Saints Row: The Third - The Full Package Announced
That it–there’s no innuendo left. It’s all been used up.
Saints Row: The Third
Players: 1 Offline player, 2 Players Online
Publisher: THQ
Genres: Action, Adventure, Third-Person Shooter
Publisher: THQ
Genres: Action, Adventure, Third-Person Shooter
Release Date: November 15, 2011
Developer: Volition, Inc.
MSRP: $59.99
Developer: Volition, Inc.
MSRP: $59.99
Years after taking Stilwater for their own, the Third Street Saints have evolved from street gang to household brand name, with Saints sneakers, Saints energy drinks and Johnny Gat bobble head dolls all available at a store near you. The Saints are kings of Stilwater, but their celebrity status has not gone unnoticed. The Syndicate, a legendary criminal fraternity with pawns in play all over the globe, has turned its eye on the Saints and demands tribute. Refusing to kneel to the Syndicate, you take the fight to a new city, playing out the most outlandish gameplay scenarios ever seen. Strap it on.
Saints Row: The Third Angry Review
Posted By AngryJoe about 1 year, 5 months ago
Saints Row: The Third Angry Review,
Notorious J.O.E’s Hit Single Debuts!
Notorious J.O.E & his Mutha Fuggin’ Krew review Saints Row: The Third as they rise to the top of the music billboards as true original gangsta’s! Does this latest game in the franchise ride high with them or do they all come crashing down like a one hit wonder? Find out!
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Saints Row: The Third Review
Grand Theft Dildo
Sage Reviews: Saints Row The Third
I never knew I wanted to play a game with an auto-tuned pimp before now.
Saints Row: The Third Angry Review
Notorious An-Gre-Jo and his Krew review Saints Row: The Third as they rise to the top of the music billboards as True Gangsta's! Does the latest game in the franchise ride high with them or do they all come crashing down as a one hit wonder? Find out! 
"Enter the Dominatrix" No Longer an April Fool's Prank
The Saints are back in a new expansion! Aliens and Superpowers to follow
Saints Row the Third in 5 seconds
Who knew our children could learn something from playing Saints Row ?
Saints Row: The Third Angry Review
Notorious An-Gre-Jo and his Krew review Saints Row: The Third as they rise to the top of the music billboards as True Gangsta’s! Does the latest game in the franchise ride high with them or do they all come crashing down as a one hit wonder? Find out!
Saints Row Co-Op is AWESOME!
Dickin’ around… Co-operatively! Our story mode play through of this remarkably deep sandbox experience continues. Two heads are better than one, especially when their purple and floppy!
Saints Row: The Third is AWESOME!
What’s long, purple, and flopping all over? Watch this absolutely absurd pimp and gimp filled sandbox adventure to find out!
Angry Joe Plays Saints Row 3
Angry Joe gets naked, practically makes a sex tape, and fights perverted jedi all while
Sage Reviews: Saints Row The Third
I never knew I wanted to play a game with an auto-tuned pimp before now.
Saints Row: The Third - The Full Package Announced
That it–there’s no innuendo left. It’s all been used up.
Saints Row the Third in 5 seconds
Who knew our children could learn something from playing Saints Row ?
Saints Row: The Third Angry Review
Notorious An-Gre-Jo and his Krew review Saints Row: The Third as they rise to the top of the music billboards as True Gangsta’s! Does the latest game in the franchise ride high with them or do they all come crashing down as a one hit wonder? Find out!
Saints Row Co-Op is AWESOME!
Dickin’ around… Co-operatively! Our story mode play through of this remarkably deep sandbox experience continues. Two heads are better than one, especially when their purple and floppy!
Saints Row: The Third is AWESOME!
What’s long, purple, and flopping all over? Watch this absolutely absurd pimp and gimp filled sandbox adventure to find out!
Angry Joe Plays Saints Row 3
Angry Joe gets naked, practically makes a sex tape, and fights perverted jedi all while
Sage Reviews: Saints Row The Third
I never knew I wanted to play a game with an auto-tuned pimp before now.
Saints Row: The Third Review
Posted By Austin Yorski about 1 year, 6 months ago
Saints Row: The Third Review
Saints Row: The Third Angry Review, 
At the end of Saints Row 2, Pierce asked the nameless main character “What do we do now?” It’s a question that not only applied to the Saints themselves, who had conquered the entire city of Stilwater, but to the franchise as a whole. Having pulled itself out of the shadow of Grand Theft Auto, the Saints Row series needed a new direction to stay relevant. So Volition answered that question the same way the franchise’s protagonist did: “Whatever the fuck we wanna do.”
| PROS | Improved plot, Over-the-top humor and gameplay, Plenty of content |
| CONS | Underwhelming escort missions/tutorial missions/boss fights, Few minor glitches |
| WTF?! | Every. Damn. Thing. |
Saints Row: The Third is insane; bonkers even. Its cheese has slipped entirely off of its cracker, and that’s just the way it should be. After the introductory sequence–which parodies Star Wars, 2001: A Space Odyssey, wacky Japanese commercials, and Street Fighter in rapid succession–you’re dumped right into a crazy bank heist in which every gang member is disguised as Johnny Gat, the most popular character in the series and one of the bank robbers himself. It’s a hilarious sequence, and one that sets the tone for the free-falling, zombie-fighting, luchador-wrestling action that will ensue. After that, you’re dumped into the character creator.
The default character is pretty cool, but the possibilities are endless.
The “Initiation Station” character creator was released separately before the main game for a reason: it’s just fun to use. You can choose your avatar’s gender, nationality, skin color (everything from albino to metallic silver), voice type (including zombie), personality, and various other facial and body features. It’s as robust as it is ridiculous, and even better, it’s not permanent. I started out as a Caucasian man with a British accent, mid-mission changed into an Asian woman with a Russian accent, and then became a huge African-American dude for the last few levels. Of course, clothing shops scattered throughout the game give you even more options to customize your gangster, leading to literally the most fun I’ve ever had playing dress up.
But that’s not why you play Saints Row though, right? You want to hit Belgian businessmen in the mouth with a giant purple penis, and that is one category in which the game delivers in spades. It can’t be overstated how wacky this game gets; some of the greatest “Wow Moments” outside of Uncharted are buried in this sandbox, although you’ll have to dig through quite a few tutorial missions to get to them. It seems as though the game assumes you’re new to the series, because every activity throughout the city is given its own little intro mission, which seriously slows down the plot pacing in the early going. Also, a lot of the characterization (and some whole characters) are thrown right out the window from the get-go, so don’t go into this with high hopes for continuity.
A gang of mexican wrestlers is the most normal thing in steelport.
With that said, Saints Row 3 does a lot to improve on the series formula. The game sets up the standard “take down three themed crime organizations,” but then goes out of its way to shake things up, resulting in the best plot in the series. This increased focus on the narrative means that there is less freedom to the mission structure, but this is compensated for with the ability to make choices at the end of some missions that affect the game in minor ways, from gaining certain allies to monetary benefits. It’s a nice touch, but I’m sure it will bother some fans who preferred being able to take apart rival gangs in their own order.
Getting to the end credits is a shorter trip than you might be used to, but there is still plenty of content to be had in Steelport. There are assassinations to be carried out, cars to be stolen, ramps to jump, and pedestrians to crush. It’s all a bit juvenile, but if you want to get 100% on this title, you’ll be investing quite a few hours. In addition, the final mission can be replayed in order to see a different ending, although you’ll have to start a new game to replay previous levels. It’s unclear if this will affect the confirmed Saints Row 4, but it certainly looks like Volition is hedging its bets in the direction of a long-running story.
8/10
Saints Row: The Third Review
Grand Theft Dildo Sage Reviews: Saints Row The Third
I never knew I wanted to play a game with an auto-tuned pimp before now. Saints Row: The Third Angry Review
Notorious An-Gre-Jo and his Krew review Saints Row: The Third as they rise to the top of the music billboards as True Gangsta's! Does the latest game in the franchise ride high with them or do they all come crashing down as a one hit wonder? Find out!-
December 11, 2011 at 01:54am
I thought SR3 was a great game, I never played the second one so I wouldnt no were to compare them.
