Saints Row

Saints Row is a game that is based off of Grand Theft Auto but with a bit of differences. As you pick how your character will look and dress with a lot of customization.

You start out in the streets and find yourself asking to be part of the “Row” where they are a gang that is ready to take on the other gangs in the city. As you get to know your fellow members you will fight, shoot, race and kill any other gang member that gets in your way. Either doing main missions or just walking down the street and starting something.

As being part of an organization you start from the bottom up. Every mission you gain more territory for you gang with some story behind them. Or you gather up members and try to take down a stronghold with waves of enemies or certain requirements. Owning more of the city will mean you get less likely to have other gangs try and take you out. Also easier to get your members to join up for mission or strongholds. Going through missions you learn more about your rival gangs with how you’re impacting them or their struggles. Giving you the choice to take down one area at a time or all at once.

To do a mission you have to earn respect points to fill a bar. And when that bar is filled you get a x1 sign or more. To get respect you can steal a car then hold another person in the car for money as cops chase you around. Some others are insurance fraud where you get cars to hit you and reach a money mark to get some cash also. They have assassination missions to find a person in the streets as you kill them with a required weapon, a harder mission to do but a lot of money. Or you can just do some racing and see if your car is fast enough for the prize. As most of them are fun and can be original, with each success you get, it becomes increasingly harder to finish. Leaving some seemingly impossible or having an unattainable goal. You can also get some new cloths to get more respect as some people will react to you differently.

With each member of your gang they seem to get random weapons from a knife to a shotgun. As you take down either cops or other gangs they can walk over a pick up better weapons to increase your chances of survival. But the AI for them is really bad they get stuck on a plant. Some just don’t follow you at all, others will run into a burning building and catch on fire. So the game tries to balance it out and allows you to revive your fallen comrades. If you get close to them just a push of a button and your poor beer on their heads and back to shooting they go.

The city is a good size one. Not so big that you get annoyed cause stuff is too far of a drive but not so small that you see everything in a short trip. As some things look like they have been copied and pasted. While others have their own look as you roam around to see what is out there.

The game also has a lot of glitches from hitting a wall and your car disappearing to trucks driving down the road and just vanish in thin air. Some people will talk to you and their mouths move but no sound comes out. A few others is your car will explode off a single bullet or you kill someone but their body will float in midair.

So the overall of the game is that it has a decent variety of weapons. The story can get a little compelling to see how things play out. Has a lot of glitches that will annoy you or making you confused to how stuff happened. A lot of customization to your character. A lot of missions to strongholds but with the respect point system holding it back forcing you to do side quest stuff but making the game last a lot longer. A good size sandbox game.

So I would give it 5.8 out of 10

~Thegreenback~