Ok I know what you are all thinking ,this is another grand theft auto clone .well I am afraid you would be wrong ,I admit at first glance my eyes rolled sky wards and I thought “here we go again” GTA 10 or whatever it is now .”No, no, no” is what I retort this is something else in fact it’s more like CRACKDOWN (remember from a few years back) or if Bruce Willis did Grand Theft Auto!.
SAINTS ROW THE THIRD takes you away from the city of STILLWATER where the first two games where set and you end up in STEEL PORT, a grimy industrial town. This is where the action starts after a mad intro which involves a shed load of crazy stunts, the likes of Jason Statham would be proud of .It paves your exit from STILLWATER and then gives you the opportunity to customize your character, this is a major part of the game because you can not only customize your character but also his vehicles .Mine has been running around in a dressing gown with pink bunny rabbit slippers hilarious.
Let’s face it you couldn’t run around stark naked shooting and blowing up things in GTA! And not only that you get extra points for streaking, brilliant. Now your mission is to take over the town and get rid of the opposition, of course it’s not as straight forward as you think and this leads the way for some pretty mental action sequences and high jinks, jumping out of aeroplanes (in fact jumping through aeroplanes) hanging out of helicopters, flying helicopters, riding motorbikes, driving cars and boats (and crashing them) you can even base jump off buildings (makes James Bond look like Bambi).
Gang fights are a wacky affair you have to run the gauntlet of a constant onslaught of enemies showing up in a variety of vehicles, armed to the teeth and too top it all they don’t die first time neither (unless you can shoot them in the head!), There are a nice array weaponry available which is upgradable (of course)the shotgun being my personal favourite, when you have the choice of rocket launchers to large sex toys (which you can whack enemies over the head with ,I know WTF!).It’s a gamer’s paradise.
SAINTS ROW THE THIRD has endless surprises and just keeps on getting better and better. You get to cat sit a tiger who gets angry and starts hitting you if you slow down, there is some dealer protection work to be had, rescuing hookers (only annoying bit is the pimps electronic voice, sounds like a reject from some r and b boy band) hacking up wrestlers with a chain saw to name but a few .
Of course there are many other side missions to complete Tank mayhem being one of my favourites where you get to blow up property and people whilst driving a tank. Insurance fraud is another fun one you basically have to throw yourself under cars to claim insurance money.
All these stunts and missions are to earn money and get respect so you can upgrade and take over the town you don’t even have to try very hard to earn neither. Getting paid by the hour is the norm and just claim the money by accessing your smart phone .This is of course your main source of missions and upgrades, from stealing cars to assassinating other gang members SAINTS ROW THE THIRD has it all.
On-line play
You can of course play the campaign on line in co-op mode but it tends to run away with its self with two players going mad.
Whoring mode
This is an interesting twist a variety of mini games to play outside of the career mode which I thought was a brilliant idea, especially trying to mow down swarms of mini zombies, this again is another excuse to go completely mad and create havoc, but it’s far from easy.
Summary
SAINTS ROW THE THIRD is a game that is for pure fun there is no attempt at realism, or trying to create some deep meaningful story line. It’s just a big arena where we can indulge ourselves in a crazy world of sex and violence. That’s all it is and I doesn’t hide that fact, if you are looking for a GTA clone then go elsewhere but if it’s a good time you are after then “come on down”. I will give it 8 out of 10 as it’s a great game but not brilliant worth investing 40 bucks in though.
- Saints Row the Third
- Release date :18/11/2011
- Action Third person shooter (TPS)
- PC
- Xbox 360
- Ps3
- Age rating: 18
- Publisher : THQ
- Developer: Volition
