Xbox 360 impressions: Saint's Row
by James Ransom-Wiley 
{ May 12th 2006 at 1:30AM }
Grand Theft Auto has some serious competition. Saint's Row. But it's gonna take more than just a solid entry to dethrone the reigning champ of the inner-city sandbox. For what it's worth, Saint's Row does a lot of things better than the GTA series.For one, destinations (missions, shops, cribs, etc.) can be selected on the map screen, upon which the on screen map will display the quickest possible (street) route to that destination -- it will auto-adjust if you go of course. Also, each mission is auto-saved at its beginning, so if you fail, you can quickly retry (or not).
The AI is smarter than in GTA too, which isn't saying much, but the (exaggerated) physics engine also trumps Rockstar's franchise's standard. We also enjoyed the ability to custom create our own character. Worth noting too, is the lack of load times upon entering a building.
However, as with GTA and its other clones, Saint's Row's combat is seriously flawed. In hand-to-hand it's wonky and reduced to button smashing, and the lack of auto-targeting can make gunplay a chore, especially when faced with a whole gang of rivals. But Saint's Row's biggest drawback is framerate. There have been marked improvements since we last saw the game just months ago, but it still chugs when more than a few vehicles or a pack of pedestrians are on screen.
Of course, the real question is if Saint's Row can rival GTA's colorful, if not stereotyped, stories and characters. In this regard, Saint's Row needs work. Upon bursting into an enemy stronghold we battled a pair of whitebread, sorority girls who were fighting alongside some gang bangin' homies. Now that's kinda wack.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
n1ce_hat @ May 12th 2006 1:42AM
the clip of this on the Xbox 360 Montage (on XBLM) has embarrasing framerates, like they say in the article..
Lovey Dovey @ May 12th 2006 1:53AM
here is an Idea (short loading times.) No one is going to freak out if there is a 2-3 second load when entering buildings. I think THQ just wants to use the no loading time thing as a gimick. Look where its got them. The game was scheduled to come out at launch.
Oh well every day they delay is a day they get closer to the launch of GTAIV
digi @ May 12th 2006 1:53AM
looks nice:) these kind of games have lots of replay value (ive played san andreas for a year!).. well i just dont like the fact that every developpers do gta clones, will this one CRUSH rockstar?
James @ May 12th 2006 2:11AM
3 of a similar genre game for the 360 in close proximity of release? You have Saint's Row, Crackdown and GTAIV. I guess it's one genre overdose at a time. First it was FPS, then Urban Kill'em all, then what's next? Some 360 people are still looking for another RPG to play besides Oblivion.
dsub @ May 12th 2006 2:12AM
I don't mean to knock this game, as I haven't played it, but THQ is just one of those game studios that doesn't make good games. Kind of like midway. Every thing they make is just mediocre, or crap and the majority of there games are license games like sponge bob squarepants and the WWE games. I can see this game being decent, kind of on the level of True Crime (at least the first one) but nothing can trump GTA. However, with the new version, rockstar will be working with an entire new game engine that they'll have the build from the ground up, so there is a possibility for failure. However, that's unlikely. GTAIV is only a little over a year away. There's a good chain of titles that should easily keep me entertained until then on 360. Lost Planet-->Gears of War-->Too Human-->Halo 3-->GTAIV--> and hopefully following that RE5 or Ninja Gaiden 2 will be about to come out.
dsub @ May 12th 2006 2:18AM
James, while I do agree that there is a flood of FPS titles in the game market, let alone the 360, that genre is very different from the situation with the "urban kill-em all" genre as you call it. With FPS titles, there are numerous titles that are good. Call of Duty, Unreal Tournament, FEAR, Doom, Farcry, Halo...I could go on an on all day about FPS games worth playing. When it comes to the "urban kill-em all" genre, there is only one game worth playing...GTA. Nothing else. Unlike the FPS genre, there have been numerous attempts to copy GTA, but they have all failed, and that is the issue. The developers are focusing to much on copying GTA, rather than coming up with new twists on the genre. Until that happens, the genre will be filled with oodles of wannabes and GTA. Whereas the FPS genre is packed with varying titles that all do different things well.
