Saints Row: The Third - Review
Since 2006, “Saints Row” has been gang-banging its way out of the shadow of its fellow third-person shooting, open world, gun-toting, car-stealing extravaganza, “Grand Theft Auto”. With this third installment to the series, Saints is looking to expand that gap far beyond what many would have ever believed. Though gigantic purple dildos played a major role in the advertising campaign of the game, that isn’t the only ‘gap enlargement’ tool at play here.
Saints Row: The ThirdXbox 360, Playstation 3, PC
Single Player, Co-Op
Developer: Volition, inc.
Publisher: THQ
ESRB Rating: M for Mature
Price: $59.99
Right off the bat, Saints Row: The Third’s over-the-top action hits the stage with an epic bank-breaking and mid-air battle prologue, setting the tone for much more extreme gameplay elements to take place down the line. You return as whatever (unnamed) custom boss of the 3rd Street Saints you decided to craft or download from the game’s in-depth initiation station, male or female.
The game’s story is fun. It is your duty as the boss of the Saints to recapture your gang’s clout in the city of Steelport by buying up property and beating out other gangs through violence or challenges, which wind up being violent, anyway. The Saint’s gang members’ working relationships come off as believable and genuine, greatly in part due to the quality voice performances of the game’s cast. The plot is full of twists and turns, with hard-hitting ‘holy shit’ moments aplenty. An aspect that makes the game’s narrative work so well is the dialogue and voice acting of each individual character as you progress through the game. There are also ‘choose your own adventure’ elements that provide a tinge of welcomed replay value. That factor plays a major and minor role when it comes to the game’s ending. Major because the choice you make forever changes the face of aspects of the city; minor because you have the choice to go back and get the alternate ending. One is indeed more satisfying than the other.
Saints Row: The Third plays near to the style of an arcade adventure. The default shooting configuration may be a bit sluggish for those more experienced, quick-to-react gamers. Head shots and nut shots being the key to stopping an assailant cold is very gratifying. The driving is fairly far from a simulation experience. Things like power-sliding can be pulled off without a hitch once you understand the simple control of the driving mechanics. Yes, some vehicles do feel heavier than others, but you will only have to adjust slightly to get used to each particular set of wheels. The game’s assorted flying contraptions control much closer in style within their vehicular grouping. There are also boats in the game…but they don’t matter when it comes to the grand scheme of things.
Rounding off the SR3’s base story are an assortment of mini-games that must be played in order to obtain 100% of sections of Steelport. These, and the three tiers of difficulty of each challenge, keeps things from becoming too repetitive when it comes to progressing through the campaign.
Combat, health, weapon, and car upgrades will make your adventure in Steelport easier as you go. The gun pickings have their typical pistol, SMG, and rifle selections; however, it is the other special gun options that make SR3 outstanding as a third person action game. Car modification is possibly the most gratifying and addictive hobby in SR3. With the customization options of each individual ride, you may want 2 or 3 of a kind in your garage, as if you are preparing for your own personal ‘tricked-out-whip’ convention.
There is nothing graphically groundbreaking about SR3. That’s not saying it isn’t a pretty game, though. The colorful Steelport environment holds up fairly well, considering there is no apparent loading time during travel from one section of the city to another. The loading doesn’t really come into play until you change instances or die. With the graphics engine does come a load of glitches that may be encountered during your exploration sessions; mostly getting stuck in walls.
All in all, Saints Row: The Third is a fun game, once you get past the fact that most of the NPC’s in the game drive as if they have Tourette’s syndrome. The level of customization is notable. Custom fashion, custom gang, custom cars, and low speed rickshaw chases make SR3 more of a unique experience than a mindless slaughter fest GTA clone. It’s over the top action will excite most crowds, causing a lot of “Oohs” and “Oh Damn’s!”. Despite all the story has to offer, SR3 is short, if you choose to go simply from one in-game mission to another. If you do choose to go for 100% completion, you could easily squeeze 40 hours of gameplay out of this one, not including Whored mode. THQ has yet to announce what the DLC content will be, but after playing through the game’s story completely, there is a chance a good portion of it will be story based.
Last week Sylar went through hell as he went through a very thorough identity crisis and came up with a plan to take out Nathan and then use that disguise to take out the President. We ended on a cliffhanger as Danko had knocked out Nathan and tried to kill Sylar. Something which Sylar didn’t appreciate. HRG and Mohinder were captured, Hiro gets a bloody nose when he uses his powers and Matt must end this. Now here we are at the finale, lets see how they tie off this season!
