It's very interesting to see how Stilwater evolved between games. Although the city is mostly the same in both games, Stilwater has been slightly redesigned in Saints Row 2, with expanded suburbs, a nuclear power plant, a prison, a revamped Saint's Row district that was taken over by Ultor, and a university. SettingThe first two Saints Row games took place in Stilwater, which takes influences from Detroit and Chicago. It's kind of a weird evolution, going from a crackhouse to the penthouse to the White House. The first two games are serious gangster stories, while SRTT and SRIV went for a more ridiculous and silly route. The player vows to get revenge on Zinyak and rescue all of their teammates, including an old friend who's actually not dead.
After the player escapes the simulation thanks to Kinzie and Vice President Keith David, they escape the alien ship, but Zinyak destroys Earth, killing billions of civilians. The player is captured by the Zin and is placed in a virtual simulation of Steelport. A few years after killing Cyrus and stopping a nuclear missile, the player becomes the President of the United States, and the world is now invaded by an alien race known as Zin, and their leader, Zinyak. In Saints Row IV, the Saints are called to assist MI-6 agent Asha Odekar and Matt Miller (who reformed and joined the Saints) in taking down Cyrus Temple (the leader of STAG, a military force in SRTT). The Saints find themselves in Steelport, a new city ready to be taken over, with no money left thanks to Matt Miller, the leader of the Deckers, hacking their bank accounts. After refusing an offer of giving The Syndicate 66% of the Saints' monthly gross revenue, they engage in a brief gunfight (and lose Johnny Gat, a prominent member of the 3rd Street Saints in the first two games, in the process). The Saints are soon let out of prison by Phillipe Loren, the leader of Morningstar, a gang that's part of the Syndicate in Steelport, consisting of Morningstar, the Luchadores, and Deckers. They are preparing a bank heist with actor Josh Birk, who ultimately trips the alarm and flees, leaving the Saints to be captured by the police. In Saints Row: The Third, the Saints are now full-on celebrities, having evolved into a media empire since the events of Saints Row 2. It's up to the player to get the 3rd Street Saints back together and take Stilwater back from the gangs and Ultor. Not only that, but three new gangs, known as the Ronin, the Sons of Samedi and the Brotherhood, have taken over most of the territories previously owned by the Saints. After waking up from the coma, it's revealed that the 3rd Street Saints have been disbanded, with Ultor (who used to be a clothing company in the first game) becoming a big corporate company and taking over the Saint's Row district. Saints Row 2 takes place several years after the first game, and the player wakes up in prison from a coma that occured thanks to a yacht explosion. The player is nearly killed, but saved by Troy Bradshaw, a member of the 3rd Street Saints, a gang led by Julius Little, who offers the player a request to join his gang and take over the city. In the first Saints Row, the action happens in Stilwater, and the player is in the middle of a gang war between Los Carnales, the Vice Kings and the Westside Rollerz. StoryI'm going to explain the storyline of each game without spoiling them too much.
So, to honor the upcoming release of Saints Row: The Third on the Nintendo Switch, I decided to take a look at all of the main entries in the Saints Row series and compare them to see how far we've come ( Gat out of Hell doesn't count, as it's a standalone expansion to Saints Row IV). The third game, titled Saints Row: The Third, was released in November of 2011, and the fourth game, Saints Row IV, was released in August of 2013, with a " Re-Elected" version released in January of 2015 for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, being the first Saints Row game released for the new console generation of the time, and that version was released alongside Saints Row: Gat out of Hell, a standalone game released for the same platforms as SRTT and IV.
The first Saints Row game was released in August of 2006 exclusively for the Xbox 360, 2 was released in October of 2008 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, with a PC release following in January of 2009, therefore making Saints Row 2 the first multiplatform game in the franchise. Come to think of it, that was 13 years ago. The series has been around for almost 10 years, from 2006 to 2015. It was a game series developed by Volition and published by THQ (later Deep Silver), the same people who made the Red Faction series, and have a similar gameplay to Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto series. Saints Row, now that's a name we haven't heard from in a while.