The only thng I had to complane about it was i couldnt finish it, on the mission “3 Way” I chose to save Shaunti and Viola, but when i meet up with Khenzi i didnt get a cut scene, and now im stuck in endless waves of enemys, I traveled to the island and no ones there, ive restarted the mission, nothing.
Some help on this matter would be great.
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November 23, 2011 at 07:51am
It’s not often I disagree with my fellowed BTers, but this is just such a case.
I was as pumped as anyone for this, but there are some insanely gamebreaking glitches in this. I’d like to think you guys have been playing the 360 one (at least the reviewer), because I had several glitches in the PS3 one that made passing missions at times impossible, far from just “minor glitches”. Times when a gang of people that were supposed to show up never did, when gangs would spawn infinitely and would prevent me from “clearing the area” with the progress bar not budging an inch, during one of the Guardian Angel missions my chopper randomly wrecked and somehow I passed the minute I did that. Times when the Professor Genki stages had traps that wouldn’t cycle through and completely blocked the only way out (and when it’s the thunderbolts you flat out can’t go through). There are times when you call for a vehicle transport and the vehicle never shows up or shows up damaged for no real reason (this especially applies for aircraft which almost NEVER arrives no matter where or when you call upon it). And don’t even get me started on the game’s final mission and how many times glitches failed me there (aforementioned waves of enemies not showing up, revive timers not showing up for my “homies”, some normal enemies being invincible for no reason at all, VTOLs crashing around me when I was supposed to be destroying them myself). I seriously wonder what the testing department was up to.
Add that to a rather short main story mode (with long missions though…personally I’m not a fan of that design choice), a soundtrack that’s a step back from SR2′s, a city NOWHERE near as good or as big as Stilwater (you will easily see the entire town within an hour of just doing normal missions), downgraded hand-to-hand combat, and this is going back to Gamestop in short order. But not before I at least redeem the code so I can get the much-superior SR2 for free digitally.
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November 23, 2011 at 04:02pm
You should probably get your PS3 checked or return the copy of the game to the store because… well, I’ve had no such glitches… at all. Seriously, nothing that even comes CLOSE to what you’re describing. At most I got irritated at the cars that disappear and that the AI had a tendency to get a bit wonky from time to time but other than that?
Nothing and I haven’t even heard of someone with the same problems as you. Either you’re the unluckiest son of a bitch in the world or you’re gonna have to get your PS3 or copy checked.
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November 22, 2011 at 12:43am
One bad thing about this game that ruined for me was that unlike SR2, the game allows you control most or if not the entire map before going into the main storyline. I appreciate the developers for giving us the freedom to take over the city in advance but I’m a type of guy who like to collect/find things and buy the very best equipment before engaging the main event. I may be a minority for revealing my play style and I see my half sister play, she directly goes to story mode and declares collecting and upgrading is boring.
Before I started collecting and upgrading, my game was about 15% complete. Once I have finished doing the side aspect of the game, it bumped it up to 76%. This kind of scared and discouraged me. Now the main storyline seem little easier than the couple first missions I’ve did. I’m not sure if anyone noticed this but heed my advice, go at your own pace and don’t stress yourself with other endeavors before going into the main event. -
November 19, 2011 at 06:12pm
Cheat codes are now priced DLC? THE FUCK IS THIS BULLSHIT , VOLITION?!
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November 19, 2011 at 06:26pm
I was so pumped about this game , but now after knowing about this + Fucking online pass , I’m going to avoid this game for now.
also , the clothing aspect of the character creator was so disappointing , they pretty much dumped it down and made it too simplified, that , and the absence of some of the voice options (Where’s the Male Latino Voice?)
yeah , this game disappointed me. I know my reasons are mostly shallow , but it just turned me off after being so excited about this game.
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November 20, 2011 at 01:46pm
Well it is a shallow game, so you’re excused for not wanting to play it for shallow reasons. ;D
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November 19, 2011 at 06:51pm
As Kaj pointed out, only a few cheat codes have to be bought. The rest can eventually be unlocked in-game. I’ve amended the review text to be more clear about this point.
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November 19, 2011 at 06:33am
Just finished it. You already know most of my thoughts on it, Austin. The standout moments are great, but wow all that filler.
WIll be very interested to see if the DLC is better than the last game’s.
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November 19, 2011 at 06:06am
Got my copy yesterday and I was pretty impressed. Very fun and entertaining game, despite some cuts in the German version (No Whored Mode, unable to use civilians as bullet shields and killing them makes the police more cautious).
Unfortunately, these changes also make the German version unplayable in Co-Op with the rest of the world
I have to agree with the Tutorial mission structure. Never played any Saints Row game before and I felt kind of annoyed to do things I’ve been doing for the past 5 hours. But it really is hilarious, especially the Genki Reality Climax segments.
Don’t know why, but this game constantly reminded be of GTA: Vice City, my favorite from the GTA series. And that’s always a good thing.
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November 19, 2011 at 05:08am
“8 OUT OF 10! THIS CLEARLY SHOWS THAT THE STANDARDS OF THIS PLACE HAVE FALLEN SO AS TO ALLOW THEM TO SCORE EASY GOOGLE LINKS AND MAKE MONEY FROM ME LINKING THIS WHILE TELLING PEOPLE TO NOT VISIT THE SITE!!!”
*Goes onto prove his moral and educational upstanding so as to prove my self-importance actually matters.
Honestly mate, damn fine review, one that I feel more then nails this game on the head. It’s very much a fun ride to be sure, but I did end up wondering just what they will have to do with the series now that they want to position themselves into the spot everyone used to think GTA was there for (aka, the mindless fun). They can do good things with it, but they need to make sure they don’t let the series ride on it’s coat tails, something THQ kinda let themselves build up a rep of doing.
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November 19, 2011 at 02:00am
I feel that although this is a great game to play comparing two the third doesn’t do as good of a job with the gang. I was expecting the story to go the same way as two with three distinct gangs rather then working as one big gang. My favorite gang still is the Brotherhood, even though all the crazy stuff that happened in three what happened with them was just so much more given what happened with the rest of the world.
I do think its worth the price, but two is still on top for me.
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November 18, 2011 at 10:55pm
I never got into the GTA series when 4 came out and i only liked San Andreas because of how wacky it can be sometimes. This is the kind of crazy game i’ve been looking for and i will pick it up.
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November 25, 2011 at 06:54pm
To be fair GTA 1 and 2 WERE wacked out like Saints Row in ther’e own way.
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November 18, 2011 at 08:22pm
Definitely a step up from SR2 and it’s just been a blast to play. It’s exactly what I want to see from an open world crime series, something GTA didn’t do right with the last game and I think will need to play catch up with SR3. If they don’t want to do zany anymore, GTA has to bring it in other areas now.
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November 18, 2011 at 07:05pm
In my eyes, this game beats Skyrim hands down. I sank 30 hours into this game in less than five days and I had a blast throughout the entire time and I’m not even done yet. This is my personal Game of the Year, easy, everything else just pales in comparison… in fact, I can’t even remember any other games I played this year anymore… except for Skyrim.
Everything from surfing cars, basejumping, waging turf war against mascots, laser cannons, Genki, the fast cars, the slew of weapons, the customization, the humor, the whole package is a total riot from beginning to end. There are some technical glitches for sure but I expect we’ll be seeing a lot of patching on this game in the near future.
It’s by far the best open world sandbox game I have ever played and it went from being a pretty good GTA clone to easily beating GTA in every department. Rockstar, play this game and learn, this is what a true sandbox game should be like.
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November 18, 2011 at 04:28pm
Only a few of the cheats have to be purchased, and they’re mostly the game-breaking ones, such as infinite ammo, never die, unlimited sprint, etc. The rest of the cheats can be unlocked by entering in codes. When you activate a cheat it disables trophies/achievements and the autosave feature. You can still save your game manually after this, but I’m pretty sure you won’t be able to unlock trophies in that save from then on. So be careful.
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November 18, 2011 at 04:17pm
This game was defintitley worth my money, i think its gonna entertain me for a long time.
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Saints Row the Third in 5 seconds
Who knew our children could learn something from playing Saints Row ?
