This game didn't even come out this year, but CHINA DON'T CARE. That's not keeping it off this list. In fact, it's the only thing keeping it from being #1. This game is a fantastic and fascinating piece of game design. It's perhaps easy to look at it and laugh at how silly it all is, but don't think for a second that just because the game is silly that it wasn't made by a group of god damn geniuses. Geniuses... Genii?.. Whatever.
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Too often when playing a game, you come across things that are just in there because another popular game did it that way. With Saints Row, the design absolutely oozes this sense of the question that drove everything being "Is this fun?". They try to elevate the bits that are fun, while dealing with problems that open world games of a similar type usually have. And they take whatever the problem is and replace it with FUN.
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A perfect example is the way you can dive through the windows or even windscreen of all the ground based vehicles that actually have them, Dukes Of Hazzard style. It serves several purposes. First off, it makes it way easier to quickly get in a car. It doesn't break the flow of the game and you're far less likely to have the only vehicle within a hundred miles drive off while you try to get to the door. Secondly, it solves a lot of pathfinding problems. I'm sure we've all been there in GTA, watching the character run around the vehicle trying to find the door, be it because access to the door is blocked off or the character just seems to be having an aneurysm. Can't find a path to the door? Try flying through the window! So it fixes that. Thirdly, IT'S FUN. It's amusing the first time you do it and I can confirm that it's still amusing over 100 hours later.
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I could list a bunch of other areas of the game where it's extremely obvious that things are the way they are because it's fun (like the handbrake being replaced with a button that basically just eliminates any traction from the wheels driving the car instead) but that would take a while and I think I've made my point. There are a few other things that I would like to mention though.
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Firstly, it's ironic, but because everything in the game is so silly and over the top, including all the characters and the writing, there is such a cohesion between that and my actions in the world at large that it actually creates a strong immersion and I feel emotionally attached to all the characters, most of all the actual Saints boss. While I appreciated GTAIV in a number of ways and thought Niko was a great character, the disconnect between Niko's story and the sort of things I got up to while bored in Liberty City more or less prevented that same connection with it all. And this connection drove a lot of my decisions. First time through, I chose Killbane's mask out of loyalty to Angel. I chose to go rescue Shaundi. I wasn't about to let her die; We've been tight since way back when she was Eliza Dushku. The Daedalus mission was awesome, but Shaundi is part of my runnin' crew! So although GTA and Saints Row have basically gone to the extremes in their respective directions, the writing and characters through out Saints Row have been the ones that I've really fallen in love with. Miss you, Gat. :(
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Next, I have to make mention of Laura Bailey's performance as Number 1 Female Saints Boss. In the lead up to release, I was initially disappointed that the actress who did that role for Saints Row 2 wasn't reprising it, but Laura knocked it out of the gosh darn park. Saints Row allows such ridiculous character customisation whenever you want, but I create a character seriously initially, then tend to get attached and only change outfits, hairstyles, tattoos, makeup etc with maybe very, very slight tweaks to the facial structure etc along the way to get it to match what I have in mind for the look of the character. The voice acting and the way it so brilliantly conveys the personality of the boss is a huge part of why I get attached and that's a credit to the cast. I'm sure all the voices are great, but I've only played with Laura's voice and it's hard to imagine doing otherwise. She basically is that character to me now and I hope she sticks around for future games.
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Lastly, to actually tie it in to 2013, I'll say that it is a shame the DLC packs weren't a little more substantial. I did actually enjoy them, perhaps not as much as the base game, but the biggest complaint I would level at them is that they just didn't have as much content as I'd hoped.