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Saints Row

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: September 10, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I wasn't sure if I would buy this game, because just cause looked like another fun upcoming gta style game. I'm so glad I bought saints row. Saints Row in my opinion is 10 times more fun than grand theft auto. I have played Saints Row for 20 hours now, and i have a very good idea of what the game is like, it is awesome. If you are looking to buy an xbox 360 game, and are a fan of the gta series, this is a perfect game for you. Go on xbox marketplace now and download the demo!

Outstanding!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: September 13, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This is basically a Grand Theft Auto clone, but MUCH more advanced than GRA. The graphics are super-cool as par for the 360 machine. There's tons of stuff to do in the game. The main storyline is decent and there are plenty of jobs to do on the side to keep you busy. There's also a heavy racing element in the game aside from the obvious shooting/thuggery. The amount of customization you can do for not only your character but your cars is just downright amazing. The car customization screen is really a game in itself.

Sample act ivies include stealing a large list of cars for chop shops, snatching hookers from rival pimps, enforcement for dope dealers to make sure they don't get caught and driving around town with a hooker and her high-profile client in the backseat while trying to avoid the news crews in vans. That's not including the multitude of missions where you smoke rival gangs to gain domination over the city. There is ALWAYS something cool to do and you can choose whatever activity sounds good at the time.

There is little to no nudity but the suggestive themes leave little to the imagination. Obviously this isn't a game for the kiddos. I would say 18 and up personally.

On release the online play is VERY laggy... and i do mean VERY. The game modes available online are very promising. You have the same customization options for your online character as you do for your story mode character. I expect future patches for the game will fix the lag issues. Once that's taken care of the online play will be as cool as story mode.

The only reason I'm giving the game a 4 overall is because of the lagg issue online. Once that's fixed it'll be a 5 star game all around.

I've put in about 30 hours into the game so far and I'm only listed as 25% complete.

Would recommend this title!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: September 23, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game is so addicting, I played it whenever I had free time this week, and suprisingly enough I've beat all the main missions. That is my biggest dissapointment, that I finished the story line in less than 20 hours of gameplay. Now all I have left to do in the game is all the "filler" activities like find CD's through out the city *BORING*, and finish 1 or 2 short levels of escorting or finding those last 3 cars on the chop shop list and of course all the other "filler" that I'm not interested in in the least. But, definitely go buy the game if you think paying that much $ for 20 hours of pure excitement and fun is worth it, or go rent it twice from the movie store and beat it. I bought the game on Monday and I beat the main missions * I was 68% done with everything in the game when I won * on Friday evening, keep in mind that I go to school and work. That is the biggest disapointment, easy and short.
Are you ready for this playa?

The Saints come marching onto Xbox 360

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: September 06, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Grand Theft Auto, like it or not, should be credited as one of the most important video games in the last decade. It created a genre, reinvented several others, and for better and worse put video games out in front of a bigger audience than ever before. Not the first developer to attempt to imitate this formula, the Champaign, Illinois-based Volition has created Saint's Row, another game with high hopes of giving Rockstar's bad-mouthed baby a run for its money. It does this better than any game before it and ends up as one of the best titles on the Xbox 360.

So many sandbox games have been done before and one might wonder just what Saint's Row does to be unique. What's new here that wasn't in Grand Theft Auto, True Crime, Driver or The Godfather? Well, fundamentally, nothing. You've driven cars, done drive-bys, taken out gangs, run over pedestrians, and rode shotgun-why do it all again in a $60 Xbox 360 game? Well, despite the fact that Saint's Row takes you down several familiar roads, it does everything Grand Theft Auto and its imitators did, but a lot better.

Saint's Row throws you into a city called Stilwater. In the wrong place at the wrong time, you're the sole survivor of a brutal gang scuffle. You're rescued by Julius, the leader of the Saints, a lesser-known gang in Stilwater. With nothing else to do, you embark on a bloody journey with the Saints to claim Stilwater as their own. It's an all-out territory war between the business-savvy Vice Kings, the gearhead Westside Rollerz, and the drug-dealing Carnales.

Saint's Row has a story that's worth listening to. The different lieutenants of the Saints are all colorful characters indeed, and their enemies for each gang are equally interesting. The story isn't an all-out win for anyone, with tragic losses, betrayals, and more for each warring faction. An interesting choice was to keep the main character silent except for a few interesting times throughout the violent campaign-and when the man finally talks, it's always something that'll catch you off-guard. I especially enjoyed his quip during the final Vice Kings mission.

Before I get to the open-world things you can find in Saint's Row, I'll explain the mission structure. Unlike other games, where completing story-based missions allows you to continue onto more missions, Saint's Row forces you to earn respect points. These points are a reward earned by "spreading the word" and causing havoc throughout Stilwater in the name of the Saints. This is done by taking part in various Activities, like playing the pimp in "Snatch," the chauffeur in "Escort," shooting everything in sight in "Mayhem," or slowly taking out targets in "Hitman." Once enough respect points are earned, the player can continue through the story. Not only does this system nudge the player to explore Stilwater and play the game at a less-focused, slower pace, it allows the player to see all of the different gameplay concepts found in the game.

