Saints Row The Third

[newconroer]

I'm loving this game more and more. But the thing I love the MOST is how the city lives. The detail they put into this game is amazing.

Its starts raining, some people dig out their umbrellas, some people run under roofs, and guys reading the papers on a bank stand up, put their paper over their head and run under a roof.

People on cellphones boringly lean on mailboxes or lamp posts. And have actual conversations.

There are street performers playing guitar (and they play actual melodies). And beggars asking around for money.

Gang protesters holdings signs protesting against your gang. They even group up, sit on the sidewalk and blocking paths.

Random parts of the road get blocked due to construction, with construktion workers and machinery.

If a car accident happens, the police will show up and the accident victims stand beside them.

People recognise you on the streets and react depending on what they think of you.

And an OMGLOL moment: I was walking around when I saw a grandma holding up a sign protesting against my gang. This was the first time I noticed those protestors, so I shot her in the head. Then a guy in a green Gorilla costume walked by, stopped, looked at the corpse, took out his cellphone and snagged a pic of it, then ran away laughing.

I've seen people photographing spectacular road accidents, too.

Some cars blast louder music than others. Some you can't hear, some you can hear very loud when they pass by.

Police setting up random road blocks, because of other criminals.

Those are all small details, but they make the city seem so much more alive.

I'd love to see the cops doing even more such as speeding tickets, raids and a good ol' LAPD beatdown.
The camera phone thing I experienced for a different issue, though when I saw them get their phone out I thought "oh what a true reflection of our times."
Now if only when the police man says "police brutality? I'll show you police brutality," cops start a smack down, then some lady pulls out a phone and as she's trying to jockey with witnesses for the best angle and light exposure, she's simultaneously gesturing with her right hand and shouting repeteadly "why you still hitting him?"




In relation to some of the visuals(both art style and textures used) and the nuances, it made be describe the game as GTA IV meets Mafia II to someone the other day.

Mafia II primarily because of the aforementioned visual aspects - though I don't think the visuals are AS detailed, and you don't get quite the same sense of immersion.
The story is definitely bland compared to Mafia II or GTA IV for that matter, but still it's ok - goes along with it's over the top theme.

The thing(s) that really caught my eye were miscellaneous stuff such as action animations when melee attacking people(say if you sprint/charged them first), or when a full crew of Saints show up and throw down the already massive gun fight that's going or the customization levels(not something I'm big on, but not something I remember similar games having much of).

I didn't know much about the game till it was recommended to me (bad timing, way too much stuff to play already), but it's been worth putting a some hours into. I was pleasantly surprised.

Strong 7 from me.
Would give it an 8 if :

You could enable transparancy AA
Performance when in a vehicle(or moving at high speeds) was improved(maybe a motion blur issue?)
Bit more variety in the suburb, general locales and vehicles.
Vehicles had cockpits; I wouldn't even mind if the clones similar type vehicles to have the same cockpits, just as long as I get the camera view.

 

[MRCL]

So finally beat it (I took it slow). I think it should be mandatory for every last epic mission to be blasting "Hero" from Bonnie Tyler. It makes everything instantly epic.

However after finishing it I was stumped with a severe case of "what now". City conquered, level 50, what to do what to do... so I started a new game, this time playing through it with a half naked chick lol. Going for maximum respect right off the bat so I can plow through the missions as Super Girl early on.

Thats actually a let down. GTA San Andreas for example provided me with tons of things to do and tons of fun even when the last mission has long been done. Steelport from Saints row just feels like a restricted playground if you don't have anything particularly to do. After all its just a city. No mountains, no beaches, no country woods, no deserts...

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Yeah, the main disappointment is the lack of activities compared to SR2. There are some but far fewer than SR2. They even got rid of some of the best ones (Fuzz, for example).

 

[insename]

This is a great game. I love the gameplay and all that you can do in the game. The only thing I don't like is how short the storyline is... or the fact that most of the plotpoints were ludicrous.

 

[MRCL]

Hehe, killing Professor Genki (beat the shit out of him ratehr than shooting him) early in the game (10 missions done) is excellent. 100k at the beginning, how does that sound. I'm at 20 missions now (mind you second playthrough) and my hourly income is close to 34k. My goal for this playthrough is to get to level 50 before STAG arrives. I'm not sure how to tackle this tough...