 Saints Row is a Pretty Good GTA imitation 53 of 58 people found this review helpful.
If imitation is the finest form of flattery, the boys at Rockstar must be the brightest shade of red they have ever been. Grand Theft Auto is nothing short of a mass phenomenon that you literally cannot walk down the street without finding a person that hasn’t heard about it. Whether or not you agree with the game’s popularity, no one can deny that Rockstar has the biggest cash cow ever created. Saints Row is the first; of I am sure many, copycats for the next-gen consoles. Developer Volition, mostly known for their work on the Red Faction series for PS2, has taken the basic premise of GTA and brought it into the HD era. The question on everyone’s mind though, is can it stand up to the juggernaut that Rockstar has created.
To be perfectly honest I have never been the biggest fan of GTA, in fact after the third incarnation, which was the first PS2 title for the uninformed, I really felt the series was more interested in adding new content as opposed to correcting the problems with the original formula. This is where Saints Row takes a huge leap forward in the genre. The biggest and definitely best addition is the new FPS style targeting system. You can now maneuver your in-game avatar around the world without worrying about lock-on targeting malfunctions. While it may not sound like much to long-time fans of the GTA series, you will certainly take notice of how much easier it is to execute simple tasks such as drive bys. It is amazing how one small mechanic can completely change the dynamics of a game.
The basic principle of Saints Row is just what you would expect from this sort of sandbox game. If you have never played GTA before, and if so where have you been, the premise revolves around open-ended gameplay mechanics that allow the player to basically choose their own path. Your character can walk, run, drive, and swim anywhere they want all while tackling the missions and side quests at their leisure. Feel like causing a riot? Just whip out your trusty firearm and wreak havoc among the pedestrians. While the basic layout of the game is very familiar Volition has made some great improvements that really take the genre a step further.
The biggest improvement is obviously the aiming system. Tossing aside the atrocious lock-on method used in GTA Volition has decided to adopt the scheme found in most of today’s first-person shooters. This makes missions such as taking out other gang members and simple tasks such as drive-bys much more enjoyable as well as keeping you from getting frustrated for blowing a mission because of shoddy controls. Volition has also revamped the melee controls allowing your character to punch with either fist via the left and right triggers as well as kicking on command by tapping the left bumper. This actually makes hand to hand combat a fun past time with pedestrians and it means when your bullets are depleted you are not left holding the bag.
To compliment the new fighting and shooting controls are a revamped inventory system that makes switching between weapons and items a breeze. Anyone who played Freedom Fighters will instantly recognize the item wheel. Basically you hold down a button and use the analog stick to rotate and pick whatever item or weapon you desire and let go, simple as that.
Overall the game is pretty fun and I would recommend buying it for anyone who was contemplating on doing so.
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Review ID: 10000000001790436  Thank you for voting. If your vote meets our guidelines, it will be posted within 24 hours. You cannot vote on the helpfulness of a review you wrote. Your request cannot be processed at this time. Please try again later.  If you like GTA, you'll love SAINT'S ROW !! 16 of 17 people found this review helpful.
First things first... If you liked any GTA (Grand Theft Auto) game ever made, you'll love Saint's Row. Why? It's got it's own style, for sure, but it's essentially a next-gen GTA title. The first next-gen GTA-style game, that is. What makes it better than GTA titles? Far superior graphics, more gameplay features and elements, and multiplayer over Xbox Live or System Link !!
It is missing special vehicles found in the latest GTA titles, however. For example, you cannot drive a boat, helicopter, plane, or motorcycles. When there's 1,000's of unique vehicles, though, it doesn't matter. The developers wanted to put these other vehicles in the game but didn't have time.
Essentially, everything else that a GTA game offers is here and even more. Including many things, such as "insurance fraud" activities among many others, too! There's too much to list, to be honest.
I'm 45% through the single-player story mode, but it took me about 20 hours to get that far. Really, no kidding. The game keeps track of all kinds of stats, including gameplay time, so I know this is true.
The game isn't flawless, but neither are any of the GTA titles. Even GTA: San Andreas still had it's fair share of minor glitches. Saint's Row has it's fair share, too. It's inevitable when you make a sandbox title that you'll have these glitches, so it's to be expected anyway. The more annoying ones are having to drive across the city to replay some mission over and over because you keep dying... And the constant disappearance and reappearance of vehicles in your view. If a vehicle gets too far off your screen for too long, it simply won't be there anymore. There may be another vehicle instead, or simply nothing. This is annoying but not a deal-breaker.
The multiplayer seems a bit laggy and possibly needs a patch to fix some bugs. It's still not horrible, though, and there are so many multiplayer game modes it's great!! My favorite is probably the Co-Op missions you can play over Xbox Live.
Bottom line is this -- If you liked any GTA series title (especially any in the last few years), you'll definately love Saint's Row. As a matter of fact, if I played this game without knowing the title, I'd swear I was playing the yet-to-be-released GTA4. No kidding! It does have it's own flavor and style to things, though, which definitely make it more fun.
Even without multiplayer, I'd still rate this game at least a 4.5 out of 5, but with multiplayer, I cannot help but to definitely rate this a 5 out of 5. No game has taken up this many hours of my time in years.
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