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Derivative, but a Huge Improvement

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 79 / 102
Date: August 30, 2006
Author: Amazon User

So long as you don't include originality as part of your game evaluation process, Saint's Row is a stellar, stellar piece of programming. It fixes five of the six problems with the GTA series, and offers tons of little "next-gen" improvements that make it more palatable for older gamers.

1)Graphics: The draw distances and general graphical ... "cruddiness"... of the PS2 (and even the XBOX) versions of GTA are a thing of the past. The game looks great. There's some pop-up with long streets, but the explosions, character models, and polish is simply a vast improvement. I actually thought San Andreas looked worse than Vice City, so this is almost a two-step improvement for me. The explosions, weather and lighting effects, and reflections are really incredible when you consider the lack of loading times.

2)Auto-Aiming: It's gone. I'm not quite used to the borrowed FPS style yet, but anything would be better than the broken auto aiming feature of GTA. It shan't be missed.

3)Save Scheme: No longer am I limited to the GTA "one save per half an hour of playing" madness. Hallelujah. I can't devote large chunks of time to a game, and if I can't save frequently, I lose interest fast.

4)Restarting Missions. Recovering your weapons and restarting missions from the beginning (actually, before the beginning) was asinine in GTA. It wastes time and annoys gamers without really upping the difficulty. Also won't be missed.

5)On-line. Haven't had a chance to play with my own copy yet, but watched someone else play. It might suck, it might be great, but at least it's there.

6)Timed, pizza-delivery missions. They haven't really reared up yet, but hopefully these annoying time-wasters are gone. We'll see.

The main problems I see with Saint's Row I *suspect* will be solved with Xbox live "updates"/purchases. It took me an hour to realize that there were tons of cars, but no motorcycles, etc. I have a feeling we'll have to pay for the privilege of flying a chopper or driving a boat. That will suck. It better be cheap, because the lack of these vehicle options doesn't feel like a game limitation, but like a conscious programming choice.

The story seems pretty derivative, but I'm not far enough along to really evaluate it.

I can't really see myself ever playing any current version of GTA ever again. After only a few hours of Saint's Row you realize that GTA has too many annoying idiosyncracies that should have been fixed long ago.

For fans of the sandbox genre, this is the game to buy, and may be for quite some time.

Highly Recommended for the Mature Gamer

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 40 / 45
Date: September 10, 2006
Author: Amazon User

If you're a fan of Grand Theft Auto, then you should definitely check out Saints Row. This GTA style game features the gang attacks, carjacking and other mature fun that can be played for months.

Let me first make it clear that this was never intended to be a game for kids. There is a TON of hard core swearing, and it is pretty much constant. Even walking the streets gets you baragged with swearing. Your missions involve driving prostitutes around and listening to them "at work", helping drug dealers make their rounds, bashing up gang members in very violent ways, and so on. This is very clearly aimed towards a mature market, the kind that loves to watch The Sopranos and Scarface.

That being said, Saint's Row provides extremely fun escapist fantasy for those who enjoy those worlds. The graphics quality is extremely impressive. You get day-night cycles, and the sunset with the twinkling stars is gorgeous. Each area of your city has its own personality. You can really enjoy walking along the chinatown waterfront in the early morning. The cars have fun touches like spinning wheel add-ons.

Many things that were annoying about the Grand Theft Auto series are fixed here. I like the aiming system much better, I like how it saves and how it handles death in missions. Most of the minigames are quite fun and ramp up in difficulty at a reasonable rate. For example you can - right from the start - do a ton of "Insurance Fraud" missions and get just about as much money as you could possibly want, and respect as well.

Even the basic character customization is impressive. You can be caucasian, African-American, hispanic, or asian - with a lot of details on each type. Yes, you can only be a guy. Someday they'll let girls into these games, in a way other than a prostitute! The hair, tattoo, body piercings, clothing, etc. choices are pretty impressive.

The voice acting is stellar. You get David Carradine, Keith David, Michael Clarke Duncan, Tia Carrere, and much more. It really helps you to get involved in the storyline. The story is sometimes predictable, but heck, this is a gang story. Of course you know that your gang will gain power while you defeat the others. It wouldn't be much of a game if your gang was destroyed quickly :)

There are of course a few things they could have done better. There aren't motorcycles. There are a few strange glitches - like when you're hit by a car sometimes and fly up, it teleports you to a train station. The game has frozen once or twice but it seems to be after full-day gaming marathons, so it could easily be the XBox having a temporary meltdown. The cars don't seem to be affected much by damage.

In general, this is amazingly fun to play, the world is simply fun to "be in" with its graphics and details, and there are always new things to do.

