Review

I also appreciate that the game gives you a GPS device that points out where you need to go in any given situation. This keeps you from having to constantly pause the game and look at the map to figure out which road you'll need to turn on, this is the type of innovation that I would like to see in future Grand Theft Auto games. Granted these things don't do much to change the game play, but it's nice to see the developers trying a few new things as they shamelessly mimic one of the best selling video game franchises of all time.

 

Speaking of audio, Saints Row comes with a whole lot of cool radio stations. There are twelve different stations to choose from, including a rock station, a hip hop channel, a station that plays nothing but classical music and of course a Fox News-like talk radio channel called WMD KBOOM FM. As you can imagine the radio stations have a lot of licensed music, including tracks from Afghan Whigs, Ratt, Local H, Motion City Soundtrack, Tupac Shakur, Jet, Fall Out Boy, Great White De La Soul, Jane's Addiction, Three 6 Mafia, Iggy Pop and even Alex Empire (of cult favorite Atari Teenage Riot). The tracks are a bit more obscure than what we got in recent Grand Theft Auto games, but you shouldn't hold that against this fantastic soundtrack.

 

And the fantastic presentation doesn't stop there; the graphics are just as good as the soundtrack. While this isn't the best looking game on the Xbox 360, it is a major step up from what we've already seen in the genre. The lighting effects are fantastic and the character designs are all pretty solid, with only a few pieces of clothing that look bad. As day turns into night you can see the shadows changing in real time, which is just one of the cool effects in the game. And for the most part you will not run into any slow downs. 

 

You will have to deal with some ugly glitches, though. Like all games of its type, Saints Row has a few graphical problems that range from simply annoying to downright frustrating. You've seen most of these glitches before, including roads (and textures) that will disappear for no reason and characters that get stuck in the backgrounds. I never ran into a glitch that I couldn't overcome, but it's unfortunate to see that these kinds of problems haven't been ironed out in the past five years.

 

But Saints Row is more than just a solid action game; it also offers you some multiplayer options that helps set it apart from the rest of the crowd. The game supports both Xbox Live online play and system link, giving players a chance to bring twelve people into a room and fighting it out. While there are a number of different modes, most of them are pretty similar to what you get in your typical first-person shooter. You will get both deathmatch and team deathmatch, both of which involve you running around a closed in location and trying to kill as many people as you possibly can. Another mode is Big Ass Chains, where you kill people to steal their chains and then drop them off on the map. Another mode has you escorting a pimp to safety, this involves one team helping the pimp and the other team doing everything they can to take him out. These modes are all fun, but I had the best time with the co-op mode that has you teaming up with another friend to take out dozens of computer-controlled enemies. Unfortunately there are only two co-op levels to play through, which gives off the impression that this mode was more of an afterthought than anything.

 

There are a few problems that need to be ironed out with the online mode, though. For one thing the lag is outrageous. Nearly every game I played (regardless of the size) was riddled with lag, resulting in you shooting at people that aren't there and you dying for absolutely no reason. You can get most of these modes in other games without dealing with the terrible lag, so I found myself wondering why I was even bothering playing Saints Row online. Another problem I had was that there weren't enough levels to run around in online, you get a few arenas that are actually pretty boring. It's worth noting that the graphics seem to take a hit when you go online, a lot of the background textures look a lot worse online than they do when you're playing the single player campaign. I'm sure there is fun to be had in the online Saints Row, but I came away feeling like it was just tacked on at the last second and not something they put enough time into.

 

While it's hard to call Saints Row original, this is the best Grand Theft Auto-type game I've played in a long time. It has great controls, a cool story and enough extra stuff to keep you busy for a good twenty to thirty hours. If this is the start of a franchise then THQ has a good foundation to work from. Unfortunately I found myself feeling like I had been here before. But with Grand Theft Auto IV a full year away, Saints Row is a solid action game that will keep you going from beginning to end.

 

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