The first free game I got as part of my PS+
subscription. It came out as part of the
August 2013 PS+ update but originally came out in November 2011. The Saints Row
series is one which has been around for a good few years (a fourth instalment
is around these days, I believe) but I had never played one before downloading
this. My sandbox/free-roaming obsessed friend had this a year or so before I
got it and he said he enjoyed the game, so I was looking forward to giving it a
go. On reflection, as long as you don’t have to do missions and can go mad with
a weapon then he will enjoy it.
The game gave me around 15 hours of gameplay. Quite poor
considering it is a free roaming game with what looks like a lot to do. I’ll
expand upon this later. The game is basically centred about ‘The Saints’, and
their struggle after attempted change and then failure. You make your own
character, sculpting him or her with their own voice, tattoos and clothes. The
Saints are a gang who have expanded into the media (creating things like
merchandise, if you can believe it) and then embark upon a challenge of
fighting a variety of factions from around Steelport.
I’ll start off with the bad aspects of this game. Sadly
there are a lot of them (I do aim to end with the good at the end!). First of
all let’s talk about the mechanics of the game. They suck. I shall expand on
that by saying the shooting mechanic feels slow, and slightly dim-witted. I try
not to use any auto-aim throughout shooting games as but felt that I needed to
put it on, I’m an okay shooter but watching your character trying to spin
around coming out of L1 aim mode and then going back into it (as that’s usually
quicker) felt horrible. Next – the driving mechanics. I believe that it be an
absolute must for any free-roam game to
have at least okay driving mechanics, seeing as you spent a lot of time
travelling between objectives. I’m a big Gran Turismo fan so I’m not expecting
anything of that level, but it just feels terrible. It feels horribly
unresponsive, there is a brake but it just stops you. Both the accelerator and
brake feel like a switch, you seemingly cannot use 50% throttle or go to 50%
breaking on this game, meaning driving around becomes a hopeful
‘please-don’t-let-me-hit-anything’ mini-game. I want to drive and get to the
next objective or fun thing to do, but no, I just spend the time weaving in and
out of traffic then losing control. I ended up walking most places, or just
using a helicopter!
Second of all, the storyline seems horribly boring. I never
got drawn into the game which meant that I never felt the need to go and do the
added side quests, I was just playing it in the hope that it got good. I got
two missions away from the end of the game thinking it was going to pick up. It
just simply never got going. With that, I found the missions quite limited.
Sometimes it felt as if the main point of the mission was to walk into a room,
blow shit up, and then leave. Great fun!.. But not when it’s the only things
you have done. Even the boss battles are boring, repetitive and hardly a
challenge. The boss battles don’t seem to get that much harder either, though I
feel that if I was to play the game on hard I’d get screwed over in the same
way I would in normal difficulty, just more often. I would happily blame my own
average gaming standard but it’s hard to argue that when the mechanics of the
game are so bad.
Despite all of that, there are some aspects of the game I
enjoyed. I can fully appreciate the side missions and quests and like the fact
that everytime you do something you get rewarded and you’re told how much of
that particular area you have influence over. Sadly the shoddy mechanics meant
that I could not fully explore this. Another positive about this game is that
it has the Black Keys and Run D.M.C on the soundtrack! (Okay, clutching at
straws now)
The best thing about Saints Row 3 is the moments in it that
can only be described as bat-shit mental. Some parts of the game just have you
sat there in bewilderment as to what has just happened. These can be anything
from the missions to just random speech you get from your character. There is a
mission in this game involving a tiger that had me laughing all the way
through, I won’t spoil what the mission is about, but the randomness of it
coupled with your characters reaction make it absolutely hilarious. I am happy
to say that this is a regular occurrence in the game. Another thing I liked
about the game was the character building section.
I also like the fact that you can make him or her look
however you want, it is a bit limited on things like face shape and stuff like
that; but the ability to give him or her new clothes, and tattoos, as well as
being able to upgrade your character (things like health and etc.) are a real nice
touch and can feel the slightest bit immersive. The best bit about this
customisation is the fact that you can change the voice. It isn’t simply stolen
off of The Sims where you slightly change pitch and timbre of your voice but
you’re able to select three different voices per gender. The voice also has a
personality, so picking a different voice to your friend will mean you get to
see different profiles. I picked the voice that sounded a tiny bit like Jason
Statham, hearing him shout “get out of the way love!” after you inevitably
crash into some poor sod harshens the blow slightly (until he says it for the
millionth time... but I am trying to be positive).
All in all I feel that Saints Row: The Third was a game
built on a good premise but ultimately let down because of woeful game play
mechanics. The seemingly lack of story didn’t help either.
I’m glad I didn’t pay for the game. I started playing it in
August and it took me until February to complete it simply because I never felt
it was a good enough game for me to go back and play. I decided to beat it as
it was already on my PS3 harddrive as I’m trying to make space for games I
haven’t already played. I can’t say that I am not let down and won’t be
venturing onto Saints Row: The Third again.
Anyway, I'm off to try and finish Remember Me now.
SJ.
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