A surprisingly great game. Not bad for a GTA-clone.
How wrong could I be? I played the demo on the OXM demo disc and I really enjoyed it, although I still wasn't interested in actually buying it (I was playing Oblivion and Dead Rising at the time) and it was only when PC World put a special offer on Saints Row - an offer I couldn't refuse - that led me to buy it.
The easiest way to describe Saints Row is "Grand Theft Auto", because it is absolutely intended to be a homage/rip-off/clone of Grand Theft Auto. Although GTA-clones in the past haven't been great, this one actually does some things better than GTA - such as character creation and customisation, vehicle modification, FPS-like manual weapon aiming. There are also some things that it doesn't do that were previously in GTA, such as motorbikes, boats and planes. However, when you are playing Saints Row, you will quickly realise that none of those things are important - it's good enough without them.
I've now got 100% completion on the single-player game and it took 85 hours of gameplay to get there. The majority of the missions are pretty straightforward and you should be able to finish them within relatively few attempts. The last few missions in the gang storylines are much tougher and will take repeated attempts to complete, where practice is needed.
If you love GTA, you will love this game.