I was a big fan of Saint's Row 2, for me, it was the most fun sandbox game since San Andreas, I was actually a little sceptical to Saints Row The Third, I was afraid it would be too silly, too stupid, obnoxiously immature and too random for it's own good, well, it IS incredibly immature, it IS very random and it IS really silly, but what do you know? The things I expected to hate I ended up appreciating, not so much the adolescent humour though, but the silliness goes so far, completely unashamedly to places you would never imagine, it becomes sort of brilliant. I won't spoil too much, but when you get to the final mission, that is literally out of this world, I knew this was something special, you're constantly interested in seeing what the game will throw at you next, the variety is pretty good as far as these kinds of games go, there's of course the standard third person run and gun shooting and driving various multiple vehicles. But there are also Tron levels, skydiving while shooting enemies, zombies and a plethora of recurring activities. Now, the story I didn't care for at all, I mean, the important life or death choices you have to make along the way are not that relevant, because you cannot really take the game seriously when it wants you too, it's a good thing it only gets serious for a few brief moments, then it's back to the madness. The things you can do, the customization options, this is a demented playground, that can even be enjoyed in multiplayer. The game is fairly long as far as games go nowadays, I finished it in a little under 10 hours, without exploring the city all that much, there's a ton of stuff to do and unlock.
The game looks pretty good, I mean, it has some rough edges, but the city can look fairly impressive at times, flying in a helicopter at night around the massive neon-lit buildings and all. Unfortunately, or actually sometimes it can be a good thing, but I did encounter several glitches, characters getting stuck in walls and vehicles, flying around in mid-air and stuff like that, some of it looked funny though, and it's not a major problem, one glitch forced me to restart from the last checkpoint as the guy I was supposed to defeat all of a sudden quit taking damage, but these are very minor issues, not even "issues", as the game is very generous with checkpoints. Some of the later missions have numerous enemies that can take a lot of hits, so it's a good thing that the AI on your side is, if not terribly clever, they usually can take care of themselves...most of the time, the AI can get a little dense on occasion, but that's fine. I did not expect to enjoy Saints Row The Third as much as I did, I thought the weird, silly elements would detract or ruin the experience, and yet they only made it so much better, or at least more fun. I am anxious to see what's in store for the Saints next, I mean, how can you top this? They didn't just go over the top, they went over the top of the top, okay, that made about as much sense as this game, but who cares when it's this entertaining? I must say though that I did unfortunately encounter a glitch of some sorts that affects the save data, that really annoyed me, the game just didn't save the progress I had made.
It's very easy to want to compare Saints Row: The Third to the original open-world beast, the Grand Theft Auto series. Both are mission-based, free-form action games that offer crime, sex, and violence; both have massive... Read Full Review
I've completed both Saints Row 1 & Saints Row 2 (the latter a couple of times) Brilliant games, and could be considered as underdog challengers to the GTA franchise. However, Saints Row 3 has been dumbed down & pad... Read Full Review