Saints Row: The Third Angry Review
Notorious An-Gre-Jo and his Krew review Saints Row: The Third as they rise to the top of the music billboards as True Gangsta’s! Does the latest game in the franchise ride high with them or do they all come crashing down as a one hit wonder? Find out!
Saints Row Co-Op is AWESOME!
Dickin’ around… Co-operatively! Our story mode play through of this remarkably deep sandbox experience continues. Two heads are better than one, especially when their purple and floppy!
Angry Joe Plays Saints Row 3
Angry Joe gets naked, practically makes a sex tape, and fights perverted jedi all while
Sage Reviews: Saints Row The Third
I never knew I wanted to play a game with an auto-tuned pimp before now.
I too signed up specifically to agree with you.
Saints Row 3 was a complete letdown, in spite of my best efforts to try and enjoy it.
Yes, SR3 has interesting visuals, yes they added some interesting if merely “distracting” features.
However they basically scuttled everything about SR2 that made it the enjoyable experience that it was.
The dialogue and comedic timing is completely and utterly absent from SR3.
The vehicles all slide around as if they’re on ice now, bikes are not nearly as useful as they once were, catwalks are kind of pointless, as I was able to perform some crazy acrobatics with them in SR2.
Stilwater was bigger, more enjoyable to explore.
The damage model for the weapons was better, they went overboard with the dispersion on the automatics.
You can no longer shoot somebody in the head and expect to kill them, and it seems as if they strongly imply that you need to “buy upgraded stats”, a feature that I roundly hate in games.
You also cannot pick up -ANY- weapon in the game and use it right off the bat anymore as you could in SR2.
The fact you couldn’t liberate a sword from the hacker guys was a massive letdown.
Let me guess, I have to “earn it” or “buy it”, because then it would throw off the game? Fuck off.
The environmental interactivity is gone, I enjoyed being able to charge up my melee attack and knock people out, which they’ve simply replaced with some kind of marginally enjoyable “combo system”.
Overall, there’s this massive void left over from SR2 that they consciously chose not to address and I gave up after a few hours of playing it.
Its not Saints Row 2, its something appreciably less.
So perhaps I’ll go buy GTA 4, considering I never played it.
I imagine at least that will serve as a decent go-between after coming off of a great game like SR2.
Joe,
I would like to thank you for this. I signed up to blistered thumbs just to comment on your review. I travel a lot overseas for business and I do not game much, but when I am back in the country for a few months I usually buy one game and play it all the way through. I happened upon Saints Row 2 unintentionally and I LOVED IT!
I was so pumped for Saints Row 3 but like you, It was a huge disappointment. I believe they did not have enough time to complete a full game in time and threw in the forced diversion missions as a way to fluff it up.
There is obviously some improvements in the game but I agree with you nearly 100%. Ohh a purple dildo, funny yes, and there was funny after mission cut scene with it but don’t substitute shock value for game quality.
I could go on and on about my problems with the game but you pretty much summed it up, and “yes”, it was a fun game to play, but I was really hoping for something as good as Saints Row 2…
Thanks again for the laughs, your video was more fun than the game itself…
Tom
i dont agree thought it was alot betterthan sr2 and some of the things he said made sr3 bad were in sr2 like he said it forces you to do side missions but sr2 forces you to do all the strongholds to do the final missions and thats the only reason that sr2 was longer and theres actually more missions in sr3 and there was zombies in sr2 aswell and i think zombies were better in sr3 cause there not just a extra bit there actually part of the story and there was sad parts in the story like when johnny gat died they didnt spend much time on it but still and the graphics were much better and he said all gangs were conected but in sr2 they were conected by ultor so almost all of the things he didnt about sr3 were in sr2
I actually just picked up Saint’s Row 2 on XBL last weekend to give it a go, and I have to say that it was fun, the plot actually had me interested (characters were likeable and I was sad to see some of them die), I plan on getting SR3 when I get my birthday money (This coming weekend) and I will consider picking up a used copy of SR3 (Even though I’m not usually a fan of getting used games, no money for the developers and all that) just so I can make my own comparisons.
I disagree with nearly everything you’ve said about 3 in this particular review, and I think some of it is inaccurate (for example, you get police notoriety from stealing cars and killing people in 3, man), but I respect your opinion enough to check out 2.
Joe, you’re such an ass, you could have just bought a big purple dildo online.
As someone who enjoyed Saints Row 2 quite a lot, I feel disappointed with the Third. Though some of the missions were epic, the story itself was lackluster. It felt really short and rushed.
Spoilers ahead matey.
You killed Loran so earlier in the story, I have to wonder why they hyped him up so much? Hell there isn’t even a grand death on his part, he just gets smashed by a fucking giant ball. And Gat? Why the fuck did they kill him off screen during the second mission? Hell, the MC just shrugs it off like losing Gat was nothing. The Deckers were an interesting concept, and they are the most interesting of the 3 rival gangs, but they weren’t as good as they could have been. The Tron world wasn’t that great, and yeah the lag was really fucking annoying. The Luchadores were also ok, but I don’t know why they chose Killbane as the final head of the Syndicate, he is someone you have someone else control. The Morning Star sucked, they had very little to do with the main story, yet they controlled half the map, why? Speaking of the map, it really seems that they just copy Liberty City and made a few adjustments so they wouldn’t be sued for copyright infringement or something. Both endings to the game suck, they really fucking do. You either have the Saints lose 2 members and become a country, or you save those two members, plus Burt Reynolds and become movie stars.
Spoilers over..
The side missions weren’t as good as the ones in Saints Row 2. The only one that was completely new was the Genki game show. All of the others were in the previous games. Plus the car thefts were broken after a certain part of the story, since the draw bridges were up. Do you know how many times I had to steal the fucking armored truck, because it got stuck on the train tracks above the bridge? Car handling was an improvement, but it could have been better. Weapons have been improved, but I wish there were more guns in the base game.
It really seems that they held back on putting items into the game, so they could have items to sell later as DLC. With all that said, I did enjoy the game quite a lot, but it really is lacking.
If I were to give this game a score, I would give it a 6.5 or maybe a 7. There is fun to be had with it, but if you played Saints Row 2, you will miss quite a bit of what made Saints Row 2 so special.
More guns in the game? How many did you want? you had traditional firearms such as your pistols smgs shotguns and assault rifles, a sniper rifle, grenade launcher, explosives, molotovs, electric grenades, flashbangs, an octopus gun, an airstrike, predator drone, laser guns, a virtual reality smg, the infamous purple dildo joe can’t get out of his mouth, an rc that lets you control cars, miniguns and flamethrowers that the brutes leave behind, not to mention the insane tanks, helicopters, and other vehicles equipped with machine guns, explosive, flammable, and armor piercing rounds. You also had a new combat system which allowed you to either take down your enemies with a running attack or beat the living shit out of them using quick time events. If you tap the right stick button you could stun your enemy with a kick to the nuts. Were you wanting a gun that shot out more guns?
Also in addition to the genki side activities you had tank mayhem, deckers trail blazing and tiger escort. Also how can the side missions not be as good as the ones in saints row 2 if they are the same ones as saints row 2? Think about what you said. The ending to saints row 2 also sucked. You watch the saints fly in a helicopter after killing vogel and watch the credits roll. Then when you figure out the secret mission, you just watch the boss kill kill julius, no credits no nothing. The advertisements for SR3 shows all the ridiculous and claims the craziest game you’ll ever play, it didn’t advertise like Uncharted 3 trying to draw you into any story. (on an unrelated note uncharted 3 was a complete disappointment including its story) These games aren’t about story they are about having a world and character to customize and take over an entire city. It’s like if GTA and any RPG game fucked in an alley and had a lovechild.
Tank Mayhem is not a new mode, if tanks were more plentiful in SR2 (I just started playing it the day before yesterday) I could just jump in a tank and do the exact same thing, for the most part they just slapped a coat of paint on the side activities from it’s predecessor. The main complaint he has is that the gangs don’t really get any real development aside from (Blues do X, Greens do Y, etc), and the plot not really as well handled.
Also making the Ultor comparison WOULD work if the gangs all merged together to fight the saints, but they didn’t, they had interactions with Ultor but none of the gangs (Aside from the Ronin) explicitly worked for them, you still had 3 separate storylines to follow at your leisure as opposed to being forced to follow just one to the detriment of the development of the villains.
