Saints Row

Xbox exclusive

Saints Row takes place in the fictional city of Stilwater, where the main character is involved in a conflict between four rival gangs. Despite the protagonist's attempts to remain uninvolved, you are drawn into the conflict and become a member of the Third Street Saints. As the game progresses, you go to war with Los Carnales, the Westside Rollers, and the Vice Kings, gaining status within the gang and taking over the city in the process.

Released: 29 August 2006
Platforms: Xbox 360 Xbox 360 System Link
Genres: Shooter Racing Adventure
Developers: Volition
Publishers: THQ
Modes: Multiplayer Single-player
Perspective: Third person
Themes: Action Comedy Open world
Engine: Havok

About

Saints Row is a series of action-adventure video games created by Volition and published by THQ and Deep Silver. The series follows the 3rd Street Saints, a street gang originally operating out of the Saint's Row district in the fictional city of Stilwater, hence the series' title. Due to the first entry being labeled as a Grand Theft Auto clone, the developers sought to create a more distinctive experience from the second game onwards, with a heavy focus on over-the-top gameplay, popular culture homages, parodies, and self-referential humor. This change in direction helped define the series' identity, but proved controversial among fans of the original game.

Gameplay in the Saints Row games focuses on an open world where the player can complete missions to progress an overall story, as well as engage in various side activities. Most of the gameplay revolves around driving and shooting, with occasional role-playing elements. The first four games in the series are set primarily in two fictional locales—Stilwater and Steelport—which are loosely based on real American cities. The games center on an initially unnamed player-created character (later nicknamed "the Boss") who joins the 3rd Street Saints by chance and helps them defeat enemy gangs in citywide turf wars. In the sequels, the player character goes on to become the gang's leader, a celebrity and pop culture icon, and eventually president of the United States, while facing more powerful enemies, such as a corrupt corporation, an anti-gang paramilitary, and an alien empire.

›Story

The city of Stilwater is torn apart by three ruthless criminal gangs competing for control of its streets. An ordinary bystander is caught in the middle of their violence and narrowly rescued by the 3rd Street Saints, a smaller crew determined to push the others out. Taken in and initiated into the gang, the newcomer proves their worth and begins working alongside the Saints' lieutenants. Their task is to dismantle each rival syndicate one by one and claim the city for the Saints.

Keywords

drugs
gangs
building
crime
economy
sexual content
ragdoll physics
side quests
real-time combat
poverty
anarchism
renovation

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

The Saints Row games are set in an open world where players can complete various side activities or engage with the main narrative campaign. Unlike other series such as Grand Theft Auto, the Saints Row games do not feature a sequential storyline, with the campaign being split into multiple story arcs. The series combines elements of action, adventure, and vehicular gameplay. The player can freely roam the virtual world on foot or by vehicle and make use of an array of weapons and melee-based combat.

Illegal activities such as assaulting non-player civilians or police officers will instigate a proactive and potentially lethal response from authoritative figures. In the instance of death or arrest, the player will respawn at a nearby hospital or police station.

Story

The setting of both Saints Row and Saints Row 2 is the fictional city of Stilwater, located in the midwestern state of Michigan and primarily based on the real-life American city of Detroit. It also draws inspiration from other American cities, such as the Red Light district being based on New York's Harlem neighborhood. During the early development process of Saints Row, Stilwater was designed before the script was completed; as a result, the city suffered numerous changes during production. The original version, which was four times larger than the city seen in the final game, was abandoned because of the limited development resources.

Throughout its development phase, Stilwater underwent constant expansion and cropping, resulting in the removal of many planned areas; some of these, such as the shopping mall and the trailer park, would later be included in Saints Row 2. One design challenge was creating a city without load-screen interference, so the engine was designed to stream around the player's location in individual chunks of the city. Stilwater was designed to feel diverse and have a variance of districts; Saints Row product art director Matt Flegel commented that "We wanted the city to cover all styles, from the towering sky scrapers of downtown to the gritty industrial feel of the factory district. We want the player to feel the changes between the districts, rather than just noticing the visual difference."

Reception

Both Saints Row and Saints Row 2 received positive reviews for their Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions. However, the mobile phone versions of both games, as well as the Windows port of Saints Row 2, received a more mixed response. Additionally, the downloadable content packs for Saints Row 2 received mostly average reviews.

Saints Row received generally positive reviews and scores. 20% and 81/100 from review aggregators GameRankings and Metacritic, respectively. 5/10, praising the presentation and gameplay while pointing out technical shortcomings as well as the often-forced humour. 3/10, giving credit to the driving, the action, the presentation and the story.