Saints Row: The Third Remastered Review
More Than Just A “GTA Clone”
After finishing Saints Row: The Third for the first time on my PS4 Pro, I started looking up more information related to the game. One thing stood out to me more than anything else across multiple reviews — the assertion that the game is a Grand Theft Auto clone.
I can agree with this sentiment to some extent. Guns? Check. Power fantasy? Check. Sexual situations? Check.
But Saints Row isn’t just a GTA copycat. It takes the criminal nature and societal parody world of GTA and ramps it up to 11, something much louder than 10 (and I wouldn’t be surprised if the band Spinal Tap was in Steelport City.)
The Story
You play as the “Boss”, the leader of the Third Street Saints, a gang that has risen to meteoric popularity in the past five years, so much so that they’ve gained celebrity status. There are apparel and merchandise stores in Steelport called Planet Saints where you can buy all kinds of stuff related to the gang. There are adoring fans that want your autograph and take your picture. They even have an energy drink, Saints Flow, which combines “all-natural ingredients with a bunch of scary shit I can’t even tell you about,” according to an in-game radio ad.
During a routine high stakes robbery, you get captured by the leader of The Syndicate, a coalition of three rival gangs that team up to take down The Saints. Your job is to reclaim the wealth and power you once had through all kinds of mayhem and destruction.
The Gameplay
After narrowly escaping death in one of the most fun/ridiculously action-packed opening sequences of gaming I’ve ever played, your fellow member of the Saints, Pierce, takes you through some tutorial missions of how the game works and what side quests you can do to regain your status. It is in this early stage of the game that truly revealed to me what kind of experience I’d be having.
Your player has comically oversized guns, and in later missions, even stranger weapons like a laser rifle or a shotgun that makes a shark erupt from the ground itself to kill whatever unfortunate target you aimed at.
The three rival gangs feature unique color schemes, outfits, and specialized focuses on the criminal underworld. The Morningstar, the oldest gang in the city, founded the Syndicate and specializes in arms dealing and prostitution. The Deckers are computer geniuses who use cybercrime (primarily money laundering.) The Luchadores are a gang comprised of masked wrestlers (who would’ve guessed?) who deal in steroids and gambling.
As the Boss, you’ll be tasked with all kinds of over the top operations, including skydiving onto the roof of your former penthouse and shooting every rival gang member inside to the tune of Kanye West’s “Power,” uploading your consciousness into the internet to fight the leader of the Deckers as a toilet with a Mega Man-style gun, killing zombies, and participate in a wrestling tournament with weapons thrown at you to use from the audience.
Where This Game Shines
While Saints Row: The Third shares some of the same elements of a certain crime-focused game series, it separates itself beautifully from the competition.
Want to steal a car? Try having your character vault themselves into the windshield feet first and drive away.
Want to crossdress your character? Go ahead — there are no gender-exclusive clothing items in the game. You can even go streaking if you want, albeit with censored blurs over the important parts.
Want to poorly sing along to Sublime’s hit “What I Got” with another gang member? You’re in for a treat.
The Boss’s dialogue is so bombastic and out there that it feels like the lovechild of Tony Stark and Star-Lord, the perfect combination of leadership, badassery, and improvisational nature with a dash of partying thrown in for good measure.
Saints Row: The Third Remastered was my first introduction to the series and in my 14-hour story playthrough, I’ve never quite felt how much the true essence of a video game this game exudes. It takes reality and not only turns it on its head but makes it breakdance in the process. The absurdly parodic nature of the characters and game world reminds me strongly of the South Park universe; both successfully utilize societal critique in a wild way to drive home the points they’re trying to get across.
While I haven’t played any of the other games in the series, I can say that I highly recommend Saints Row: The Third Remastered for anyone who hasn’t played the game before and for those who’ve enjoyed the game when it first came out in 2011.
