Saints Row

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Saints Row
Developer(s)	Volition
Publisher(s)	THQ
Designer(s)	Volition
Engine	Rendering - Custom Physics - Havok Foliage - SpeedTree
Platform(s)	Xbox 360
Release date	August 29, 2006 August 2006 September 1, 2006 June 21, 2007
Genre(s)	Action, Driving
Mode(s)	Single player, Multiplayer, and Xbox Live
Rating(s)	ESRB: Mature (M) PEGI: 18+ OFLC: MA15+
Media	DVD-DL

Saints Row is a third-person sandbox-style action-adventure video game published for the Xbox 360 console. It was developed by Volition and published by THQ. The game arrived in stores in wide release on August 29, 2006 in North America, and on September 1, 2006 in Europe and Australia. Though the game was also announced for the Sony PlayStation 3 to be released at a later date, this port was canceled in favor of putting more resources towards the game's sequel, Saints Row 2, for release on both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.^[1]

Saints Row has been described as being similar to Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas in terms of story and gameplay. The game takes place in the fictional city of Stilwater which is plagued by urban violence between four rival gangs, including the 3rd Street Saints. The player's character, caught in the middle of the violence, is quickly enlisted into the Saints and helps the gang defeat the others and take control of Stilwater themselves. In addition to several common elements with the Grand Theft Auto series, Saints Row includes several additional features, including an extensive character customization feature, an activity and respect system for side missions, and online multiplayer modes.

The game was released to commercial and critical success, selling over 1 million copies by the end of 2006, and prompting for development of its sequel.

Contents 1 Gameplay 1.1 Multiplayer 1.2 Downloadable content 2 Plot 2.1 Gangs and characters 3 Soundtrack 4 Reception 5 Saints Row 2 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Gameplay

Saints Row is a third-person shooter that takes place in the city of Stilwater, a large sandbox environment. The game has many similarities with the Grand Theft Auto series, in that the game is structured around the player completing main storyline missions and side missions, earning in-game money and other benefits to assist in future missions. The player typically must travel about the city (often carjacking vehicles), meeting people or collecting objects at checkpoints, facing off rival gangs or other foes in firefights, and other tasks as part of these missions. The game's main story missions are split into three separate storylines, dealing with each of the other rival gangs in Stilwater, allowing the player to progress in each storyline at their own pace. The player may also simply free-roam the city, causing havoc or simply exploring it.

Unlike earlier Grand Theft Auto games, the player has the option to restart a mission should they fail it or are killed without having to return to the person assigning the mission. The player may also recruit fellow Saints gang members that walk the streets to assist in missions. The player can also gain "homies", special characters that can either assist in missions or grant a quick benefit such as a vehicle driven to their location.

Saints Row introduces a "respect" system that are tied to certain side missions known as "activities" within the game. These activities are given by select characters around Stilwater, and include street racing, carjacking, robbery, and insurance fraud. Each set of activities has a number of levels representing the difficulty of the task. By completing these activities, the player earns an amount of "respect" relative to the difficulty of the task. The player must accumulate a certain amount of respect before they can initiate a new mission within the game's main storyline, thus requiring the player to perform these side missions.

Stilwater is separated into several districts, initially under control of the rival gangs in the city. The player may attempt to wrest the control of these districts by either defeating the portion of the gang that controls the area or by taking over a stronghold within district in order to bring the district under the Saints' control, and gaining respect. The game uses a similar system to Grand Theft Auto's "wanted level"; should the player cause too much havoc against the general populace of Stilwater, the police will begin to chase the player. In a similar manner, if the player interferes too much with the other gangs, these gangs will also begin to chase down the player until the player can escape and allow the attention to cool down.

The game allows the player to create a customized male character using a number of different features, including facial and body makeup. Furthermore, the player can dress their character in numerous styles of clothes available from shops around Stilwater. The choice of color and style of the clothes can affect the game, as by dressing in the Saints' colors (purple) will earn the player more respect for completing missions. The player can further customize their character through facial hair, jewelry and tattoos. Additionally, the player can perform custom paint jobs on their cars, and purchase new in-game music through the city's stores.

