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#Post#: 1572--------------------------------------------------
My review of Saints Row The Third
By: Matthias King Date: December 6, 2011, 9:11 pm
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Review of Saints Row The Third: Beware Spoilers Ahead
Initially, I wasn't going to bother doing a detailed review of
SRTT, but after thinking about it for a while, I changed my
mind. I've seperated it out into four sections. The Good, The
Bad, and The Ugly, the ugly being the worst aspects of the game.
And then minor gripes which are mostly nitpicks.
The Good:
Steelport: The design of the city looks great. The art
direction is excellent. All the textures on the buildings and
streets look uniformly great, and streets, buildings, alleyways,
etc... all seem to make good sense. The city by itself seems
like the aspect of the game that had the most work and thought
put into it by far.
Graphics: SR1 blew me away in terms of graphics back in 2006
when it came out. Then, two years later, SR2 actually seemed to
take a step backwards in a lot of ways graphically. Now SRTT
finally looks like SR2 should have. It's kind of funny though,
SRTT looks only slightly better than SR1, but it's just enough
that it's satisfying. And finally having wet pavement when it
rains is a big improvement. It finally looks like a game on the
current console generation should.
Control Scheme: The control scheme is only slightly altered from
past SR games, but the changes they made are great. The things
that already worked stayed, and the things that didn't work so
well were shuffled around until what we're left with is a much
more intuitive and functional scheme. Switching to the left
trigger instead of clicking the right analog stick to zoom is a
huge, much needed improvement. Swapping RB for LB for sprint
works better, and losing the food/drug inventory was a small
price to pay for mapping the dedicated off-hand grenades to RB.
And finally making the controls for shooting when you're in the
passenger seat of a car the same as they are when you're on foot
is a no-brainer. I've thought it should be that way since back
in SR1.
Driving/Vehicle Physics: The handling is slightly improved over
past SR games, and the drifting adds something too. And
thankfully, they FINALLY eased back on the rubber-band vehicle
physics for persuers, and also, it's a relief that other
vehicles have a more realistic weight when you hit them, instead
of every vehicle you hit having the mass of a tank.
New Game Mechanics: Things like the diveroll and the Bo-Duke-En
hijack are nice additions that help gameplay. And the
improvements made to hopping over fences and barriers is good
too. It's just kinda stupid that three games in and we STILL
can't climb a fucking ladder.
The Bad:
Weapon Variety: It's severely lacking. Only 2 choices for
pistol, 2 choices for SMG, 2 choices for assault rifle, 2
choices for shotgun, not counting the STAG weapons, mainly
because you don't even get them until you're damn near finished
with the game. Where's the Vice9? The beloved Tombstone and 44
Shepard? The GAL 43 and T3K Urban? Where's the AR40 Xtnd???
And the AR50 XMAC?
Upgrades Can't Be Deselected: This speaks for itself. Once
earned and purchased, any and all upgrades should be able to be
selected and deselected at anytime at the player's will.
Needing to Earn Dual Wield: This is unnecessary and should not
have been part of the upgrade system at all. The MC could dual
wield in SR2. Did he forget how? But even forgetting that,
you're dual wielding SMG's in the first fucking mission! And
going back to my last point; upgrades that can't be deselected.
Once you unlock dual wielding and select it, it can't be undone.
You can't go back to single wield, period. It should have been
the way it was in SR2, where you go to your weapon cache and
choose your pistol or SMG and choose to single or dual wield it.
Needing to Earn Infinite Sprint: I just feel this is outdated.
Just give us infinite sprint from the outset and be done with
it. This should just be a given at this point. Not to mention
that you're more than halfway through the game before you even
have the option to unlock it.
Customization:
1) Clothing is quite lacking. This speaks for itself. There's
simply not enough variety, and all the clothing is pre-combined
into mini outfits, taking a lot of creativity and customization
out of the player's hands.
2) Tattoos are lacking in variety and what little actually is
there is mostly piss poor. The billboard for Rusty's Needle
looks awesome and looks like it had 10 times more thought and
effort put into it than the actual tattoos in that store.
That's pretty sad.
No Day/Night Cycle: It just takes something away from gameplay
in a sandbox game not having a day/night cycle. Not to mention
that you can get stuck in an endless night which just gets
annoying.
Almost No Enterable Interiors: This speaks for itself. There
are just very few enterable interiors, which takes away from the
exploration and free-roaming aspects that are inherent in
sandbox games.
No Multiplayer: Overall I feel like not having a multiplayer
takes a lot away from the game and hurts it in the long run. MP
is one of the key things that extends the life of a game.
