Saint's Row

[King of Liberty City]

It's official. In 2005, the year of Our Lord, the bloody reign of Grand Theft Auto is over. Sure, it's still walking, talking, and killing with mindless, murderous abandon. But it's as dead as a spent bullet. That's all thanks to a wicked little Xbox 360 game named Saint's Row, a next-gen re-envisioning of the criminal-minded GTA sensation. Gather round, bloodthirsty brother and sisters, and hear tell of the most violent, depraved, and just downright fun gangster game of them all.

 

Long Row to Hoe

What is perhaps most impressive about Saint's Row is its grim devotion to out-performing Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas in every conceivable way. Jaw-dropping graphics? Check. A slick, precise control scheme that allows you to run, snipe, and shoot at will? Check. A thriving interactive world, complete with single-player missions that are actually fun to play? Check. It's as if the designers systematically studied each weak point--every chink in the armor, every compromise, every limitation--and developed a ruthless countermeasure designed to exploit and destroy. Now, now: don't get touchy. We know you love GTA. We do, too. But when you see this baby in action, you'll forget all about petty thugs like Tommy Vercetti and C.J. Johnson.

 

You'll start by creating your very own custom character, starting with a full array of ethnicities. You can also select a body build without going through the torturous eat-lift-run workout grind from San Andreas. Huzzah! For more precise physical tweaks, your best bet will be to visit the neighborhood plastic surgeon. In a ghoulish twist, the developers are even talking about adding plastic surgery "mishaps." The only worry is that players will get pissed if they sink a bunch of cash into a character and end up looking like Quasimodo, or worse, Wacko Jacko, so it's not yet a guarantee. Naturally, the obsessive focus on player customization extends to the game's extensive wardrobe and arsenal. Item collecting plays a major role in Saint's Row, and you'll be kept plenty busy tracking down the most "blinged up" guns and outfits. Sometimes, it's the little things that count.

 

And Gamers Lived Happily Ever After

So far, so good, but it's the online mode that truly has us bouncing off the walls. After speaking with the super folks as Volition, we know you'll play in multiplayer-only levels featuring the standard array of deathmatch and team deathmatch modes. The cooperative mode also sounds hot; why run riot alone when you can bring a buddy? We're also intrigued by one of the contests--called "Big Ass Chains"--in which the goal is to make it to the finish line with as many silver chains wrapped around your neck as possible. When it comes to online gameplay, the twist is that every time you play, you'll accumulate online currency that you'll use to unlock the coolest gear in the game. And of course, you can look forward to new weapons, cars, clothes and tunes (and possibly even levels) via the Xbox Live Marketplace.

 

Okay, so the biggest question is ultimately the simplest one: when? When, when, when? Soon enough, child, soon enough. Though the hard-working guys at developer Volition haven't yet named a release date (it's scheduled for the "launch window" of the Xbox 360), our best guess is anywhere between now and Christmas. Okay, so we suck at guessing dates. But to kill the time, try giving GTA: San Andreas one last run-through. After Saint's Row hits, you likely won't be playing that game again for a long, long, long time.

 

Saints and Sinners

Speaking with Jacques Hennequet, a senior producer for Saint's Row, opened up some fascinating gameplay intricacies.

 

GamePro: Let's say I want to be a pimp. Do I have to go and find pimp-specific missions?

 

Jacques Hennequet: The city is controlled by three other gangs. Each gang controls one territory and each territory is made of a number of neighborhoods--you control Saint's Row. There are a number of activities in each territory. You choose which ones you want to play and how often you play them. Completing activities--such as randomly killing enemy gang members--earns you respect, which in turn unlocks story missions and reveals stronghold locations. Each story mission or stronghold conquest earns you one neighborhood. Conquer all the neighborhoods and you win.

 

GP: Earlier you mentioned that a player could complete the game by engaging in almost any activity you wanted. Roughly how many "professions" are there? Is there a central storyline?

 

JH: Drug Trafficking, Hit Man, Vandalism, and Insurance Fraud to name a few. Think of activities as gameplay modules that you are free to experiment with and enjoy. No matter how much racing you do, you don't become a race car driver and you still have access to all the story elements; you remain first and foremost a 3rd Street Saint. What changes is what you do to get there. You can switch from one activity to another at any point. There are four stories, one per gang, that all tie together at the end of the game.

 

Source:

 

http://www.gamepro.com/microsoft/xbox360/g...res/47975.shtml

 

 

 

This looks like it could be real good.The character creation, where you can choose your own race, body build, clothes, etc, will be a welcome add-on. And there's online play, something GTA has been lacking and needing since GTA 3 first came out. If R* releases GTA 4 for the PS3, and then Saint's Row comes out for the 360, it could prove to be a bloody battle for top action game.

 

Thoughts?

