Finally, a successful clone of GTA comes along that has enough unique elements to make it worth committing to.
Saints Row offers the first entertaining, content-packed GTA-like experience on the new generation of consoles with a plethora of activities, missions and districts to explore.
The controls in Saints Row are a little different than GTA's, but the functionality is still the same. It also shares the same mission and gameplay structure with the more popular sandbox game, but it stands out thanks to a number of unique activities, such as: Insurance Fraud, where you have to throw yourself on the way of speeding cars to get hit in the worst way possible; Drug Trafficking, where you ride shotgun and protect the driver as they make deliveries; and Hijacking, where you steal a specific car and return it to the starting location before gangs and cops kill you or destroy your vehicle. There are many other activities like these, along with the main story missions.
Almost every activity has 8 levels of difficulty, and there are multiple instances of each. This adds a lot of content, but makes it difficulty to score an Achievement since you have to complete every level or every instance of an activity before you get your meager 10G for your multi-hour work. Certainly, 10G is hardly fair when you've completed some of the frustratingly difficult and time-consuming levels of an activity. Saints Row really puts into question the 360 Achievements system, as this type of game offers so much more content and goal-oriented missions than others that it deserves a bigger cap over the mere 1000Gs.
On the gameplay side, however, Saints Row plays just as good as you'd expect. Driving is just as simple as it was in GTA, and the easy access to weapons means you can actually use them without worrying about running out of ammo too quickly. You can even die or get busted by the cops and still retain your weapons with their ammo (while paying an expected fee, though, just like GTA). As a result, you'll hardly find the need to use melee attacks, even if Saints Row allows you to use 3 buttons for such a task. A lot of time, effort and patience will be spent in getting rewarded on the Gamerscore. There are a few bugs in the game, and the more you play the more you'll notice them. The game has frozen on me at least five times, and there is an irritable problem that happens more often than it should and can actually affect your enjoyment of the game. Sometimes, the car you'll be driving won't render/show on the screen. When it doesn't render, you don't move. You are frozen, sitting in an invisible car. When you're in a race and your car doesn't render, you don't move while the other cars still race ahead. There will also be times when a bridge you're driving on won't be rendered, and it'll stay that way for a little too long causing you to lose your bearings. This last one doesn't necessarily affect gameplay but easily annoys: Cars that are around you, even close ones that you can plainly see in front of you... simply disappear. The one you're driving or last drove will stay in the game as long as you don't get in another car, so that's a little relief. Still, cars disappearing in plain view are a problem GTA did not have in the last generation of consoles, so it's a little silly to see these issues here.
While Saints Row introduces a couple of frustrating issues, it does a lot of good to amend problems that have been part of GTA for the longest time. For one, your garage can store up to 160 cars, which is way more than the total number of unique car models available, and you can access any garage to get to your one inventory. If your car is destroyed, you can come back to your garage and pay up $500.00 to have it fixed! But the biggest breath of fresh air comes in the form of waypoints. Now, you can choose anywhere in the world where you'd like a waypoint to show up from where you are to that point in the map. Also, every mission, including races, use waypoints to direct you in the right direction of where you need to go. It's such a "We love you gamers" feature, that I can't see myself without it in GTA.
Speaking of missions, they are varied and interesting enough to play, even if the story is clichéd and at times boring. You'll be taking on 3 other gangs, each with their own missions. When you beat a mission, your gang will get the territory the mission was played in, and you'll have to defend it later when the opposing gang tries to take it back.
The presentation of the game is great, although the visuals are too plastic-looking in contrast with the gritty-looking GTA. However, the voice cast is impressive with a great number of talented actors lending their voices to the characters. The music, which comes in the form of a CD player or car radio, is just as good as GTA's and even has its own humorous conservative talk radio station.
All in all, Saints Row is the best fix for anyone looking for a sandbox, violent game in the same vain as GTA. It doesn't feel original at all, but that's not its intent. Instead, it builds on the original GTA gameplay and offers some interesting improvements to the series. It may lack the polish, character development and a few touches here and there that made San Andreas such an amazing game, but Saints Row more than stands on its own. Have fun!