A GTA Clone?

The wrong way to look at Saints Row is as a Grand Theft Auto clone. The first Saints Row might have been considered a GTA clone when it came out after San Andreas, but the sandbox genre has evolved to the point where we can safely stop calling any crime-themed, open world game a GTA clone, just as we didn’t call Half Life a DOOM clone.

Saints Row provides something different than what GTA is offering. The most recent Grand Theft Autos have provided players with stories, settings, and action that more closely resemble what you would find in a crime novel. Characters like Niko wouldn’t be out of place in a story by Elmore Leonard or Jim Thompson.

Saints Row The Third is pure comic book, through and through.

Everything is over the top. The kills are big, splattery gorefests where GTA IV presents death in a more grim, realistic manner. The vehicular action is larger than life where GTA IV had cars that would slowly break down and sputter to a stop. The characters are big, broad crime bosses and thugs where GTA IV’s characters were more like real people. We only make these comparisons to point out how pointless they are. Saints Row is its own game.

The Introduction

Taking you from Stilwater, the city used in the previous games, to Steelport, the game has you design your own character, and it’s not often that you see a character creation feature this in depth. In fact, the character creation engine was released for free on Steam prior to the game’s release to give players a taste of what to expect.

Some players might choose to make the character look more like themselves, but being that this game is so over the top, most will probably choose to create an over the top character, and there’s a lot you can do in that direction. You can create just about anyone from Hulk Hogan to Ronald McDonald to play through the campaign with and the game will have every feature you’re looking for or the next best thing.

In fact, it’s safe to say that you could spend hours playing this game without ever getting past the character creation stage, it’s just that in-depth.

Realism? We Don’t Need no Stinkin’ Realism!

Let’s list a few of the things you’ll see in Saints Row: The Third…

• A Tron-inspired virtual world

• Babysitting a tiger

• Octopus-controlled gangsters

• Mexican wrestlers in a chainsaw battle royale

• The lead character getting a sex change

We don’t want to spoil anymore surprises, this should only give you an idea of the tone that the game sets. It really seems designed to appease each and every fantasy for violence, sex, and the absurd. If Grand Theft Auto is the Peter Paul Reubens of crime games, this is Salvador Dali. It keeps piling weird on top of weird and it really does let you get away with just about anything you might have ever wanted to do in a video game from charging through downtown in a military jet to hucking cops off of a roof and watching them bounce off cars below.

Sidequests

The main plotline in the game is pretty straightforward for all its bizarre twists and turns: Take over the streets and earn cred and respect by any means necessary. The sidequests are where you can have a lot of fun with some zany missions, though, like the Insurance Fraud jobs.

These were first seen in Saints Row 2: Missions where you job is to run into the street and do as much damage to yourself as quickly as possible in order to collect a big cash payoff. If you’ve ever played an open world crime sim, you’ve spent a lot of time throwing yourself into traffic and jumping out of cars and planes just to watch the ragdoll physics at work. Well now there’s a game that rewards you for that kind of self-destructive behavior.

Vehicles, Features, Weapons and Costumes

We could write a hundred pages here and not begin to scratch the surface of the content that you’ll find in Saints Row: The Third. As an idea of what you get in terms of vehicles, you’ll see everything from hover jets to pixellated military tanks that look just like they came out of an Atari game. As an idea of the weapons that you’ll use, you get everything from the traditional guns and knives to chainsaws and sex toys. There’s really just too much to list here, so just assume that if you ever wanted to drive it, shoot it, hit someone with it or wear it, Saints Row: The Third lets you. That assumption is right more often than it’s wrong.

The Visuals

All of this and we haven’t even touched on the visuals.

The game is really something to look at. Taking place in a totally fictional city rather than the more realistic New York and LA inspired locales of most crime sims, the game offers up neon lit buildings in a pseudo-futuristic setting. Steel, glass and city lights combine to create the kind of skylines you only see in flashy music videos.

There are some unfortunate details such as bad draw distance. If you build up enough speed, you’ll wind up crashing into cars that appear out of nowhere and textures will disappear. This is just a matter of the game letting you push the limits as hard as you can, of course, and it’s something that many gamers are used to, but we still look forward to an open world game that lets us get in a jet and shoot through the skies at 300 MPH without crashing into an invisible tree.

