I felt the same when I first played GTA 4 which already scaled down a lot of the cartoonishness. In my opinion Saints Row (especially SR3) is a better continuat

I felt the same when I first played GTA 4 which already scaled down a lot of the cartoonishness. In my opinion Saints Row (especially SR3) is a better continuation of the outlandish extravagance that made the original GTA games great. Sadly after SR4 they seem to have pivoted to more constrained games that largely ditch any serious attempt at a narrative arc.