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While at Gamefest yesterday I had this wonderful little device called a press pass, and one thing it's really handy for is being able to jump those insanely long queues and make thousands instantly dislike you before even speaking. But another thing it came in useful for was an extended gameplay session on Voilition's Saint's Row the Third. I managed to get about 30 minutes hands on action with the upcoming offering from THQ and Voilition. Want to know what it's like, click below to find out.
Note-There are screenshots and video. This may not be exactly safe for work, children, grandparents or those lacking a sense of humour.
Before I start there was a trailer at E3, and if you want to check it out before seeing what this is all about you can see it below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlmSzZKeExY
The game was, as you'd expect very adult, well amusingly juvenile and seems to have received a massive overhaul since I played the second game in the series. Not only does the game resemble a real city in much the same way that GTA IV does, there's a gritty urban look which compliments the game's sense of humour and distinctive style. Still there are all of the shops, businesses and properties to buy, you can still go to war with other gangs and of course there are all the fun mini-games you'd expect from a Saint's Row title including the always fun insurance game and the highly amusing tiger escort. For those who don't know the tiger escort game charges you with driving around in an open top car ferrying around a tiger while being chased by animal protection activists in vans. The idea is to survive and keep the tiger safe and happy. If you don't keep him happy the tiger will attack you and affect your driving but he can be placated by powerslides and generally fun driving techniques. This alone almost makes for a fun game but add to that the meat of the game and this may well be a very real contender to the crime 'em up genre.
I saw quite a lot in this game, and still there is some really in depth customisation. You can customise anything to do with your appearance, and when I say everything, I mean everything. There's a sex appeal slider which lets you add size to various body parts, there's body shape, hair style and colour, even anything you can think of to do with the face and a plethora of tattoo designs as well as the usual gender, race and hair colour/style options.
There are even plenty of clothes, and gender doesn't limit anything. Want to make a 6ft muscular Asian transvestite covered in tattoos with a large trouser organ, go for it. The game lets, no encourages you to.
Driving and general control in the game feels solid and responsive. You can shoot with ease, drive with ease and it all feels natural, fun and the large playing area can only add to the criminal fun. Weapons are the usual type you'd expect in a game like this, all manner of guns are available and on top of that you can even beat people to death with a large purple wobbling sex toy, which caused me nothing but joy. Really, there is nothing quite like beating the hell out of a parked taxi with said toy until it explodes.
Finally, I should probably mention the missions, or at least the one mission I played before just taking the opportunity to play with the city and the character customisation. The game opens with what I took as being a nod (no pun intended) to the big head modes of games gone by, with a bank robbery gone wrong and the robbers disguised with large heads. It was well scripted, fun and forgiving, not too easy, but hard to get killed yet amusing. I won't go into any more details as it'll spoil the surprise there, but it was definitely a fine opener to the game.
There are going to be a couple of versions of the game, including a standard version and platinum pack. There are a few pre-order incentives too. The Platinum Pack contains a whole hos of goodies including the Professor Genki Hyper Ordianary Pack a CD soundtrack and headset all in a presentation box.
Saints Row the Third is due out on PC, PS3 and XBOX 360 on November 15th and even though the code I played only contained around 60% of the game looks to be the game that finally out-GTA's GTA. Whether or not this will happen is unclear, but we can expect a whole lot of fun, surprises and with the announcement of “40 weeks of downloadable content” a whole lot of game for your money.
To see the game in action, click below and remember, this may not be safe for work, so be careful and enjoy.
