Now that Red Faction is no longer seen as a viable franchise, the development team could devote all their time to Saint’s Row: The Third, before moving to the Guillermo Del Toro collaboration, inSANE. And for Studio Marketing Manager Eric Barker, this meant getting his hands on the Saints Row franchise for the first time, having spent the last two years on Red Faction. We got to find out some of the new things that players can look forward to in Saints Row: The Third and some of the things that he found exciting.
The big thing to take from the chat with Barker, was the three dimensions to Saints Row: The Third. Firstly, the story mode in the game will no longer push the multiple story lines what were thrown around in Saints Row 2. If following the story was all you really want to do, you can follow on from each mission, complete the story and be happy. How you complete the mission will be important though. Still, that would leave you missing a lot of what the game has to offer. Secondly, there are a whole heap of new distractions, as well as many of the old favourites from previous games, which we’ll talk about in a moment. And thirdly, there's the whole aspect of going and doing just as you please, given how far your moral compass is willing to sway.
Only in Saints Row...
Above all else, Barker was willing to push one mantra for the game: crazy and over-the-top fun. Furthermore, the player’s choice plays a paramount role. There really seemed to be no question in the minds of developers at Volition over what Saints Row: The Third was meant to be about – more of the crazy fun that defined the last two titles being the core of the game. There have been a whole new set of customisation options put in for the player, where they can customise just about everything from their body, to their clothes, to their tattoos, to their guns, and so forth. Furthermore, custom creations can be uploaded and swapped online.
Barker went on to explain some of the additions over Saints Row 2, as well as enhancements on existing ‘distractions’ that have been carried into the new game. A lot of the old favourites such as Trailblazing and Insurance fraud will be returning, bigger and better. Mayhem from Saints Row 2 has been upgraded to now become ‘Tank Mayhem’. We’ll let you figure out the implications of that… As for new additions, Barker was proud about two in particular: Professor Genki’s Super Ethical Reality Climax and the new Escort missions.
Yes. That is what you think it is.
Barker described Professor Genki’s Super Ethical Reality Climax as the cross between the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie The Running Man and a Japanese Game Show… And for anyone who has been watching the trailers so far, this doesn’t look too far off the mark. As for the Escort missions, Barker gave one example of what kind of twists there are in store here. This example has you driving with a full grown tiger in the passenger seat… However, kitty is unhappy if you drive too slow or if you crash into other cars, and its temperament is handily represented by the ‘aggression meter’. Now would you be surprised that you get mauled if the tiger gets unhappy and that really effects your driving? Yeah, probably not by now.
An interesting point raised by Barker, was the types of games being released around Saints Row: The Third. He mentioned that while there are many high quality titles recently released and still set for release, the team at Volition Inc. felt very strongly about making the game stand out. While there is a place for the ‘serious’ games with their ‘save the world’ mantra, he felt that this helps them out, by showing just how much Saints Row: The Third is a contrast, with its irreverence, its chaos, its penchant for double takes, laugh out loud moments and over-the-top fun. We further discussed that just as Dark Souls would lose its edge if every game was the same level of challenge, so would Saints Row lose its edge if it either tried to be serious, or if too many other titles started becoming so crazy.
Get the manapult. You know you want it.
He also went on to mention some of the game’s celebrity talent. Wisely, he first mentioned the presence of Sasha Gray (as good a way as any to retain attention), followed by the reprisal of Daniel Dae Kim in his role as Johnny Gat, while Hulk Hogan will be taking a major role as wrestler Angel De La Muerte. Hulk’s role will have him taking on the major plotline in the story, and Barker feels they got the right guy to portray the character. Finally, Tomonobu Itagaki (ex-Mr Ninja Gaiden) will be in the game as a playable character. Incidentally, he may turn out to be the least weird part of the game… which is saying something!
There have been additions to the multiplayer as well. In particular, while you can play through the entire campaign with a co-op buddy (with drop-in and drop-out options), you’ll have some options to activate and initiate friendly fire. If you do get killed by your buddy in the line of play, the option will come up to activate ‘Cat and Mouse’ mode. Here, the attacked will have a chance to get revenge on his attacker, as the former takes to the skies in a helicopter while the latter tries to getaway on a motorbike. Maybe this sounds like a good option to implement on unhelpful team mates in games such as Battlefield 3?
And finally, when asked what he believes that players should look forward to and try for themselves, Barker responded that the manapult – a Professor Genki preorder bonus – is something that he can never get tired of. Aside from being a well played promotional plug, he felt the allure of driving over civilians that would get picked up and stored as ammo, then shot out of the cannon-mounted vehicle would be just too much to ignore. He finished off by saying in this serious season of gaming, Saints Row: The Third is there for those who want to have some irreverent fun. And from everything that has been shown so far, it’s hard to argue that the final product won’t be showing that.
We’d like to thank Eric Barker for giving us a little bit of his time, and to Alan Moore and Tom Atkinson from THQ for organising.
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