Saints Row games have always been a parody of GTA but the third game in the series dialled this up to 11 and that’s why it’s still so much fun today.
That being said, Saints Row The Third is getting pretty familiar to me now. After playing the original and, more recently, the Switch port I’ve now dived into the Remastered version and while it’s the exact same game, content wise, it’s good to see the gang with a new lick of paint.
The content here is still the same, from the hilarious main campaign to the ton of DLC content, if you’ve played the game before then you’ll know exactly what you’re getting in terms of gameplay. This is GTA by way of the Farrelly Brothers and it takes no shame from waving a dildo gun in the face of its poe faced rivals with its own brand of puerile humour, weapons such as ‘the penetrator’ and general sense of anything goes. It’s still just as fun and as stupid as it always was and that’s no bad thing. There are set pieces here that really stand out as some of the highlights of the last decade and the story is a fun romp through the sublime and the ridiculous adventures of a gang that has gone from rough streets to doing their own merchandise and TV ads then having to pick themselves up from nothing again.
On the other hand, the gameplay and set pieces do show their age in some areas. We’ve moved on from the more more basic mission structure and it can feel as if this is a game of its time in places, despite the humour actually holding up pretty well.
This remaster is all about the visuals, though, and the work done to the open world is certainly noticeable. Character models have been made more realistic and this will probably be more of a divisive change for fans as there are some stylistic differences added to the main characters here. There’s no denying they look great, though.
Draw distance and weather effects make a huge difference to the open world, too, as does the palette change to brighten the place up. Though the city still looks a little grey for modern tastes the lighting at night really brings it alive and the out-of-town scenes are really improved. I can’t be sure but it also feels like there are more vehicles and pedestrians in the game world, too, which could well be the case.
On console the game is initially locked at 30fps with the Xbox One X and PS4 Pro upscaling a 1440p resolution to 4K. The frame rate can be unlocked and judging by the my playthrough, it’s safe to say it should be. There was very little slowdown with the frame rate unlocked and everything just felt a little more responsive.
If you’re a long term Saints fan then you’ll know whether you want this or not. It’s just a prettier Saints Row The Third at the end of the day, but that might be enough for those who want another play through on this generation of consoles or to make use of their new PC and for fans of Open World gaming who haven’t come across the series so far, it’s certainly a worthwhile experience if you can handle the humour.
Saints Row The Third Remastered
Pros
- New visuals look great and add more life to the game
- Story remains entertaining
- Still just as over-the-top as ever
Cons
- No extra content
- Gameplay shows its age