Highly, highly recommended for a mature gamer.

A GTA Clone that doesn't suck

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: September 12, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Overview: If you like any of the GTA games you are going to love this game too. Out of all the GTA clone games that I have played this is probably the best. The reason is probably be cause they never really changed anything from the Orignal GTA games. Go ahead and jack a car beat a walking bystander or cop. Almost everything that you loved from GTA is in Saints Row (sorry no having sex with hookers to regain life.)

Graphics 4 stars:
The graphics in this game is a whole lot better than anything you have seen in GTA. The Cars are pretty impressive and the major characters have great detail. Creating your own thug is a nice touch. Although you might have trouble making your virtual thug look like you. Though I have seen some really good copies of some famous people. The Buildings in the city look great also. The look when you blow up a car is awesome you can see the waves of heat coming off of the car makes it look oh soo good. Main point is Saints row is easy on the eyes.

Sound 5 stars:
Just like GTA you can change the radio station while you are driving around in a car. You got your R&B, rap, reggae all that good stuff. When you get out of the car you can still hear the music like you would hear it coming from a closed car (nice touch) The Gun shots in the game are pretty accurate all guns have their own unique sound. Exposions sound really nice too. You can also go too music stores and buy music for your mp3 player so you can listen to music while you walk around. Voice acting is on par with GTA even though your Character doesn't talk and everyone else doesn't shut up. F*CK is one word that you will hear a lot in this game so keep the kiddies away.

Controls 4.5 stars:
HA no more stupid targeting system the aiming control is done as a 3rd person FPS shooter with an aiming reticle. Drive by's are you still use the aiming reticle for more accuracy I found it a little difficult to aim and drive at the same time but I got used to it. You use also use the shoulder buttons to throw punches in the game. Driving is very smooth in saints row all the cars have their own unique turing acceleration and speed.

Gameplay 5 stars:
Just like GTA you can jack cars rob shops shoot innocent and not innocent people. Break in to shops at night break into the safe and sell the good to a pawn shop. Take hostages and make them give you money. Commit insurance fraud snatch hoes from rival gangs drive hookers around so the can get some privacy from the press, race, be a hitman, traffic some drugs, these are just a taste of what you do to earn some money and respect. In saints row you need respect to have the right to do missions. Go to a clothing or Jewelry store to change you clothes or accessorize. Even visit a platic surgeon to change your appearance. You can store tons of cars in your garage and they allways end up back inside your garage even if it was left on the other side of town. You can bring you car to a car shop and pimp it out. Ok so the city isn't as huge as Vice city but you experince no load time whatsoever going to different parts of the city.

So anyway Saints Row is a Very fun game nothing revelutionary but it has everything you love in a GTA clone and no dissapointments. Game not recomended for young children.

A must have 360 game.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: November 09, 2006
Author: Amazon User

If you like GTA or GTA style games, there is no doubt that you need this game. With charater creation, online gangs, very good car customization, ragdoll physics, crazy explosions, and much much more, I have been having a ball playing this game. I highly recommmend it.

Move over GTA, Saints Row is here.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: February 13, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The game Saints Row tells the epic tale of one gang called the Saints as they battle rival gangs to become the rulers of the city Stilwater.

It starts off letting you customize your character - anything from nose size and hair to muscle definition and weight. From there you're allowed to run around, punch & kick enemies & civilians, hijack or buy and customize cars, spray paint walls, buy clothes and jewlery, purchase guns (and boy is there a wide variety of guns such as RPGs, handguns, shotguns, grenades, etc.) , buy CDs, call up your homies to fight along side you, and MUCH more. In order to do missions you have to earn respect. To gain respect you can do "activities" scattered throughout Stilwater such as snatching hookers away from their pimps, protecting drug dealers as they do their things, race, participate in demolition derbies, steal cars for stores, kill rival gang members, and many more. Also, if you wear a lot of purple (the Saints' color of choice) you can gain extra bonus points.

The missions themselves are BRUTALLY fun (with the exception of maybe 3). They go from destroying planes, storming mansions, robbing cars, blowing up buildings, rescuing people... its all really fun, and your rewarded with viscerally appealing and cool sounding cutscenes afterwards.

To earn money you can rob stores (eitrher by holding them up or by opening the safe yourself), beat up people and take their money, do the activities I mentioned, or beat missions. The more money you have, the more things you can buy.

Also, as you take over enemy turfs for your own they will do these things called "push backs" on random areas. This is when rival gangs try to take back their lands, and its basically an all out war between the Saints and the enemies until you kill the red highlighted lieutenants scattered throughout the territory. Once thats done, you can resume your game. Also owning more territories gives you more money each day... by the time I beat the game I hasd about $8 grand coming to me each day.