Peter are confronted by HRG, but the agents try to capture them. Angela and Matt find Nathans body and Angela freaks out. Meanwhile Sylar/Nathan kills the President Chief of Staff and goes to get the President. He manages to get into the limo and shakes the Presidents hand, but its Peter! He stole the shape shifting power in the lottery that is hand shaking. Sylar is then stabbed with a tranq. Why Peter does not kill him? GAH!
Last week we flashed back to 1961 where we learned that history has a nasty way of repeating itself within the Heroes Universe. We saw that Angela has a sister Alice, and she has weather controll powers and is pretty pissed that Angela ditched her. We also learned that people with abilities were experimented on and all died in a huge massacre in the desert. On a happier note, the Petrelli family reunited only to see that Nathan was also on television. Looks like that shapeshifting villian Sylar has taken over as Nathan. Now here we go with “I am Sylar” after the cut.We open with Agent Taub waking up in a cold sweat. Except we find out that it is in fact Sylar. He is apparently shifting while asleep. Turning back into Sylar, he rips out a tooth, I assume to show how hardcore he is. Ouch. Later he meets up with Danko and says he is losing his own identity and shifting without control, even growing a new, extra tooth. Danko says he can either be Sylar and hunted or Agent Taub and go to work. Sylar shifts and Danko is happy, and Sylar then carves into his own arm the title of the episode.
get a really disturbing look into Sylar and dead mom talking that turns out to be him constantly shapeshifting into her and Sylar during the conversation. Truly creepy, but really cool. We are interrupted as Danko says they have found Rebel. The agents go and cut the power wherever Rebel is hiding and charge the place. Micah is packing up when he runs into Sylar. Not good. Micha gives his second inspirational sppech of the season and Sylar shapeshifts to look like hima nd distract Dankos men. Danko mentions that he is a loose end, but Sylar dismisses him later. Sylar is needed to hunt the more powerful supers, and Sylar seems to relish the idea of being the hunter and not the prey. A callback to the episode with his real dad.
Last week we had Parkman unite with Hiro and Ando and realize that he has a son. Before that he decided that torturing Danko was a great way to get revenge for the death of Daphne. Nathan, Cliare, Peter, Angela all decided to meet at Coyote Sands, where Mohinders dad also has some history. Finally Sylar and HRG played mindgames with each other making HRG have to leave that organization and go visit the Petrelli’s. This week, we flash back to 1961 and see what the darkness in the past of Angela brings. Heroes Review after the break.Peter is mad that Nathan is with them, while Claire is way more forgiving of Nathan. yes she will forgive the dude that wanted to ship people with abilities off to who know where while drugged, but she has issues with HRG. WOW. Anyway we flashback to 1961 and we meet Angela and Alice, sisters who have powers, as doex apparently everyone in this camp. Chandra Suresh is the lead scientist at this camp as Angela reveals that this camp was the reasont he Company formed. For those that read the Heroes the Heroes online comic, just dont think that this connects anyway with that. Turns out that Alice has the power to control weather and Angela fears that she is either still alive, or needs to confirm that she is in fact dead.
oblivious that Suresh just happened to show up. Nathan asks Suresh to hang with Peter, because I always trust a guy who tried to experiment on me with the brother I am reconciling with. Peter and Suresh talk about the fact that Suresh is ok, and Peter should make a new company because he never went through bad stuff. Except when he duplicated Sylars hunger, but thats alright. HRG, Claire and Nathan talk about Claire wanting to grow up, and realize taht she never wanted to be an agent, except when she did. Whatever. Angela meanwhile flashes back to when she ditched her sister to escape the compound in 1961 and in the present day sees her sister. Her sister btw looked like a great crone. Just saying.
Last week we had Claire andNathan getting money by being drunk. Peter and Angela bonding at church and the Hunter and Sylar teaming up to give Sylar a new power. Lets roll on with the Heroes recap and review! This week we have Danko and HRG posturing for control of each other, with Sylar lurking in the backround. Hiro and Ando once again on a quest to somehow reunite Matt Parkman Sr with his son. Matt is busy though planning vengeance after the death of Daphne, even saying goodbye to his friend Mohinder. More after the cut.
really sells this scene and you feel for him. Then she locks the door and your heart breaks. Danko meanwwhile is trcked by Parkman to let Parkman and Danko’s girlfriend inside. Parkman wants to shoot the girl, but cant and asks Danko to finish it. Danko fires, but Hiro arrives SOMEHOW, and stops time and takes Parkman out of the apartment. Danko is pissed and the girlfriend calls him a monster and ditches him. Oh its a bad day for relationships in this VENGEANCE episode.