Where does everyone get purple clothes? Joe, the VGA crew. I never find anything purple in stores.
You know what, Joe? You’re absolutely right about this game. I mean – I’ve been going crazy about it and had some fun playing it… but the more critique you gave this game – the more I realised you’re right. Saints Row the Third seems to just try too hard to be silly and childish and over-the-top and epic – it just feels empty.
Thanks for this review. Seriously – it gave me something to think about. Saints Row 2 still is the superior game – and one of the greatest games of all time… and Saints Row the Third is what Oblivion is to the Elder Scrolls series, or what Devil May Cry 2 is for the Devil May Cry series, or what Soul Calibur 4 is for the Soul Calibur series. Still, I do enjoy it… but not as much. Like Super Mario Galaxy and Zelda: Skyward Sword – this is an example of a game trying too hard.
Regardless of anyone’s individual opinion on Joe’s scores and reviews, he is the exemplary model of the perfect fan. I strongly believe that the best fan of a game or game series, is also a strong, but constructive critic. Keep up the excellent work Joe.
#1 gta san andreas had a purple dildo way before this game came out. I really don’t see what the big deal is.
#2 If you did enough of the side activities, mayhem, professor genki, heli assault, etc., the game wouldn’t be as linear as if you just did the main story missions, you can also get respect and money to upgrade your character and weapons making the future missions more fun to play, and not as frustrating.
#3 Saints Row 2 also had zombies.
#4 The red guys as you call them got powerful through their cloning and weapons. The green guys control gambling, and the blue guys are the money launderers. It feels like they are all one gang because they work together, this was explained in the game. also you contradicted yourself when mentioning that there are choices in certain parts of the game the affect the rest of the story. There are also 2 alternate endings, is that not enough choice for you?
#5 Saints Row 2 gang members also felt like one gang, i don’t recall a single time seeing the ronin fighting the brotherhood or watching any of the rival gangs fight each other. It seemed like all 3 were all after the saints.
#6 Are graphics really that important? now you have a purpose to roam the city streets looking for gang operations sex dolls cash pallets and photo ops.
#7 Of course they’re going to cut 2 player co-op. They want to sell more copies of the game. It’s kind of how business works.
#8 The lag was only featured in one mission, and actually made it harder for your enemies to hit you. If you took cover and kept shooting at the same target, it would die. I never had problems with this, and it was such a small feature in the game was it worth over 2 minutes of mentioning?
#9 The sex slave mission was the most memorable? How about flying the VTOL aircraft or posing as The Stag guy. or how about when your character uses a chainsaw to stop the luchadores from beating on hulk hogan while the karate kid song comes on.
#10 seriously, the purple dildo was the only new edition? did you forget about the Remote that lets you control other vehicles, the air strike, the predator drone, the canon and the vr smg you get after the vr mission, the new style of combat that includes quick time events, the ability to jump into moving cars and steal them, if you upgrade to level 48 you can be invincible, the various types of ammunition you can get after fully upgrading your weapons, the proffessor genki side missions (which was mentioned as a radio ad in saints row 2, but now you can actually play it), the octopus gun, and being able to lower your noteriety just by entering your safe house.
#11 Saints row 2 had more ridiculous moments than saints row 3.
11 reasons why your review sucks.
As I recall the gangs in SR2 would fight each other if they strayed into each others territory. This didn’t happen most of the time because they were programmed to remain in their territory unless you had gang notoriety with one. In which case I do recall them shooting at each other if one gang came into the others territory looking for you.
OK, but also consider this. All 3 gangs in SR2 were puppets for the Ultor Corporation. In the story it was revealed that the brotherhood, the samedi, and the ronin were all working with ultor which can be compared to the luchadores, deckers, and morning star all working as one as the syndicate. also you face more enemies than just the syndicate. The STAG unit was another enemy of the saints. If you wander the city, you get calls on your cell phone to get survival challenges in which you fight the steelport police, STAG, luchadores, deckers, morning star, and zombies, i am told there are more. In SR2 you had 3 gangs and ultor as main enemies. there were also pimps in SR2 but did not fight you unless you provoked an attack. My whole point was how joe played this game with tunnel vision. True there were certain things i liked better about saints row 2 but I do find SR3 an improvement to the overall game play. He focused his attention to minor issues he might have had with the game that weren’t actual problems. The lag issue was in only one single mission. The purple dildo wasn’t even worth mentioning. As I said there was one in GTA San Andreas 7 years before this game was even made. He made complaints about the game being linear, but once you find oleg, kinzie, zimos, and angel. if you play the diversions such instead of continuing with the story you can chose which gang to go after. or to go after the syndicate rather than stag. true it is more linear than SR2, but to say it is completely linear is false. He missed so much in his review because he was complaining about shit nobody cared about. Also I love how angry reviewers all complain about lack of 2 player mode in a game they dislike. Maybe if I were an angry reviewer, I can see it through their POV.” Now I cant play a game I don’t like with a friend I don’t have because I spend all my time angrily reviewing games which eats up my time to find friends to hang out with.” I’m guessing that is their logic. doesn’t make sense to me. Hope joe and his buddy got good use out of that dildo. I’m guessing that had 2 player co-op since the game didn’t. way to substitute.
joe hits another home run with this review. all is point are right. its a very fun game but it could have been so much more and the story could have been longer.
Basically this is the GTA4 of the series so far. So much less to do and the improvements are frivolous.
And it hurts to think that they might be thinking that they don’t HAVE to make a game like SR2 when they can halfass it and it’ll sell just as well.
“How anybody could rate this better then Saint’s Row 2, I have no idea.”
Paid reviews.
I liked GTA4, sure they removed the sidequests, but they did give us an overall better story and even despite the lack of side-content I still enjoyed the game for a very long time, also considering the multiplayer (Which was really good) the game gave me enough content of high quality to justify removing what they did.
Joe, for someone who claims to have played the previous games in the series to death, you should know that the side missions in the first two games were MANDATORY for beating the game. Story missions were locked until you earned enough respect.
I agree that is annoying that the first batch of story missions in SR3 act as introductions to side missions, but after that, you can ignore them completely. In the first two games, you had to play them to progress. You should probably fact check yourself more carefully.
Again side missions weren’t mandatory to do the main missions in SR2, a single level of RESPECT was needed to do a main mission or stronghold takeover. Side missions were just one of the ways to gain enough respect to do that, various activities and diversions would also work. It’s just that side missions were the fastest way to earn respect, so it just felt like you had to do them. And again a few levels of one of those side mission and you were set with enough respect to do several main missions.
As I recall however, you did have to finish enough strongholds, or all of them to continue on a gangs storyline.
Not to mention some of the more “destructive” missions tended to generate enough respect to start another one, for the most part I got about 90% of the respect I’ve used on missions by just dicking about killing gang members and screwing around, with the occasional sidequest to break things up if the game started to get stale.
Side missions were optional Joe? I think you forgot about SR2 where you were basically forced to play side missions between every single mission to get respect. SR2 forced you for the whole game which easily led to 10 hours of padding.
SR3 only forces you to do them at the very beginning and then from that point on you have TOTAL freedom..
As for the lag gameplay being too frustrating I never found them that hard. I didn’t die once on any of the virtual reality sections. And it was funny as hell.
I can agree that the gangs lacked the depth of the second one but they were still pretty cool and definitely felt unique.
I also agree that the lack of music and even buying your own music is missed but it’s hardly a deal breaker.
Notoriety works EXACTLY the same as it always has.
Really it comes down to this.
1) Do you prefer the longer drawn out and more serious storyline from 2 or
2) Do you prefer the shorter and completely insane story line from 3.
Frankly I like both just fine.
They may have killed off Gat BUT Oleg, Zimos, Angel andKinzie more than make up for it. I will take a brand new awesome cast over the same but still awesome cast anyday.
I do miss Eliza Dushku’s Shaundi though.
I think in the end Volition did to 3 what Bioware did with DA2. They changed some things that people loved from the previous and see what people like most from both. I think in four they will combine the best of both games and make the best Saints Row game yet. I give it a 9/10
This seems to go along with my first impression of the game. Loud and in your face and annoying. No doubt just a weekend rental.
