Banana Scoop

I’m going to have to ask that you all bear with me for this post. I haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of this game yet, so apologies if my opinions and assumptions are a little immature. Anyway, this week’s article will cover the game known as Saints Row The Third, which very recently was offered as part of the THQ Humble Indie Bundle if you paid over the average price people chose to pay (roughly 6$). It was an incredibly deal, and felt like a steal at that point considering the game is still roughly 20$ or more on Steam among other vendors. I quickly downloaded and got started  (despite only having access to my laptop, which is nowhere near as powerful as a gaming rig, so I’ve been playing on the lowest settings). So far I’ve been incredibly entertained, especially with comedic style and dialogue between the characters. Without further ado, here is my first look at Saints Row, The Third.

Having barely played any of the Saints games in this series, I had a rather hard time adjusting to the story, but they made it relatively easy to follow for newer players. I won’t go too much into it considering I know absolutely nothing about it, so I’ll just cover what aspects about it I enjoyed the most thus far. As per every other game in the world, the introduction to the game helped you get acclimated to the controls and the characters, despite the game killing off one of my favorites at the beginning, before you even get to create your own character. For me, the intro to the game was incredibly long, despite giving my a lot of stuff to do while playing it. I kinda just wanted to land down in wherever I was supposed to be and go to town GTA style with a bat and the ability to run like hell. Fortunately I didn’t have to wait THAT much longer, and was awarded with a pretty sweet tricked out ride to put in my garage.

As far as the gameplay is concerned, I feel like Saints is an upgraded Grand Theft Auto, with so much more customization options and just overall simpler user interfaces. I may feel a little skewed concerning the controls since the last time I played GTA was on the original Xbox and I’m playing Saints currently on a PC, but I have a spare 360 controller for cases like that (though I haven’t gotten around to using it yet). It’s open-world to a degree, which is nice, and makes for some rather interesting fun when you decide to throw caution to the wind and just go on a rampage. Overall I like the way they developed it, and wouldn’t really fix much. The only issues I’ve had with performance are on my end due to my laptop being older than a couple of years.

I haven’t even scratched the surface of the depth this game has, despite having played it for quite a few hours already (mostly going around beating people up with the Penetrator). I do have to say that I enjoy the vehicle choices this time around in comparison to the other, more bland GTA ones. There’s something about the feel of these cars that just makes them so much more enjoyable to ride around in compared to its competitor. I do also appreciate the fact that you don’t just randomly lug around your entire stash of weapons like you would in GTA, and you actually have to think about what you want to select. In addition to that, the upgrade system adds an element of uniqueness in comparison to GTA, where you’re stuck with body armor and that’s it. I can’t really compare the two as one is based more in a fantasy realm as opposed to the realism and grit of the other.