Reviews - Saints Row: The Third

[HEXUS]

A new gang war is about to kick off in Steelport.

Read more.

[crossy]

The battle continues as players jump out of a helicopter and face a new perspective as you fight against dozens of Syndicate members while falling through the sky.

Erm, the initial skydive is from a transport plane, not a helicopter (at least in the XBox and PC versions I played). In fact that reminds me a little of one of the set pieces in "Die Another Day".

Also don't agree that combat is brainless, although after a while the opposition tactics do get a little predictable (e.g. throwing brutes in every other enemy level). I've certainly seen the opposition respond to your tactics - e.g. if you use the shotgun then a few will try and stand off and snipe; "borrow" a tank and suddenly your foes get RPG's. One tip though - the AI doesn't seem clever enough to deal with heights - get above the enemies and you're more or less invulnerable - I did that today on the helipad at the airport, being able to hold off wave after wave of dumb grunts.

The main tactical thrust seems to be whether you go for "respect" or money first; whether you level yourself up quickly or share with the homies; and what weapons you prefer. As said in the review, this is a perfect selection for one of those "I just wanna shoot summit" moments. Music selection is quite good, and the selection of side missions on offer is reasonable.

Three criticisms though. Firstly the best version is far and away the PC one. I've played head-to-head with the XBox one and the console is visually quite poor - although driving a car with a keyboard isn't as seamless as with a console's game controller. Secondly, this carries an "18" certificate and maybe I'm being a prude, but I'd suggest that it definitely deserves it, (ignoring the obvious dildo-as-a-baseball-bat motif, there's also a lot of sexual content and bad language, e.g. one mission takes place in a fetish club - complete with various "implements"). Lastly, the pistols cause disproportionate damage - I've got a pair of fully leveled up "shooters" and they're more deadly than the assault rifle - cars, helicopters and lord knows how many foe have fallen to the hail of lead from them!

[directhex]

The music is best served by the final mission, where it puts on Bonnie Tyler's Holding Out For A Hero as you charge in to save your homies

[crossy]

The music is best served by the final mission, where it puts on Bonnie Tyler's Holding Out For A Hero as you charge in to save your homies

I haven't got that far yet - been side tracked into doing a lot of the side missions. Sounds good though.

If anyone's interested to see what the "soundtrack" consists of then IGN has a list here: http://uk.ign.com/wikis/saints-row-t...ial_Soundtrack

Reasonable selection imho, although I do tend to spend a lot of driving time listening to "The Mix".

[Disturbedguy]

Played this on the PC and completely loved it.

Have completed the story side of things, but I want to go back and complete all the sides missions / buy all the properties available and have 100% control over all the areas.

While at the start its relatively easy to deal with the gangs, wait until S.T.A.G get involved, a lot of fun

[Ganty]

this is my "pick up and have a laugh" game of the year tbh, can't take it that seriously, but it's just so much fun, especialy the characters talking to each other, it really makes you laugh, and enjoy the game that much more

[prehensile]

Ok, I chose the blonde character with the cute ass, chose the zombie voice for her because alot of gurgling from the lead character is an original idea, gave her a dali moustache and 3 minutes later found myself in a purple tank designed by lamborghini blowing up 100 other tanks, SUV's, shooting people in bunny costumes, hitting any dude on the street i want to for a change... GREAT FUN!

At one point i found myself standing next to a girlie eating a sandwhich, and she was saying "this is so amazing!" and etc, until she noticed me and pulled out a pen and paper for an autograph, and then threw it on the floor and ran away.

also having a surveillance plane and being able to goole map an airstrike on your foes is pretty good fun too.

the best game in ages!!! totally arcade, totally not realistic, total anarchy just like oldkool games like space quest were. aliens with strange headwear and guns trying to hump you, whatever!

