VTOL Jets, Predator Missles and Dildo Bats, Oh my! (Saints Row the 3rd Review)
by Kenny Rioux on Monday, January 16, 2012 at 7:34pm
The Saints are coming...
As some of you may know, I listen to a podcast from a video game based website called GiantBomb.com. Every Tuesday night, they release an episode for free on Itunes and for about 2 1/2 to 3 hours, I am entertained constantly by Ryan, Brad, Jeff and Vinny (and sometimes Patrick) as they talk about video games. These guys know their stuff and you can hear their love for games as they talk about various titles they have been playing. Now these guys are always playing the latest games, giving their take on what is out and more or less giving you, the listener, if you should spend your time (as well as your money) on said titles. Something struck me as I had been listening to these guys over the last couple remaining months of 2011. There is a phrase that I heard repeated constantly, and that phrase was,"You should really go play Saints Row". I mean they REALLY were championing this game as if it was the most fun they had with a game in some time. They did not reveal much for fear of spoiling what makes the game so worthy to seek out, but with the mantra of "You should go play Saints Row" burned into my brain, I asked for it for my birthday, received it and fired it up. And I haven't stopped smiling since.
But before I talk about why this game is so great, a little history lesson. Developed by Volition inc, and published by THQ, Saints Row 1 was an open world action game, that had HEAVILY borrowed it's gameplay from the mega-popular Grand Theft Auto series. Although generally reviewed favorably, it was criticized (some would say too harshly) for its me-too game play and concept, of becoming top dog in the crime lord underworld. Decent sales led to a sequel, Saints Row 2 and was received very well for it's presentation and love for the ridiculous. Grand theft Auto 4 had seen it's anticipated release earlier that year, and despite the fervor for that title, Saints Row 2 had done pretty well selling in excess of 6 million copies and being known as a bankable franchise. The floodgates were opening...
This brings us back to this moment and before I go on, seriously, you should go play Saints Row. Saints Row the Third is a game that realizes it is exactly just that, a video game. No poignant commentary on modern society, no gritty storyline that gets into the blood and guts of a character's psyche, it is just a game, and games are supposed to be fun. And in SR 3, the fun never lets up, ever. SR 3 starts off with the Saints gang, now based in the fictional city of Steelport, enjoying their status as celebrities whose crime activities are idolized and celebrated. The Saints go about their business that attract the attention of fans, as well as the bullets of the rival gangs, police forces, and paramilitary groups. All this adversity is battled with a devil may care attitude and anything that would be crazy, over the top, and unbelievable is nonchalantly filed under the "Eh it's all old hat" folder. It is in that craziness that gives the game, and everyone and everything in it, a fun and exciting flavor that has not been tasted for many moons. Let's just say that there is something completely jaw dropping about jumping out of a large cargo airplane, avoiding debris and shooting bad guys out of the air, catching a fellow gang member mid-air, pulling your parachute, realize you didn't kill a bad guy, dropping your friend, cutting your main chute, hurl yourself and shoot your way from nose to back end of the plane YOU JUST JUMPED OUT OF (all without touching the ground), catching your friend again and pulling your reserve chute to safety. All this happens in the first 30 minutes of the game booting up, and it only gets nuttier from there. Seriously you should go play Saints Row. And the visuals are quite nice as well. The bright blue daytime skies that precede the brightly lit-up Vegas inspired nightlights, it's hard not to admire the clean look. The character models also have a slight cartoon look, but animate well and the character designs themselves are as memorable as the city they occupy.
Now all of this would only showcase the game as all style and no substance if the game didn't at least handle well. I'm more than happy to report that the game controls quite well. Shooting is satisfying, with a variety of weapons that you can customize and upgrade and the game is not afraid to let you play with the heavy artillery very early on. You steal predator missiles after a short time in and they are, if I may you will pardon the pun, a blast. You get slots for melee, pistols, shotguns, rifles and specialty weapons. There even is this melee weapon called the Penetrator, which is ostensibly a 5 foot long dildo attached to a bat handle that you bludgeon enemies to death with. The strange part? it sounds like what you would think something like that would sound, thank you sound design! Now if you are going to go on a sex-toy rampage, you will need some wheels and thankfully, not only does SR 3 have a variety of vehicles to mess around with, they actually handle and drive pretty well, surprising for an open world game such as this. You will be able to ride around in everything from an everyday car, to doing flybys in military-grade aircraft and helicopters.
The characters you make contact with and have join your posse, are very interesting and engaging. They help move the story along, and are backed by excellent voice acting in their respective roles, with some celebrities such as Hulk Hogan, and Burt F'n Reynolds being especially noteworthy. All the characters are great to listen to and that is thanks to the solid and funny writing talents at Volition. The character you create to play as is always enjoyable and it is staggering that Volition decided to record all the lines 6 different times with 6 different voices (3 male, 3 female) and each one is distinct. I went with British guy, because let's face it, swearing always seems more comical when uttered by a British guy.
As a side note, I have not played the co-op mode which allows you to tag-team the story with a friend and from what I have heard, it is a supremely enjoyable experience.
If there are any criticisms I can levy against Saints Row, it is a criticism that I levy against all open-world games and that is simply due to so much going on, there have been some technical issues that cause cars to get caught up at random, dying from cheap deaths and so on. This happens rather infrequently and is never enough to break the game to the point where you want to just shut it off.
60 dollars is a lot of money, it is a lot of money for a game, but for Saints Row the Third, you get a lot of bang for your buck. It serves you a big heaping plate of fun, and gives you the most fun tools to consume its silly goodness with early and often. There was never a time where I was not having fun, in fact this has been the game I have had the most fun with 2011/ early 2012 and that is including Skyrim. Seriously... you guys... you should go play Saints Row.