Saints Row The Third

 

On August 20, 2013 Volition plans to release the next game in their Saints Row series, Saints Row 4.  Therefore, in anticipation of the upcoming release, this review shall cover their latest game in the series Saints Row The Third, which was released on November 15, 2011 by the, now defunct, company THQ.

The Plot:

The starting point for Saints Row The Third is rather simplistic when compared to the rest of the game.  The player takes the role as the leader of the gang known as the Third Street Saints and the story opens up with the your character robbing a bank in the city of Stillwater.  Joining the player's character are two characters from the previous game, Shaundi and Johnny Gat, in addition to a new character for the game Josh Birk, who runs off midway through the robbery.  After the bank robbery fails, the remaining three characters discover that they tried to rob a bank belonging to a group of gangs called The Syndicate. 

  

The failed bank robbery

 

There are three gangs that make up The Syndicate: The Morningstar, The Deckers, and The Luchadores, and each gang has its own specialized role in the operations of The Syndicate.  After the group escapes from a Syndicate plane, they find themselves in the city of Steelport and must now take down the Syndicate and take control of the city.  Along the way, the main character will come to the aid of others in the city that also have a grudge against The Syndicate and gladly offer their assistance to the Saints.

Members of The Syndicate

In addition to the Saints fight against The Syndicate, a third party is introduced which is known as STAG, a military group that was formed with the sole purpose of wiping out all gang activity within Steelport.  As a result of STAG's activity in Steelport, the story causes the player to fight back against this specially trained military unit by stealing their weapons and blowing up their bases.  Eventually, this war between The Saints and STAG leads to a meeting with the mayor of Steelport, Bert Reynolds, to deal with a zombie outbreak that was caused by some form of chemicals that STAG was experimenting on.

The Gameplay:

Movement:

There are multiple ways to move around the city of Steelport while playing the game which include: Foot travel, in a car, in a helicopter, in a boat, or in a plane.  When flying a plane, the only direction the player can move is forward and the player can use the W,A,S,D keys to change the direction of the plane.  When on a boat, in a car, or in a helicopter, or on foot The W,S,A,D keys all have the same functionality.  The W key is used to move forward, the S key is used to back up, and the A and D keys are used to turn left or right.  There are several other controls with varying functionality for each form of transportation, such as activating a nitro boost or power sliding when the player is in a car.  Despite the fact that there are several different ways for the player to move around the city, the controls are developed in such a way that makes it easy for the player to switch from one vehicle to another with little to no difficulty.

Flying in a VTOL

Combat:

At the beginning of the game, the only ways for the character to fight back is with hand to hand combat or a pistol.  However, as the game continues, the player will gain access to other weapons such as shotguns, assault rifles, rocket launchers, and satellite guided missles.  This results in the player being able to choose from eight different weapon types at any time in the game world, and each game type offers two or three different variations of the weapon, such as two different pistols and three different shotguns.  Over the course of the game's story, there are missions that will require the player to use a specific weapon, such as a rocket launcher.  Therefore, these particular missions will grant the player the use of unlimited ammo for the weapon during the course of the mission.

Customize Your Character:

One of the best gameplay mechanic for Saints Row The Third is the ability to customize the player's character, at any point in the game.  After the bank robbery, the player will be able to customize his/her character for the game.  In doing so, the player will be able to select the player's gender, build, the character's voice, how the character will compliment and taunt people, and various other aspects that allows the player to turn himself/herself into the main character.  The ability to customize the player character is a mechanic that is featured in several other games, however, what separates the implementation of this mechanic is that the player can re-design the physical appearance of the character at anytime.  Throughout the city of Steelport, there are plastic surgery shops called Image As Designed, and all the player has to do is pay roughly $500 of game world cash and he/she can completely redesign every element of his/her character.

Upgrades and Backup:

As the game progresses, the player will obtain cash from the parts of Steelport that The Saints controls.  That cash can be used to purchase upgrades from the player's phone.  Each upgrade falls under a certain category, some of which include: Health, Combat, Gang Upgrades, and Damage.  The more upgrades that are purchased, the better prepared that the player will be when progressing through the story and/or attempting to take over the city. 

The Upgrade Screen

In addition to buying upgrades from the player's phone, he/she can also call in backup to assist him/her in various situations.  People that the player can call in to help are referred to as homies and the majority of homies that can be called are specifically named characters from the game.  As the game's story progresses, the amount of homies in the player's phone increases.  In addition to calling in homies, the player can also call for a vehicle to be delivered to his/her location in the world.

Taking Over Steelport:

In order for The Saints to eliminate The Syndicate, the player has to take control of the four districts of Steelport away from the other gangs, the game map itself will tell the player which gang controls which district and how much of the district is controlled by The Saints.  To gain control of the city, the player must perform certain actions that allows The Saints to gain more control of a district.  The biggest ways in which the player can take control of districts is to buy property in the city, complete activities that can  be found around each district, and by disrupting operations of the other rival gangs in the city.

Steelport Map with Activities, Buildings, and Gang Ops

Buying Property:

There are a large number of buildings spread throughout Steelport that are owned by the various gangs of The Syndicate.  In order to take control of the city, the player will have to purchase all of these properties, the cheapest of which will cost $1000.  Types of property that the player can purchase includes shops, home bases which are referred to as cribs, and buildings that the player cannot enter.  For each building that is purchased by the player, The Saints gain a predetermined amount of control in the district that the building is located, and the player will earn more money every in-game hour.

 

Buying a piece of property

 Activities and Gang Ops:

In addition to buying property in the city, there are a number of activities that the player can complete to gain control of Steelport.  Each district has four different types of activities, each type has three instances of the activity with varying difficulty.  These activities can include flying around in a helicopter to protect one of your gang members, driving a tank and blowing stuff up, or driving around the city with a live tiger in the passenger seat.  Upon completion of an activity, the player is rewarded with a predetermined amount of money, respect which is used to level up the player, and more control over the district that the player is in.  However, unlike buying property, the player can replay any activity at any point in time to gain more money and respect.

One of the Activities the Player can perform

The final way to gain control of the city is by disrupting gang operations, or gang ops as the game calls them, within Steelport.  There are locations in the city where these gang ops are located, which is merely a collection of rival gang members.  To clear a gang op the player simply has to kill all the targeted members in the area without leaving the area or being killed.  Unlike completing activities, gang ops can only be accomplished once per instance and are relatively easy if the player should choose to attack gang ops from the safety of a helicopter.

Disrupting a Gang Op

Design:

Character Design:

Saints Row The Third contains a full cast of characters, each one with a unique and colorful personality.  The physical appearance and personality of most of the characters in the game tend to follow some form of stereotype, most characters are overdressed since they are in a gang, the women are well endowed, the FBI agent is a tech geek who isolates herself from people, etc.  Normally these stereotypes would be a minor annoyance, but they actually fit well with the rest of the game.

The Saints gearing up at a Safehouse

Final Thoughts:

Overall, the systems for the game are well designed and implemented and help to make the game incredibly fun.  The characters are entertaining and help move the story.  The story is hilariously over the top and memorable.  The only problem is that sometimes the AI acts up during missions, but other than that Saints Row The Third is an amazing game.