Saints Row (Xbox 360)

We don’t think there is any review of Saints Row out there that doesn’t name Grand Theft Auto. It’s not that we journalists want to take the easy way out to deliver a piece of text and then move on to the next paycheck; it’s simply that there is no escaping Rockstar’s multi million selling franchise when talking about Saints Row. This game is like most punkbands you see on television these days: a tribute to the real thing, but not quite the same or real.

So yes, Saints Row is a massive GTA rip off, but that is not a problem per se. Since the release of Grand Theft Auto 3 and its two sequels, numerous games have been released that take the same formula, and, well, ensure that’s its just not fun to play anymore. Saints Row could be regarded as the first game in this new genre since GTA that actually remains fun. Because Saints Row is Fun with the capital F. If anything, it reminds you of how solid the gameplay in GTA was.

The most painful realisation players will get fairly early while playing Saints Row, however, is that the game never really takes the genre forward, or even sideways. Indeed, sometimes it even goes backwards. The exclusion of motorcycles and airplanes, for example, feels kind of strange: why would a game on such a powerful machine like Xbox 360 miss out on these goodies that are available for years on the PlayStation 2?

Even Saints Row, the city of the game, is much smaller than the massive landscape that could be found in San Andreas. To be honest, this step backwards could be considered as a step forwards as well, because the playground in San Andreas was ridiculously big, giving the player a very overwhelming feeling. Here, the city is a good chunk larger than Liberty City, but it has the same feeling and it’s actually a pretty well rounded size for a sandbox game. You never really take long to get anywhere, and yet the city feels big enough to pull you in make you believe you’re a citizen of it.

The exclusion of all the body training and health options that were in San Andreas also feels like a relief. While some might have enjoyed smashing the X button to get more muscles on your character, we believe it doesn’t really add anything, not even realism, and thankfully Saints Row lets you change your entire appearance just by spending cash. At the beginning of the game you can change your characters appearance to no end. Well, it has to remain a male, but other than that, you’re free to make your fat wobbly freak. Unrealistically, making your character a fat chap doesn’t make him slower. When playing the game, you can visit the plastic surgery to change your face, body or even race.

But it’s not the way that you can alter your body shape. It’s all the little extra details. Visit a hairdresser to get a new hairdo, or get new tattoos, piercings, or go to a cheap second hand shop to buy some trashy clothes. But maybe you want to be a pimp, so you go to an expensive store and get a nice coat and shiny shoes. It’s all your choice, as long as you make enough money. There are car dealers, and even better, car mechanics, where you can pimp your (stolen) car to no end, almost like in the Need for Speed Underground series, and then save it in your garage next to all the other cars you have saved there. You might here some mighty fine tunes on the radio, so you go to the record shop and purchase the single to put it on your in-game MP3 player so you can listen to it all the time. All these details make for a far more engrossing experience than GTA, and they don’t cost gameplay time. You don’t have to push a button fifty times as fast as you can to change your appearance.

Missions are recognisable from the GTA series as well, but they are varied enough and they are implanted very well in the game. You have to earn respect to be able to do a story-based mission that sees you gaining parts of the city that previously belonged to other gangs. You earn respect, however, by doing all sorts of small missions that aren’t directly tied to the story line. These range from simple pick-up-the-hooker and protect-the-drugs-dealer missions to a quite excellent Destruction Derby-style game and high speed street races.

The missions make sense through various real time cut scenes, in which you’ll see your character just like you made him. While he doesn’t speak, the other characters do, and this greatly adds to the overall experience. While both the dialogues as the radio chatter (yes, just like in GTA) isn’t anywhere near as funny as in Rockstar’s offering (Saints Row tries to hard to be funny), the great voice acting makes the events that occur a whole lot more convincing.

To top it off, Saints Row does what GTA was missing: a good online mode. While you won’t be able to cause carnage with others in the entire city, the arenas are pretty big and a few different modes will certainly keep you occupied. The developers are working on a patch to make the whole experience more streamlined, but at least you won’t come online without anyone to play with: the game seems to be very popular.

Conclusion

The game doesn’t win any awards for originality, but it isn’t out to do so. It has taken much of what GTA did wrong and corrected it. Unfortunately, in the progress of doing so it doesn’t really add original content in it that would really give the game its own face, and therefore it wouldn’t really be justified to give Saints Row the blessing of a truly next generation game, even though the graphics are drop dead gorgeous on a HDTV. It really doesn’t matter when you’re playing this game and you’re enjoying yourself to no end, however. For all the reviews bashing Saints Row because it does a grand theft on Grand Theft Auto, there’s something to be said about just having an enjoyable experience with a game. Saints Row gives you that, and what more could you ask for?

Pros:
- Missions are enjoyable and are integrated in the sandbox game very neatly.
- Customisation is a keyword here, which a lot of gamers will really like.
- Graphics are excellent, especially on a HDTV.
- Online mode is pretty popular and has its fun moments.

Cons:
- No prices for the people knowing where the developers got their inspiration from.
- Sometimes a step backwards. Where are the planes and motorbikes?
- Doesn’t get as funny as GTA anywhere.

This game is for: People that liked GTA and want more of it, people that thought GTA didn’t had enough freedom of choice.
This game is not for: Gamers that don’t want to come anywhere near this genre of games. Apparently, there are quite a lot of you.

Review written by Moz La Punk / previously published on www.mozlapunk.net