It’s a silly, irreverent, and over the top blend of action and violence.
Saints Row doesn’t just blur the line between fame and notoriety; it outright crosses it and then runs over it a few times for good measure. For those new to the series, the Saints are a criminal gang whose popularity affords them celebrity like status complete with in game photo ops, branding and lucrative merchandising opportunities. The story is light enough that newcomers won’t feel lost but provides enough call backs and references to prior games to appease fans of the two prior games. All you really need to know is that rival gangs want your territory, the government wants to shut you down permanently and “Night Blade” would make an excellent TV show.
Gameplay is divided between story oriented missions and side quests. The story missions are extremely well designed and a blast to play through. From the opening mission that seamlessly transitions from bank heist to shooting your way out of an airplane and then logically to firing pistols at enemies while you free fall out of said airplane, the game is a non-stop adrenaline rush. My favorite story mission involved jumping out of a helicopter to crash a high end penthouse party while Kanye West’s “Power” plays in the background. The blending of in game action and music is just perfect.
As is the case with most sandbox games, there is a ton to do in the world. The good thing about Saint’s Row is that almost everything you do in earns you cash and experience points which can then be spent on upgrading your character, weapons, or buying back territory from rival gangs. For example, you get respect for doing things like riding in the wrong lane of traffic, narrowly avoiding car crashes, and getting air time. By awarding experience and money for almost every action, the game empowers the player to pick the missions he/she finds fun, while rewarding experimentation and just random mayhem that should be the hallmark of a good sandbox game.
In terms of side content there is a lot to choose from. I was not a huge fan of escort missions, assignations or stealing car side missions but I did really enjoy Mayhem, where you have to cause a certain amount of property damage to the city within a set time limit, and Insurance Fraud, where you throw yourself in front of oncoming traffic to experience the wonders of the game’s ragdoll physics engine. Professor Genki’s murder challenges are also fun but be warned the difficulty ramps up considerably in later stages.
The only thing I didn’t enjoy about the game was its mixed messages towards women. On one hand, the game treats women as equals; you can create a female character, call in support from female hommies, and one of the rival gangs is led by a woman, albeit one voiced by Sasha Gray, a former pornstar. On the other hand, I was disappointed and a little disturbed that the game actually encouraged literally treating women as sex slaves in a non-optional story mission. In the mission in question, after hijacking a rival gang’s cargo of sex slaves, who can be heard during the mission begging for their freedom you are given the choice of either selling the women back to their captors or keeping them for yourself. Ultimately, I choose what I perceived to be the lesser of two evils, giving the women to my auto tune speaking pimp friend who I trusted to at least give them a good home in his bordello.
What Saints Row does well is it makes the sandbox experience fun, without bogging you down with useless side quests and boring filler. It’s a silly, irreverent, and over the top blend of action and violence.
