Saints Row in 2012. How does it hold up?
Saints Row starts off with a cutscene that shows the battle going on between the gangs in the city and before you know it, you're being jumped into the 3rd Street Saints, to try to take over the city of Stilwater. The game sets you up with 3 different mission strands, one for each rival gang, which you are free to perform in any order. However, before you can do a mission you must complete activities to fill you respect bar. These activities range from protecting drug dealers while they drive around making sales, to driving around with a prostitute and a "client " in the back of your car while avoiding news vans, and even one of my favorite modes, "mayhem" where the objective is exactly what it sounds like. Causing absolute mayhem. While most of these activities are fun, I would've preferred if they just gave you the option to play the missions whenever you wanted, as activities can get a bit tedious after a while.
Anyways, the story itself is very... bland? None of the characters ever seem to be too interesting, and the cut scenes and dialogue can be pretty bad at times, with a "in your face attitude" that would probably appeal to 7 year old boys (this coming from a 16 year old myself.). The ending would probably be more upsetting/aggravating at the time this game was released, but with SR2 & 3 being released, it's still pretty bad, but not all that aggravating.
The graphics for their time are pretty good. But I do have to say, the clothing options in this game aren't the best. For the most part, they all seem to have the early 2000's gangsta theme to them, and it's probably dude the fact that its 2012 now, that I cant see anyone wearing anything like it. That isn't exactly a problem, I just kind of wished Volition put more clothing options into the game.
The controls are what you should expect for any GTA type clone, and make the shooting a blast, & the driving. If there is one problem, it's that driving and shooting at the same time can be hard to do, and it's key during some parts of the games.
Saints Row doesn't do much wrong with its first game, which leads to a fun experience with a very "meh" story, which I'm guessing wasn't Voltions main focus to begin with, which is A-Okay with me!