Nathan @ May 12th 2006 2:23AM
It wouldn't be hard to out-do Grand Theft Auto... All it ewally has going for it is the pop-culture and the vibe that it's a "naughty" game which makes it appeal to punk teenage kids.
I bought the platinum pack for my Xbox a while back to see what all the fuss was about. All I really enjoyed was stealing a car and going on a killing spree. Mindless violence with no goal ftw. That was enjoyable for a week at most. Then I never played it again. It had no substance. Just a top 40 soundtrack.
Danno @ May 12th 2006 2:23AM
Mercenaries was pretty damn good. Not exactly Urban Kill 'Em All though.
I played it a lot longer than the Grand Theft games, personally.
VADERMAGGOT @ May 12th 2006 3:38AM
I agree with 8 Mercanaries was a much more enjoyable game that took the open premise of GTa and took it another direction. I'm looking forward to Mercanaries 2 and the Destroy all humans 2 is supposed to be more open ended this time around so that looks interesting.
Rakthar @ May 12th 2006 4:00AM
Dsub:
This is being published by THQ. It is being developed by Volition, who developed Freespace, Summoner, Silent Threat and Descent.
They're a good studio and I think could pull this off. It's been in development for 3 years or so. Hopefully they'll optimize it to be quite good and we can see what they've come up with.
James @ May 12th 2006 4:06AM
I would like to see a good turn-based strategy game like X-Com (UFO Defense) on the 360.
The reason there's a flood of the fps games out on the market is that there are plenty of consumers that will buy those buy. If there aren't any consumers for that particular genre, the developers won't most likely make those types of games. If they did, they wouldn't be around too long.
How many strip mahjong games do you see in the US? Almost none, but there are probably plenty in the Japanese store shelves. How many different strip mahjong games can you really make and be different from any other ones?
Fan @ May 12th 2006 7:15AM
"All I really enjoyed was stealing a car and going on a killing spree. Mindless violence with no goal ftw."
Wow i could not disagree more. Lets take GTA: SA(wich is the best in the series IMO, ive played them all including the 2d ones). Its has a great story, freeing your brother from jail. The whole open take over gangland thing was great. Every city has a distinctive feel too it.
I do agree that the engine used in SA is a bit dated but that is because R* focused mroe on adding content rather than adding shiny, wich i agree completely with.
SA just has so much content. You can skydive, basejump, ride bikes on ramps, ride motorcycles, drive, steal tanks, fly jets, drive boats and lots more. One fun thing to do is ride the dirt bike up in the grand canyon place. Jump of the bike in midair and parachute down into a boat and ride off. Too fun.
WedgeTalon @ May 12th 2006 10:36AM
This is being published by THQ. It is being developed by Volition, who developed Freespace, Summoner, Silent Threat and Descent.
Posted at 4:00AM on May 12th 2006 by Rakthar 0 stars
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I still dream of them one day making a FreeSpace 3. :(
Mike @ May 12th 2006 3:12PM
I saw the game at E3. It looks bland. I didn't play the game though. It is one of those games that you walk by and glance at it, and then decide, I'll go play something else instead. This game definetly won't win any graphical acclaim. The short time I watched it (only 30 seconds) it seemed to scream mediocrity. Yawn.
For 360, Prey looks good, but the only MUST HAVE sure hit title I saw for 360 was Gears of War. And I mean "MUST HAVE". SOme of the XBLA games looked great too.
refinedsugar @ May 13th 2006 10:56AM
It's getting really hard to build any hype for this game albeit not from a lacking of them trying. Everytime I hear about this game my interest dips. Back when it was in early development and being a GTA fan, I was naturally interested, but now its becoming more and more apparent that it isn't going to be the game I wanna play. It's as if somewhere along the way they dropped the ball or maybe the expectations were out of place.
Here's to them making something of the game however and fixing the frame rate issue that has plagued every preview I've read about the game.
pixd @ May 13th 2006 12:10PM
"Its has a great story, freeing your brother from jail."
This is the problem I have with GTA SA. It's depressing. I would rather watch a documentary on gangs than play SA. Playing a thug on welfare is not favorite past time. I'd rather be entertained. From what I've seen so far, Saint's Row seems to have humor and doesn't take the whole gangster thing too seriously. I think it's actually making fun of the whole thing.