Moving on, this game has an EXCELLENT sound track. There is something like 100 songs from different genres such as hip hop, rock, and classical to listen to and many of them are really catchy. They even have some big namers on it like Xzibit, Wu-Tang, Winger, and Fall Out Boy (but I dislike FOB). Ontop of that, if you have a hard drive for your system you can upload your own songs into the game which is great. The sound effects are really top notch - like the guns shooting and things blowing up. Additionally, the voice acting is superb as well. Everyone portrays personality through curses, crude humor, and anger.. not to mention THQ also got some big times to do some acting such as the guy who plays Goliath from the Gargoyles and the girl Jackie from "That 70's Show".

The graphics are great in Saints Row. Everyone looks lifelike, and the city looks so realistic. The weather changes from sunny to rainy, night to day... its breathtaking. The cars look AMAZING, be it really new and shiny to old and rusty, everything has an authentic feel to it. Easily better looking then Grand Theft Auto.

But like always, no game comes without faults. For starters, the weapon selection screen is hard to get down and sometimes when you choose a weapon it wont exactly change to that weapon. Ontop of that, shooting while driving is a nightmare. The ally AI is sometimes incredibly dumb and when you want them to get into a car with you they will just stand there. Finally, the ending was terrible - you kill the last guy and take over Saints Row. Julius, who is the head of the Saints, tells you he still thinks something is amiss and that you're his right hand man now. Then they show you cocking a pistol and overlooking a crew of your boys. Then this mission called the "3rd Street Saints" mission opens up where you have to take a bus and destroy it, and when thats complete you, Dex, and Gat have to blow up like 5 police cars... evntually you meet with a guy running for mayor and he says "thank you but I have to kill you". He proceeds to surround you with like 50 of his goons, then the ship blows up. Uh huh..

To sum it up, Saints Row is a MUST HAVE for X-Box 360 owners or people who enjoy GTA-like games. There so much to do, and its so fun to do it that you just have to own this game.

First Impressions

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: August 30, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I spent a good amount of time with the demo, so I knew what to expect. Played last night for a good 3-4 hours. I will keep this short, but for any fan of GTA, you need this game. I'm going to go-ahead and say better than GTA: SA. Again, i've only played a small percentage of this game, but it's top notch. No corners have been cut on the development. It was supposed to be released several months back, but it was pushed back to make improvements - very wise move. Finally, a game besides boxing, that gives me a reason to actually use my 360. Will be taking some sick days at work for sure. The detail is amazing. The sound, the gameplay, the music, the weapons, the huge city - all incredible. Get your hands on this game ASAP.

A barrel of Laughs

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: September 06, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I don't think I have laughed this much in years! While the game is 'violent' there is a lot of humor in it as well. From a variety of cutscenes to the absolutely insane Insurance Fraud missions, this game has a lot of humor and enjoyment.

While I'm a pretty big fan of the GTA series, I actually believe I might like this game a little bit better. That being said, we'll see what the newest GTA installment adds. Like the previous reviews have mentioned a lot of the painful tasks are gone and you can just run around and enjoy this one. No more eating to keep your stomach happy. (Please! I have to do that in real life...) Save any time, anywhere. It will simply load you up at the closest save point the next time you jump into the game.

This is more like a free form city with tons of minigames. I've spent 10 hours so far just running around doing minigames and 1 or 2 of the main quests missions!

If your a fan of GTA this is a must buy and if your not this one isn't nearly as intimidating as GTA. Give it a rental try and see how fun it is. Totally addicting!

The best game to date for the 360.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: September 11, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Of course that is my opinion, however what a fun game. I know this game is alot like GTA, to many ways to count. The graphics are really great and gameplay is fun. This is the type of game that you can play for the next few months and not get tired of it because there is so much to do in the game. This is what we want as gammers. I like the fact that once you do a few missions you are not limited to what area of town that you can go, there are no road blocks set up which I think is awesome. I am unable to write a full review seeing how I am only 11% done with the game. Buy the game play it and love it. Not a game for younger kids.

Saints Row - Kids love this one.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: March 14, 2007
Author: Amazon User

My two kids love this game.. so by far one of the best purchases I have made for the XBox 360.

Hamburger is to Filet Mignon as GTA is to Saint's Row

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: August 31, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Saint's Row is a very polished game from the graphics to the sound bytes, to the story line.

I concur with the previous reviews the improvements added to Saint's Row were much needed. If you are a fan of GTA you will be all the more appreciative of the improvements. If you are starting with this game and then were to play GTA - likely you would lose interest quickly.

If you are a fan of the GTA genre, this game is a must have.

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