Saints Row
Saints Row is the latest game to be compared to the superb Grand Theft Auto. An open ended urban environment featuring gang battles, pimps, ‘hos’, bitches, police chases and bank robberies are just some of the features that appear in both of these titles, and although Saints Row fails on so many levels to surpass the greatness of Rockstar’s masterpiece, the variety of missions and improvements on GTA’s gameplay means that credit needs to be given to the developers for creating a game that does a decent job at stepping up to the challenge.
From the outset Saints Row is extremely violent, full of sexual tongue-in-cheek innuendos and littered with crude street talk. It’s a formula that will leave protective parents screaming for censorship and the human rights brigade claiming that we’re all going to go out and slaughter innocent people. We can understand why people are saying that they've gone slightly over the top with the amount of crudeness, but we’re over 18 so shut the 'bleep' up before we pop a cap in your ‘beeping’ ass, bitches.
Click for larger imageRight, enough of that filth,onto the game! Saints Row sees you under threat from rival gangs and corrupt officials. As a member of the 3rd Street Saints the ultimate aim is to take control of the city by earning respect, completing numerous gun-totting missions must conquer the city or face destruction
Before you join the Saints you’ll need to create your own unique character using a creation tool that allows you to change his full appearance from head to toe. Your character then appears in every cut-scene in the game, and even if you upgrade your character’s clothes or nip to the hairdresser in-game it will still reflect these changes in the scenes; it’s an extremely cool feature. (Style tip: White dreadlocks are in this year).
Click for larger imageThe single player campaign features dozens of missions and side-quests ranging from stealing prostitutes from under the noses of local pimps and bringing them back to the brothel, to assassinating rival gang leaders. There’s also a fair few driving missions, including escort missions that see you picking up a ‘ho’ and her client and driving them around the city whist they do the deed in on the back seat (noises and all). You’ll need to avoid the prying eyes of the local press who are hot on your tail whilst navigating the busy streets. One of our personal favourites is the ‘Insurance Fraud’ objectives where you need to throw yourself into incoming traffic to rack up the points for a big insurance payout! Your reputation and respect rating improves by carrying out these quests and you’ll be able to buy better weapons, tattoos and a whole range of customisable items.
Click for larger imageThere’s a huge variety to the missions, and despite some annoyances within the game, we’ve been playing it all weekend just to see what will happens next. Although Saints Row lacks the charm of the GTA series, the smooth ground combat and the variety of missions is keeping us coming back time and time again.