So last week we had a winner of an episode with Cold Snap. In it we found out who Rebel was, Tracey made a heroic sacrifice, Angela was rescued by Peter and Hiro got one of his powers back. This week is”Into Asylum. The main characters this go around are once again Danko and HRG on the trail of a new powered individual, Claire and Nathan on a bit of field trip in Mexico and Peter and Angela having some fun at church. Check back after the break for a full review.
interesting development from the callous woman we met in season 1 and the peaceful man we met there as well. HRG and agents come in, but HRG takes pity and doesnt turn them in. Angela reveals she was like Peter, but no one listened to her and so she went bad. I am totally oversimplifying that to be a bit snarky, but it is funny. She decides to lie and manipulate to save the world. No sympathy here. Angela has a sister they have to see? Yeesh.
Last week Sylar ditched his sidekick, Claire and her mom became heroes to Aqualad, and Parkman literally became his own prophecy. That’s the recap, lets get on with the review.
The last of the three stories is the story of Sylar and his dad. Sylar’s dad is dying of cancer, but the real revelation is how he thinks life is painful and not worth living because he hasn’t gone for the gold as much as he should have. He considers that Sylar’s problem as well, not going for the big fish, but the “small game.” Only after it’s revealed that the dad has the same powers as Sylar, and he sees Sylar use these powers, do we see the old ambition rise in the old man. Interesting in that we see Sylar just leave the man to die, and decide the old man was right, he wasn’t pushing himself. His first goal? Go after the Hunter. Sylar doesn’t like to start small does he?
In the middle of the eighties, a phenomenon hit the comic book world of superheroes. A number of titles came out that challenged the conventional wisdom of what exactly constitutes a superhero comic, even what a superhero is. It wasn’t simply that the comics had to be deeper or more complex. It wasn’t that the characters were well rounded. We were treated to heroes interacting with a world not all that different from the one of the 1980’s. We were afraid, we were paranoid, and the world looked to be heading to the big nuclear war that we all feared. The thing these comics did was it showed us how the heroes we revered would grow up, and interact with our world. The truth hit us hard, so hard that we have been affected by these stories since then. Now one of those stories has come to the big screen. Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon’s masterpiece Watchmen. Spoilers and a review after the cut.It’s so hard to think after just seeing the movie. I guess the best way to go through it is to explain the basic story. Watchmen is the story of Earth 1985 that has taken a turn for the worse then the one we all have lived or seen in our history classes. The obvious thing is that Richard Nixon is still the President of the United States. Vietnam has been won and declared the 51st state of the union, and superheroes really do exist. The major divergence in both the story and the movie from our world is that the comic books of 1939 inspire real people to don costumes and masks and fight crime with similar dressed people. Then in 1959, Jon Osterman, becomes Dr. Manhattan. The world forever changed as the United States and Russia were still in the cold war, but America had a real life Superman. Compounding things, the police get fed up working due to the costumed adventurers of this world and riots break out. The United States passes the Keene Act that outlaws costumed vigilantes. Some retire, some do not, and some work for the government as sanctioned agents. This brings us to the real story as one of the original costumed adventurers is murdered, and the investigation in why he is killed, along with flashbacks to the past, detail why this world is not only more horrible then our own, but also how far some people will go to save it.
When I saw the movie, it’s best to come out and say that I had read the graphic novel beforehand. I am wondering if perhaps me reading that gave me an edge in terms of understanding what the story I am watching constitutes of. I will say that the director truly tries to let the film breathe and explain what is going on, or for that matter show what is going on. Often he succeeds, but the films only loss that I can see is the lack of supporting characters, and the lack of subtlety. That and the way Richard Nixon is portrayed, that kinda bugged me.
Subtlety has never been Zach Snyder’s strongest suit. I understand why Zach has such a fondness for slow motion as it gives you the illusion of a panel from a comic, or really feeling the impact of whatever emotion or action you are seeing. I never felt he overused the device, but he did overuse the depiction of violence in the film. It is what I refer to as the ‘Sin City effect’, basically meaning that we don’t feel like these people are human, but truly superhuman in the amount of damage they can inflict and take. Not only that but the wholesale destruction of a human body that martial arts does to people in this movie detract from the realism of a fight that I believe was the original intent of the author. Now I also understand that this was to emphasize the point that these people do enjoy damaging other people, it takes extreme personalities to don a costume and fight crime. But the over the top fight scenes took me out of the film, it shocked me, not immersed me.