Sorry, Joe, but you’ve lost it. I had to shut the review down early. You got two things wrong right off that bat, and they aren’t arguable.
THIS GAME WAS SUPPOSED TO BE OUTRAGEOUS AND SURFACE ONLY! They advertised the shit out of this. It’s not their fault you went in expecting a different game than they promised to provide.
But this one’s bigger: YOU SURE AS HELL CAN PICK AND CHOOSE WHICH MISSIONS TO DO WHEN. It’s on the main map. You call people different people and they give you different missions. And then, from then on, you can randomly pick another of that same type of mission.
But, no, you’re too ready to jump on and piss on the game because you wanted a game that was not Grand Theft Auto turned up to eleven.
Not to mention that you alone of all the reviewers on this site seem incapable of making a video that doesn’t freeze up all the time on my netbook. And, no, my processor is not maxing out. It’s going up about half way.
And I’m sure I’m going to get voted down for daring to point out that you gave a poor review. This isn’t a matter of disagreeing. It was a Rogert Ebert style uninformed review. Now I understand why you removed the ability to vote on the reviews.
I would go over to the Video Games AWESOME! Playlist of their SR3 play-through and see how much more fun they had with the game than Joe did
Wow, I usually love your reviews, but I cant believe how much emphasis you put on relating this to the last game. Most people I know never even played SR2, so you shouldve considered this as its own game and not compared the crap out of it to the last one. very unfair. Me personally love this game to death coop. Dont let this review turn you! This game is amazing!
Its strange to see finally a review of this game and it point out the same problems i have with it.
SR2 was over the top, yes, but it had a great way to TELL a story, the maincharacters were great but in this one?
I saw the first trailer and didnt realize the woman in it was Shaundi. O.o
In SR2 she was a confused, pothead with dreadlocks and thousands of ex-boyfriends as her contacts.
Sorry Joe but I have to disagree quite a bit. Seeing as you’re a fan of the first two where I could not have cared less for them but I actually had fun and dare i say was entertained. Yes, some jokes are more of a miss than hit but I prefer Hulk Hogan as Angel than a septic spewing truck. Also, I do remember the previous games forcing you to do a certain amount of side missions for “Respect” to earn the privilege to progress further.
Hell, how many sand box games now a days give you access to nothing other then a pistol in the first hour or so when they let you rob a bank, jump from an airplane, attack a military base, and use military hardware in the first hour? Plus the use of Sublime – What I’ve Got which had me singing along with the characters.
Well to be fair, there were other ways to earn respect in SR2, side missions were just the quick and dirty way to do it.
You only needed to play several levels of one or two of those too build up your respect enough not to really worry about it.
Having 12 missions out of the 45, a quarter of the game, be intro to side missions is a legitimate complaint.
And as much fun as Tank Mayhem was, really you could just call up a tank and do a regular Mayhem mission for the same result.
That said I enjoyed the side missions a lot more here then in SR2. Insurance fraud missions where a lot more fun here, given the comments your character makes, and that it was a lot easier this time around to find cars to run you over without having to drive to the nearest freeway. The tiger escort mission was a fun twist on a tired side mission. Professor Genki’s Ethical Reality Climax I actually really did like.
And to top that off I was no longer forced to play 3 more grueling and often impossible levels of a side quest just to get a chainsaw that was fun but I barely used, or a large discount on clothes or ammo that became useless once I ended up owning half the city and the money started rolling in faster then I could spend it. Or a decrease in gang notoriety in a gang I had already wiped off the map. About the only mission that has annoyed me was the last Tron trail blazer mission, but I managed to get through that eventually, and I got some cool vehicles to play with and some more of the city for my efforts.
Hey don’t get me wrong, I loved SR2, I found it a used copy of it for around $10 at Gamecrazy about a year and a half ago and fell in love with it. I even bought the DLC and liked that even if they did managed to make Tera Patrick look ugly. (And if you’ve managed to do that you’ve done something wrong) If it wasn’t for SR2, I wouldn’t have been nearly as excited about this game.
But I dunno, so far I’ve had myself having more fun here then in SR2. Despite the game feeling more condensed.
Does anyone else want a full version of ‘Drop that Dookie’ now? I think that smells like a number 2 hit.
In terms of SR3, I haven’t played any of the SR games, but this one looks like it suffers from what I like to call ‘CoD syndrome’…all style, no substance (your anger fuels me, fanboys).
From what I’ve seen, the SR series differentiated itself from the GTA series of open-world gameplay with it’s customisability. Being able to fully customise your chosen character in-game instead of playing a single role or character and wreaking havoc in-game as a 65 year old fat dude in bondage gear was a first if I recall. Taking the in-depth customisation out of the game and replacing it with the distilled version (at least according to the Initiation Station thing they had pre-release) that, while still offering a lot of choice, removed so many more options from all reports, was a ludicrously bad idea.
If I’m to be fair with myself, yes, this game is no where near as good as the first two SR games, which I’ve always preferred over over the GTA series. I do agree with Joe all the way about its problems, that being said though, I still had alot of fun with this game, probably though I had more fun with it since I mixed playing it alongside Skyrim to keep me in a good mood without getting bored of either. Aside from all the good things in this game, I think I actually really liked the controls in this one above anything else, although that could just be me. In the end, SR2 is still the best in the series, but still I’m glad to have played this one.
Hi Joe, I just joined the site today cause your videos are so awesome. I especially enjoyed your recent Batman review. Im probably gonna buy that one and skyrim off your recommendation thanks! Oh and DROP THAT DOOKAY!! lol
I hated Saints Row 1 & 2 but I’ve enjoyed the Third one quite a bit… Gameplay wise this seems a bit better than the previous ones and it is quite fun.. But if you compare it to GTA the controls are still horrible but not as bad as the first two games. Graphics are ok this time around, The texture pop-in Joe mentions are obvious when you fly a helicopter, it’s the same thing with every sandbox game where you fly around a city.
This game is like a cheap GTA w cheats turned on, fun to play while waiting for GTA V.
Also, I bet that they bring back Johnny Gat in a DLC mission or in the next game, called Saints QuattROW! Remember where you heard it first! (Quattro = 4)
There is some speculation that Johnny may show up again in the Trouble with Clones DLC that’s slated to drop early next year.
DROP THAT DOOKAAYY! I would watch a full music video of that. XD
I will say, the shock in the game, is tame. If your bothered by a dildo, what are you doing on the internet?
My biggest complaint is that it felt short for a Saints Row game, but its still much longer then many shooters coming out now with the same price (multiplayer not included). To be honest, I was far more dissapointed with Skyrim then I was with Saints Row the Third. I think if you come at the game with an objective standpoint, ignoring fanboyism, it is still a good game.
I do want to say, the warping chick that kicked AJ’s ass, is easy to kill, and there is little challenge to the game once you have your weapons upgraded.
My biggest complaint is that Joe refuses to look at games on the PC. On the PC there were no issues with the game that I found. It was updated far more then SR2 was. Saying there is a glitch, he has to point out, FOR THE XBOX, unless he knows the same glitch exists elsewhere.
I do agree the writing could have been better, and that the extreme elements were overplayed.
Final thoughts, Joe is not that good at the game, Nostalgia goggles dropped the score by a point or two
The Decker specialists aren’t that tough to kill by themselves. Thing is they don’t come at you by themselves, They come at you with a mini van full of other emos with guns. Oh and they like to come at you in pairs two.
It’s a different story when your surrounded by 10 other guys with automatic weapons.
As I recall, Joe mentioned that the specialists/brutes were one of the good parts about the game. They make those shoot outs with gangs that much more interesting.
It was the Mayhem minigame that I think annoyed Joe, and that he was forced to do it.
Also its tougher to keep yourself alive in this one then it was in SR2, no food items mean you have to pay more attention to health recovery. And vehicles like the bear can’t take the amounts of abuse they once could, unless your driving around in a tank, and even they have there tolerances.
Ok, Im still kinda having fun with it, but i guess thats just perspective. Joe, I love you man, and your usually right. But, i never played the Saints Row franchise before, so i still find it funny. So i guess the game is new player friendly.