Edited August 31, 2005 by King of Liberty City

[Opius]

Let's see it deliver

[PetsOvernight]

Wow, that game looks good... the graphics look superb, but graphics aren't everything... I don't plan on getting XB360, or at least anytime soon, so I won't get to play this for awhile I don't think, but it looks KEWL.

[Big Slow]

Let's see it deliver

That's exactly what I was thiking. All the screenshots look to be artist renderings, and not gameplay, and I believe True Crime was supposed to be a "GTA" killer but was horrible. I guess we'll know in time.

[Grandthefter]

Those screens are rubbish, only number 3 is in-game, the rest are movie sequences. You can look at the videos here: IGN. Enjoy

[tehhunter]

So far, through the demo videos I have seen, it has a shoddy physics engine, pretty-damn-bad next generation graphics, and is yet another GTA ripoff.

 

How can this possibly be the "gta killer" if the next-generation GTA is yet to be displayed?

[Trueno_Drifter86]

I didn't really read the whole article but it sounds amazing and really pretty too

 

If they can pull this off maybe it will be up with GTA unless the next Gta is freaking amazing.

[reticulatingsplines]

I saw a promo for this at a computer shop. It was just cg. Not even the cool cg like the Killzone PS3 demo that had everyone wandering whether it was real or not - just crap cg that showed just how much they'd ripped off GTA.

 

I don't really care how talented your cg guy is. I'd prefer to know how talented your engine is, thanks.

 

No dice.

[PyroHazard]

PROTIP: Never proclaim something as a game killer. Bad karma. Killzone: The Halo Killer, anyone?

[anus]

I don't like the way they started that review since you don't begin saying it'll beat all GTAs ever created. Read reviews from GameFAQs, IGN, Gamespot, etc and not on sh*tty sites.

 

Anyway, I don't think it's fair to compare this withSan Andreas. Rockstar should release it's version and then it would be a real competition. But I'm pretty sure that this'll go down the drains like any other GTA rip-off. By the way, imo, San Andreas still owns this game in gameplay. Graphics look awesome though, great work with that.

[Fade13]

its sounds ok, but i dont like the prospect of the game that has basically been designed just to beat another game. Plus, do they really think they could ever compare to any one of the GTA's? It will always be just another spin-off.

[Konvict]

This game looks pretty good, but if it doesn't meet up to its high expectations and becomes a big flop, I'd laugh so hard!

[Gangster_101]

I think people should stop comparing every game that lets you get to roam around and kill people to GTA. And I also think that people should stop saying things about games like it being a "GTA killer". I dont think there will ever be another game that can compare to GTA. GTA is in a class of its own, and is probily gonna stay that way.

[4u2nv]

Sounds to good to be true. Hope not also, I'm getting the PS3 instead of X-box.

[Jam!]

The people who make this game want it to be better than San Andreas. Sure, it might top San Andreas, but watch GTA 4 come out and top this game. It doesn't look that good either, just a lot of hype.

[Superilldude]

I agree with Jam!, but I think the graphics in this game will cover the flaws and fun that it might have, but I do think it will better then SA. Not in game play since I can tell from video (Your opinion might be different on that), but story line and the options of GTA since a better system and engine with more options.

 

To tell you the truth, it would be sad if they don't be SA on a new console like this. And, I saw the gun changing. It takes time to load the gun unlike GTA pressing 1 button for next and another for previous gun so such things will hurt them unless they add the option to do so.

 

This game strikes for more realistic life, so I think it will fail on fun impact. GTA is the one and only for me, it got me in a black hole and it's too hard to get out.

 

This game might turn like DRIV3R though

[LLD]

Hm, I think you people are defending GTA a little too far into the deep-end without looking at the positives of this game. I was studying the in-game screenshots and I must say some of the graphics do look rather lovely. The draw distance caught my eye, I also liked the graphics that remained even during an explosion of a car.

 

However, the character model struck me as something even I could probably model, it looks like crap. It looks really un-realistic compared to the stunning scenery, they better clean that crap up.

 

[Asmodeus]

This sounds a bit like a True Crime, promising heaps but whether it can deliver is debatable.

 

 

Seems worthy of further inspection though.

[SIP YEK NOD]

It's official. In 2005, the year of Our Lord, the bloody reign of Grand Theft Auto is over. Sure, it's still walking, talking, and killing with mindless, murderous abandon. But it's as dead as a spent bullet. That's all thanks to a wicked little Xbox 360 game named Saint's Row,

 

that's a pretty f*ckin bold claim for a game, nevermind a game made by volition and THQ, who's last good game in my opinion, was red faction which they followed up with the completely dissapointing red faction 2

[beatsta]

This game looks alot like gta:sa, just look at the carjacking and left corner map! The feel of the city also looks like los santos. It really does look like a gta rip off, but im kinda excited for it.