[rymilky]

im in love with it clocked it in 7 hours and just mucking about on it its rather fun skidding into people on the street lol

[directhex]

Ok, I chose the blonde character with the cute ass, chose the zombie voice for her because alot of gurgling from the lead character is an original idea, gave her a dali moustache and 3 minutes later found myself in a purple tank designed by lamborghini blowing up 100 other tanks, SUV's, shooting people in bunny costumes, hitting any dude on the street i want to for a change... GREAT FUN!

The STAG tank? Fairly sure this is locked until late in the game.

Except in the most popular torrent release.

[andyjohn3]

Sounds like a good game - sometimes devs forget that games should be fun and people like to waste time mucking around as much as completing the same old missions. GTA San Andreas was similar - that hover pack was amazing

I'll keep an eye out for a good deal on this - any suggestions on where to look?

[crossy]

Sounds like a good game - sometimes devs forget that games should be fun and people like to waste time mucking around as much as completing the same old missions. GTA San Andreas was similar - that hover pack was amazing. I'll keep an eye out for a good deal on this - any suggestions on where to look?

For maximum fun here's my suggestions - (a) get the Professor Genki pack; (b) "Invest" in a copy of the Prima guide for the game (costs about a tenner).

With the PG pack you get the PG outfit (meh), the octopus gun and the "manapult" car. Not that impressed with the first item - but the last two have some amusement factor. Or at least the last one does if you like scooping up police and launching them like fireworks. I need to get out more!

The Prima guide is okay - there's some reasonable behind the scenes info - but with that you get a code to get a assassin's type outfit and a hover bike (with a cannon). Yes, I know that you can also get this via the game, but then you miss out on the improved tank or satchel charge.

Game have the PG pack for £27.99 delivered for the PC, which seems like the best deal I can find.

I'm now 2/3's of the way through - I've been very careful to be "completist" about it - e.q. I've got all the collectables. Got to say that it's pretty good - very OTT and dripping with adult humour - e.g. took on 5 waves of zombies last night armed with a stockpile of farts-in-a-jar and a giant blue dildo wrapped around a baseball bat ... can't see that happening in GTA(5?) anytime soon ...

[directhex]

http://forums.hexus.net/current-barg...ml#post2201729

[prehensile]

Yeah directhex, Thanks!

What i dont understand is that carmageddon 2 was banned for being able to mow citizens "zombies" down and kill them, it was judged as being violent, but this game gives you a target to mow down 500 citizens with more realistic graphics. things have changed

ok i got pretty bored of it after 8 / 9 hours, it is a laugh but it lacks more playing modes, i would be happy to jump from car to car as in a flying hyjack mode, a pogo stick, carmageddon was great cos you could explore secret domains in the car, like fly through windows and malls and smash the windows and land on the 5th floor. that was good.

So... very good 5 hours of play, after that it's not a game you will forget for too long. but the best game i ever played is urban terror, i have clocked about 2000 hours on it!!!! it's like 3d chess with guns.

[prehensile]

Ok i had an IDEA.... about how to make this game have some real gameplay...


remember the SYNDICATE!!! where you had to hypnotise lots of people with the hypnotiser and you could also get leg upgrades so you could run at 60mph the whole time... that would be great on this game...

like proper missions with strategic planning where you have to use firearms resources to decoy, regroup, ambush, and defeat police and military in order to win missions for your organisation...

they had a very good minigun, and a good flamethrower, that sent out orange napalm flames for 20 meters in a arc... ver pretty. they should do that on this game!!!

they clearly know how to make good gameplaym but so far the 4-5 game modes are ok but most of them are quite slow rather than hectic -use my braincells-fast and some of the game modes are same old.

[crossy]

Anyone know about DLC for this? I note that both XBL and Steam are punting a "Season Pass" (£12.99 on Steam) that claims to offer three new campaign missions to play through. I'm tempted, but I'm wondering if the "Season Pass" is a CoD Elit3 style DLC discount arrangement on these DLC items, or whether the DLC is exclusive to this pass.

Weird thing is that I'm actually quite warming to SR3 - like Just Cause 2 I thought this'd be a quick-play-then-go-onto-something-else, but it looks like (just like JC2) I may still be returning to this in a month or two.