Media Musings: Saints Row the Third

I was gonna post this yesterday before FimFic started borking up. Better late, I suppose.

Here there be spoilers. I don't want any fights, I'm just giving my thoughts.

Wow, this one is a long time coming. Thankfully, though, I have screenshots I can use!

The Boss says "hi."

As for what I thought about this game... I thought it was okay? I certainly think it was a lot better than people did at the time. I remember a lot of people calling it a betrayal of the series, including reviewers I love like Angry Joe and Yahtzee. But since I played Saints Row IV first, I have the benefit of hindsight, so I can say without a doubt that they were exaggerating and throwing a fit. Yahtzee once said that this game "drinks Whackerz-Aid from a clown shoe," and yeah, that's complete drek. That describes Saints Row IV, not The Third. And The Third is more of what I wanted from a Saints Row game: awesome scenes and setpieces that make you feel like a complete badass without the game taking itself too seriously, or at all for that matter.

God I love these guys.

That said... also with the benefit of hindsight, I can see this game had major growing pains. The way that Saints Row 2 was a tale of brutality with whacky moments that takes you out of it, Saints Row the Third is a tale of whackiness with brutal moments that take you out of it. Like the very beginning with the "death" of Johnny Gat, or the murder of Viola's twin sister, Kiki. It went far into the silly territory, but not far enough. Also, some of what Yahtzee said was right: the game starts you off making you think that you'll have to start from scratch, but within a few story missions you have a penthouse and unlimited vehicles. And quite honestly, the game is just plain too short. It lacks the mechanic of Saints Row 2 where you have to f around a bit and do the fun side stuff before each story mission, and it lacks the awesome super powers of Saints Row IV that makes you want to f around, so there's very little reason to not just speed through the game. Which I did. Because, at the end of the day... The Third isn't as fascinating or artsy as 2, and it doesn't have the distilled madness of IV. As I said, I can see the growing pains. So I can only say it was "okay."

Sorry, guys. Wish you were in a better game.

In the end, Saints Row IV will always be my Saints Row, and the way I envision the franchise. I hope to see another game like it again in the future.

That out of the way... I would really like to write a crossover between MLP and Saints Row. It can be done, with the way Saints Row IV ended. And I can see the two fitting surprisingly well, since both are known to have tongue firmly in cheek at times. I'm just not sure I'm up to the task, or that my brand of humor is compatible with the frothing bug-eyed crackiness of Saints Row IV. I guess we'll see?

Also, all hail the Boss.

Comments

[RainbowBob]

Man, am I the only one who always makes their Saints Row character look like an old, fat, middle-aged balding dude with a neckbeard? That's like, the best way to play the game.

[-Brutus]

I made my character that looked like me, down to the clothes that I usually wear everyday outside of workplace.

[Crystal Moose]

I actually really loved SR3, but then, as I mentioned in your SR4 media musings, my experience of SR2 was the god-awful PC port. I tried again just a few nights ago to see if I could stomach it, maybe try it with an xbox controller on the PC to see if I could play it the way it was meant to be… nope, it was still awful.

I guess for me I remember the spectacle of the game, for me it was iconic missions like parachuting into the penthouse mission with "Power" blasting in the background (my wife is still ashamed of me for liking that song, but it is just such a fun mission)

Actually, I think what really endeared me to Saints Row 3 was that it did co-op really well. I played through both SR3 and SR4 Co-op, and loved it.

Edit: actually, my first character was a "old, fat, middle-aged balding dude with a neckbeard" because basically I made my first character look like myself.