The Music

When you play an open world crime sim, the music is a big part of the soundtrack. This tradition for licensed music that began in GTA3 has carried over across dozens of other games and it’s always welcome. Where many crime sims use lesser known music and tunes that are really nothing to write home about, Saints Row: The Third features everything from classical music for those dramatic chase sequences to independent rock like The Aquabats, and rap music like Ghostface Killah. The choices are perhaps the most eclectic yet put to one of these games. Nowhere else will you find Mozart, Biz Markie, Iggy Pop, and Art Brut all on the same soundtrack.

Final Verdict

Saints Row is a smashing success because it’s so self-aware. It knows that it’s not a serious game, that it’s just here for fun, for laughs, and it capitalizes on that. Where some games seem to be confused as to whether or not they’re trying to be funny, Saints Row: The Third knows it’s all pretty silly and it revels in it. If you’re looking for a game that lets you just plain have some dumb fun now and then, it’s very hard to beat Saints Row: The Third.

For example, the full list of achievements is available, and there are ten in all for 100 points:

•     B.A.M.F.: Defeat 15 enemies at Technically Legal using only melee attacks.
•     Public Enemy #1: Destroy 45 Police and SWAT vehicles while protecting Jimmy’s car.
•     Weird Science: Complete mission “Weird Science.”
•     Eye of the Bee-Holder: Spray 25 rabid fans with the Swarmitron.
•     Sting Operation: Destroy 5 Steelport Guard vehicles during the “Tour de Farce.”
•     Tour de Farce: Complete mission “Tour de Farce.”
•     Supaa-Excellent!: Shoot down a helicopter with a Saints Flow fireball.
•     Send in the Clones: Kill a Brute using only melee damage while under the influence of Saints Flow.
•     The Johnnyguard: Prevent Johnny Tag from taking damage on the Magarac Bridge.
•     My Pet, Monster: Complete all missions for “The Trouble With Clones…”

With this information, it is clear that the missions will focus on Johnny Gat, and there are three missions in total that focus on clones of Johnny Gat himself. Helping you with your missions is a new power up called Saints Flow, and there is a new weapon called the Swarmitron that, in the same crazy fashion upon which Saints Row: The Third is known for, fires bees upon its target.

Judging by the rest of the downloadable content that Volition and THQ have brought gamers in the last couple of months, this third mission pack will probably take another hour of gamers’ time. However, with the same seven dollar price tag, this content might prove to be the craziest of the three, making it worth every penny. After all, who wouldn’t want to shoot bees at unsuspecting rabid fans?

The Trouble With Clones, the third downloadable mission pack for Saints Row: The Third, is expected to arrive any time in Spring 2012.

Along with several other packs, the Nyte Blayde Pack came free for those who subscribed to the season pass, and the season pass came free to the first 3,000 individuals to pre-order Saints Row: The Third through THQ’s website. Nyte Blayde is an over the top fictional superhero who fights vampires in a parody that exaggerates the popular vampire hunter Blade.

In all, the pack comes with quite a few items. For example, you will receive the Nyte Blayde mobile, which is a sports car designed to hunt vampires, and it seems to be a variation of the Peacemaker vehicle that is already in the game. Next is a costume that allows you to don an altar boy outfit; you might not be innocent anymore, but you can at least dress the part. Along with that is the bloody canoness outfit that lets you join the Order, slay your enemies and show off a little leg at the same time. Additionally, you can receive the Bloody Cannoness, which is a motorcycle of salvation that lets you fly like any other vampire. Finally, depending on the choices you make during the pack, you can even receive the Nyte Blayde himself as a homie who you can call at any time to help you in a fight.

As previously stated, the Nyte Blayde Pack comes free as long as you have a season pass, which was available for free through THQ’s website before the launch of Saints Row: The Third. However, it is still possible to purchase the season pass through PSN, Xbox LIVE or Steam for $19.99. Alternatively, you can purchase the Nyte Blayde Pack separately from the season pass, but this is not something that is currently available with the Steam version.

All in all, this pack is perhaps one of the most interesting of all the available packs, especially if you enjoy all things vampire-like and red. If you have some time left to spend with this game, pick up this pack right away.

The name of the pack accurately describes its content: It provides a content of various Genki-themed activities, all of which are a bit insane. In total, there are four new fun activities to play. Having said that, three of them are just a revision of the activities that already exist in the game, and that is pretty disappointing to think about until you have had fun playing in the Genkibowl.