The only reason i got it was because it was sillier than grand theft auto. And thats what i payed for.
So I am enjoying it. but thats only because i havent played a Saints game before. And ive enjoyed enough to get Saints Row 2.
I’ll keep this comment short and sweet by saying, not only did I agree with the points you made Joe, but also add one to my own. The defeating of the major gangs felt empty. When the Deckers finally were finished, I couldn’t feel any satisfaction about it. There weren’t any finales we had grown to love in Saints Row 2 (like how you defeat the gang leader voiced by Micheal Dorn…. who just owned that role).
Sadly right now I’m seeing Saints Row becoming like a pop star: Explosive and popular right off the bat, giving us a lot of material that’s golden, but then mainstream ideals cloud their judgement and all they care about is the next paycheque (Canadian spelling) as opposed to the art they were offering before.
I played a free demo on OnLive and at least found the first mission really entertaining. Co-op too. But that’s as far as the demo would take me so I can’t judge much.
I was disappointed by the inferior character customization options. In SR2, they had so many crazy options (including guys with huge knockers xD), I often just tried to see what outrageous monstrosities I could create. One in particular some friends created was named Peanut…He/she/it was a fat black British drag queen with bright pink beard-stubble, green hair, a clown-whore makeup job, and ANTENNAE! In SR3…Meh. I made a weird fusion of Roger Ebert and Hitler, sure, but it was no Peanut.
I definitely don’t like the idea of forced side activities. And I LOVED Crowd Control. Tank Mayhem? Garbage.
I recall from some of the marketing that they claimed the side activities were going to be better integrated into the plot…Not FORCED. I’ll admit, an issue I had with SR2 was the sheer randomness of the activities. Some guy waltzes in off the street and is suddenly contracted as a bodyguard or a corrupt cop…What? And half the time the dialogue setting up the activities made it seem like the people had prior connections or arrangements with the player…None of which I was made aware of at all. So when SR3′s marketing said it would better integrate these activities, I approved…But “better integrated” does not mean “shoehorned into the story and forced to play”.
Now, being that I’m not a critic and thus lack the critic’s perspective, I imagine I’ll still love this game to bits. Possibly even with a big purple dildo. So I’ll still get it someday. But for now, I haven’t even scratched the surface of SR2…The Samedi took one of my hoods and I went in with a recruit and shotgun them to bits. Soooo satisfying. And I only recently took my first stronghold (the Ronin strip joint) and I’m hyped to fuck their shit all up. I consider them my main rivals…Mostly because they have some cool vehicles that I love to add to my garage.
So, while I can see they screwed up by relying solely on SR2′s absurdity and seemingly stripping out the other great rlements, I will buy SR3 sometime despite this. But I’m not done with SR2 yet. Plus I’ve got Skyrim on the way. And I finally got another PS2 (after selling my first one years ago for rent money) to enjoy that console’s still-amazing catalogue of game titles. Who says old games (2009 and earlier) can’t be fun? My brother. And he’s a complete ass.
i do not agree.
all i see in this review is butthurt and sucking at games.
maybe the game is not as good as sr2 but this review consists out of butthurt²³
Joe stated he has completed the game..so i guess he can’t suck too much at the game then..
Well, there are two kinds of butthurt. There is one in your argument, but Joe is not the one guilty!
@destro : trial and error.
@troggy : wow,that got me hard…in several ways
I wouldn’t have given SR:The Third a 6/10 but it would be a 7.5 out of 10. I agree with a lot of things you said. I LOVED Saints Row 2, a friend told me to try it because I was like “man this is some low budget GTA rip-off” and in the end I had tons of fun with it.
As you said the missions differ in quality a whole lot, it looks like they had some great ideas for missions but had little ideas for missions in between and just started adding stuff. The bank robbery and the plane were just pure awesome and got me hyped up, getting the uav drones was fun (although a bit early in my opinion, very easy to use them to clean up gang operations) but after that it starts falling flat. Clothes shopping and car pimping should not be missions unless you can find a good reason for it (in GTA IV you just got off the boat with just one set of clothes so it was less tedious).
They left out some of the more fun side missions that I really enjoyed in SR2 and even added them to the main story. In SR2 I sought them out myself. At first in SR2 I was a bit peeved you had to get them for respect but after 2 or 3 of them I was mainly doing side missions because I was enjoying them so much. I feel that they dropped the ball there.
And I would have loved to see them do more with customization, to really pimp out your gang instead of choosing 3 styles, to pimp out the cars they drive instead of having fewer choices than SR2 (and you can’t even pick a gang sign for them) and I felt bad that you can only customize the strongholds. With the work they put into making your own character I really hoped you could pretty much Sim it up and choose what you want to put in there. Give every house you own as a crib a distinct feeling. I was hoping they took those things from SR2 and make them even bigger and better but they just didn’t and it felt disappointing. I remember that in the very first crib I wanted to pimp it… ok can’t, well lets watch some tv…. I can’t, well lets turn on the radio then… oh I can only choose my clothes, weapons and some other things here. I felt like this could have done with so much more in that regard.
And that is pretty much the game for me. One moment you are in an awesome mission and it’s like “wow best game ever!” the next you are looking at things they could have added or are in a mission that isn’t half as fun.
I also got the distinct feeling the game was made to be played in co-op to just mess around with friends instead of really going at it alone. Just walking around creating mayhem on your own just isn’t as fun for some reason.
So yeah I had some great fun with a number of missions but there were also some things really missing from the game. So I think I’d have to end up with a 7.5 as an end score. Maybe an 8 because it does some things really well but because of SR2 and the hype surrounding it my disappointment might have been a bit bigger.
When I saw the original ‘Power’ trailer I remember being so excited, I mean it seemed like the next logical step. The Saints are celebrities due to now being backed by Ultor (Who seem to have just gone to Mars during this game…), and it looked like we would get to see the characters struggling between life as loved celebrities or as a feared street-gang. Instead, the characters all seem to have forgotten their own personalities.
As more and more trailers for the game came out I started losing more and more optimism for SR3. Not that any of it looked downright awful, but that there really wasn’t much left of Saints Row 2. (Seriously, what happened to FUZZ? That was my favorite side mission!)
Also, anyone ever wonder where Dex went? The Boss was pretty pissed at him at the end of Saints Row 2…
Fuzz was basically the GTA police missions with a new twist. And I think they wanted to distance themselves a bit further from the GTA franchise, which is probably why there isn’t any ambulance or fire truck diversions either.
I actually liked Fuzz too, but they have to come up with a good reason why your character is doing this, I mean it’s a little tougher to pose as a bogus cop when the boss of the Saints is a Celebrity icon in his/her own right.
Great review. I still think I got my money’s worth with Saint’s Row 3, but you certainly made the case as to why the last game was an overall better experience.
You have to remember that anyone who played it on PC has probably never properly played a Saints Row game before.
Saints Row 2 especially, does not run properly on PC. Though it’s been a while since I tried. Maybe they patched it so that it, you know; can run for more than a second without lagging or generally being glitchy as all hell.
I totally agree with this review. I bought this on PC after seeing all the good reviews, but I was really disappointed.
First disappointment: The length. I completed the entire campaign and took over the entire city in less than 24 hours. I did not do every assassination and car theft, but only because certain assassinations become impossible to do after taking over the city and many of the car thefts are just annoying as hell.
Second disappointment: The difficulty. I completed the game on normal difficulty and the balancing was in my opinion awful. NONE of the main story missions challenged me in any way and I didn’t really feel challenged by any of the side activities either. The only times I actually died or had to retry something was almost always because I lost control of my character for several seconds due to fire, sniper shot, getting hit by a car, etc.
Dear Volition Inc.: Loss of character control is NOT an acceptable balancing mechanic!
Third disappointment: The city of Steelport. The entire city feels incredibly static and lifeless, and after taking it over all the gangs disappear from the street which makes it feel even more lifeless. Also: Horrible characters. Both the people you recruit and the gang leaders ranged from “this guy is boring is boring as hell” to “OMG this guy is annoying”. The only characters I liked was the player character, Oleg and the commentators for Genki/Murderbrawl.
