Saints Row the Third is a very entertaining game, but it has a hard time to live up to previous games in the series.
When Saints Row the Third was announced, I was really excited about getting my hands on the game. I didnt get the game until Christmas, but then I had spent many many hours toying around with the game and its content... sadly I wasnt too happy with the result.
Story
In short, the story in the game is about The Saints trying to rob a bank, but failed to do so after they get arrested by the police force. they find out that it was set up by The Syndicate, a gang that controls the city of Steelport and intent to bring down the Saints. Obviously the Saints wont let them do that, so they decide to oppose the Syndicate, which sadly results in losing one of their precious members.
In act of revenge against the Syndicate, the Saints reqruits new members to their fold and slowly takes control over Steelport.
Gameplay
SR3 is an open-world game, meaning that you can go out and explore as much as you want, as well as do the missions that the game offers, but you are not neccesary forced to do it, though it might take longer to achieve "respect" and money, to upgrade your character.
Upgrading your character is rather important. You can get new abilities and even increase survivability in game. It can also give you certain extra members that you can call for help, such as "Saints backup" which calls for help from a group of NPC Saints that help a friend in trouble.
Aside from doing side missions and main story missions, you can also collect... things (drugs, money and sex dolls to be exact). They do not really do much, aside from granting between 1-2k$ to the player and an achievement of course. But this is also part of the "challenge" missions that requires you to do various things, such as driving around in Steelport for a certain amout of distance or kill people in a certain way. As well as assassination targets is also available that gives extra money and respect.
The game has a co-op mode, where you can play with a friend, though it doesnt change much about the story or the way the game is played, aside the fact that you have someone by you that isnt an NPC. Co-op mode also enables Co-op only achievements, but that is pretty much it.
Pros
- Being more or less like any other game in the same pool, it is rather entertaining. It doesnt bring much new, aside from some fun features that can be entertaining when playing Co-op with a friend.
- The graphics are defiantly a major improvement. It looks stunning!
- Costumization has improved and it is much easier to personalize your character with many new features.
- Good soundtrack and sound quality is much better than in SR2.
Cons
- Okay here we go... As much as I enjoyed playing SR3, I couldnt help but wish that Volition could read my mind. As a female gamer, I usually choose my first playthrough in a game where I can choose between gender, as a female. Even though that SR3 is a very "manly" game, with many elements that are obviously made to please the male audience, I cant help but feel frustrated that the game is made for ONLY male characters. Most of the time it doesnt feel like I am playing a female character, because people around my character act like I aint got a pair of hooters. I really wish that they had at least made a few more changes to the dialogues and they way people act towards you, instead of just replacing the male character with the female when chosen.
- As much as Co-op is really fun, it would be a nice addition to the game if the cutscenes actually feature both mine and my partner's character. Just so it actually acknowledge the fact that there is two leaders in the game.
- Compared to previous SR games, the story seems a bit rushed and bland and doesnt really put the right focus on what is actually going on. Likewise doesnt the story progress through fighting gangs, like in SR2 to put an example, but the stories are in a long straw that you need to finish in an already planned out order.
- When you have finished the main story, there isnt really much left to do, unless you havent done the sidequests or done all the other small jobs around the city, but neither does anything specific to you and you might as well just stop playing.
All in all...
A rather fun game, it isnt perfect and could need some improvements to actually become better than the previous game. Just like any other game, it contains some nasty bugs that can more or less make the game a bit of a pain to go through. Either way, the game has some funny features and you can create funny characters that you can play through the game with, but dont expect much out of the story or the general side quests.
I can highly recommend this game if you enjoyed games such as GTA and alike.