Genki Apocalypse is the first new activity, similar to the Super Ethical Reality Climax Activity that is already present in the city. With this activity, you must go through various corridors and rooms chock full of enemies, health options and targets. The same rules still apply here; earn money by shooting Ethical targets, enemies and Money Shot targets, and shooting a Sad Panda will cause you to lose money. In Genki Apocalypse, you will come across shark-infested areas in a jungle setting where you can throw your mascot enemies for added cash. Given the fact that the Super Ethical Reality Climax was one of the most enjoyable activities in the base game of Saints Row: The Third, it seems too obvious to mention that Genki Apocalypse is the best one of the pack.

Next on the list is a revision of the Escort side missions — Super Ethical PR Opportunity — except this time you get to drive around Professor Genki. In a similar vein to Escort, Super Ethical PR Opportunity is fun but can be annoying with the frequency of enemy cars slamming into yours. Fortunately, your car can come outfitted with flamethrowers, but not until you complete the activity once.

The next activity is Sexy Kitten Yarngasm, which is best described as a cross between Katamari and Tank Mayhem. Here, you get to roll a giant yarn ball all over the city of Steelport, crushing fences, mascots, vehicles and everything else that falls victim to your path. Simple fun, yes, but it provides a great spin on the existing Tank Mayhem formula.

Finally, there is Sad Panda Skyblazing, and it is certainly a unique one for this mission pack. Your characters packs himself or herself into a Sad Panda costume and dives from a helicopter. As you fall through the sky, you must slip through fire rings, bounce off of Ethical balloons and finally land on a rooftop where you can pick up a chainsaw and massacre mascots. It is easily the most unique and the craziest of the four new activities, easily fitting with the crazy nature that is Saints Row: The Third.

When you clear each of the activities, you will earn new homies, vehicles and outfits, so if you have been looking to add more bulk to your experience in Saints Row: The Third, Genkibowl VII just about does it; the only problem is the DLC should not take you more than an hour. Getting all of the achievements/trophies may take slightly longer, but that is all. With only two cases of each activity, the DLC is certainly light.

For seven bucks, you might be getting what you pay for, depending on how much you like the activities. After all, it evens out since most video games cost $60 right off the bat. While it is okay that these activities were not included in Saints Row: The Third right away, it would have been nice to see at least five instances per activity instead of a mere two.

Ultimately, Genkibowl VII provides good bang for its buck, offering quite a bit of fun, albeit just lasting an hour. The price tag will not be justifiable for everybody, but those who had a hankering for more activities in Saints Row: The Third would do well to pick this one up.

This second downloadable content pack provides gamers with three lengthy missions, some new unlockables, debuting characters and a brand new story arc. Unlike the first mission pack, there are no sets of activities to partake in here, merely offering actual missions. However, this simple fact means that there feels like more content present rather than the first mission pack. Unfortunately, its higher level of fun and a more fleshed out and complete feel is somewhat moot as Gangstas in Space is still over before you can really get into it.

As far as the quality of content is concerned, there are no problems with Gangstas in Space. The only real problem — a problem that the majority of gamers are probably going to have — is that is just is too short. Taking the time to go through the entire mission pack takes an hour just like the first mission pack, so that it also costs seven dollars means the value is certainly there. However, gamers will still probably be left wanting some more missions. It is also pretty disappointing that you can earn some special laser weapons during the course of the missions, but you cannot use them outside of the DLC anywhere at any other time during the game.

Fortunately, you are rewarded with new vehicles and new homies that make wonderful additions to the base game. In fact, there are a few new achievements and trophies to obtain for those of you who are completionists. However, it is important to note that once the missions have been played, there is no way to repeat them. This means if you are looking to get an achievement or a trophy and miss it and save, you are pretty much out of luck unless you make a new game save or until Volition and THQ elect to release a patch that will permit players the ability to replay missions, which has been reported to be on the way.

For all intents and purposes, Gangstas in Space is certainly more worth the value than its predecessor, Genkibowl VII was. The fact that you get to bypass activities and receive actual missions already makes it much more valuable, making the entire content seem that much bigger. This is a great add on to add onto the base game, so if you have been looking for a reason to get back into Saints Row: The Third, this is one way to do it. Of course, it is still pretty short, and the unlockables might not be as cool as before, but it is still a solid download.