Saints Row: The Third Message Board  

I'm thinking about buying Saints Row 3. I've seen the reviews from IGN, X-Play, etc. I want to know what people here have to say though. So what's your opinion? Your likes and dislikes.

Basically if you want a modern-day sandbox game about crime, but without the moral "crime doesn't pay" depressing themes, realism eschewed in favor of the rule of cool, and some weird sci-fi elements, it's the game for you.

Okay, maybe that's a bit too specific a target demographic. It's an awesome freeroaming game, and the world is actually pretty fleshed out and fun to explore - tons of hidden items, properties to buy, (increasing your cash income per/hour and control over districts) activities to complete, etc. It also has a really great upgrade system, based on Respect (killing gang members, headshots, doing missions/activities, stunts, etc etc) levels that open up new abilities you can buy with cash in a bunch of categories, upgrading your gang or your character, or increasing the rate that you lose notoriety with specific gangs/the police. You even get to call in gang support, story characters as "homies," and they'll deliver cars stored in your garage to you - you even eventually get tanks and helicopters, though they're not the ones stored in your garage/helipad. Can upgrade weapons and cars, too - former get attachments as they're upgraded, latter are entirely customizable.

Your mileage may vary as to whether or not the ridiculousness of the game is a good thing or not - you start out robbing a bank, (by airlifting the entire vault out by helicopter) dressed in mascot outfits of the only other member of your gang to be in all three games. It gets more ridiculous from there. I personally love it - it's a pretty nice break from nearly every other bigger budget release, and the humor rarely stagnates.

Only downside I really see is it's not as big or as long as the last two games were, but that's kind of subjective - SR1/1 required respect levels to progress, now they're for upgrades. Few minor things (customizing cribs, mostly) were left out, and I really don't like the idea of season pass DLCs - but if it helps fund the next game or even simply goes towards stopping the franchise from going the way of Red Faction, I say a discount on future expansion DLC and some bonuses are always welcome!

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This game is RIDICULOUS!!!
And,i mean GOOD,BAD-A@#,FUN RIDICULOUS!!!
Blow the @#$% out of EVERYTHING!!!

This game is nothing like the first two games(which is good for me,i thought they got boring and redundant after a short time)
If you like the first two,this will be a very different game,if you don't,this will be a better game,IMO.

It's just good ole fashion sensless violence.
It has a story to it,kinda short,but good.
I was hesitant about buying it at first,but,i kept seeing and reading about how fun it was and broke down.

Iam GLAD i did!!! I HIGHLY recomend this game!!!

[Edited by infinite_gamer, 12/8/2011 12:35:52 AM]

Thanks. Sounds good. I think one of my biggest concerns is it might have TOO much goofy over-the-top humor. I have a sense of humor and I like it when the games I play have one, but I prefer it to not overwhelm the game. I like some seriousness.

Well,it's pretty over the top. There's not really alot of seriousness,except,mabye in the story.

It's a nice break from SkyRim,ACR,BatMan,that is if your playing those.

It's pretty over the top, but for reference: I cannot stand most Japanese games, and have to grit my teeth during most science fiction games/movies - because they just get things wrong or are goofy while trying to be serious. Though in the Japanese games' case, it's probably due to a lack of understanding in culture, considering nearly every game has social commentary, and games like Eternal Sonata (which is posed as the dying dream of a real composer, and has a super depressing plot as well as the themes, a mother even tells her 5-6 year old daughter that humanity is too greedy, and the mother is in no way seen as doing wrong by that) are considered children's games, so go figure.

Back to the point: I really, really like serious fiction, and realism is usually preferred (though you have to disregard/lampshade a lot of things for suspension of disbelief in games) in games, expected in books/movies. So when I say that Saints Row really just disregards both in favor of making everything fun and humorous, and that I love it for it, I'm saying a lot. It occasionally lampshades and even parodies itself, but especially does the latter to the tropes present in games in general. Right at the beginning when you're robbing the bank and waiting for the helicopter to show up, an ally asks how long it'll take, and your reply is "I dunno, two, maybe three waves of SWAT guys?"

But really, it's only over-the-top when you take in the sum of its parts, not just any one thing. Well, except maybe the plot - that stays outlandish. And eventually there are Spoiler:

(spoiler'd just in case, but you can see one looking at the map names in *****d mode (that pun is indicative of some of the game's humor) and the other by playing that mode a bit) But otherwise, it's about as outlandish as GTA - you can go on massive shooting sprees and simply die to respawn and reset your notoriety, (or just enter a property you own) are not punished for killing civilians in the long run, and morality choices boil down to how big of a gun you'll use, and/or who you'll use it on. Most of the scifi elements aren't too outlandish, either.

Really, I'm to the opinion that it just does away with a realistic plot to make awesome set pieces with some added hilarity. And even then, it at least acknowledges the absurdity of it and videogames in general and stays fairly coherent.

i think this game is deliberately cliche and that is what's so fun about it. its a no holds barred fun at being a gangster. its pure entertainment. i love this game. on my 3rd play-through. i'd give it a solid 8.5/10

This is why I said in the AC Revelations forums that gameplay was more important to gamers than story. Saints Row The Third has very little story and it's the gameplay that makes this game shine. This game is a gem even though there's not much story to it. There's just so many things in this game that you can do. It's a must own game if you like the Grand Theft Auto games or the Mafia games. Get it, own it, love it!

Fortunate Son