Summary: Some fun moments, but overall a disappointing game.
So there is multiplayer but that has not increased quality of singleplayer. Thats fucked up. Its like they were not even trying or they didn’t just care.
I did have a lot of fun with the game, but in the end I felt disappointed at how quickly it ended.
*Sigh* I think I’ll go and play some Saints Row 2 on my PS3 since that one is quite a classic.
If they do however make a Saints Row 4, they better damn sure make it longer, atleast as long as the second game and put back in the FUN sidemissions as well as making them optional instead of forcing them on us.
And just why, WHY, did they have to go and kill off Johnny Gat at the start of the game?
I seriously liked that guy, he was a real badass especially in SR2 when he buried the Ronin leader in the cemetary as retribution for killing his girlfriend Aisha.
Well,you’ve just saved me about £38 Joe!
I was torn between SR 3 and Skyrim..i think i made a wise choice.
I have SR2 on STEAM anyways but havent scratched the surface with it.
6/10? That’s… so not true.
Maybe Saints Row 2 was that amazing that you score this so low. I didn’t play it, so I wouldn’t know.
But that is wrong. You do not score the game based on the previous one! You score a game as a GAME. And this game is freaking awesome.
I played GTA 4 and loved it, but after this game… GTA smells like boredom.
This game has everything: Planes, helicopters, car, crazy technologies, BEST action scene ever in the beggining, wrestling, zombies, Mars, crazy Japanese show, booties, beatiful graphics(I’ve played PC version and trust me, it looks great), AMAZING controls that feel like they WERE MADE for PCs.
This game is one of the best games I’ve EVER played. Since I bought it, for two whole days: from morning till late evening,- I’ve been playing it non-stop. Every 5 minutes I promised myself: just 5 more minutes and I’ll go to sleep/eat. Even side-missions, which you found boring, I found extremely fun. Especially mayhem with rpg, because… unlimitied rpgs? Bring it on!)
And to this you say 6/10!? Slightly better than mediocre? It is packed with content! You said it yourself that you barely played any side-missions and yet you score 10-12 hours. Without coparing it to the previous games, but comparing it to modern games, tell me: is 10-12 hours a small amount of time for a game? No! It is more than average. With all of the side-missions, collectibles(these were a bit of a letdown, as I thought they would give me a new car or something) I scored 20+ hours of gameplay. And every one of those was fun.
Do not base your score on previous chapters, base it on the game itself. Compare it to other modern games and then you’ll get closer to the true score. For me it’s 10/10 and I can’t make it any lower, because this is 2nd best game for me, coming very close to 1st: Disgaea.
But therein lies the problems with sequels, especially if they involve the continuation of a storyline, it’s kind of hard NOT to make comparisons to the games that came before, on it’s own merits the gameplay works and the systems are effective, but as far as a continuation of the plot from SR2 the game fails, if it was set in the same universe but followed different characters (Ala GTA) than I could judge the plot on ot’s own merits, but since that ISN’T the case you SHOULD compare it to SR2′s script in terms of quality.
First off, that guy on the phone sounded like nothing surprises him anymore. His candor really surprised me, but then again, guess you come to expect anything when working at an erotica store.
Secondly, I have yet to play SR3 and almost ended up not playing SR2 when it first came out. I’ve never really bought into GTA just because it wasn’t my thing and thought SR2 was more of the same. After a lot of goading and promises of great writing I caved, and it was the best game I was ever pressured into playing. The dialogue, the characters, and the overall story won me over completely, and hearing that this is weaker in those departments really keeps me from buying this one. I have to watch how much I spend and am hence very picky when it comes to games, and if this is a mere shadow of SR2, I think I’ll just skip this installment for now until it gets cheaper.
I have to say… I agree with you Joe. I was dissapointed how short this game was. How they implemented some sidemissions to the main story. How they removed the most fun side missions and yeah, how there wasn’t 3 diffirent gangs this time.
I still like it, but yeah, step backwards. I did enjoy the story missions that weren’t side missions thou! I have to say that and I did like the story, even when you didn’t obviously. It was a good game overall.
Isn’t free SR 2 a PS3 exclusive though? Which means it doesn’t apply to Joe, or those who are 360 only players.
This is the first time I’d have to disagree with you about a game Joe. I actually liked this one better then 2. Better vehicles, tighter control with the cars. The Awesome button, and S.T.A.G. Plus getting bonuses through your phone and having respect levels actually mean something.
Also as Skedoosh, the graphics may not be wowing, but I felt the characters and vehicles graphics were vastly improved from the first one. Plus you can actually crush cars with tanks, not make them explode by bumping them, I mean literally rolling over and flattening cars.
I will say it has a few flaws compared to its predecessor though, that I would have liked to see. It had less interiors which was kind of a let down, plus the island in this one felt smaller, with really no secret areas, at least none that were marked, and no islands to explore or any real boat traffic, making boating feel more tacked on in this one other then occasional boat theft.
And yeah it does feel a bit shorter then the last one.
And Yeah killing off Johnny Gatt, off camera no less, was also a major disappointment, but I like the new characters like Kenzy and Oleg.
All and all I felt I actually got my moneys worth on this one. Although I did get it for half price thanks to a couple of trade ins. Well that and I have a thing for Russian girls which this game lets me play to my hearts content. I think it will be enough to help tidy me over till I get Skyrim for Christmas.
These are good reasons to enjoy this game, and I really did enjoy it as well, just the disappointment sets in hard after you complete it.
Story was barely there, killing off gat and going from 40 hours to 11 hours, removing multiplayer features, side activities, and leaving on that shit ass ending, so we can have a year of DLC, just no.
Especially when everyone is so high on the game, I suppose for most of them its their first Saints Row game.
I think you may be right about SR3 being preferred by those who played it first. SR3 was the first one in the series I cared about. I hated the fake gangsta culture and the locked mission system that forced you to play activities to get to the next mission of the first one. I heard that was in the second one ad skipped it outright.
I heard the mission structure was streamlined and respect points were instead used for leveling up in the third game. So I decided to give it another chance and now I love the Saints Row the Third. I will agree that killing Johnny was lame since he was the only character I liked in the first game and I could tell the new mission structure in this one would make it much shorter than the others, but I had way more fun with this game than the first.
I may give the second one a chance since you recommend it so highly (and because the yellow guy with the sword looked bad ass.
), but for this review, I have to disagree with your overall report. But I was really entertained by the video, and for that, “I still LOE you, Joe!” 
And to be fair Joe, you never said the game sucks, you did give it a slightly then better then average rating according to you score. Personally I would have rated it a bit higher if I was a fan of numeric scores.
But I think you might have glazed over the some games better aspects compared to what you didn’t like. Despite your namesake I’ve always felt that you go out of your way to look for the positives in a game and talk about them in your reviews no matter how crappy the game might be.
And though you haven’t quite gone into Yachtzee’s Zero Punctuation territory, I still feel this review was a bit more negative then your usual repartee. Which I don’t feel the game deserves.
Also if you think about it, the crowd control side quest wouldn’t really work story wise. I mean what sense would it make to hire a bouncer who was also a celebrity? Plus I hated Crowd Control. I mean it was a real pain in the ass to try and protect the celeb by yourself after lvl 3.
But yeah, fight club should have stayed in, especially given the awesome button in this game, and it would have been perfect story fodder for Angel.
On the fence about the Septic truck missions, was never a big fan of it in SR 2, but then I didn’t hate it either.
Finally, Someone Said What I Wanted To Say When I Played Saints Row: The Third. Campaign Was Linear, Unmemorable Except For A Few Levels And Too Over The Top. My Favorite Character Was Killed Off In The First 20 Minutes Of The Game Or So & For Absolutely No Solid Reason. We are even mentioned that one of the villains interrupted his Funeral, Which just like Aisha’s Funeral In SR2, Would have been a really good level. There seemed to be no emotion by your character that He was dead. Campaign was a Bore most of the time and took me a few days to beat while doing some activities. Co-op is the same experience from 2. You dont care about the gangs at all. The Only Good Things I Found In This Game Was A Few Good Levels, Weapon Upgrades And The Running Mechanic. I Absolutely Hated The Zombie Level, The Tron Level And The Dumb Fucking Military Base Level. The Strict Misson Design. Lack Of Fighting Styles Or Changing Shit Around In The Cribs. Graphics Being Particularly Worse Than Saint’s Row 2 Usually, No Ground-breaking Story Or Feature. I’m A Huge Saint’s Row Fan And I Think This Direction To Go Over The Top Was Misguided. Saint’s Row 1 And 2 Did A Good Job Of Making You Feel Like A Gangster. This Game Makes You Feel Like A Cartoon. I agree with Joe. 6/10 is a perfect score for it. Saint’s Row 2 tho deserves a 10 to me
Holy crap man, less capitals please! My brain hurts!
