Zero Punctuation: Saints Row: The Third

[boyvirgo666]

Strangely enough upon starting the game i noticed a lack of bowler hats and i wasnt happy, but the game was very fun if a bit too short for my liking. The game didnt quite go too far off from what SR2 was but it focused far too much on being wacky and turned around to being genre savvy in the worst way, I dont regret puchasing it but i wish they had stopped the online pass thing and tried to pace out the wacky abit more.

Though i must say the best part of the game is you sitting in the car singing what i got by sublime. I caught myself singing along because im a nerd and i secretly weep for bradley nowells rough drug crazed lo...what were we talking about?

 

[KDR_11k]

I can see that they thought the customization was too hard to use for Joe console user but since they already have the outfit system why not just make that more prominent instead of throwing out all those options you had before? They even trimmed the number of clothing stores down to a fraction of what was before.

Also what happened to food? Waiting half a minute until your health deigns to start regenerating isn't fun (and often not even possible when every stray bullet resets that counter and you're usually in the middle of a crossfire).

There are improvements too though, the expanded vehicle upgrades actually make upgrading cars cost something (SR2 would let you upgrade a car to the maximum performance for a couple hundred bucks) and the running car entry makes traversal WAAAAAAAY more fluid and fun, unlike SR2 I never felt a need to get unlimited stamina just to bridge the distance to the next car.

Also the weapon balance is kinda wonky when the pistols are pretty much the best weapons in the game because headshots dominate everything while body shots do little more damage than a gnat bite. I used to be an assault rifle guy in SR 1 and 2 (and believe me, those things were expensive to use in SR1) but in SR3 I ran with dual KA1s almost the whole time, only switching to the SMGs to set enemies on fire. The weapon selection got downgraded in SR3 too but I think the upgrades make up for that (they rolled the regular assault rifles, the AR with the nade launcher and the machine gun into the Krukov's upgrade path). Well, guns are excused with the upgrade paths but what happened to the melee weapons? You only get three options (baseball bat, dildo, taser) for most of the game with a few more coming near the end of it, where did the huge selection from SR2 go?

Seriously, I don't get why so much stuff got cut.

 

[floppylobster]

Watching the trailer a few months ago these were exactly the reasons I held off buying it (too wacky). The guy showing off the demo was getting so excited about how you could beat people with dildos and I was just thinking it was too childish, too 'wacky', and it had lost its edge. The possible irony of this all is that they might have been encouraged by Yahtzee's original review (a lot of industry people watch them) and so gone more in this direction. Even if not, the general feedback was people enjoyed this more than GTA because it embraced the game side of gaming (and didn't get so serious).

Another case of developers giving the public what they want and screwing up their vision. And another argument for games not being art.

 

[CardinalPiggles]

I'm still getting it

 

[jawakiller]

Wow, I've never agreed with Yahtzee more. Sure it's fun but it's way too ridiculous. That and there's no progression whatsoever. That also annoyed me. I like having to build up. Starting with a tactical nuke or a battalion of Panzers is a bit much. Unless it's a strategy game but I won't get too caught up in the details.

But it's not terrible I guess. The clothing did piss me off though.

 

[Something Amyss]

FYI, the correct word for "person who identifies as something other than man or woman" is genderqueer, not transsexual. Transsexuals generally live and identify strictly as men/male or women/female... just opposite whatever they were born as.

The More You Know!

Not necessarily, sorry.

What if... they're holding ALL the previous customisations for ransom as DLC?!

Probably not, but I wouldn't hold the paid DLC model past holding up a lot of the clothing itself.

I must belong to the minority of people who thought this game was better than Saint's Row 2 in every single way.

My only complaint:

Game needs way more Zimos.

More games should have autotuned pimps.

 

[duchaked]

I still haven't finished SR2. think I've gotten bored of it finally, so maybe it's time to move on to SR3 lol maybe I'll have more luck there

tho I will say I really should have gotten a friend to join me in co-op lol

 

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

I loved this game.

With Loving.

Love.

Because it was fun. In fact, with most of the 'it's not the same' responses, most admitted they had fun with it. Thank everything Just it was silly. Out of all the brown, gritty, MW clones out there, Please sign me up for shooting the vaguely foreign gang that makes all of their female members walk around in Lingerie.

There was so much I liked about Saint's Row 2 that I OVERLOOKED a lot of what I disliked. New Types of Races, I felt nothing for the new gangs, No one was as cool as Tobias... I felt I got more... I never felt like I got better.

I finished every bit of Saint's row the third with a smile on my face. It was short, I know, but I knew the reason why: DLCs. A lot of them on the way. There's a Genki focus which is great because I loved those missions. This is what the modern gaming world is going to be, and a lot of you already buy DLCs, so it's unfair to blame Saint's Row for just following the trend that gamers and developers set out.

I feel a bit unnerved when just being fun is not enough. That's exactly why I buy games. And if a game gave me fun... well, Mission Accomplished.

 

[Something Amyss]

He forgot to mention the terrible draw/render distance and the mediocre framerate.