As I mentioned, Saint's Row is a story about a territory war, so a large percentage of your time will be devoted to earning 36 different sectors in Stilwater and defending them from the three opposing gangs. These territories are unlocked naturally throughout each gang's storyline, so you'll take over the west side of Stilwater before you're done with the Rollerz, win the south while fighting the Carnales, and raise your flags in the downtown area during your conquest against the Vice Kings. After winning territories, you'll occasionally have to defend them against the old owners. This is done in a way that seems random, so sometimes you'll be cruising along and receive an in-game message that your territory is being attacked. It's not mandatory to fight back for the territory, but it helps greatly when you have to drive through that territory and you don't have to worry about being shot at.

On top of the game's 36 story-based missions and the 36 territories, there are Stronghold missions that also help in the territory take-over. When you've earned additional respect points, you'll sometimes be able to take over an enemy Stronghold. Stronghold missions, alongside the Activities, are my favorite part of Saint's Row. These are generally all-out assaults on an enemy base that is filled to the brim with angry defenders armed with bigger guns. There are some Stronghold missions that play things differently. For example, while taking over one Carnales Stronghold, you'll do a little demolition by planting bombs throughout a factory. Sadly, Stronghold missions don't come around as often as I'd have hoped-I would have loved to see a Stronghold in every single sector of the city.

I can't go much longer without crediting Volition for giving Saint's Row a typical first-person shooter control scheme. Unlike the abysmal "lock-on and shoot" style of Grand Theft Auto, Saint's Row plays very smoothly in every way. Running around and aiming your weapons are both controlled by the analog sticks, and there isn't even a lock-on button to be found. If you're a fan of first-person shooters (if you've got an Xbox 360, you probably are), you'll feel right at home with this style. Fortunately, shooting isn't the only thing that's really easy to do. The cars in Saint's Row all feel very stable and controllable, which I strongly prefer to the buck-wild vehicles found in Grand Theft Auto. It doesn't matter if you're driving an old beater, a high-end sports car, or a delivery truck, the controls never become a frustrating issue. That's more than Grand Theft Auto could ever claim.

There are some gameplay touches that fans of this genre should be very happy with. Volition made this a peoples' game by toning down the backtracking and retracing of the steps-if you're taken out in a mission, you have the option to restart the mission from its beginning with everything you had prior to the mission. This is a simple and small touch, but it's one that I'm personally very fond of when I think back to Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and I remember driving for several combined hours to retry missions at their starting point. Also, throughout the game, there are a ton of save points. Capturing an enemy stronghold or crib will spawn another save point location, so by the end of the game, there will be more than two dozen save points across the city. Add the ability to save anywhere on the fly, and you've got a very easily accessible game.

Saint's Row runs on all four cylinders in terms of presentation. The visuals are fantastic, spare for a few genre-familiar problems (pop-up, bad draw distance, etc.). The overall look of the game is very bright and colorful, giving a rather comical appearance to a very brutal game. There are so many little touches that make this game look smooth. For example, your characters will hop into the seats of a convertible rather than open the doors to slowly get in. The particle effects and physics engine are definitely the highlights, though. After blowing up cars, you're treated to some of the best explosions ever seen in video games. Don't gawk too long, though, because the debris will eventually come crashing down, crush your body, and then burn it to a crisp if you manage to survive!

The sound is fantastic in every way. The radio stations don't rival those of Grand Theft Auto but they're still entertaining. The sound effects are great as well. But what has to be credited the most is the dialogue. Saint's Row features the most ridiculous but excellent dialogue I've seen from a game like this. There are a few too many f- and n-bombs for my taste, but in the actual story scenes, the dialogue is believable and well-done. Some of the other dialogue is so raunchy that you'll definitely want to keep any kids away. During some of the Escort Activity missions, I heard the most perverse sexual things I think I've ever heard in my life. Still, this is a game you'll want to listen to-keep that Xbox 360 Soundtrack turned off!

The raunchy dialogue is accompanied by a generally sick sense of humor that mimics that of Rockstar very well. Volition pokes fun at several different things in this game, and you'll catch a lot of them in no time. For example, a common one is the "grown-up, mature" version of the late Dave Thomas's Midwest-based food chain, Wendy's. The commercials heard in the game are pretty ridiculous. Friendly Fire, Stilwater's firearm store, is a complete rip-off of Ammu-Nation, Grand Theft Auto's equivalent. The commercials make this especially noticeable.

Saint's Row's online gameplay is something that has never been attempted before in the sandbox genre. Online, you can choose from several gameplay modes. The online gameplay modes are all a lot of fun when the connection isn't awful, but in my experience, the connection was almost always awful, so I didn't have the most fun on Xbox Live with this game. There was severe lag, a ton of disconnecting, and a lot of quitters. Also, I felt like the characters died and ran out of stamina far too quickly. Rather than being a fast-paced game where players were free to run around, the lack of stamina made everything a much slower affair. Still, there's a lot of potential whenever the servers are more stable. The Gang setup (basically the exact same concept as Halo 2's clans) is great, and the lobbies are fun, letting you cap and chat with your buddies while waiting on the game to load.

