Product Description

Under threat from rival gangs and corrupt officials, the 3rd Street Saints must conquer the city of Stilwater or face destruction. From the spectacular opening battle to regain control of the local hood, Saint`s Row offers an unparallel level of freedom to explore this living, breathing city. The player is free to engage in the multitude of different activates at his/his leisure, all the while building up respect in a gameplay-rich world. Build enough respect and the 3rd Street Saint`s lieutenants will trust the player with more dangerous missions.
Saint`s Row features no ordinary city. Gateway to the Rust Belt, Stilwater is a vibrant urban environment where all the players` actions really matter and enemies may strike back at any time sending the player reeling for support.

Redefining online play for an open-world game, Saint`s Row will also fully utilise many of the incredible features of the Xbox Live online game service to deliver a fast-paced multiplayer gaming experience.

• A fully dynamically lit world: Car headlights and muzzle flashes light up the world of Saint`s Row
• Next Gen shaders allow the creation, in real-time, of effects previously reserved for movies
• Pedestrians react to your actions and remember who you are. Fail to represent, and other gang members will lose respect for you. Bling up your latest car, wear expensive clothes and women will flock to you
• Freeform game play gives you increased choices: Purchase an item at a store, or rob the cashier at gunpoint and run away with the cash, unless you prefer to break in at nigh for a full-scale robbery
• Ragdoll physics allow for real-time reactions of the game characters and objects to impacts, be it combat or collisions
• Extensive car damage modeling means vehicles bend and crumple when they hit obstacles and an incredible level of detail in the breakdown of component

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2676 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: THQ
• Released on: 2006-09-01
• Rating: To Be Announced
• ESRB Rating: Adults Only
• Platform: Xbox 360
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: German

Amazon.co.uk Review

In a nutshell:
There’s no new Grand Theft Auto game scheduled until late next year, but in the meantime 360 owners have got the next best thing, as you and your fellow gang members try to take control of a whole city to turn into your personal playground.

The lowdown:
It is pretty hard to describe this game without mentioning Grand Theft Auto, since the gameplay and even mission structure is based very closely on Rockstar’s classic. Of course being on the Xbox 360 the graphics are better than they ever were before, with a huge draw distance and streets that are very much fuller of vehicles and people than the real Grand Theft Auto. In fact the only thing that’s missing is Rockstar’s trademark black humour, replaced here with constant references to pimps and “hos”. There are though over 80 different vehicles to commandeer, all of which can be customised however you want.

Most exciting moment:
Although the city in which you battle is already bigger than Vice City the most impressive thing about the game’s graphics is the enormous amount of damage you can cause to vehicles and buildings. The game even remembers individual bullet holes on your prized car.

Since you ask:
The characters in Saint’s Row come in all shapes and sizes – not just the physically perfect mannequins of most other games. You can completely customise your own character, making them as fat, thin or buff looking as you wish.

The bottom line:
Grand Theft Auto 3.5 in all but name, that should make the wait till next October all the easier.
HARRISON DENT

Manufacturer's Description
Under threat from rival gangs and corrupt officials, the 3rd Street Saints must conquer the city of Stilwater or face destruction. From the spectacular opening battle to regain control of the local hood, Saint's Row offers an unparallel level of freedom to explore this living, breathing city. The player is free to engage in the multitude of different activates at his/his leisure, all the while building up respect in a gameplay-rich world. Build enough respect and the 3rd Street Saint's lieutenants will trust the player with more dangerous missions.

Saint's Row features no ordinary city. Gateway to the Rust Belt, Stilwater is a vibrant urban environment where all the players' actions really matter and enemies may strike back at any time sending the player reeling for support.

Redefining online play for an open-world game, Saint's Row will also fully utilise many of the incredible features of the Xbox Live® online game service to deliver a fast-paced multiplayer gaming experience.

