Game rating: Saints Row The Third (SR3)

[Art Blade]

Game title
Saints Row The Third (SR3)

Category	Rating	Comments
Story line	8	The story isn't realistic or believable but a lot of fun to play through. Too crazy and over the top to be ignored :) It plays in Steelport, some kind of parallel universe New York but no names relate to it and the liberty statue has been replaced by a huge steel worker statue (lol). The player (completely customisable, you can invent yourself to your liking) is boss of the Saints Row gang and fights other gangs (Luchadores, Deckers, Morning Star) to gain complete control over the city. In between some outlandish scenarios while you participate in the making of a sci-fi film which for the player is the real thing, you fight with laser weapons and space ships.. lol, it is ridiculously crazy :)
Graphics	8	I like the looks of this game from 2011, a little bit comic style but up to a certain degree realistic. Even today the graphics still look nice. Well, considering I play it completely maxed out and using directX 11.
Sound	8	A lot of different noises, sounds, random chatter, music, voice acting, it is all in all convincing and not boring at all. Nice :)
Game play	8	Easy and intuitive, smooth. No problems at all. Only flying helicopters and planes and driving tanks needs practice until you understand how those vehicles react. Once you got the hang of it, it's all good.
Replay value	5	Well, the story has a few choices in between that change certain outcomes so you may want to try those but you could still just use a savegame and continue from there making different choices. Then there are unbelievably many activities and challenges that may take perhaps 100 hours to get them all done, so doing all of them again is perhaps a bit too much but at least it will keep you busy at least once.

Final thoughts
Far better than I thought. I was skeptical, being a GTA fan, that it might be a stupid game but it actually is a fantastic game with lots of fun to be had. The coop is even better, join your friend or the other way round, and do everything you'd do in SP together in coop. Customisation is spectacular, you can change the looks of almost everything to your liking. Character customisation, particularly the face, is spectacular and can be done at any time including change of gender. No need to cheat, the abilities you may acquire are more than sufficiant, at level 50 you can become basically invincible -- unlimited ammo, no reloading, damage-resistant to everything but getting blown up in your current vehicle. FUN, FUN, FUN :)

[Binnatics]

Good review Art!! I agree on your scores, except for the gameplay. I think I'd give that one a 7. Slightly lower because I think steering most vehicles feels a bit limited to me. Planes don't fly fast enough, cornering in regular cars is too easy, nitro boost is more like a next shift and most special vehicles have indeed a weird setup.
I can't refuse to compare the game to the GTA series, but just like you stated, I'm glad I finally chose to play this game because it's from a totally different league. Here it comes down to one thing; FUN! Everything is over the top and plain accessible. Sometimes I think it gets boring too fast because everything is there right from the start. Customizations, upgrades, incredible vehicles and lots of fun stuff to do is available right from the start. The only thing you need is mostly a bit of money, which is definitely what keeps stuff running in this game. Just like the real world, heheh ^-^

I like the sound in the game too, but the music on the radio stations is less of my taste. A lot of heavy rock is available and somehow the game tends to choose these stations all the time when I steal a car. I am a bit too picky for the trash they throw at me I guess :-D

The graphics are very good indeed. Not only the way it looks, like graphics quality, but also the design in the game. They do know what a good butt looks like and they aren't afraid of showing it to you :) :-X

[Art Blade]

 :-D :-X

[PZ]

Nice review, AB!  :-X

[Art Blade]

thanks, guys  :)

[fragger]

Nice review Art :-X

I'm looking at getting into this, looks and sounds like a lot of mad fun :-D