Saints Row Single-Player Hands-On
We spend some quality time with a near-finished version of Volition's upcoming GTA-style action game for the Xbox 360.
Currently scheduled for release in North America at the end of August (and just a few days later in Europe), Saints Row is a gang-themed action game that borrows quite heavily from the Grand Theft Auto series while introducing some interesting features of its own. The game's multiplayer content, for example, promises to be what GTA players' dreams are made of, and there's plenty to get excited about when playing solo as well. We recently received a near-finished copy of Saints Row, and after spending several hours progressing through the single-player game, we've finally--and somewhat reluctantly--dropped the controller in favor of a keyboard so that we can share our impressions of it with you.
The first thing you'll need to do when starting a new game of Saints Row is design a character for yourself so you can watch him getting worked over by gang members in an action-packed intro sequence. The customization options for your appearance in the game are impressive, and since many of the physical attributes can be manually tweaked using sliding bars, it shouldn't be too difficult for you to create a character in your own likeness if that's what you're into. You don't get to pick out clothes, tattoos, piercings, and such at the start of the game, but all of these things will become available to you as you progress through the story and locate the relevant stores.
Predictably, the first few missions in Saints Row amount to little more than exercises designed to familiarize you with the game's uncomplicated controls. You'll learn to move your character as you make your way to a meeting with members of the Saints gang, you'll learn melee combat controls when a handful of the aforementioned thugs jump you as part of your initiation, and then you'll learn to shoot just as soon as you've paid a visit to the local Friendly Fire store and purchased a gun. Other abilities you'll learn early in the game include recruiting and fighting alongside homeys from your gang, using your cell phone to call other characters for backup, and visiting drive-through "forgive and forget" confessionals to instantly wipe any notoriety (think GTA's wanted level system) that you've accrued with cops and gangs. Before getting into the game proper, you'll also gain access to a crib, where you can change your clothes, stock up on weapons and ammo, collect money earned from any turf that you control, save your game, and store a seemingly unlimited number of vehicles in a garage designed for two.
To progress through Saints Row's story mode, you have to earn respect, which can be achieved either by completing story missions or by taking part in various (mostly illegal) activities. Respect works in much the same way as experience points do in role-playing games, and every time you level up you'll unlock the next tier of story missions. We're not sure exactly how many different activities there are in the game at this point, but there's certainly no shortage of things to do, and there appears to be plenty of variety. The first activity that we put our skills to the test in was a "snatch" mission, which tasked us with rescuing prostitutes from abusive pimps. The next, and almost certainly our favorite right now, was an "insurance fraud" mission, where we were able to earn a decent amount of money by deliberately throwing our guy under moving vehicles and making sure that there were pedestrians in the area to witness it. Both of these activities (and many others) were initiated when we made our way to areas highlighted with icons on the game's useful map (which comes complete with a GPS route-finder system), both were played against a time limit, and both forced us to explore areas of the city that, at that point, we hadn't visited previously.
Saints Row Quick Links
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- GameSpot Score8.3great
Check Prices: $9.99 – 20
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