Saints Row: The Third video preview

Sometimes, it's difficult to write about a game without showing you exactly what we're referencing. That's why for Saints Row: The Third, the upcoming game from developer Volition, we've produced a video preview of the game.

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Sometimes, it's difficult to write about a game without showing you exactly what we're referencing. That's why for Saints Row: The Third, the upcoming game from developer Volition, we've produced a video preview of the game.

Watch as dildos bludgeon pedestrians, ATVs blow up vehicles, and the 3rd Street Saints handle their adoring fans in a preview detailing our quick impressions of some recent hands-on time with Saints Row: The Third.

Gameplay is largely unchanged from Saints Row 2. What has changed, however, is the dial on craziness. Developer Volition has turned the dial up to eleven, broke it off, and threw it off a skyscraper, whilst smoking a cigar.

Simply put, Saints Row: The Third is insane. It's over-the-top and crass, but manages to remain pure fun. It's pure popcorn entertainment. It's uncomplicated and doesn't take itself too seriously.

You can customize your character, his or her clothes, and more to create a unique experience. Sure, you could make a normal looking gangster, but isn't more fun to play as a giant blob in clown make-up?

The preview build I played did have a number of bugs, however. Vehicles and enemies became stuck in the environment, for example. In one instance, I activated my customized vehicles nitro booster as it soared toward a checkpoint. When the following cutscene was complete and I was back at my vehicle, the flames signifying nitro was activated were permanently visible.

The bugs don't work against the game, though, since they often make an already crazy world even more insane.

Gunplay was a lot of fun and the game has a slew of awesome weapons. At one point in the demo I grabbed the controls of a UAV drone that marked targets to rain down missiles into the streets of Steelport, a new area for the 3rd Street Saints to dominate.

The story in Saints Row: The Third is equally absurd. It revolves around the Saints as they have gone from hardcore gangster crew to a mainstream brand. You can beat civilians within an inch of their life and they'll happily ask for your autograph afterward.

There is no filler. Saints Row: The Third doesn't waste a lot of time. Each mission is fresh and somehow crazier than the last. The game opens with an intense bank heist gone wrong and the second mission tasks you with jumping out of a moving plane, jumping back into it to kill off a boss, then jumping out again and soaring to the aid of one of your allies who is falling to the earth without a parachute.

Co-op is fun too. Players can join each other and complete missions together, create mayhem as a pair, or explore the city on their own. In this instance, it appears that the host is the dominant person in the party, deciding on which missions to take. There's also 'Whored Mode,' which I wrote some impressions of last night. In short, it's fun but can get stale.

Saints Row: The Third was barely on my radar before E3. Since playing it, I can't wait to see what other insane secrets the game is holding when it launches on November 15 for the PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3.

Xav de Matos was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    October 20, 2011 1:15 PM

    Xav de Matos posted a new article, Saints Row: The Third video preview.

    Sometimes, it's difficult to write about a game without showing you exactly what we're referencing. That's why for Saints Row: The Third, the upcoming game from developer Volition, we've produced a video preview of the game.

    • reply
      October 20, 2011 1:18 PM

      Hurry up November.

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      October 20, 2011 1:24 PM

      "Gameplay is largely unchanged from Saints Row 2. What has changed, however, is the dial on craziness. Developer Volition has turned the dial up to eleven, broke it off, and threw it off a skyscraper, whilst smoking a cigar."

      Perfect.

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        October 20, 2011 1:29 PM

        Feh, that's tame for SR.

        Throwing it off the skyscaper, climbing into a nearby harrier jet, climbing as high as possible, then proceed to BASE jump in the nude while firing an RPG at street racers, landing right next to the dial, all while smoking a cigar, would be the more apt analogy.

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      October 20, 2011 1:47 PM

      I assumed you played on the Xbox like every game preview these days? When you say bugs I'm concerned about the cruddy PC port from SR2, which actually runs fine on a powerful enough PC. Once I had that I don't actually recall any bugs in the game.

      Also, I know everyone has their own cadence but you really ought to slam a 5 hour energy before you do these reviews. You sounded like this was the 90th take and you were bored to death. Although, the droning Bueler, Bueler-esqueness of your voice did kind of accentuate the ridiculousness of the naked skydiving and the FF boobs on your character.

      The game... Never.... Lets up.... (naked woman built like a sex toy jumping out of an airplane)

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        October 20, 2011 1:51 PM

        I'm not suggesting "Morning Zoo" levels of liveliness, just... well, something in between.

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        October 20, 2011 1:57 PM

        how can you remain that calm while saying "and I took part in a Japanese game show inspired by Running Man that basically asked me to kill furries and survive"

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        October 21, 2011 7:19 AM

        I didn't play the PC port of saints row 2, but the most worrying bugs I heard about weren't the performance issues. The physics engine ran at the wrong speed and made driving unplayable.

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      October 20, 2011 1:54 PM

      I cannot wait for this. The pre-order deal on Amazon was too good to pass up.

      Xav, now that the Shack is getting into more video content, what is the status of the video player being fixed? No full screen video controls and full screen also doesn't have the correct aspect ratio so you get hilarious pillar bar effects.

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      October 20, 2011 1:57 PM

      The voiceover would sound better if you EQ'ed out some of the lows on the voice.

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      October 20, 2011 2:05 PM

      video review is a wee bit NWS due to dildosword, naked woman skydiving, and carjacker in a thong.

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        October 20, 2011 3:24 PM

        Video is age gated for that reason. It's Saints Row... there's rarely an instance of any of that appearing.

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          October 20, 2011 4:02 PM

          its more for the people at work; i click through age gates without thinking these days.

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      October 20, 2011 3:47 PM

      Have blast?

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      October 20, 2011 4:55 PM

      I enjoyed this preview but try not to sound like a robot reading a script next time, losen up and speak natural.

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      October 21, 2011 6:28 AM

      The game does look like a lot of fun. It wasn't on my list for this year (which is already stacked up enough to keep me busy for months). I will have to pick this up eventually though.

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      October 21, 2011 8:14 AM

      Xav, do you know if they added more voice types to choose from? It was rather annoying being able to only choose the voice of black, hispanic, or Australian.

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      October 21, 2011 9:29 AM

      xav, love the new video features but you gotta drink some coffee or something in advance. gotta get livelier on the mic. you sound really depressed like you need a hug :(

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      October 21, 2011 11:18 AM

      looks good Saints Row is a lot of fun and boats superior control and mission design to that other game series

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