10 Reasons Why Saints Row Is Better Than GTA

pcmag.com:

On Aug. 23, Volition drops the open-world crime epic Saints Row for PC and consoles. The non-numbered title is a reboot of the franchise set in a Las Vegas-esque city, and it’s not hard to see this as a shot across the bow at Rockstar’s in-development Grand Theft Auto 6. But in many ways, even though Saints Row is seen as an imitator, there’s a lot of stuff that it does way better than the original. Here’s our take on some of the ways GTA fails in comparison. Is this outrage bait designed to get Rockstar stans fuming in the comments? Maybe, but it’s also an honest appraisal of two franchises that mean a lot to us. And friendly competition makes both sides work harder to up their game, and that’s a net positive for gamers. 

As a criminal, sometimes you have to resort to violence to get your point across. While GTA’s thirst for realism goes out the window when your wanted level escalates, low-level shootouts and the like just… aren’t very much fun. While Rockstar cut out the wacky and fun weapons from the older games, Volition added in even more, and the combination of tactical depth and absurd boomsticks makes skirmishes in Saints Row a lot more enjoyable throughout the game. GTA V’s auto-aiming bullet sponge enemies make us cringe every time we get into a firefight. Gun combat in video games is unrealistic by default because if it wasn’t we’d just be playing Counter-Strike, so lean into it and at least make it engaging.

Rockstar has slowly been pivoting the GTA series towards robust, movie-like narratives, and to do that you have to have well-defined lead characters. That’s fine for them, but when we’re playing video games it’s nice to be able to identify with our on-screen avatar, especially in a sandbox game where