Saints Row: The Third Review

Some sandbox games are well respected for their realism. After all, it takes a lot to create a city, populate it, give players a chance to live in a virtual parody of reality, and at the same time do so in a way that draws players in an makes them feel they truly are in an enclosed living breathing world. Well grounded characters have to blend together with a physics engine that makes sense, because players are always going to be searching for that one thing that feels too inconsistent with what we know about the world today. So it's fairly impressive how well Saints Row: The Third draws in players considering that every ounce of realism is tossed right out the door within the first ten minutes, giving players an amazingly wild ride that features some of the most memorable (and believable) characters you'll ever have the pleasure of playing with in a sandbox game.

Don't get fooled by the fact that this is the third game in the series; even though the plot picks off right where the other games left off players are treated to a nice summary of the Saints' accomplishments prior to this installment. Having reached the height of their fame and popularity the local gang has become a bit full of themselves. They're now robbing banks with masks that look like their faces, cutting movie deals, and just generally getting used to the good life. This complacency eventually gets them into quite a bit of trouble, and soon the Saints find themselves in a new, unfamiliar city having to work their way back from the ground up.

Apart from the main story being a little predictable, it's a fantastic ride through and through. Part of this has to do with how over-the-top the action is in just about every situation. Stealing UAV bombing drones, skydiving from helicopters to crash parties and freefalling from an airplane while shooting through falling debris to kill rival gang members in mid air. These all set the tone at an early point in the game that the action is going to be consistently over the top and the player will get the experience all the best parts of it. With the mind already suspending a lot of belief that any of these things could ever happen it's easy to believe that the storyline is just background fluff for the experience, but the character interactions are so genuine that it's hard not to really feel for the Saints' cause.

There's absolutely no time wasted in any of the dialogue, no fillers with useless information, no string of swearing just for the need to be edgy, and in a world where players can dress up like vampire hookers driving a ice cream truck, while avoiding mutant hulks that throw people at you, being able to be to really connect with these characters so effortlessly is incredibly valuable.

But thankfully the character design isn't the only solid thing in Saints Row: The Third. Combat naturally plays a large role in attempting to carve out a gang empire and that's exactly where the game becomes additively satisfying. Guns are just about everywhere and take up the usual role in any third person shooter. There are sniper rifles, rocket launchers, pistols, machine guns, and all of them are simple as pointing and clicking away. Then, of course, you have weapons like the laser guided precision airstrike gun that summons up sharks, or mind-controlling squid gun (which naturally shoots out a squid which takes over any potentially hostile NPC). The sheer wackiness of some of the weapons that players get access to is both shocking and hilarious, and it's clear that only some sort of genius could ever come up with the vast array of weaponry featured in this game.