Yes, he forgot to mention two flaws common to the prior game.

 

[o_d]

Impressed by the 'Homicide: Life on the Streets' namedrop Yahtzee.

 

[Vausch]

What if... they're holding ALL the previous customisations for ransom as DLC?!

Probably not, but I wouldn't hold the paid DLC model past holding up a lot of the clothing itself.

That's becoming a real problem with the games industry, isn't it? I'm fine with DLC as a whole, it's a good concept and additional campaigns and stories that won't make or break the game are good ideas (Al-la Fallout 3/NV), but ones where the content seems like it was necessary and should have been on the original game to begin with, especially ones that give you the feeling that they planned to put it on the game then purposefully removed it.

 

[Zakarath]

Yeah! crashing helicopters into everything is Just Cause 2's thing!

 

[antipunt]

It's impressive that Yatzhee can do a review like this even after loving Saints Row 2 to death. It's like an ultra anti-fanboy move

 

[Sonic Doctor]

I knew he wasn't going to like a majority of the game, especially with the lack of customization that makes no sense since they could have copy-pasted the customization from SR2 and then added the other things they wanted to add.

Three steps forward, one step back. Still a win regardless.

Considering it's obvious that Yahtzee is saying that SR2 is still better, and him saying in effect that SR3 is fun but not a lasting proper fun, fun with a giant *, I would see this as two steps back and a grudgingly one step forward.

If I was the developer watching this, and actually was using my brain, I would realize where I went wrong and look back at SR2 and what made it great and what should have been carried over but wasn't, and then make the fourth one more like SR2.

 

[PTSpyder]

Yes, the storyline made next to no sense and was a major let down, but SR isnt about storyline all that much really. Spending too much time bitching about it would be like looking at a portrait and bitching about the backdrop the photographer used.

The biggest disappoint is the cutting back of the level of customization available for your character. I have a feeling most of the customization is still there with regards to clothing - its just being crushed under the oppressive boot of paid DLC.

Only other let down the lack of variety and amount of sandbox fapping about to be had. I could spend weeks doing nothing in SR2, but in this one it seemed very much like if I wasnt working on completing something, it got old quick. Still worth a play and kills two weeks easy.

 

[Gmans uncle]

Yahtzee, I respect you as a journalist and a critic, (your actually the guy who got me into the biz) but I'm still buying this. Why? Because I've played waaaaaay too much counter strike lately, and I need something with a singularity of fun and zaniness to balance that out.

 

[GundamSentinel]

That's pretty much what I feared from SR3. The mix for SR2 was just right, GTA as it was supposed to be; straight story with a healthy dose of madness. SR3 seems too much of a crazy-fest to me.

 

[Something Amyss]

That's becoming a real problem with the games industry, isn't it? I'm fine with DLC as a whole, it's a good concept and additional campaigns and stories that won't make or break the game are good ideas (Al-la Fallout 3/NV), but ones where the content seems like it was necessary and should have been on the original game to begin with, especially ones that give you the feeling that they planned to put it on the game then purposefully removed it.

Not to mention the game's significantly shorter with less content all around.

The fact that they have 40 weeks of DLC announced is indicative of the problem, too. Instead of keeping us playing with a lot of shit, they plan to make us pay to squeeze longevity out of a shallower game.

Let me be clear: I LIKE Saints Row the Third. I've spent a total of 60 hours across two saves, so I can't bash the game entirely, but it's a wholly shallow experience compared to the last game.

It's less fun, it's less content, it's less...Well, almost everything. Fewer choices, less story, etc. And that doesn't make me want to buy the DLC, it makes me want to put down the game when I'm bored.

SR2, I wanted DLC. I wanted more, more, MORE! And they didn't give us much. Then they gave us a new game, but severely crippled it, and decided "hey, we'll give you more if you pay us..."

Season pass for added content is 20 bucks. That's three mission packs, which will have to be pretty big to get us up to the same level of content as the last game, at a 20 dollar price increase. Not to mention, it doesn't cover all the DLC: Night Blade is a bonus pack in the season pass, but the cheats pack and Shark-o-Matic are two examples of DLC not included.

THQ talked about engaging the player. They don't want to engage us. that's what 2 did. The Third instead offers a way for us to keep paying.

Yahtzee, I respect you as a journalist and a critic, (your actually the guy who got me into the biz) but I'm still buying this. Why? Because I've played waaaaaay too much counter strike lately, and I need something with a singularity of fun and zaniness to balance that out.

I'm not sure how "I respect you" would in any way need to be contrary to "I'm getting it."

 

[LobsterFeng]

Also, is it just me or has Yahtzee given three positive reviews practically in a row?

There have been a lot of amazing games lately. It's like even Yahtzee has to realize that.

 

[Zyrusticae]

Posting just to say - never played the second game on account of the horrible, horrible PC port, got this one and enjoyed it immensely.

I guess I should count myself grateful that I never played the second game to have my experience colored by it? Heh.