Short Campaign: The game's single-player campaign is just too
short. Plain and simple. And going back to my last point, a
game with a short campaign and no multiplayer will most likely
equal many renting instead of buying, and/or seeing many copies
of SRTT on the used shelves at gamestores within a month or two.
Also, the lack of Strongholds as they were in SR1 and SR2 hurt
the campaign a bit too. They helped supplement the missions a
lot. In SRTT they had "Gang Operations" which were somewhat
like Strongholds, only a lot more simplified and quicker to
complete, which does nothing to extend the game.
Whored Mode: It's just kind of lacking, and it's made worse by
the fact that it's only 2 Player instead of 4 or 5 like a proper
"Horde Mode" Clone.
Weapon Customization: It's pretty lacking, and I think missed
the point of what people were actually asking for, not to
mention that this is yet another thing that ties into upgrades
not being able to be deselected. Once you have a weapon up to a
certain level, it can't be undone. I think people really wanted
to be able to add AND REMOVE attachments individually, instead
of a wholesale upgrade, one that can't be undone later no less.
And the one thing that Volition missed the point entirely,
people wanted to be able to change the color scheme of their
guns. Why have that dull green on the K8 Krukov when you could
have it blinged out in gold or platinum, or a purple camo
scheme, or some other thing. If they would have provided a
handful of color scheme options I think it would have gone a
long way.
The Ugly:
No Mission Replay: This just plain sucks, period. It's a huge
misstep, and probably the biggest mistake in the game.
No New Game+: Another big mistake. No mission replay and no New
Game+ takes away A LOT of the replay value.
Story and Characters:
1) The story is poor, badly disjointed, and just kind of sucks.
It has it's moments and some of the missions are truly kickass,
but it doesn't make up for the story's weaknesses. It's like
they didn't know where to go with the story, and instead of
deciding, they just went in every direction and didn't worry
about it.
2) And the characters are treated very poorly. Killing off
Johnny was a mistake, but the even bigger mistake is that once
they committed to doing it, it was handled so poorly, so
anticlamactically, that it just spits all over his character and
the players who loved him, which was just about all of them.
Then after you land in Steelport, it's almost like Johnny never
existed. No one cares or even reacts to him being dead, except
for Shaundi. Pierce doesn't give a damn. The MC, who has been
rolling with Gat, doing heavy shit for the better part of a
decade now doesn't even seem to care. To take an incredibly
popular, beloved character and kill him off, then to add insult
to injury, do it in the first mission and in such an
unceremonious way, off-camera no less, and THEN completely
no-sell his death afterward just completely devalues character,
story, and narrative.
And Phillipe Loren was sold as THE villian. The main guy we'll
be going after. The Lex Luthor to our Superman. But in
actuality, he's dead within the first hour of the game, and
there's no bossfight or anything. Just a cut scene of him
getting crushed by a huge round thing, and we don't even really
see it. Then, once again it's as if his character never
existed.
Sample dialog: Killbane, "Phillipe dead me now in charge for
some reason!" Matt Miller + Viola sisters, "U am not qualified
but Me are ok with it for some reason haha! Me too! Who
Phillipe was? Cutscene over haha!"
A lot of the story and the way characters were handled just told
me that the writers quit trying and didn't care, and in essence
didn't think we would or even should care either. The 'Star
Wars' crawl at the beginning pretty much says it flat out. The
great thing about SR1 and SR2 was that despite them being wacky
and over the top in tone, the story was still played fairly
straight. You could still get into it and you actually cared
when Lin, Carlos, and Aisha died, and it was much more
gratifying when you finally get to waste Price, Maero, The
General, Jyunichi, Shogo and Kazuo, Hector and Angelo, Dane
Vogel, etc... In SRTT, the developers seem to have lost the
plot, literally and figuratively.
Activities as Missions: A handful of the "Missions" are simply
the first level of activities. Introducing the activities this
way is actually a great idea, but counting them as "Missions" is
just cheap as hell.
No Cover System: People were pretty divided on this one. Many
wanted a cover system, just a simple, functional one. Some
didn't care one way or the other, and some didn't feel it
necessary in a run and gun game. But regardless, it didn't make
it in. Here's why I've put this in my "Ugly" section. After
Volition addressed this directly, claiming a cover system didn't
fit into Saints Row, what did they do? They introduced a cover
system for EVERYONE BUT YOU! Your homies/followers can use
cover, the cops can use cover, the rival gangs can use cover,
but YOU CANNOT! Pretty messed up.
Minor Gripes:
Vehicle Variety: I found it a little lacking. I don't like the
redesigned Bootlegger, and where's the Magma, La Fuerza, and
Venom Classic? What about the handful of vehicles from SR1 that
virtually everyone wanted to see come back like the Venom,
Rattler, Fer De Lance and Vegas?
