Saints Row: The Third

This Is MY City!

Saints Row: The Third makes good on its promise of more over-the-top open-world antics, but can't quite capture the spark that made its predecessor an unlikely hit.
Author: Sam Bishop
Published: November 23, 2011
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So much of the game is about making the player feel like they're empowered, and in that there's no shortage of praise. Many of the things that are tedious about open world games has been bypassed, making for a game where you can get nearly anywhere quickly (by calling in support, of course), and though I may bemoan the lack of variety to some of the side stuff, the challenges found in your phone alone can help extend play time with a buddy for almost as long as the main story.


Make no mistake, you should absolutely play Saints Row: The Third with a friend. The game was built from the ground up for it, and the experience is magnified many-fold over what you'd get if just playing things solo. It's perfectly serviceable if you, say, rent the game and thus can't use the included online pass (yes, this has one too), but you'd be cheating yourself out of an incredibly fun experience that very often you are making rather than the developers.

Whether that speaks to the tools Volition has offered or their lack of a cleanly-delivered means of doing it by way of the story is open for debate, but your motivation to experience what they've made most definitely is not. Play this game. Play it with a friend. Watch how quickly time flies. I can't think of a better indicator that something here is very, very special, even if the game proper isn't quite as refined as it could have been.
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The Verdict
8.5

Saints Row: The Third may not be the balls-out, fun-filled romp that Volition intended, but when the game hits its highs, there's really nothing else out there that can match it. Come for the takeover of Steelport, stay for the creative mayhem.

8.5Graphics:

Not exactly mind-blowing, no, and not without some screen tearing and framerate drops (especially in cutscenes), but there's plenty here that makes the game feel like it's humming along while tapping plenty of the PS3's power.

9.0Sound:

Fantastic stuff in nearly every area. The guns could have a little more punch (though explosions absolutely work your subwoofer if you have one) and the voice work for some characters is a little lacking, but the music selection is amazing.

9.0Control:

MUCH improved over the last game -- particularly in the way cars handle. Most of them will feel like under- or over-powered versions of the same basic physics, but that drift button makes driving everything from big rigs to bikes to mini-vans tons of fun.

8.5Gameplay:

This is a game that OOZES gameplay opportunities. Granted, many of them will happen outside of the way the developer structured them during the main storyline, but that doesn't negate their fun factor in the least. This is a sandbox worth playing in.