History Videogame / SaintsRowIV

''Saints Row IV'' is an August 2013 WideOpenSandbox game developed by Creator/{{Volition}}. Due to Creator/{{THQ}}'s [[AuthorExistenceFailure bankruptcy]], Creator/DeepSilver took up publishing duties for the game.

ERROR: [[{{Creator/THQ}} PubFinder_TeeAichCue]] [[AuthorExistenceFailure OUT OF MONEY]]\\

* RealityEnsues:
** The Boss may have beaten countless numbers of gangsters, policemen, even a StateSec with futuristic weapons, but nothing prepares them for a massive alien overlord with superpowers. The Boss tries, oh do they put up a fight, but once Zinyak decides to stop playing around and use his powers the first fight quickly becomes a CurbStompBattle in the villain's favor.
** Also, it turns out that psychotic gangsters make poor national leaders, as America is going down the tubes and the Boss's approval ratings make Nixon's look enviable.
** Even saving the country from a nuclear missile and his past fame as a merch driven gangster, the Boss was losing the election until Benjamin King helped him with the poll. Keith's side mission mentionned he used to run away after starting riot in rally and what not.
** The Boss is utterly unable to defend himself when he gets a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown from two Zinyak's soldiers, who catches him by surprise when he tries to reason with Keith. This is, indeed, how fights in real life look: the guy who gets hit first often loses.

* BlasphemousBoast: Early in the game, the Boss's approval ratings drop to 20 when s/he says that the text of the Pledge of Allegiance should be changed to "One nation, [[DoubleEntendre under me]]"[[note]]The part of the Pledge that the Boss wants to change currently reads "One nation, under God."[[/note]]

* StockSuperpowers: A wide array of superhuman abilities are available to you inside the aliens' LotusEaterMachine. It's worth noting that Zinyak and his elite guard apparently can perform the same feats in real life too.
** AnIcePerson: You can turn enemies into meat popsicles and then shatter them into a million pieces.
** PlayingWithFire: You can imbue yourself with fire, making your bullets incendiary and setting anyone foolish enough to get too close to you alight.
** LifeDrain: Telekinesis can be altered to suck the life out of whatever you hold, healing you.
** MindOverMatter: You can lift cars into the air and throw them at enemies with the power of your mind.
** NotQuiteFlight: You can leap tall buildings in a single bound, and glide through the air.
** SuperSpeed: You can run faster than Ferraris.
** SuperStrength: You can punch enemies into orbit. Or use standard melee attacks... with [[LudicrousGibs predictable results]].
** ShockAndAwe: Electricity can be combined with other powers. Use it with Telekinesis to turn your victims into sparkling projectiles!
** SuperToughness: Boss survives a telekinetic pummeling from a fifteen foot tall alien warlord ''before'' gaining superpowers.

* WhyAmITicking: The Explosion element for your powers if you get one of the {{DLC}}s. Turns any human, alien, or vehicle you use it on into a bomb. With the infectious upgrade for the Blast power, it will also turn everything that your first bomb blows up into a bomb. [[UpToEleven And everything they blow up...]]

''Saints Row IV'' is an August 2013 WideOpenSandbox game developed by Creator/{{Volition}}. Due to Creator/{{THQ}}'s [[AuthorExistenceFailure bankruptcy]], Deep Silver took up publishing duties for the game.

** Areas of the simulation liberated from alien control sport blue TronLines instead of red.

* DummiedOut:
** A whole lot of content from ''VideoGame/SaintsRowTheThird'' is present in game files, such as gang members, weapons and vehicles. Several [[GameMod mods]] [[https://www.saintsrowmods.com/forum/threads/bonus-and-reworked-unlockables.3537/page-2 in]] [[https://www.saintsrowmods.com/forum/threads/past-gangs-spawning-mod.3632/page-3 progress]] are aiming to reintroduce them to the game.
** Dummied Out content isn't limited to leftovers from the previous game: some content was clearly meant for SRIV before it became a proper sequel. The internal names of a number of audio logs correspond to [[VideoGame/SaintsRowTheThird SRTT]]-only characters like Viola or Oleg despite being repurposed for SRIV characters, and homie-to-homie conversations are set up for characters which never appear as homies in the normal game, like Philippe Loren.

* MultipleEndings: If you [[spoiler:finished all the loyalty missions and unlocked super powers for your homies]] you get the GoldenEnding, in which [[spoiler:the Saints defeat Zinyak as usual, but also discover the Zin's TimeTravel capabilities, allowing them to take a fun road trip through time and save the Earth before Zinyak blows it up]]. If you didn't, you instead get the [[BittersweetEnding bittersweet]] BadEnding, where [[spoiler:after beating Zinyak, the Saints don't discover the time travel capabilities and instead simply take over the Empire]].

