Review: Saints Row The Third Remastered

Grand Theft Auto on Acid!

Title: Saints Row The Third Remastered
Platform: PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4 (reviewed)
Developer: Deep Silver, Volition, Sperasoft
Publisher: Deep Silver
Release date: Out now.
Tl;dr: If you’ve never played Saints Row, just imagine Grand Theft Auto on an insane of amount of acid and trust me, that’s a good thing!
Price: Â£35/$40
Family Focus?: Click here for more information

I’ve never played a Saints Row game, let’s just get that out of the way. I have always played the Grand Theft Auto series as I grew up with it (I know bad parents) and thought I didn’t need to play a Saints Row game because it was the same as Grand Theft Auto. Now here in 2020, I realise how wrong I was and the massive mistake I made with the last several years of my life because these games are wacky and insane and, and, and… Damn.

Saints Row The Third released on the last generation of consoles in 2011 and although I missed out on that back then, Deep Silver decided to remaster it for current-gen consoles to include 4K resolution, upgraded textures, HDR lighting and all DLC included, which gives you access to DLC missions straight away with the full array of DLC weapons, vehicles and the such at your disposal.

The story of Saints Row The Third Remastered is set five years after the events of Saints Row 2 and the 3rd Street Saints have become a media and consumer organisation with their own brand. However, whilst robbing a bank in Stillwater to promote an upcoming film about themselves they come up against resistance, which ultimately leads to them being arrested. The group are turned over to Phillipe Loren, head of an international criminal enterprise known as the ‘Syndicate’. Loren offers the Saints a deal: to exchange their profits to keep their lives. But they refuse, breakout, but lose Johnny Gat in the process, who sacrifices himself to allow you and Shaundi to escape. Loren doesn’t take to refusal lightly and orders the Syndicate to make sure the Saints pay!

Saints Row The Third Remastered gameplay is much like Grand Theft Auto with over-the-shoulder shooting while driving at high speeds around a metropolis inhabited by unaware citizens that could at any point wind up crushed under your tires or caught in a gang war, bits of lead and explosives flying all around them. It has a mission structure similar to GTA, however, instead of just driving up to mission icons, you use your smartphone to call up your gang members and arrange to meet them. There is also a bunch of side-content you can access like Mayhem, where you hop in a tank and rack up a score as you destroy Stillwater! Or you can enter the Genki gameshow, where you shoot mascots with signs and score multipliers which is a lot of fun.

Let’s talk about the remastered content which, when you put the games side by side, you can truly see how much of an improvement the remastered version really is! The upgraded texture work and lighting is amazing and the HDR is fantastic! It breathes a whole new life into the game. The character models are the only thing that remain in the past…well, them and the frame rate on the consoles, which is locked to 30fps; unfortunate, considering PCs can obviously reach the higher numbers and maybe one day consoles with receive a patch for higher framerates. The game has already received several patches fixing some bugs with HDR and such, which I hadn’t noticed during my overall playtime.

Overall, Saints Row The Third Remastered is a nifty package for the asking price and it will keep you entertained for hours with the main game, side content, and DLC missions. Also, it’s a criminal sandbox game, so creating havoc across Stillwater is just hours upon hours of fun anyway! Or, if you’re like me, you’ve been introduced to a new series that fills the void of waiting a decade for a new Grand Theft Auto game even though I think Saints Row might be a lot more fun… Plus, there is a full story mode co-op which I didn’t get to check out because I couldn’t match with anyone, although my internet is pretty appalling to be fair…

The Good

Wacky, wild and insane fun that flips the GTA formula on its head!
Beautiful upscaled textures with dynamic HDR lighting
Hours upon hours of content to enjoy thanks to all the side missions and DLC!

The Bad

Only 30fps on console

Family Focus

Saints Row The Third Remastered is rated PEGI 18 and M for Mature by the ESRB. Contains blood, partial nudity, bad language and sexual themes. I mean, it’s Saints Row, the wacky third cousin of Grand Theft Auto, so it is meant for adults and not little Jimmy!