Not calling this game sucks, but yeah, on top of what AJ said about less freedom, I do miss little things from SR2 such as general jobs (like taxi, ambulance,fire truck, and mugging/robbing(these two got greatly slashed, no fun no more)), In case of story, both SR2 and SR3 weren’t great, but there are more problem in SR3 (at least to me) such as killing gang boss fairly early in the game. The upgrade system is an improvement. However, not now activities (unlike SR2, money and respect (and sometimes new gangster types are only reward) are far less rewarding than SR2 as there are many ways to gain money and respect.
PS. 1 No customization for APC? WTF!
PS. 2 WHY THE FXXK, DID THEY KILL HIM EARLY IN THE GAME? EVEN TO SYNDICATES, HE COULD BE GREAT LEVERAGE!
PS. 3 WHY THE HXXL THERE ARE SO MUCH POINTLESS DLCS!? SHARK SHOTGUN, NIGHTBLADE PACK, THEY DON”T WORTH THE MONEY!
Yep, that’s about my reactions entirely.
From the very start of this game I knew something was wrong, from when they took away the rise from nothing that served as the core of the first two games to killing off Johnny in the intro (off camera no less!)
I’ve concluded that this game was designed around what would look good in trailers and everything else was secondary. The campaign was inexcusable, the side-missions felt old (I’ve done them twice already, at least) and I never cared about any of the replacement characters.
In the end, this game left me feeling hollow.
Amen.
I love SR2, and I’m getting SR3 for Christmas. Personally, I watched the first first part of the game on a youtube video, and thought it was hilarious. But then again, I have a different sense of humor.
I agree, compared to SR2 this game is nothing. It had some insane marketing, which would explain why it sold so much compared to the better successor. Still, it’s fun to play around in even though it’s very short.
Let’s hope more people demand more from the franchise so that the next game is better!
Welp, even if Saint’s Row The Third doesn’t give me what I want I get Saint’s Row 2 along with it.
I agree wholeheartedly with Joe. Everything unique in this game feels like it should have more missions surrounding it but it’s all condensed. When I saw the Tron parody in a trailer I was like “Oh man that’s going to be an awesome story arc” but nope, it’s only one mission, which is actually a good thing with the way it turned out. Same thing for the zombies. I was imagining three to five missions all about containing the zombie outbreak but again it’s only ONE MISSION. You can tell lots of things were cut, and a lot of it wouldn’t even make sense as DLC. There’s side stories with your new homies like how Oleg is attracted to Kinzie but they only mention it in one moment near the end when it clearly was supposed to be fleshed out more. I really hope they don’t see only the glowing reviews and realize their mistakes.
i don’t know joe… you are being way way waaaayyyyy too hard on this game. It really seems like you had so many good memories of saints row 2 that you were just not ready for this impostor to try and take them away from you.
Honestly, think about it. Was the saints row 2 competitive multiplayer any fun… like… at all? Whored Mode was tacked on but that wasn’t? And at times SR3 looks worse than SR2? It’s not a great looking game but it’s leaps and bounds beyond it’s predecessor which to begin with was not a very good looking game..
How could you not mention all the new additions to melee combat and the ever present “Awesome Button”, the incredible soundtrack of dozens upon dozens of both licensed and original songs…. the AAA voice talent and hysterical Adult Swim radio station…, the absurd array of weaponry that extends way beyond the purple dildo you were so obsessed with… I remember fairly well the driving in SR2 felt like it was one step away from a kart racer, and SR3 completely revamped it into something fast and satisfying. I could go on and on..
I am not an angry hate mongerer who doesn’t think people can have a different opinion Joe, but when you give this game the same score as that awful X-Men game… I just.. think something is off. You barely touched upon all the new additions and changes that were made for this game and instead spent a lot of the time telling us how nostalgic you were for saints row 2 and acted like that game had no problems either.
I hate arguing on the internet, I really, really, do. But this is less of me trying to convince you that your opinion is wrong, and more of a question about how you reviewed the game and why you left so much key info out.
Nice intro Joe, got me rolling on the floor! Can’t believe you actually got that thing! XD
As for your review, I’m sorry to hear that you didn’t really like the 3rd iteration like the 2nd. I know this game was supposed to be over the top, but that’s what I liked about this game. Yeah the purple dildo bats got boring after a while. That’s why I got the Apoco-fists! I can make like Linkara and punch anyone into oblivion while proclaiming my manliness!
The game was a bit shorter, but I honestly lost track of time of how much fun I actually had with this game. At least side missions like Guardian Angel was only limited to at least 3 or so, but I really loved Prof. Genki’s!
But hey, I really love the Saint’s Row franchise than GTA. Hell, I prefer Saint’s Row: The Third over GTA 4. GTA gave so many things to do, but things like dating made it a hassle.
Or you can buy Saint’s Row 3 and get Saint’s Row 2 free! :p
Thats what I did. Got SR3 on PS3 and got SR2 for free.
While I did enjoy the game more than you did, Joe, I do have to agree that it’s disappointing how much was missing from this game. Short campaign, not alt of side stuff, what did they spend all their time on in the past 3 years? I do feel it has some great characters, the writing can be funny at certain points, but it’s just lacking. I got a feeling they removed some stuff of the game for the big DLC push they have coming up, which isn’t something that great sadly.
Hey, at least Saints Row 3 was still better than GTA4 lol
My earliest SR game was playing the first one at a friends on Xbox, and I liked it because it felt like a GTA III with better play control, and a city you could explore without having to “Unlock” sections.
I liked it enough to buy SR2 on PC when it came out, and despite it’s botched buggy launch (Which they’ve since patched to an acceptable level) I had a lot of fun with it for the reasons you cited. I did play some SR3 at a store, and I think it does have less than SR2. It’s likely because Volition is said to have a lot of DLC planned for this one, and so they probably left stuff out on purpose. It’s very possible we’ll see them put side missions from SR2 in as DLC, along with new Story missions.
I’m also not certain it will all be monetized because THQ does seem to give many games’ DLC packs for free. Most recently Space Marine. I could be wrong of course, but I think they’re really hoping post launch bonus content will give the game legs to carry it through 2012.
One thing I do think is great about SR3 is it’s one of the few games on PC you can play LAN Co-Op. So you don’t have to play over the internet with someone, they can bring their computer over, and while you will initially have to boot through Steam, you will be playing off your home network which is something I really wish Developers would implement more often.
But in any event, I did enjoy the review
Saints Row – The Third was my first game in the series.
But your review finally convinced me to buy Saints Row 2.
Have to get it for PS3 though. The international PC version is blocked out from Steam, when you try activating your copy with a German IP.
Still, I found enjoyment with The Third. Kinda sucks though, they clearly build it for additional DLC content. What did they promise? “40 weeks of DLC”? Ugh…
This review confirmed my suspicions, well maybe GTA 5 will go back to it’s roots and have a sense of humour……. lol big fucking purple chance!
Wait…posted to Youtube? What happened to Blip.tv?
Nevermind, it was changed to Blip…
I completely agree with your assessment. I have seriously considered getting Saints Row 2, but every time I look at the third game, I just feel cold. It just seemed TOO over the top… too much style and absurdity without anything to balance it out. Sound and fury signifying nothing. As an outsider, Saints Row 2 looks much better.
Angry Joe Show Review: Saints Row Three; The Quest for the Adequate Dildo! Oh Jesus… still sounds fun. Keep up the good work!
“How big do they come?” Pun intended?
Little disapointed in your review, but i understand where youre coming from. (No pun intended.)