[edit] Multiplayer

The game also has an online multiplayer mode for Xbox Live that supports up to 1-12 people.^[2] Players can join a gang and engage in street warfare with other gangs online. Saints Row features 2 different online games. Gangsta Brawl (and the team-based version) is a standard deathmatch.^[2] Blinged Out Ride is another team based game in which two teams must raise enough money from killing opponents and collecting cash to upgrade the team's vehicle several times in the Chop Shop.

[edit] Downloadable content

During the X06 Convention in Barcelona, Spain in September 2006, the "Funky Fresh Pack" was released on the Xbox Live Marketplace as the game's first downloadable content. The item, which cost 100 Microsoft Points, added 23 different clothing and tattoo items for use in both the single and multiplayer modes. In December 2006, the "Ho Ho Ho Pack" was released, adding Santa Claus themed clothing items. The pack is free to download. In January 2007, another free downloadable pack was released. The UnKut pack installs clothes designed by UnKut and features shirts, jackets, overshirts, pants and hats.

[edit] Plot

Saints Row starts with the player (an unnamed character) entering the fictional Midwest city of Stilwater, based on cities such as Detroit and Chicago,^[3] in the middle of a gang war between several gang factions. Though he attempts to maintain distance, members from one gang attempt to gun him down; however, the 3rd Street Saints, led by Julius Little, step in and save him. After proving himself to the Saints, he's initiated into the gang and then asked to assist to take over the city from three rival gangs (Los Carnales, Westside Rollerz, and the Vice Kings). The player, over the course of the game, assists in several missions and stronghold takeovers against each rival gang, slowly bringing the entire city under control by the Saints.

Because of the three different gangs, there are three linear plots that deal with the conquest of each gang, though events in one plot do not affect any of the other plots. In the end, the player is able to defeat the boss and several of the lieutenants of each rival gang and brings all of Stilwater under the Saints' control. The game apparently ends when the player receives a call from Julius, who tells the player that he is making the player his new right hand man. However, he implies that he is about to be arrested by corrupt cops, who were waiting for the gang wars to end before they made their move against the Saints. At this point, other members of the Saints ask the player for their orders.

After the credits roll and the game appears to be completed, the player is allowed to engage in three "epilogue" missions, resulting in attacks on the mayor and the corrupt police of Stilwater in order to try to free Julius. Once the mayor is dead, the player is invited to the private yacht of Alderman Hughes, the only other candidate for mayor in the upcoming election, and thanks the player for eradicating his political rival for him, planning to use his mayoral power to destroy the Saints. During his speech, scenes of several Saints members after the events of the game are shown, including one of Julius overlooking the yacht from a bridge and then looking at his watch. Before the player can respond to Hughes' ultimatum, the yacht explodes, and the game ends.

[edit] Gangs and characters

Main article: List of characters in the Saints Row series

Stilwater is ruled primarily by four gangs:

3rd Street Saints

The gang that the protagonist will join, and wears purple colors. The gang specializes in gang warfare in an attempt to take back the city from the other gangs and restore peace. The Saints are led by Julius Little (Keith David), with lieutenants Johnny Gat (Daniel Dae Kim), Dex (J.A.Q), and Troy Bradshaw (Michael Rapaport) backing him up. Lin (Tia Carrere) works as a spy to infiltrate the Rollerz and Aisha (Sy Smith) is a singer from Saints Row signed on with the Vice Kings' record label, Kingdom Come Records. The Saints start their operations from a derelict church in a run-down residential area on East side of Stilwater.

Los Carnales

Primarily made up of hispanics, mostly Colombians and Dominicans, and caucasians and sporting red colors, Los Carnales specialize in arms. Hector Lopez (Joaquim de Almeida) leads the gang while his brother Angelo Lopez (Freddy Rodríguez) is his right-hand man; he is dating Luz Avalos (Andrea Zafra) at the game's onset. Victor Rodriguez (Phillip Anthony Rodriquez) is their enforcer, and Manuel Orejuela. The Carnales operate primarily out of the region around the airport and the run-down industrial areas of Stilwater.

