Saints Row Review

Anannya Sen’s Review

It was only a matter of time before GTA came to mobiles.

We may have said this before but we like to play a game as fully as possible here at MGF so that we can give you an honest and informed opinion. And it's a damn good thing too because I was initially about to give up on this game. On loading, it's not the most impressive game and some of our other reviewers were quick to write it off. The graphics are a top down view so it's tricky to really get a good sense of your character or the others walking around you. The sprite is pretty small and doesn't have much detail about it although it is a different colour to the other characters. The reason for this though, is that the game is massive. Yup, absolutely massive, but I'll get onto that later. The cars aren't too bad and the perspective changes when you get into the car and again when you are going at high speed. There are around 6 or so types of car and one particularly nice one which looks a bit like a lambo. Apart from that, the graphics are pretty non descript with the detail on the backgrounds not great, and the actual still pics of your friends are distinctly average.

Sound isn't great either, no tunes or anything and some pretty bland sound effects. Maybe it was my phone but the only sound effects that I heard was the shutting of the car door when you jack a vehicle. There are no sounds of guns or tyres sreeching, but you do hear the odd explosion when the cars blow up which they can sometimes do. Still, there is a lot of room for improvement on the sound effects.

The controls are not bad, you can use the D or key pad to move your character around. The main button or 5 will shoot your weapon of choice, and you can switch between them by pressing the * button. Then you have to press 1 when you are near a car to get into it. The up and down will speed up and slow down your car and left and right will rotate the direction. That's pretty much it really, apart from using 7 and 9 to shoot while you are in the car (they shoot out left and right respectively). Not much to complain about with the controls, except that a few times, the cars can be a bit unresponsive as can the 1 button to get into the car itself. Oh, I forgot to mention that the left shoulder button brings up your map which shows you the location of

So why is the game so good? Well, you really have to play it a fair bit to get into it. It's basically a mobile version of GTA with missions to do and side quests to complete. You play the part of one of the gang members of Saints Row who have had it with a bad element in their neighbourhood so they are taking over. This involves you completing missions which usually have a time limit. They have a variety of objectives, sometimes you have to pick something up and deliver it, sometimes you have to steal a car or truck and sometimes you have to go kill some people! In addition to these missions, you can steal cars for the local chop shop and you have a certain number to get. There are no time limits on these missions but you have to deliver the cars in a decent condition to get paid and you can also store and upgrade cars here and repaint them if you really let the mood take you. There are other things to collect as well, but these form part of the side quests of the game. The driving can get a bit tricky as the roads get pretty crowded, so I ended up driving on the pavements and not worrying about the poor souls walking around. The missions themselves are always pretty difficult due to the time limits, especially if the objective is on the other side of town! But if you quit and retry the mission, the objective is not always in the same place so sometimes you can get lucky. There is a weapons shop and you can buy 4 different weapons and ammo. You can also upgrade the weapons as well, but like everything in the game, it takes a heap of cash of which there isn't a whole load. After a while you will get used to the city layout and the map as well and be zooming around in no time.

The lastability is even better than the playability as the game is huge. It will take you a good while to complete the first area of Saint row and do all the missions. The last one is tough as you have to take out a number the opposition gang which isn't as bad as it sounds until you realise you also have to keep your own members alive! I was wondering as I was playing the game whether the shaded out areas of the map would become accessible once I finished the first area and once I did, my suspicions were confirmed. This shows how big the game is as there are 4 other areas to unlock and complete. Each one has the same side quests in collecting the cars etc, and each one also has a set of missions. Some areas are tougher than others as rival gangs are more well equipped and also more prevalent. There are the classic areas as well which all look a little different like the rich uptown, the red light area and the docks. If you enjoy the first part of the game, and giving yourself enough time, you should come around to enjoying it, then there's are some pretty large additional areas to play!

A really big game which takes a while to get used to but once you do, you will be playing it for ages.