I'll come right out and start off by saying I completely ignored this game series until I picked up Saint's Row the Third. I figured this game to be a low quality slapped together cheesy gangster type of game in the shadow of Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto series. To be honest, I've still not played Saint's Row 1 or 2, but picking up this game I'm totally blown away.
The game starts out with a small history into the series background, but then cuts right into game play. This intro sequence completely caught me off guard, and the best part was that it was so over the top that I had my jaw open the whole time. I loved it. This game is about everything GTA offers you but then adds its own small bits of amazement, and tops it off with so many ridiculous things that you can't help but laugh out loud while you play. I will make comparisons to GTA in this blog, and that is just my way of showing that I consider the GTA series as the precedent for this type of game.
The action is wild in this game, you can strike it up any time any place just as you'd expect. Fighting the police in this game can be pretty fun. In GTA it always seemed like a workout to me as the in game AI was pretty tough such that you could not complete some missions if they were after you. In Saint's Row you can really knock law enforcement around with upgraded weapons along with friendly gang members backing you up. You get some hefty guns early in the game, so police fights that start up can escalate quickly. In the later GTA series, high police activity didn't seem to go crazy with heavy armor or military action. Saint's Row brings everything in. If you really go nuts and the police can't handle you, the Army rolls into town with Abrams tanks and helicopters, but the best part is you can steal any vehicle in the game. I took the tank and stored it in my garage so now I have it on demand. It cleans up, but its not invincible. You also get the added challenge of dealing with rival gangs throughout the game so if you happen to stumble across a pack and piss them off, they will come at you just like the police. If you continue to escalate a gang they get stronger and end up with a brute character who can be a real problem to deal with. You can have both coming at you at the same time and those fights can quickly feel out of control. One good thing to say, is this game doesn't lag or freeze up at all. For everything that can occur with this much combined action on screen, the experience is seamless
The story is fun as it involves your gang reclaiming its ranks in its local city and overcoming official and gang enemies. Playing in coop with a friend will definitely double your fun. You almost need to for some challenges and missions. The game, to me, even on normal has some really difficult missions to complete. Maybe I need to rank up and build my perks, but having a partner would really split the load and make some things less a chore and more fun.
The biggest reason I bought this game in the first place was from comments I had seen on twitter regarding the use of licensed music in game. This reason got me excited to play; and the game delivers. In an early action sequence when your gang attacks a rival gang at the penthouse of a high rise building, you parachute onto the poolside roof and the song "Power" by Kanye West starts up as you unleash a fury into every enemy you see. It was AWESOME! There are plenty of great songs among the radio stations you can hear while in vehicles. Honestly, I hope this game is an example back at Rockstar that they should be using licensed music. Fans will love it. HOWEVER, I really really really want to highlight a radio personality in this game that has me locked on his station in every vehicle I steal. DJ Jon, on station WDDT Adult Swim. His character is from the show Delocated airing on Adult Swim on the Cartoon network. This guy is hilarious and his voice is the perfect fit.
Finally, looking at the little things, and I mean the little things. When you're driving like a fool tearing up everything you can't dodge, every so often you can hear pedestrians yell at you. Some of the comments are so funny because they are off guard and more aggressive than you'd expect. Comments from enemies along with death sequence and other actions are pretty funny if you catch them during intense parts of the game. The outfits and ways you can customize vehicles and your character are definitely the cheesy aspect of this game, but after a while you really sink yourself in and go nuts. My brother plays his character as a short fat troll looking female dressed as a lumberjack that has a zombie voice when it speaks. It's pretty disturbing actually.
In closing, this statement alone, which I found on www.metacritic.com comes from Games Radar was the final push I needed to buy this game. "The complete realization of everything this franchise has set out to do. Yes it's ludicrous and lewd, but it's also a joy to play, a streamlined sandbox that hooks the fun directly into your veins."
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