I gave this series a pass for a very long time... and I was completely, utterly wrong to. Saints Row started out as a GTA clone, but it has turned into so much more than that, and SR4 is something *very* special. Not only is it a riff on the entire open-world genre, it's a startlingly well-written comedic grand tour of its own heritage. This is a game that knows it's a game, and actively wants you to have as much fun with it as humanly possible.
SR4 ditches the more problematic elements of previous Sants Row games (and the open-world crime genre in general) by eliminating the cringeworthy attempts to make light of things that just aren't funny. At the same time, it doubles down on the best qualities of its predecessors: the freedom to be what you want to be, to do what you want to do, and to do so shamelessly while laughing maniacally and blowing up everything in sight. Fans of self-referential and fourth-wall-breaking humor will not be disappointed. Fans of scenery-chewing villains and snarky, vice-loving anti-heroes will also go home satisfied.
SR4 delivers one other noteworthy experience, and it would be as criminal as the game's amoral protagonists not to mention: It is the best Matrix game that's never been made (because no licensed spin-off has ever delivered half of what this game does). You get Neo-esque virtual superpowers very early in the game, and their progression is both rewarding and satisfying until you've basically turned yourself into a simulated god.
It is immensely satisfying just to traverse the open-world environment by dashing down a crowded street, scattering pedestrians and vehicles in your wake, before sprinting up the side of a building and leaping into the sky... gliding majestically over the city, swooping between canyons of skyscrapers, scaling floating alien towers... and then lunging towards the ground, fist-first, and devastating everything around you in a purple-tinged nuclear blast.
It is exactly as fun as it sounds.