The Vice Kings

The Vice Kings are a mix of African-Americans and caucasians, and run much of Stilwater's entertainment, including retail, and music. The gang is led by Benjamin King (Michael Clarke Duncan) with the assistance of ex-hip hop artist Warren "EZ Money" Williams (Ogie Banks the 3rd) and enforcer Anthony 'Big Tony' Green (Terrence Carson). The Vice Kings' gang colors are yellow. The Vice Kings' main territory is the opulent commercial/downtown area, home to big business, museums and exclusive shopping areas.

WestSide Rollerz

Specializing in racing and automobiles, the West Side Rollerz are composed of Asian-Americans and caucasians, and dress in blue. The gang is run by Joseph Price (Greg Sims) and financed by William Sharp (David Carradine), Price's uncle. Donnie (Andrew Kishino) is the lieutenant to talk to in the Rollerz and also is their expert mechanic. The Rollerz operate from the northwest area of Stilwater, encompassing expensive suburban housing as well the area round the Stilwater stadium.

[edit] Soundtrack

Main article: Saints Row soundtrack

As with the recent Grand Theft Auto titles, Saints Row features 12 radio stations and over 130 music tracks covering the classical, easy listening, electronic, metal, reggae, rock, and hip-hop genres. Most of the tracks are licensed music from numerous well known artists representing these genres.

Like all Xbox 360 games, there is support for custom soundtracks. There is also an in-game music player accessible through the pause menu. The player can purchase songs for the music player at the record store franchise "Scratch That" in Stilwater.

[edit] Reception

Prior to the retail version of Saints Row being released, the demo set an Xbox Live Marketplace then-record for being downloaded more than 350,000 times in the first week of its release.^[4]

The game has received generally positive ratings. Although most critics have noted the striking similarities in gameplay that Saints Row shares with releases from the Grand Theft Auto series, they have also praised the game for the inclusion of new features and its improvement of existing ones from GTA. Saints Row has received ratings of 95/100 from GamePro,^[5] 8.75/10 from Game Informer,^[5] 80/100 from Official Xbox Magazine,^[5] 8.5/10 from IGN,^[2] 8.4/10 from GamerNode,^[5] and 8.3/10 from GameSpot.^[5] GamePro called it "the best reason to own an Xbox 360 this side of Oblivion",^[6] while IGN noted, "Hate it if you want to, snicker at its obvious me-too qualities, but don't forget to recognize impressive, kick-ass gameplay as you walk out the door."^[2] Saints Row has received an average critic score of 82% on Game Rankings and 81% on Metacritic.^[5]

Most critics have praised the "Activities" and the online multiplayer, as well as the free-form control scheme. Common complaints about the game are over graphical problems, as well as forced, hit-or-miss humor. While the robust character creation mode was praised, several gaming publications also complained about the main character's lack of dialogue.

Although welcomed by critics and fans alike, the online multiplayer suffered from significant lag upon the game's debut, making it difficult to play. This issue was mostly fixed by a patch that took 2 months to develop.^[7]

As of November 2006, Saints Row had sold more than 1 million copies.^[8]

Saints Row received awards from Gamespot for "Most Surprisingly Good Game of 2006",^[9] as well as Gaming Target for one of 52 Games We will Still Be Playing From 2006 selection.^[10]

Saints Row has since joined the Xbox 360 lineup of "Platinum Hits" games, being rebranded and sold for US$29.99.^[11]

[edit] Saints Row 2

Main article: Saints Row 2

A port of Saints Row to Sony's PlayStation 3 console was announced in January 2007, to be released sometime during the second quarter of 2007.^[12]. However, THQ announced on May 10, 2007, that they had canceled the port, in favor of bringing the sequel Saints Row 2 to both the Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 at the same time, for release on August 26, 2008. This date was later changed to October 14th 2008 for "product quality and marketing considerations".^[13] The sequel will continue the story of the player as he extracts revenge for events in this game. The sequel will include full co-operative play through the main story in addition to other features.^[14]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official Site
• Developer Website
• Saints Row at the Internet Movie Database
• Saints Row guide at StrategyWiki

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