Saints Row: The Third Remastered Review - Absurd! (in a good way)

By Sam Coles:

You know when you are in drought of game releases when I have to review are remasters, so here I am again with Saints Row: The Third Remastered. Now you would think that this is a shallow cash grab which when it was first announced I had that same outlook, however the developers put actual effort into this remaster. So much so that it bridges into remake territory. Is any good?  Is it worth picking up? In short yes, let’s get into it.

Saints Row: The Third takes place after the events of the second game, where The Third Street Saints have become celebrities and media moguls. They are so popular that they are signing autographs at a bank they are robbing, it is completely absurd but that is part of the story in the older Saints Row games as they balance goofy with a serious tone in parts. During this daring bank heist things escalate and the bank staff are armed and open fire, where The Saints are then arrested where you get to customise your character and you find out that the bank belonged to a rival crew called “The Syndicate”. They find themselves in Steelport with no money or influence, so the purple clad gang must rebuild one piece at a time. The story is really fun, but you can really tell this game was released in 2011 originally because some of the jokes don’t quite land now, and the music screams of that era with the overuse of Dub-Step (yeah remember that genre of “music”).

Gameplay has been left unchanged where you have a mix of shooting, driving, fist fighting or obliterating someone with a phallic shaped bat (yes really) which adds more to the over top nature. Gunplay feels serviceable not bad by all means, but it just comes across as a bit floaty as I sometimes struggle to keep on target. It is mitigated when you unlock upgrades such as increase bullet damage, as well as accuracy upgrades but the shooting does feel like a bit of a chore when you start the game off. However the hand to hand and melee combat is really fun, I can’t help but suplex every pedestrian that gets in my way or as I said before deck someone with a dildo baseball bat.

Driving took me  a while to get use to as I have just came off of playing Mafia II which has a more realistic approach, but Saints Row tells you to go nuts and throw your cars around corners collateral damage be damned and it is supremely fun. Not only that impact feedback feels great when you hit other cars and pedestrians as they rocket into the sky Team Rocket style, plus the sound design is top notch when pedestrians thud as they collide with your bonnet.

Like the past games Saints Row: The Third has a bevy of side activities to partake in, these can range from pimping, rampages and my favourite insurance fraud where you character acts as if he or she has no bones in their bodies and can fly around like a newspaper in New York. These are mostly for more money and XP for upgrades, which unlike Saints Row 2 you don’t have to do them to earn respect to continue the story which is a good thing.

Now to get to the meat and potatoes of the remaster, the presentation and I was very surprised how much effort went into changing and enhancing old assets. The lighting has been given a huge boost sunrises and sunsets look incredible, with the orange glow filling the streets of Steelport, coupled with the excellent neon lights that reflect in the rain soaked nights illuminating the darkness.

Character models look much better and look less like plastic action figures, they have visible pours and blemishes and clothe stitching have been given extra details too. Cars have more of a shine to them, with extra reflects especially during rain storms and it looks glorious. Now the framerate, if you have played the game on Xbox 360 and PS3 originally you would know the game does not run that well it stutters like crazy. I can say that this remaster runs absolutely fine if you lock the framerate on the base consoles at 30 fps, if you unlock the framerate it can jump all over the place so I would suggesting locking it if you are playing base machines.

Overall I was pleasantly surprised with Saints Row: The Third Remastered, it took the base game and enhanced every inch of the game which was completely unexpected. If you haven’t played it before this is the best way to play, and hell it is great for those who have already played it. It is a fantastic game, despite certain jokes not quite landing due to their dated nature but great game overall and I highly recommend it.