If the concept of insanity could be made into a game, it would probably be normal compared to what I have just subjected myself to. “Saints Row: The Third” is a game that is so insane and intensely high energy that as I woke up the day after playing it, I felt like I had a hangover; a hangover that I soldier onward with proudly after remembering the infectiously fun energy high that this game has given me. What was once a grounded “Grand Theft Auto” knockoff has fully evolved into its own entity.
Unlike Previous games that have tried to establish themselves in some form of loose reality as the player’s crew, The Third Street Saints, try to take over organized crime of their city, “Saints Row: The Third” comes out to flip off reality and take off at full throttle from there.
The Third Street Saints are now a commercialized crime group, with movies, designer clothes and even an energy drink named after them. They even sign autographs in the middle of their bank heists. Unfortunately, their robbery has made them noticed by international crime organization, The Syndicate, who seeks to take control of the Saints’ territory and assets in an attempt to monopolize crime.
Allow me to describe my first hour of the game, if I may.
After blowing the top floor off of a bank in order to attach cables to a vault that my chopper was going to airlift out while I was on top of it, I was kidnapped by The Syndicate and forced to gun my way through a plane that I ended up skydiving out of while shooting at enemies that were gunning for me while in free fall, in order to catch my ally so that we could land safely on the ground and proceed to raid a military grade weapons cache using satellite guided missiles. Believe it or not, it only gets crazier from there.
If I haven’t made it abundantly clear by now, “Saints Row: The Third” is one of the most insane games that I have ever played. If the designers intent was to keep the adrenaline flowing, than I would say that they’ve succeeded tenfold. Between plowing through cars on high speed chases and piling on explosion after explosion against my enemy, I don’t think that I’ve ever had this much fun being a bad guy in a game.
The whole affair reminds me of the “Crank” movies starring Jason Statham; it starts ridiculously and just keeps topping what it did previously but without shoving it in the player’s face. Never once does the game stop itself to demand your attention; you simply give it because it’s world and events are simply too disturbingly intriguing to turn away from.
The minor flaws of the game, primarily textures on character models that don’t quite look very impressive, as well as the occasional glitch or two, don’t hamper an experience that I’ll surely not forget anytime soon. With “Saints Row: The Third”, this series has finally come into its own and I anxiously await what comes next and how much adrenaline it will bring.