* DifficultySpike: Act 3 of the game introduces the Marauder, a ball-shaped enemy that unfolds to form an explosive-shooting tripod robot. It hits like a tank (literally, its explosive weapon is identical in damage to that of a tank) and it [[AttackItsWeakPoint will only take damage if shot from behind while unfolded]]. They are the most dangerous enemy the Zin can throw at you, and after they're introduced Marauders start showing up at a mere level 3 notoriety. To put that in perspective, you earn level 3 notoriety for killing a single person in a store.

** The 'Mercia gun from the "Commander-in-Chief" DLC pack has incredibly high damage-per-second, but it eats rifle ammo for breakfast, produces copious muzzle flash that obscures your aim, and you have to combat constant muzzle climb due to its high rate of fire.

** The 'Mercia gun from the "Commander-in-Chief" DLC pack has incredibly high damage-per-second, but it eats rifle ammo for breakfast, it produces copious muzzle flash, obscuring your aim, and you have to combat constant muzzle climb due to its high rate of fire.

* LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition: There are four kinds.
** The "Commander in Chief Edition", available to everyone who pre-orders the game, gives you an Uncle Sam outfit, a [[CoolPlane Screaming Eagle jet]], and the [[SwissArmyWeapon 'Merica weapon]] in-game.
** The "Super Dangerous Wub Wub Edition" includes the bonus items, and also includes a replica dubstep gun, dubstep doomsday button, and a Johnny Gat memorial statue.
** The "Emperor Zinyak's Game of the Generation Edition" comes with all that, and a light-up rotating display case for the game and a velvet pouch.
** The "Super Dangerous Wad Wad Edition", which there is only one copy of and costs '''one million dollars''', comes with the Commander in Chief edition, the dubstep gun, spy training, a trip to outer space, a Lamborghini, a one year membership to the E25 Super Car Club, plastic surgery, a shopping spree, a weeks trip to the Jefferson Hotel in Washington, a hostage rescue experience, a Toyota Prius with insurance, and a week's vacation to Burj-al-arab. It's also a designers' hoax, but [[RuleOfCool who cares?]]
** The "Ultra Super Ultimate Deluxe Edition", exclusive to Japan, includes all of the DLC released internationally.

** Zinyak started by trying to trap you in a cheesy fifties style simulation. But you eventually break free of it to which he sends you to a more "chaotic environment".

%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them.

%%NOTE TO EDITORS: Due to overflow, ShoutOut examples go on this subpage ->ShoutOut/SaintsRowIV

* {{RoboSexual}}: The game has almost all characters open to romance, including [[spoiler: CID the spherical AI drone]].

* FrickinLaserBeams: All of the alien weapons fire projectiles of light that don't travel nearly as fast as light.

** The Tiny Pistol is a HitScan HandCannon that can found as soon as the player enters The Simulation [[spoiler:in the secret room in Let's Pretend]]. What prevents the gun from becoming a DiscOneNuke are massive knockback, low charge capacity (can only get four shots off before the gun's charge is depleted), and an ''insanely'' long recharge time.

* {{Adorkable}}: Kinzie. Cranked UpToEleven during her cutscene interviews in the Enter the Dominatrix DLC (check out her "gag me" gesture at one point).
** Given the customization options, the Boss can also be made to look this way, with some of the voice options, such as "Female 1", the American accent, lending themselves well to this.
** Matt Miller during his loyalty mission [[spoiler: where it's revealed the mission is a big piece of interactive [=NyteBlade=] MarySue-style fanfic.]]

* SmugSnake: Zinyak consistently behaves like the exasperatingly arrogant villain he is and always seems to be one step ahead of the Saints. He keeps this act until the very end during the final battle when your allies start giving support to you by distracting his goons while you attempt to shut off the generators that power the shield enshrouding him.]]

** Some energy-based weapons, such as the Dubstep Gun and Disintegrator (both easy to obtain early in the game), don't use ammo and instead have recharging energy.

** Matt is stuck in a text-based adventure where he is forced to fight Killbane.

** Ben King is forced to relive Tanya and Warren's takeover of the Vice Kings.
** Asha is forced to relive failing a mission where the Boss's EvilTwin kills Matt. The Boss is rather offended at being cast as the BigBad here.
** Gat is stuck in a 2D BeatEmUp where he is forced to relive Aisha's death.