning crap, I actually walked to school to finish the school day. At least school was more entertaining than watching what they did to my favorite series. The game wasn't too bad gameplay wise though, at least.

I remember picking up the fourth game, praying that they would improve since the third made more money than any of the other Saints Row games, oh how that was a mistake. Now the Playa is the president of the united states, after blowing up a nuke that he rode himself into the sky, before aliens attacked and placed you in a simulation of Steelport. To make things worse, you're given superpowers. This was fun, don't get me wrong, but was it saints row? No, it wasn't, it was a joke. A joke that the devs believed fans wanted. Sure, people who were introduced to the series by SR3 seemed to enjoy the fourth installment, but longtime fans were left with a wacky spin-off of the saints row series.

What happened to serious gang wars? What happened to meaningful antagonists? What happened to saints row? In my opinion? Money.

The developers saw the success of SR3 and believed this is what the fans wanted (as stated in an interview with one of the senior producers). More crazy, wacky content. I understand they also might have wanted to distance themselves from being similar to GTA, but they already were doing a good job at that. Making the game into a crazy simulation was a mistake. Taking us out of an exciting and unique Stilwater and into a boring and forgettable Steelport was a mistake. All I can hope for is that with the 5th installment, they find some way to undo the damage they've caused.

I believe some of Killbane's final words from SR3 describes my feelings on the last 2 games perfectly;