Gangster living is alive and well in "Saint's Row," one of several good titles released recently for the XBOX 360 system. Utilizing a well-established genre spearheaded by Rockstar and their "Grand Theft Auto" titles, "Saint's Row" takes quite a few cues from the GTA world but adds its own personal touch.
For those few unfamiliar with GTA's sandbox world, "Saint's Row" takes place in a giant, populated town where players can essentially do whatever they wish. From stealing cars and causing mayhem to simply cruising the streets, "Saint's Row" gives an unusual sense of freedom.
Of course, that's not to say that there isn't a story. Gamers take the role of a street thug saved by the 3rd Street Saints, a local gang that has lost most of its notoriety to other more organized groups. After the rescue, players join the gang and help take back the land around the neighborhood and eventually the whole city.
Story arcs are advanced through in-game scenes followed by various missions of the standard escort/driving/kill 'em fare. This part of the game is very reminiscent of GTA. The guns, missions, themes and characters are all rather generic, with good voice acting being the only standout.
However, players can't just jump into missions immediately. In order to take part in the main story, it's necessary to build up "reputation" through a variety of activities that take place throughout the city. Besides standard fare like serving as a gunman for drug traffickers, players must also act as a driver for an escort service, avoiding throngs of news vans trying to figure out who is in the back of the car with the stripper.
One thing that really shines in "Saint's Row" is the amount of customization. From the decent player creation to the ability to outfit any vehicle in the game with mods, this title offers something for everyone. It's even possible to create playlists using either the music from the game or the player's own hard drive or network music server.
Of course, this is only half of the equation, as "Saint's Row" also offers a pretty neat multiplayer mode supported by XBOX Live. Players can join gangs and participate in a wide variety of multiplayer modes, including Gangsta Brawl, Capture Da Bling, Protect The Pimp and Bling My Ride. While at launch there were some glaring network glitches, a patch seems to have fixed some of the latency problems.
While "Saint's Row" doesn't offer any revolutionary additions to the GTA genre, it does manage to refine and perfect some aspects of it in addition to adding a much-desired multiplayer mode. Gamers that didn't like GTA aren't going find anything new here, but everyone else owes it to themselves to pick this one up. It may copy a previous title, but it's also pretty damn fun.
