Saint's Row Hands-On E3 '06
E3 2006 Hands On Preview
Last Time I saw Saint's Row was at last years THQ’s Gamers’ Day. The version being shown at E3 is definitely looking more polished with a steadier framerate. The full game will start with the entire city of Stilwater open to you but the demo had only a small portion available. I was told that at some point this or a very similar demo will be available on Xbox Live Marketplace.
Saints Row is a ‘sandbox’ type game, which will bring immediate comparison to GTA, the king of the genre. Also competing for your dollar later this year is Crackdown, which is being developed by Realtime Worlds, headed by David Jones creator of the original GTA. One area where Saints Row may have more to offer is in its 12 player online component. Both team play and free-for-all with some co-op sprinkled in for good measure. Game types like “Protect the Pimp” will be among the offerings. However, what stood out most to me was the inclusion of clan support or what Volition calls, appropriately enough, ‘Gangs’. Gangs will be able to deck themselves out in their custom outfits ‘colors’, accessories with tattoos and jewelry etc. Sadly, none of multiplayer was on display at E3.
The game is going to ship with some insanely deep character customization options. You can pick your race, which includes: White, Hispanic, Asian, and Black. You can further adjust your skin tone, facial features and hair. As mentioned before there will be tons of clothing, accessories and tattoos. In addition, the ability to alter your appearance via plastic surgery is still in the game. You may need to do this when your notoriety gets too high. A cool bonus to all this character customization is the fact that you will retain your look and all your goodies in all the cut scenes.
The city of Silwater now sports 12 radio with real DJ’s dishing out intros to the 130 plus licensed songs. A few original songs have been added, but you have to find them in the world before you can listen to them. There is over 33,000 lines of spoke dialog and I was told you won’t be hearing the NPC’s spouting off the same lines over and over rather we will be hearing appropriate remarks and responses.
Ok, so what about the gameplay you ask? The demo felt solid as I was chasing down innocent bystanders, while capping them in various body parts, bitch slapping the police and jacking their cars. Driving felt solid, as did the aiming and fighting. Graphics are good but not jaw dropping, but considering the sheer size of the game, which has zero loading screens even when you move inside or out, I’d say they have done a fantastic job. Draw distance is good and I saw no pop-up. The physics, while over done (like most video games) added a lot to the excitement and overall enjoyment for me.
My only main concern is did the developers bite off more than they can chew? This one hell of ambitious game with tones of features and content. . Check out my Interview with Technical Director Alan Lawrance for more details on the game.
The game is set to hit store shelves at the end of August, nine months since it was originally going to launch along with the Xbox 360 last November. That goes to show you how challenging this game has been for the developer. When I spoke to Dan Cermak, Vice President of Volition last year he said that the game would ship when it was done and no sooner. Speaking with him again at E3, he was all smiles and very excited about his game.
Saint's Row has been on my can’t wait list for a long time now and after playing it still remains there. I give it a 9 for an ‘anticipation’ score along with both of my fingers crossed they can pull it all together with a minimum of bugs.
Hot Coffee Note: Dan told me that because of all the hoopla over the GTA ‘Hot Coffee’ mod and now the Oblivion mod that all the character models in Saint's Row have invisible naughty body parts, so if you strip them down there is nothing there. It is so silly and sad really, that it has come to this. “My 8 year old saw an invisible crotch and has been traumatized!! Where is my lawyer!?!”
| 5/13/2006 Eric 'Jetson' Pfoutz |
