Saints Row 3

The latest STO grind had been the Winter Event; run the race 25 times to get a free T6 Breen Dreadnaught. I managed to get this done two days ago but I have to say, the grind has really burnt me out so I need to take another break from Star Trek Online. As a diversion, Fungi introduced me to Saints Row 3.

First things first: Saints Row is not a MMORPG, but it does support coop play… and it supports it very well. It’s a third-person action-adventure game, with a powerful character customization engine which is a lot of fun to play with on its own. Take a peek at my gal below.

This is my gal in the game, Rebecca Lang. Isn’t she sassy?

Second of all, and fair warning here…. this game is unapologetically adult in nature. Violence, sexual content, foul language, you name it, it’s here. Unlike Grand Theft Auto (which takes itself way too seriously), Saints Row’s hyper-violence is exaggeratedly cartoonish and tongue-in-cheek, with situations that are so over-the-top and ridiculous they’re funny.

That said, if I had kids? I would never let them touch this game because of the adult content.

The game is entirely open-world, meaning you can drive or run around the city and interact with anyone and anything in it. Feel like just cruising around in a sweet ride? No problem. Feeling antisocial and run pedestrians down? Go for it! Just be prepared for the cops to show up enmasse. In fact, NPC behavior can be hilarious in this game; when you carjack and throw the driver out, they usually run away, but once in a while you might get an irate old granny who decides to smack you and get her car back.

One of Rebecca’s sweet rides.

But the game isn’t just about random violence; there is a pretty neat storyline that weaves through the experience. It starts out looking like a typical Hollywood over-the-top criminal gang movie (Fast & Furious et el), but it gets weird really fast. You know how I said it’s cartoonish and tongue-in-cheek? When tanks, VTOL aircraft, luchadore wrestlers, zombies, Martians and an aircraft carrier all show up in the same storyline, you know it’s meant to be ridiculous. On top of that, you get to play dress-up as you go (in fact, changing clothes gain your RESPECT), ranging from fairly typical street gang clothes to full-fledged samurai, ninja, astronaut, werewolf, zombie, cheerleader, or even buck naked if that floats your boat.

Speaking of the story, watch this clip of the final mission. It’s EPIC.

This is Fungi’s gal, who I jokingly refer to as “Selena” because I thought she has a rough resemblance to Selena Gomez. Plus, she rocks a Spanish accent, as well as ridiculous boobies.

Saints Row 3 is mindless destructive fun. Cathartic, even. It’s not meant to be deep or thought-provoking, and it certainly doesn’t need parsers and complex stats tracking to maximize any sort of DPS. It’s an interesting diversion, but the “pick-up-and-play” gameplay does make me realize the typical MMORPG grind feel downright like a chore in comparison.