Saints Row The Third - Review. ~Spoilers Beware~

Spoilers In The First Part of this Review. You Have Been Warned.

Saints Row the Third. Since the ending of SR2, many, if not all, fans have been wanting a Saints Row 3. After years of waiting, we have finally got it. But does it look up to it's predecessors?

~Beginning~
After the events of SR2, the Saints have become a media empire, and have merged with the Ultor Corporation. They have their own drinks, clothing line, and movie in the works. The game lifts off with Gat, Shaundi and the Saints Leader (You) robbing a bank with movie-star, Josh Birk, when unexpectedly, the bank tellers pull out guns and shoot at you, trying to stop you. Once you reach the vault, you go to the floor above it, and blow the floor up so you can get the vault, but Birk sets off an alarm and runs off. Basically, this level tries to re-/introduce you to Saints Row. It introduces you to the new controls, which are fairly different, but are much better than the classic controls. Once you get arrested, some people take you to there plane and try to make a deal with you. They call themselves The Syndicate. You shoot your way out of the plane and parachute down onto the streets of Steelport.

~Exploration~
After completing the two first missions, you are free to go exploring. Sadly, exploring around isn't as fun as SR2. There are lots of activities however. When exploring, you can go to stores and buy clothes, though there are only 2 or 3 different clothing stores, with most being Planet Saints. You can also go buy/upgrade weapons and customize vehicles. If you feel like it, you can go and annoy cops or gangs, but that isn't very fun till STAG arrives.

~Activities~
There are loads of these to be done. However, most main missions are JUST activities of some sort. Instead of going through levels for each activity, you go through instances. If you finish one instance, the next one will be at a different location. Some activities are a lot easier than they used to be though, and make them fairly boring. Activities are still easy ways to get respect and money though.

~Respect~
Instead of using respect to unlock missions, now it is used as an upgrade system. There is an extremely large amount of upgrades to be done, and some have multiple tiers. There are also some upgrades increasing the amount of respect you earn for each mission/activity. Unless you do all or most of the activities, i doubt you will get all the upgrades before you finish the story-line.

~Main Missions~
There are only 47 missions in SR3 and they can be done very quickly if you know what you are doing. Most of these are activities and are fairly easy. Some missions have choices, which can impact the story line, and each choice has at least 1 benefit. Be very careful with these decisions. So far i have completed the story in 12.5 hours, and have 10 missions left on the second playthrough.

~Overall Decision~
Overall, the game is good, but does not feel like a Saints Row game. It feels like it is trying to be more like GTA IV, than the outrageously fun game that SR2 is. The story-line and activities become very repetitive, and they feel like a chore after a completing a few. Unless you feel like whoring the achievements, or playing lots of multiplayer/whored mode then the game will not last long.

Graphics - 7.5/10
FX- 8.5/10
Music - 8/10
Gameplay - 5/10
Combined Total = 29/40

Overall Score - 8.5/10

I Hope you have liked my FIRST review. - TG

P.S. Sadly, i havn't had a chance to play whored mode and also do not have LIVE, so i cannot play multiplayer. This is the best i can do. If someone wishes to add in something for whored mode and MP, i will gladly add those into the OP, so others know sorta what those are about.

 

Thanks for the positive comment about my review.

But yeah, give it a go, but don't buy it straight out. Borrow it from a friend first or something. You may like quite a lot. Just don't expect it to live up to SR2. (and honestly, SR1 is more fun for me still.)