Not to take too much from Saints Row - that series wouldn't even exist without GTA - but if there's one thing especially Saints III and IV do perfectly, it's deviance within the game world. If you dart off away from the main mission path and indulge in some extra activities, you'll come across things like the radgoll body-flinging Insurance Fraud, or the ability to leap into a whopping great tank just to blow stuff up for a few minutes. They're focussed, tightly-packed experiences that provide the perfect levity from the rest of the game, and although GTA is too serious these days to revert back to San Andreas' jetpacks n' Sasquatchs direction, things like Franklin's hitman missions could be expanded upon, with Michael's murder-mystery add-on in the remastered edition also providing some thought on how to branch out. The problem with the side stuff as it stands is it just isn't that interesting to play. Collecting random pieces of celebrity clothing for a couple of weirdos in Rockford Hills is essentially 'just another' collectible mission, and when you're revisiting characters for the sake of more dialogue rather than a unique gameplay premise, that's a pretty big problem for a game that doesn't necessarily need to put its narrative foot forward even if it could.