Overall, Saint's Row isn't without its problems-frustrating missions, choppy online play, and a few graphical glitches show that Saint's Row is human. Add those to the familiar ground tread in the game's storyline, and the lack of some of GTA's newer features, and you've got a game that is a few years behind the competition. But does that mean that Saint's Row is bad? No! Far from it! Saint's Row is a fantastic game that had me glued to my seat. I was so glued, in fact, that I played it for more than ten hours after putting it into my Xbox 360 for the first time, completing more than 30% of the game in a single sitting. Then the next day came and went. And the next day. And the next day. Saint's Row's got the great graphics, excellent presentation, control style, online gameplay, and entertainment value to make it more than worthy of your $60.

really fun, but some downs

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: November 18, 2006
Author: Amazon User

saints row is one of the only, if not the best immatation of the GTA series. The gameplay on it is very addictive, like the ragdoll affect witch they could have screwed up was perfect. when you run someone over they dont just get thrown under the car like all the other driveing games. The bodys with fly over the car, or get stuck in it or break the windsheild, very cool. the guns are great but sometimes hard to find without cheats. the cars are great and there are ALOT of cars. another cool thing is the side missions witch can be entertaning. also the you can have homies' witch follow you around and help you. over all the game is great and if you can, get it. the only thing that was hard, and i might be the only one who has trouble with this, is the cheats. If you look them up online they have letters instead of numbers (which you submite to your phone instead of the regular button cheats) even though im probally the only one with trouble with this it is still a very good game.

Excellent Game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: March 21, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I love this game. I've had my xbox 360 for about 4 months and this has to be one of the most enjoyable games! The storyline is fun and once you finish the game there are other things to do! It has great replay value! You could basically do nothing and just wander around in the game and still have fun!

AWESOME... kinda

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: May 14, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This game rocks you can go anywhere and do anything, My personal favorite is beating the snot out of the pimps... The only part of this game that I don't like is the very end of the game, but I won't give that away...

Humor in Death

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: September 09, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Ok the game is a cheap rip off of GTA. So what! GTA in no way offers as many stupid stereotypes or stupid mindless game play. For people that wanna enjoy screwing around in a world where its easy and not hard to do anything. Go for this game. For those who like a more challenging game, well there is only one answer wait til Rockstar releases a new GTA game. But other than that a great fun and humorous game.

My two cents on this game.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: September 23, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I first became interested in this game when I saw the preview in Maxim. So, I kept my eye out for it. On a whim, I bought it when I saw it at the store. I have finished the game, and I've come up with the following...

CONS:
1. Draw in of the game. It reminded me of playing the PS1 when you'd see nothing, and then, all of a sudden, you'd see the city just pop in.

2. The radio stations: Now, i like the KRUNCH, however, theren't weren't that many songs, so I got to hear Winger way too much. Plus, you could hear the DJ talking, but not the person he was talking with on the phone at times. I use the Dolby Digital optic cable.

3. also with the sound, there were times that the sound would just cut out for no reason.

4. Games freezes at times. I had to replay two missions over b/c the game froze up, right after it showed me that the mission was completed.
the
5. My biggest complaint was the fact that several times, I'd be driving along, and my car would just disappear. It happened quite a lot. I'd still be in a sitting position, but i couldn't go anywhere, b/c there was no car. Sometimes, i could hit y and get out and just get another car, and other times, i had to restart the game.

PROS:

1. Of course, the graphics are awesome. It was nice to see reflections of the lights of the police car chasing me.

2. the fact that you DON't lose all of your weapons when you are killed or busted.

3. The ability to mark waypoints on the game is wonderful.

4. The ability to save a lot of cars in one garage, and to fix them in your garage too.

The game is addictive to play, and I wasted a lot of hours and sleep time playing just one more time until i completed the mission. It would've been nicer if your character talked a little more, but it wasn't bad. Ireally don't care that there were no motorcycles or bicycles, boats or planes to drive in the game. I do look forward to the next installment of this game, but I'll also continue to buy the GTA as well.

GTA on crack

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: October 16, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I've seen the constant, and inevitable, comparisons to GTA but I enjoy this game much better. They've fixed a lot of shortcomings in the GTA series, including the customization aspects. There's been some criticism about the lack of motorcycles, boats, and helicopters in this game. I admit, I miss the motorcycles a bit, but I always hated the controls for piloting a boat or helo. I suspect these will come in an add-on later.

I enjoy the non-linear storyline from having several gangs to challenge, as well as the selection of side activities. You can focus on eliminating one gang at a time, balance your gameplay, etc. It keeps the game from getting tired. Bottom line is that if you enjoyed GTA, you'll enjoy Saints Row.

My only gripe is the single-player storyline leaves the game with a very disappointing conclusion. I had hoped for an open ending, allowing for the addition of add-ons and new gangs via XBox Live, or the possibility of starting your own gang and continuing gameplay. I dont enjoy online play, you run into too many idiots out there, and I'd like to be able to customize the game to continue playing as a single player. Sadly, after dozens of hours of committed gameplay, all you get for your trouble is...well, I dont want to spoil it, but you'll be pissed.

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