Personally, I loved SR2 - the biggest flaw is that the port had been cocked up massively by a third party, plus a subpar feel to driving cars. It has a cool storyline, the combat feels much better than in 3 and 4 (3+ weapons feel really limp and weak for some reason, in comparison), fun sidequests and is in general quite memorable. And I played SR3 first.
SR3 is OK but forgettable, really. The plot is essentially a rehash of 2's with less in terms of villain motivation. It amounts to 'there are three gangs that are a part of one organization, find allies, destroy other gangs'. It's not *bad*, I had fun with it, but it's passable. SR4 pretty much rendered it obsolete by bumping up the increased silliness, which was the main selling point really, up to eleven. The fact that a bunch of story missions by the mid-point are 'here's a story mission that forces you to play through a side activity' was annoying, but at least they've done away from forcing you to do them to gain access to missions.
SR4 depends on what do you want. Where SR1 was a GTA clone, SR4 is essentially a Prototype clone mechanics-wise. The story has its SWEET MOTHER OF JESUS H. BATMAN moments, plus a tooooooooooooooooon of continuity porn for long-time fans and decent parody of damn nigh everything on top of that. Notably, they used the framing device to justify the weirdest of level concepts. Story-wise, it's fun, but it's almost explicitly a superhero game WITH SAINTS!!one!
Oh, and re: Female 1 - it's Laura Bailey, what did you expect?