Saints Row – Xbox 360 Hands On
Saints Row – Xbox 360 Hands On
Remember Volition? They were the guys behind the marvellous Conflict: Freespace games, a brilliant space combat sim that out manouvered Wing Commander: Prophecy easily and gave X-Wing vs TIE Fighter a run for its warp speed. Volition have been a bit quiet of late, and the reason why is Saints Row, a TPS (Third Person Shooter) currently in development for the XBox 360. I sat down with Aaron Lemay from Volition and let him guide me through the rough, tough and violent world of their latest game.
In a nutshell, Saints Row places you in the role of a gang member of the Third Street Saints, fighting for respect, money and turf against three other gangs. Set in the fictional city of Southern Cross, your task is to work your way through the story driven plot by any means or way you see fit, making enemies, alliances and cash along the way.
At this point, running around the city wielding a baseball bat, I couldn’t help but draw the obvious comparisons between Saints Row and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Aaron was quick to point out that Saints Row offers much more than GTA: SA ever has (with the exception of the Hot Coffee Mod).
Saints Row is a much more open type of game. There’s a story driven plotline that requires you to do certain missions within the game, but unlike GTA:SA, you have a total free hand as to how you go about those missions, or whether you even bother with them at all. The missions vary between ‘hitman’ style assassination jobs through to street races and robberies, the choice is yours. Unlike GTA:SA, if you find you prefer one type of mission over another, you’ll be able to play mainly those types and still progress in the story.
Where Saints Row also deviates from GTA:SA is in looks an feel. Even though the code I was playing still had plenty of development time left in it, it was obvious that the XBox 360’s greater processing and graphics power were used to the full. You can see for yourself from these screens how the game looks, and I’ve included my dodgy camera shots of the screen as well, just to show that the screenshots do relate to the game.
What you can’t see is the physics engine in effect here, which isn’t just applied to the cars and weapons, but to pretty much everything else you can interact with. Smash a window and the glass falls to the floor… smack a barrel and it’ll roll away, but most worrying of all are the cars… each of which explodes into roughly 25-30 bits, all of which could smack into something else, or you and cause even more mayhem…
Because this is a gang warfare game, it wouldn’t be the same without having a gang, and as you play you’ll gradually build up a mini-gang of elites to help you out when you need them. Just give them a call on your cell and you’ll get yourself some AI help, very handy for those tougher missions. Each gang member has their speciality or preference, so if you need a getaway driver, don’t call the hot chick with a penchant for AK-47s, mmkay?
Saints Row will be out for Xbox 360 in February 2006…word.
