Saints Row The Third – a genuine alternative to GTA (pic: Deep Silver)

A reader laments the closure of Saints Row developer Volition and the loss of one of the few games that could rival GTA.

I was very sad to hear that developer Volition has been shut down. I can’t say I’m all that surprised, given how the game went down, but it’s sad, both in terms of all the people’s jobs and the fact that Saints Row has always been one of my favourites. Naturally, I’m thinking more of Saints Row 2 and 3 than the reboot, but I do feel that was underrated and didn’t deserve to kill the whole company.

Like anything, some of this may be mixed up with the nostalgia of playing Saints Row 2 at uni with friends, but it’s easily forgotten just how much better to play that game was than GTA 4, which came out the same year. Grand Theft Auto has always had bad combat and driving but GTA 4 was especially bad, with weirdly overcomplicated shooting that I still don’t know how people let them get away with it.

Saints Row 2 might not have had as good graphics, but it allowed you to do a lot more things, with the destructible scenery and the fact that gunfights and driving was actually fun and could have been a game in its own right. Plus, it had co-op! Having that kind of option back in 2008 was mind-blowing and it was years before GTA could offer anything similar.

A few years later and Saints Row The Third leaned into allowing you to do whatever you want and I loved it. It didn’t take itself seriously, but it still had characters you cared about, while allowing them to do basically anything. From calling in airstrikes to shooting mind-controlling octopuses to using the Manapult, everything was in the game to make things more fun, not more realistic.

That was rare even at the time and even more so now. Although, I will admit that Saints Row 4 started to go a bit too far. There is a balance to be maintained in all things and I don’t think Volition were willing to accept that, especially once they got to the point of Gat Out Of Hell. It was fun and I still appreciated the fact that they didn’t care at all about being sensible, but it went so far it was basically impossible to make a Saints Row 5.

That’s where the reboot came in and, yes, it had some problems. The characters were all horrible, the map was far too similar to GTA 5, and while it was still more fun to play than Rockstar’s games the difference wasn’t as big as it used to be and Saints Row was no longer as weird and experimental.

It’s not that the reboot was bad it was just kind of average, and that’s never going to enough for even a lower budget game like this. I hope everyone involved finds new jobs, but I also hope that this doesn’t put publishers off from making things that aren’t ultra serious and realistic.

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Saints Row was an alternative to GTA and other more simulation type games and now that they’re also not making Just Cause anymore there’s nothing like it for open world games.

My hope is that many of the Volition developers can form a new company and make something similar, because the world needs an alternative to GTA that’s willing to do things a bit differently.

By reader Prio

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A reader laments the closure of Saints Row developer Volition and the loss of one of the few games that could rival GTA.