Saints Row (18)
Verdict: Bling with no zing.
Platform: Xbox 360
Rating: 3½/5
When you first enter the ghetto of Saints Row you know exactly where you are as a kind of self perpetuating deja-vu pervades throughout the city of Stilwater - every bit of car jacking, gunning, pimping, driving action blurs into one old memory you’re sure came from somewhere else. Welcome to GTA: San Andreas part deux.
As the new kid on the block in Saints Row, you find yourself at the end of a barrel in the middle of a present day gang war. Enlisted by your saviours you whole heartedly join in the fight and embark on a city wide trail of destruction.
As well as scrapping with rival gangs there’s a predictably big sandbox city full of stuff to see and steel. Ensuring you don’t skip it all, a certain level of respect must be achieved before tackling the main gang related missions and to gain respect you must seek out a variety of law breaking jobs.
With a whole host of entertaining careers like insurance fraud, escort duties, assassinations and heavily armed vandalism, you’re sure to be busily distracted as you burn round the city in a freshly stolen, pimped out car, modelling your latest bling.
Attempting to iron out GTA’s flaws, Saints Row smooths out the experience by making navigation easy, fixing combat controls and introducing quick saves. While it does this commendably it falls short by merely limiting itself to this - there’s no progression from the formula, no innovation beyond slight tweaks and online play.
Lamentably, features have been sacrificed like the RPG style character building and the lack of vehicles other than cars and trucks is criminal, further serving to paint Saints Row as a more limited package, despite it’s confident and ballsy sheen.
It also misses that vital satiric spark that elevated GTA’s wit beyond its superficial crudeness and lacking an engaging story, iconic music and the artistic direction that defined so much of Rockstar’s controversial series, Saints Row delivers below its potential.
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery then this is some of the best knock-off jewellery money can buy.