Just found this review as the NDA was lifted on Reviewers at Midnight (Reviewer has removed the Screenshots as they were watermarked with his website and he posted the review on another forum where you can't link your own sites) :-
Introduction
Originally slated as a release day game, Volitions's Homage to the GTA franchise finally hits Microsoft's console next Friday, 1st September.
However, thanks to those kind souls over at THQ (site name removed) received a review copy last Friday and since then I have been slaving hard to garner enough gameplay in order to bring you what I believe is a world exclusive first review of this eagerly awaited title.
Gameplay
Saints Row opens with you walking down the street, minding your own business and ignoring various distractions - from prostitutes to people selling you Rolexes on the cheap. Suddenly, and due to some really bad luck, you are caught in the middle of a vicious gang fight. Just when you think you may have survived, the one surviving gang member puts his gun to your head. There's a loud gunshot and............
You open your eyes to see Julius, a charismatic local preacher offering you a hand up. He has shot the thug.
From here on in, you find yourself integrated into the 3rd Row Saints, a new gang organised by Julius, whose aim is to control the streets of Stillwater - the fictional city in which you live.
Anyone who has kept half an eye on this title will know that it is completely and utterly ripped off from the Rockstar franchise - Grand Theft Auto. However, games that do this are nothing new. Jak and Daxter ripped off Mario, Forza Motorsport ripped off Gran Turismo, and there have been many other examples down the years. Whilst not quite reaching the standards of the classics that they copied, both these games were very enjoyable titles in their own right - and to that list you can most definitely add "Saints Row".
After you have joined the gang, you are given various missions to accomplish. To start with, only a very small part of the city is open to you - one district and a few shops, including "Friendly Fire" (your local weapons shop), Forgive and Forget (a drive in confessional to wipe out any bad rep you have gained) and "Feckle *******" (a fast food joint). You can complete your first mission straight away, but after this - you cannot complete any more until you have completed "activities" (essentially mini games) in order to gain more rep. More rep, means more missions are unlocked.
The mini games are quite varied. You can rescue prostitutes from their abusive pimps, and deliver them to the saints who will pimp them out ethically. You can allow a prostitute to do her business in the back of your car with a famous local dignitary whilst avoiding the chasing news crews (whilst the dialogue graphically illustrates what is going on in the back seat). You can spot a passing car, hijack it with a passenger inside and drive like a maniac until the passenger pays you to let him or her out. There are many many mini games on offer, and as you complete more and more missions, so the city opens out and more and more shops open up.
You can get plastic surgery to change your looks, mod your car into a mean machine, buy new clothes, soup up your weaponary - pretty much everything is customisable, and this is a big plus point for the game. I have no idea how customisable the world is in GTA, but in this game you can build up a garage of really mean vehicles each one souped up to the max. It gets to the stage where it actually hurts to damage your car, even though you can go to the mechanic to get it fixed. I even found myself so involved that I had three cars - one fast basic one for missions, one beautiful one which I customised and used for shopping trips and cruising, and one sports model for stunt driving. Stunt driving? Yep - you can even do this. I spent some time finding various options for this - including jumping the bridge over the main river when it was raised to let the boats through. The other opportunities, I will let you find for yourself!
So, as you progress through the game - more oportunities present themselves. You can get involved in street racing, pimp your own group, build a lucrative side business involving theft and insurance fraud. You can do what you like.
So, this game is superb - I can hear you thinking! Well, yes and no. There are two major flaws which serve to undermine the gameplay. The first is the truly appalling combat system. Using a melee weapon (baseball bat, knife, etc etc) is easy and intuitive - but when it comes to guns the picture is far murkier. The right stick moves the camera during the game, and when using a gun the same method is used. So, you are not moving the gun site (which is terribly small), but the whole screen. This can lead to a very imprecise and frustrating battle where you really have to know exactly where your enemies will be in advance. This leads to the frustrating method of:
attempt mission
die
re-attempt mission
get beyond point where you died before
death by next enemy
and so on and so on. It does become frustrating rather quickly, and as the majority of the missions involve gun battles this can be quite a serious drawback.
The second problem is slightly less detrimental to the core gameplay. The AI of the general city occupants is very poor indeed. You can be driving down the street minding your own business when an AI character who is walking on the pavement will scream and throw herself underneath your vehicle for no reason whatsoever. AI cars will just drive straight into you, causing damage which will cost you to repair, and this whole area of the game does rather serve to distract from the feeling that you are in a real living, breathing city.
To be honest, neither of these flaws are fatal enough to distract from what is a very enjoyable and immersive game - but they are problems that any potential purchaser should be aware of.
Graphics
The graphics in this game are a huge step up from GTA on the PS2. The city feels solid and very well built, with some stunning lighting effects as the sun shines through the trees, casting shadows on the pavement.
As the game progresses, the clouds will get thicker, the sky will get darker, and vicious thunder storms will rent the sky - lightning flashing spectacularly. Night falls, with the surroundings lighting up in a Neon display that really looks the part. The charcater models are genuinely very impressive, with the main saints characters looking particularly good. Your own character has a creation mode as extensive as the excellent one seen in Top Spin 2. It works extremely well, and really gives you ownership of your character.
Sound
The sound is excellent, although certainly not up to the standards of the top 360 games. Surround sound is used very well, with explosions echoing around the room, and shouts and gunfire coming from all directions. Characters are constantly conversing with each other as you are walking around, and I heard very very little repetition which was very impressive.
Every car you get into has a radio playing, different kinds of music. When you are driving a prostitute doing her tricks on the back seat, the radio plays classical! Unfortunately, this review copy came without an instruction manual, so I was unable to work out in time how to change the radio station. I was too busy getting as far through the game as possible. You do get a personal MP3 player, however, which allows you to make up playlists from music stored on the hard drive. A very impressive feature which goes beyond what we have seen before on the 360.
Live Gameplay
One of the disadvantage of having a game so far before release date is that there is simply no option to explore the online modes as no-one else has the game yet! :err:
It should be remembered, however, that once you go online the character creation system should mean that your character will look totally unique. He should also be driving a unique car, and wearing unique clothes. He can even get tattoes and piercings so that you should be able to recognise him straight away.
There would appear to be four online options : Protect tha Pimp, Blinged out ride, Gangsta Brawl, and Big-Ass Chains. I will update this section as soon as I have a chance to test it.
Ratings
Single Player : 23
Graphics : 22
Sound : 22
Live Implementation : currently unrateable
Overall : 67% will rise when online rating added
Summary
I really did enjoy this game a lot. Despite it's derivative nature, and flaws I found it an immersive and absorbing experience. The fact that I found myself caring so much for the main characters and my vehicles showed how much I got involved in the game. It may not quite have the panache of GTA, but this is certainly one of the better releases yet seen on the 360, a title where the extra development time has really been put to good use. That rating will only get higher when the Live gameplay is factored in. To me, this game is already a hit - I just hope that the live gameplay is up to scratch.
