Saints Row

You are situated in America and you are part of the 3rd Street Saints gang, dressed mainly in purple. You have 3 rival gangs competing for turf: Los Carnales, the Vice Kings and the West Side Rollerz. They’re equipped with deadly weapons and guns, but don’t worry… you will be too. Create your own personalised character and you’re away! Not forgetting that between you and your rival gangs stand the police.

Saints Row is a free roaming shoot-em-up and fighting game focused on fighting for turf with your gang. The gang system is very similar to GTA: San Andreas- you can recruit your gang to come along with you to help, and you can recruit more people as you complete more missions. Generally, the missions are also very similar to the GTA series with a boss or your gang’s leader declaring you to go and kill/ protect so and so. But it’s hard to argue because Saints Row pulls it off pretty well.  The game is littered with comedy that featured in GTA which, I think, acts as a tribute to the one-of-a kind GTA franchise. 

The wide range of weapons on offer in this game give hardcore shooting fans a field day. Ranging from the AK- 47 to a molotov cocktail you will find many ways to kill your opposition. But what about the aiming system I hear you say! It is a freeform aiming system that is controlled simply by using the right analogue stick. This allows for smooth and precise shooting, rather than the Crackdown lock on style that requires you to kill someone that is already dead. Because of the new look aiming system implemented on Saints Row none of these problems arise.

The Visuals in the game are very smooth and pleasant to look at. The FMVs (cut- scenes) are beautifully animated and explosions and general graphics are very eye- catching and tasteful. Saints Row does not let down on the graphical side of things. Occasionally, the game may subvert your character into some surreal world in which you can see the sky, and… the bottom of the sea. Yep, this is one of the games occuring glitches. Thankfully, it doesn’t show its ugly face too often.

The  online multiplayer,  the one thing that GTA was lacking, is, summed up, pretty average. There are several types of matches such as Big Ass Chains (collect the opponents chains to score points), Protect the Pimp (protect the pimp…), Blinged Out Ride (collect money and chains to pimp your team’s car up to win) and a similar kill your opponents to win type game. They appeal for a while, but when faced with some of the immature ‘gangsta’ online players things start to grate. There are sometimes lag problems, but I feel that the online maps, apart from the city ones, are badly designed and lack any creativity thus lacking entertainment value.

As mentioned, it is a free roaming game and similarly to GTA it has main missions and side missions- drug trafficking, chop shop, etc. which will keep you entertained for hours. The wide selection of games seems very appealing at first but after a while they begin to tire and become very monotonous and boring. These missions and side missions will earn you respect, and with respect you unlock more missions. This simple formula for progression gives some incentive to player’s actions, and lets them beat the game their way, whether it is by street racing or causing havoc on the streets with Rpgs.

Time to sum up. Saints Row, without any hesitation, is a carbon-copy of GTA featuring similar missions, structure and characters. But Saints Row pulls it off very well, updating the crime shoot-em-up genre and adding some nice hi-def graphics to boot. I give this game a better than average 7.8 due to its uncreative multiplayer maps and monotonous game/ story structure. I would love to see a free- roaming multiplayer in the next instalment, but we shall wait and see.