The TOGO13 sniper rifle from the Prima Guide DLC should be in
the special slot designation like the McManus, not the rifle
slot.
The Ultor Assassin outfit from the Prima Guide DLC has stiletto
heels, even when on a male character.
Vehicle Audio: Engine Sounds, tires screeching, etc... are
glitchy, sometimes sounding oddly muffled, sometimes
disappearing entirely leaving only silence. However, this is
something that could and probably will be rectified by a patch,
making it a non-issue.
#Post#: 1581--------------------------------------------------
Re: My review of Saints Row The Third
By: Aussie Boy Date: December 7, 2011, 1:38 am
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Good Review bro, this sums up most of my problems with the game.
I reckon the way Johnny should have gone out was like John
Marsten style, except he kept firing until he eventually died.
Again your review, well worth the read and well written.
#Post#: 1582--------------------------------------------------
Re: My review of Saints Row The Third
By: laidbackdude Date: December 7, 2011, 2:02 am
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Interesting read. We're all entitled to our opinions, and il be
honest, don't agree with most of it. However, rather than just
get into some debate with you, il just say that it is very well
written and you do make some fair points. I miss the GAL, easily
best gun on SR2. As for the Rattler, yes that was a sweet car
but we now have the Temptress, so fair trade. Thats all i have
to say, right now anyway...
#Post#: 1583--------------------------------------------------
Re: My review of Saints Row The Third
By: jameson18 Date: December 7, 2011, 2:41 am
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I agree completely with a lot of the things you said. Overall,
the game just took a step back. I also think it's bullshit that
we have to buy new stuff like weapons and outfits one at a time
over the course of the "40 weeks of DLC" thing. Why not put some
of the packs together and selling it for one price and not
nickel and diming here and there. They say that putting some of
the stuff on the disc it to ensure that when playing multiplayer
it makes it so even if the person you're with doesn't have the
DLC they can still play... What doesn't make sense to me about
that is what about all of the missions packs that are supposed
to be coming out? The ones that aren't on the disc yet? If your
partner doesn't have those then how will they play? The games
are no longer compatible if on doesn't have the missions packs.
I just really don't like how Volition is keeping us in the dark
about everything and just lying to us about everything else. I
mean seriously, most of the things in the trailers for the game
are not even in the game. With all that being said, I'm still
going to buy every DLC they come out with, but only to make the
game more complete. I feel like SRTT came to us half-ish done. I
can't remember who said it, but someone on the SRF made a good
point, "...is like selling the first few chapters of a book for
$50 and selling the rest a few pages at a time for $12 each..."
That kind of thing would NOT work anywhere else so why should it
for video games? What because they know we'll buy it? I can't
stand the greed.
#Post#: 1597--------------------------------------------------
Re: My review of Saints Row The Third
By: Wetbizket Date: December 7, 2011, 3:36 pm
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Yeah yeah, that was a good review with alot of good points put
to though! To me it sounded like there was going to be more
weapons we could use in the game, but it looks like were
supposed to buy them in a DLC, I would live to use the 44. Again
which was of my favorites.
To me it actually seemed like Volition was experimenting with
the game, see'ing how people would react to the fact the story
did really have any value to it and was more laid back and
wacky, to see if getting rid of the gang aspect was a good idea
or not. And I think I liked being in a gang and taking out the
gangs in their individual turns. blah blah blah you know the
rest!
#Post#: 1598--------------------------------------------------
Re: My review of Saints Row The Third
By: jameson18 Date: December 7, 2011, 3:49 pm
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I think they were starting to feel that taking out gangs one at
a time like in the previous games was getting too repetitive. I
agree with it from that aspect, though I would have liked to see
a more updated version of that. As for weapons, I'm very
disappointed with the weapons this time around. I like the ones
that are in the game now, but just adding one at a time and so
far all the guns added suck ass... Well that just sucks. I mean
seriously, a shark gun?? It is a waste of time, the grenade
launcher? It is something that has potential to be cool, but
isn't. And what's the deal with the guns that you can't ever
actually have? Like the minigun, the flamethrower, and the
luchadores grenade launcher? You can pick them up, but can't
keep them. In SR2 you could have a flamethrower and minigun.
Also the shock hammer would be really cool if you could actually
keep. I don't get it, you can keep the sword, which is about the
same size as the shock hammer. Wtf?? The satchel charges are a
nice update to the previous lunchbox wrapped in tape that was
used in SR2, and waaaaay better than the pipe bombs from SR.
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