Saint Row the Third - Here Comes the Boom in Spectacular Fashion

Earlier this year, I played Saints Row IV and it was a pretty fun ride. I haven't got the time to review it, so I thought I'd just post the review for Saints Row the Third I wrote 3 years ago as a fix, haha. So here we are: say hello to Saints Row the Third! An outrageous and chaotic game that isn't the kind that holds you back from having fun. It has an open world that is not just free to explore, but offers you ultimate freedom for whatever you wish to do. There is no complex character progression or absorbing storyline. However, there are a lot of spectacular explosions, great sense of humor and awesome toys.

Saints Row the Third puts you in the shoes of the leader of the famous 3rd Street Saints, as he or she attempts to take over the new city in the Saints Row universe, Steelport. The leader and another two core members of the gang are arrested after a failed bank robbery in their home city of Stillwater, but are quickly bailed out by the chairman of an international criminal organization called the Syndicate. The Syndicate; realizing that the Saints make millions with their celebrity status; demands tribute and a cut of the profit as shown by a ridiculously simple bar chart but without a second thought, the demand is rejected by the cocky Saints. This, of course, isn't the answer that the Syndicate wants to hear and eventually the meeting is ended by gunfight and bloodbath. Eventually, the Saints find themselves in the city of Steelport and simple enough, the next thing that crosses their mind is taking over the already gang-controlled city.

Dive down, the city is free for you to explore...and destroy...

One of the main strengths of Saints Row the Third are its story missions. Sure, the game does not absorb you into an emotional story because, in fact, it doesn't even intend to. What it does is absorbing you into an explosive story. The game starts impressively with you fighting off SWAT teams in a failed bank robbery, then after that you get to shoot pursuers on air while dodging an extremely ridiculous number of crates dumped out of an airplane, and shortly afterwards you get to call rockets from UAV drones to blow up tanks and later on, jumping off a helicopter and land yourself on the roof of a penthouse. However, after the first few missions, things start to cool off a bit. As the Saints begin to settle down in Steelport, you have to do some minor missions which are actually a set of introductions to the Activities and Diversions of the game. It would have been better if they are not a part of the main storyline missions, as they actually distract you from the main story. Fortunately, just when you think all the fun parts are over too soon, the game gets exciting again, and you quickly forget the less exciting parts of the game.

If you need some breaks from the main story missions, you can do a variety of side-missions called Activities that reward you with Respect points, cash, territorial control and increased hourly income, aside from unlocking more of the same type of Activities of different and usually increased difficulty levels. One example is Tank Mayhem, in which you have to maneuver a tank around and more importantly, destroy everything on sight. While some Activities are initiated through their own respective spot on the map, others can be accessed through your Saints Book, such as the Assassination or Car Theft activities. There are even tons of minor activities to do. Hijack a car with passengers inside of it, and with the press of a key, you trigger the Hostage diversion in which you have to drive the car around at high speed to keep the cops behind and the hostages remaining inside the car for a certain amount of time. Point a gun at a civilian or a shopkeeper and you’ll trigger the Mugging or Robbing diversions respectively.

This one hell of a gang war.

Saints Row the Third is an explosive game. You don’t play this game for the story. Instead, you play this game for fun. Everything blows up, as if everybody works together to plant explosives in every object in the game. Talking about explosives, the game contains a variety of powerful and sometimes weird weapons. Just like in any other games, your initial weapons are weak and basic. Overtime, as you gain money, you can’t resist visiting the weapon stores to upgrade your weapons until they literally turn into more destructive versions. Even the typical pistols can bring down a truck once they are fully upgraded. A typical submachine gun can incinerate vehicles if it’s fully upgraded. Besides that, you can purchase new weapons to satisfy your lust for carnage. The game also rewards you unique and powerful weapons through mission completions. It is safe to say that the game is a package of awesome virtual weapons. Aside from your incendiary pistol, you can blow things up in more spectacular fashions with rocket launchers, UAV drone controls, and you can even “possess” vehicles with a remote controller-like device.

Saints Row the Third is extremely flexible when it comes to customizations. That said, you can customize your character into any form of appearance you wish. You can even change your character’s personality, their taunt or compliment style and their voices. It’s pretty fun to see your character talking in some sort of zombie gabble and the other characters seem to understand what he or she is saying. In fact, the game is so flexible that you can even change the gender of your character anytime you wish, if you are into that kind of thing. No player shares the exactly same character. One player may play as a female version of the Silver Surfer, while the other plays as a corporate-looking guy wearing a wrestler’s mask. Besides your weapons, you can customize and upgrade any vehicle you have in your garage by improving their speed, durability and such, and change their appearances to suit your taste. You can customize your gang style, appearance and even pick the kind of vehicles your gang members drive around. If you are looking for more income, you can upgrade your cribs to unlock more rewards.

