So, this was a major disappointment. I originally went in thinking I'd get a lukewarm game like SR3 (which I liked, though I didn't love it like #2), but then my hopes kindda went up because of the bros here and their recommendations.
Obviously, this game has some major fucking advantages to #3. The super-powers are awesome, they're implemented brilliantly and make for some great dynamic fights n' shit. The writing is good. Whereas SR3 is just over-the-top bullshit for no reason other than to be juvenile, SR4 always has an edge or some point it gets across with the goofyness. I genuinely laughed at many points even though over-the-top juvenile humor ain't really my cup of tea usually. The plugs at other games were also very funny. The way it takes the piss on Mass Effect is glorious. The activities are generally also much more fun. These things are big reasons SR4 could have been a major improvement.
But it's not.
In any given open world game, I mostly only do the main missions (and activities I must do to move on with the plot). Doing this, the time I've clocked in SR2 and SR3 still manages to be LONGER than the time clocked in for SR4 where I did every single side-mission and activity. I dread to think of how short this game actually is if you cut out all the bullshit and just play the main plot. Also, in contrast to #2 and #3 where you had A LOT of missions with varied content and a lot of perspectives where you saw the characters interact and get fleshed out, you have next to none here. The character gallery expands hugely, but there is almost no time for individual characters to interact with the boss and each other. This is another reason the game's pacing is so horrid. Short cutscenes, exposition and development is what break up the freeforming in these kinds of games, and this games has very little of it. Only the small amount of main missions has interaction and different missions with different objectives, not counting the loyalty missions which are pretty short and only involve one character, mostly. All of them are really well done, but there are so few of them. The pacing gets shot to hell if you, like me, try to get as much value out of this game as #2 and #3.
Another major problem is that the open world is basically useless as anything but space between collectibles. It's fun LARPing you superpowers and playing around with them as you level them up, but the story missions are linear and seldom even use the open world, and the acitivites, like in SR#2 and #3, are set in little mini-instances of the open world. You don't need vehicles for anything, so you'll never use them unless you're LARPing, and you won't see or interact with the open world except to jump from Data Cluster to Data Cluster on rooftops. You're also not constantly building up your roster of hideouts, vehicles and other awesome shit to use in the gameworld. Here, all that matters is clusters for powers and cache for weapon upgrades. The result is a Steelport that seems bleak, empty and devoid of anything interesting, unless you really get a hardon from audio logs or statues. The constant night-time doesn't help. Compared to most open world games, SR4's steel port is a complete Ghost Town. The game might technically be open world, but it feels like a linear action game on many fronts.
Then there's performance. Disregarding my FPS problems, the game crashed almost every two hours for me, and the screen tearing due to the removal of a framerate cap could get glaring when it ran well for a change. The game's save-system means that crashes can really fuck you up. My game crashed at the final bossfight right before the end credits, which meant I had to go through the entire bossfight all over just to see the ending.
All in all, I really liked the improvements the game made to #3, and I really, REALLY wanted to like it more because of its charm and all the brilliant, absurd scenarios it puts you in, but ultimately I just can't. And there is just no way I'm exusing the game for its problems because of its chaotic development process - they're still demanding a steep 50 euros for the thing, so of course I'm expecting it to be on the level of SR3 in terms of polish.
In the end, the game shines with the love put into it, the writing is its saving grace, and the super powers compel you to keep playing, but it has far too many problems for me to laud it like some of you other bros.