10 Dec, 2011
Title: Saints Row The Third
Platform: Xbox 360, PS3, PC (Reviewed on PC & 360)
Developer: Volition
Publisher: THQ
Tagline: It is an open world with the insanity turned up to 11
Family Friendly: Click here for more information.
Verdict: Buy it already!
Coming into Saints Row The Third, I have to admit that I was biased in my attitude towards the franchise. I have always found it to be a better open world game than its competitor, Grand Theft Auto. What started as a semi-serious take on the thug life, open world game has turned it into a title that thrives on its insanity. Saints Row The Third revels in the very idea that it is not to be taken seriously at any point in time. It is by no means a perfect game, and for some, they will be put off by the sheer insanity of the story that takes place over 20-30 hours. But for those people that are looking for a top notch, open world title that realizes its full potential, Saints Row The Third fits the bill quite nicely.
Changing things up a bit from the first two Saints Row titles, Saints Row The Third starts you off at the top of the food chain. Your gang has been running things for a few years to the point that they are commodities in Stillwater. Saints have their own clothing brand, energy drinks, commercials and more. However, the focus of the Saints is still on crime, as you start the game rubbing a bank. But it is not just any bank, but a bank owned by a company known as the Syndicate. The Syndicate are an international criminal organization that have tolerated the Saints power, but when pushed with the bank robbery, they offer to allow the Saints to continue running the show in Stillwater for a large percentage of the profits. That does not sit too well with any of the founding members, and you embark on an insane journey through many missions to take down the Syndicate from within their home city of Steelport.
How insane does it get? Well, for starters, your first mission has you jumping through planes in mid-air, jumping out of planes, shooting up a ton of bad guys, all the while trying to catch your homie, Shaundi, who has been thrown out of a plane without a parachute. And it the volume notch only goes up from there as you then set out to raid the Army armory of weapons.
However insane it gets, you are never flabbergasted at the game as it pushes the bounds of reality. It is as if Volition is in on the joke and knows that everything that happens in Saints Row The Third is absurd. On one mission, I had to break into a sex farm and rescue a pimp that speaks through a voice box that is auto-tuned, and I thought, “Okay, that seems plausible in this world”. Some might not like the way that this game pushes out the fourth wall at times, or creates scenarios that go beyond any possible rational thought (see the ending of the game for this one, trust me), but they would be missing out on such a realized open world experience.
In games like LA Noire, Mafia II and even GTA to some degree, you have huge open worlds but there is never a reason to explore these with the exception of collectibles that you might want to find. Saints Row The Third serves up its open world as a sandbox for players to have fun and make up their own experiences on the fly. Sure, there are a number of challenges that you can undertake throughout the game, but most of the time, I found myself making my own challenges in the game due to places and events that I found. Sometimes, it is walking down the street, seeing a huge building and stating that I want to go to the top of that and skydive and I will get a helicopter or plane and do just that. And the world seems so alive, with people walking around, street work being performed, cops chasing after random bad guys and more. Steelport may not be the most visually stunning open world, but it is one of the few that makes the most of the environments that are found within.
Saints Row The Third has also introduced a new perk system that was not in previous games, and allows you flexibility to outfit your character and gang with special options as you earn more money. Some of the perks are simple like building up the amount of ammo that your guns can carry or extending your sprint (called the awesome button in the game), but some allow you to call in extra members or your team to help out, or reduce the amount of damage that you take from explosions, fire or bullets. Sure, some might look at these as ways to cheat in the game, but when you can soak up hundreds of bullets from a chain gun, it just seems to fit into the scheme of Saints Row The Third without question.
Even the little touches have been focused on by Volition here in Saints Row The Third. Sure, with previous open world games, you can walk up to random people and punch them, but here, you can press the “Awesome Button” and then use an attack and you will do a special attack move, complete with animations that will do a surprising amount of damage, and they are all context sensitive based on your attack angle. Better still is that while there are only a dozen variants of the moves, they never get old. I could watch my character suplex an unknowing civilian and pose on the ground afterwards a hundred times and it never gets old. You push the same “Awesome button” and go to enter a car and you don’t just get in, instead jumping into the air and flying through the window, a la the Dukes of Hazzard. I love these little touches as they add something fresh to the genre. Sure, they aren’t much, but it shows a lot on behalf of Volition and their feelings for the series.
Of course, it is not all peaches and cream, as there is still a litany of problems when it comes to multiplayer. While I never come to Saints Row for multiplayer, it is a component of the game, but as with the last issue, Volition has not cleaned up the issue of using cheats in another person’s game. If you join a co-op game, or if someone joins your game and they are using cheats, your save game is flagged and you no longer can use achievements and more unless you go back to a prior save. Nothing worse than working with someone for an hour only to realize that it was all compromised by a cheat. Why is there no filter for this after three games? Lag also plagues most multiplayer matches, at least in the ones I have tried, and until it is cleaned up, it is worth avoiding as a whole. And while Saints Row The Third runs silky smooth on a nice computer and does not have the horrid performance of its pedigree, weird things still happen. More than once, I have had things with poor geometry glitch into my vehicles or other characters. Several times, I have had fences and light poles glitch into my car and impede my progress in a chase, and I end up dead. Sure, some of this comes from being a huge, open world title, but these are flaws that have followed the series through three titles now and they have not been fixed. I can accept it through one or two titles, but get your act together by the third installment.
Even with its flaws, Saints Row The Third continues to provide fun throughout its campaign and even further when you add in the numerous side missions and activities that the game presents you with over 30+ hours. Volition seems to have found most of the magic needed to make the Saints Row a franchise that steps out of the shadows of other open world games and be an outright champion in the field. Its content may not resonate with everyone, but for those that want something over the top, insane and exceptionally fun to play, you can do no wrong with Saints Row The Third.
The Good:
- Fully realized open world experience
- Completely insane in its premise, but in a completely fun way
- So much stuff to do (main story, activities, collectibles, make your own fun)
The Bad:
- Issues with cheats killing a save in co-op
- Issues with the multiplayer mode regarding lag
- Collision issues occur far too often
Family Focus
Saints Row The Third is a game that completely lives up to its M Rating. With rampant swearing, killing and all around mayhem and destruction, it is in no way, shape or form fit for anyone under the age of 17. For those of us old enough to play it is a great release from a crappy day at work.
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