Civilian safety is the least of her concerns.

Although it is mainly an action game, Saints Row the Third does contain a role-playing element. The game uses the Respect system. Earning Respect points help you to level up and unlock new upgrades for you to purchase. There are tons of upgrades for purchase to improve your character’s combat abilities, gang abilities and such. Things work pretty much as you would expect. Purchasing the first tier of an upgrade unlocks the second tier, and so on. There is almost no restriction; you are free to unlock any upgrade you wish as long as you have gained the required level and the money. Respect points are mainly earned from mission completions, along with loads of cash as reward. Saints Row the Third is a generous video game. Actually, you gain Respect points in just about everything you do, from the simplest things like performing near miss stunts to awesome actions like destroying tanks in an explosive fashion in a combo.

In terms of sound, Saints Row the Third does exceedingly well. There are pretty decent soundtracks and if you turn your car radio on after a completing a mission, the news of that previous mission is always reported. The voice acting for every character is done perfectly and this helps to show their respective personality. For instance, Shaundi is a sensitive, hot-headed lieutenant while Oleg is a gigantic, chess-playing muscle man. While the characters aren't as alive as the ones in video games such as Dragon Age: Origins, they still look memorable enough, especially during cut scenes. It’s safe to say that the cut scenes are quite absorbing and often hilarious. They are just nicely done and dramatic. Saints Row the Third is packed with a great sense of humor. One of the most hilarious characters is your very own character, and depending on your creation, he or she can be entertainingly funny, and is most certainly the highlighted character of the game. It's definitely not the kind of sense of humor that annoys you. It does seem to drag a little sometimes, but it never feels too forced.

The voice acting is very well done, but the characters are so close to being memorable.

Saints Row the Third is by no means perfect. Both visual and gameplay problems are encountered from time to time. While you drive along the streets of Steelport, trees emerge part by part on the sidewalks as you drive closer to them, and during Activities such as Insurance Fraud, cars ghostly appear in a distant then a second or two later, vanish into thin air. Some Assassination side-missions require you to do specific things to certain people such as harassing gang members to draw out the target, and much to your disappointment, the gang members don’t show up and the area is deserted. You call your homies via your phone for help in combat and most of the time you only get the busy tone. I mean, duh, you’re the leader of the gang so when you call they've got no excuse not to show up. Thankfully, these errors are not the kind of errors that you should take seriously and in a game as chaotic as Saints Row the Third, you hardly have the time to think about these. It is still a colorful game, and as you cruise along the streets of Steelport on cold rainy days, you’d see reflections of city lights on the damp road and at nights, spotlights and neon-highlighted skyscrapers lighten the skies.

Perhaps, the most unsatisfying thing about Saints Row the Third is that it ends pretty fast. Just when you thought the game was reaching its climax, you’re actually on the finishing line. This definitely makes the game feel shorter that it really is. The game comes to any of the two conclusions of your choice but it’s not that neither of them is interesting; it’s just that they put the game to a sudden stop when you are not yet ready for one, and you quickly find yourself craving for more. In short, the game ends a little bit quickly. Saints Row is full of surprises, but this is definitely not one of those surprises that you would be happy for. Despite Saints Row the Third’s minor focus on storyline, this does affect the game negatively a little bit, but it can still be forgiven because the game remains explosive from start to end. Besides, you can continue for a free-play once you've beaten the campaign.

That gun is as big as her arms.

Saints Row the Third obviously has one and only mission in mind; to give you, as the player, a great time. It is neither a realistic nor an emotional game. It simply wants you to have fun. So it tries to make you feel like a king. It never tries too hard and so finds success in this. With tons of activities to do, it makes you feel like the city is yours. It gives you an ultimate freedom. You can improve your character until they become an invincible, god-like mass murderer with devastating weapons in possession. If you prefer, you can just ignore the Activities and do your own things. You might want to beat random civilians with your spiked baseball bat, test your driving skills, create chaos, pick up fights with cops or rival gangs, or simultaneously both, or simply drive around in your heavily modified vehicle. Since the game rewards you Respect points for everything you do, these silly activities are never a waste of time. You can do them all over again, anywhere and anytime you wish. If you want to play a video game with just one reason in mind; that is having fun; look for no other titles than Saints Row the Third.