Customer Reviews

good fun.... but to similar????
great fun but for me too similar to gta. obviously the graphics are better but there is a lot more variation in vehicles in gta. In saints row, you are simply tied to cars with no bikes, boats etc. The world is vice city size but with plenty of shops and places to visit, there is more character in saints row and it represents a living breathing city much better. your aim is to take back the streets of stilwater from the other gangs, the vice kings, westside rollerz and cardales using brute force. so in other words, identical to gta. there is a good 30-40hrs game time in the single player mode with the multiplayer limited to xbox live. the ragdoll physicals of the peds make for good fun. there is some very very entertaining mini games to earn respect and a bit of dosh the best being insurance fraud which involves diving infront of an incoming vehicle which then will hit you depending on its speed. the faster its hits you the more money you get. overall, if you like gta you are gonna like this, but if you are looking for something else, look elsewhere.

If you like GTA ,then Saints Row is for you
At first glance, Saints Row looks like little more than an Xbox 360-fortified version of San Andreas: from the mission design to the basic play mechanics to the tongue-in-cheek spirit, it's abundantly clear that Saints Row is firmly grounded in Rockstar Games' groundbreaking series.

Only it's better. Much, much better. Unquestionably, irrefutably better in nearly every possible way. Saints Row not only looks leagues better than the latest Grand Theft Auto games, it plays better. It's what you hoped you'd see in the yet-to-be-unveiled Grand Theft Auto IV...only you won't have to wait until late 2007 to play it. Groundbreaking it's not, but for Grand Theft addicts, Saint's Row is very clearly The Next Big Thing.

One of Saints Row's biggest selling points, in fact, is the GPS-style navigation system that draws a colored trail to lead you to any point of your interest (be it a gun store, a shootout, or a tattoo parlor). It's a magnificent navigation system, and Rockstar would be smart to borrow it for Grand Theft Auto IV.

Better yet are the seemingly never-ending array of side-jobs and mini-games, some of which made us think "Mafioso Mario Party." Our favorites were Insurance Fraud, where you fling yourself in front of speeding cars to cash in, and Drug Trafficking, where you ride shotgun with a dope dealer as they make their "deliveries." Other side-jobs will have you hijacking cars, dodging paparazzi, and assassinating people from a mysterious hit list. These side missions are downright addictive, and are some of the game's biggest strengths. And since their difficulty levels and cash rewards scale ever upwards, they'll keep you playing for hours.

Not Quite GTA, But Will Do For Now...
All the talk you hear about this game being a GTA San Andreas clone is true. It is! But with a few different features. First off you start by chosing what your character looks like and how phsical he is. Then it puts you straight into the action where you join a gang called the 3rd Street Saints. The Saints are one of four gangs in the Amerincan city of Stilwater. There are The Saints (You), The Vice Kings, Los Canteres and the Westside City Rollers which all have their unique styles and bosses to encounter.

Well the mission structure is similar to GTA but with a minor difference. In this game you have to fill your respect bar by playing activities. Every time you fill your respect bar to the top, you get to have a go at a mission. The activities consist of Snatch (a game where you have to steal hos from pimps) Mayhem (where you have to cause as much damage as you can) Insurance Fraud (a very good one where you throw your player in from of cars to get the insurance money) and many more. The missions consist of taking out the other three gangs in Stilwater in a variety of different ways.

You can buy clothes, jewelry, hair cuts and even get a face lift in Stilwater, similar to San Andreas. You can also take part in street racing and destruction derby which are all fun and you can even customise your cars and store them for later use. Also the cast of characters involved are very good and will get you attached to them more then GTA could, with humour and each having great personalities.

The graphics are also very enhanced to GTA but the amount of bugs spoils the action at its best at times. Also the city is about 1/150th of Just Cause but bigger than Vice City so dont expect anything huge, but its just right in my opinion.

Pros

+ Good graphics
+ Good use of respect bar
+ Great activities
+ Fully customisable player with planty of stores.
+ Great cast of characters to interact with
+ Will kepp you going till GTA 4 is out

Cons

- Not quite GTA
- Riddled with bugs