Saints Row: The Third

About Saints Row: The Third

Saints Row: The Third arrived on November 15, 2011, from developer Volition and publisher Square Enix. This action-adventure shooter lets you play as the leader of the 3rd Street Saints as they reclaim the fictional city of Steelport. You start this story by escaping a failed bank heist with actor Josh Birk and end up fighting three rival gangs backed by a massive organization called The Syndicate. The game launched on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC, Linux, and later Nintendo Switch. It offers single-player campaigns alongside multiplayer and co-op modes. You drive around in ridiculous cars, shoot enemies with wild weapons, and take over territory through chaos. This title marks the series shift from gritty street drama to absolute cartoonish madness.

Gameplay

You spend most of your time tearing through Steelport on foot or in vehicles while blasting waves of enemies. The core loop involves taking down rival gang businesses like drug labs or tech servers, then planting a Saints flag to claim the area. You can hijack any car or use superhuman abilities to launch yourself across rooftops. Combat feels loose and destructive as you throw grenades, shoot chainsaws, or use gravity guns to rip enemies apart. Side missions range from drag races to absurd heists involving helicopters and tanks. The controls handle well whether you are aiming a sniper rifle or driving a tank into a crowded street. You also recruit allies like Oleg the superhuman or Zimos the pimp to help with specific tasks. Multiplayer lets you team up for chaos modes where everyone tries to be the most destructive person in the server.

What Players Think

Players on PlayPile rate this game highly, giving it an IGDB score of 81.3 out of 100 based on 719 ratings. Metacritic users gave it a solid 84 out of 100. The community moods are intense with four votes and hardcore with two votes, reflecting the chaotic nature of the content. Average playtime suggests people dive deep into the open world to explore every corner. Review snippets often mention the sheer fun of the physics engine and how silly the missions get. Some users note that while the story is campy, the gameplay loop remains satisfying for hours. The completion rates show a dedicated group finishing every mission and side activity rather than just skimming through.

PlayPile's Take

This game is worth buying if you want to blow things up without worrying about realism or consequences. At a reasonable price point, it delivers over 20 hours of main story content plus endless side chaos. You can unlock dozens of achievements by completing specific challenges like finishing the Murderbrawl arc or destroying the STAG aircraft carrier. The co-op mode makes it easier to handle the later missions with friends. Volition made something that feels fresh even years after release because they leaned hard into absurdity. Skip this if you prefer serious crime dramas or realistic simulations. Play this if you want to see how many cars you can crash in one minute while laughing at the ridiculous dialogue.

Storyline

A while after the Ultor Corporation falls, the 3rd Street Saints have turned their street gang into a media empire, becoming icons and household names across the world, with their own energy drink, Japanese commercials, toys, a large fanbase, and a movie deal in the works. But when they attempt to rob a bank with actor Josh Birk, who is to play a Saint's member, their everyday routine takes an unlikely turn when the bank tellers unexpectedly start an all out gun war on the saints. The Saints attempt to airlift the vault out of the building, but when Birk foolishly sets off the alarm, it alerts the Stilwater P.D. and, after a large-scale firefight with police and S.W.A.T, the Saints are incarcerated. In jail, Saints second-in-command Johnny Gat laments what the Saints have become, expressing disappointment at having strayed from their roots. At that point, an international criminal organization, called The Syndicate, bribes the police to release the Boss, Gat, and Shaundi. The three are forcibly taken to the Syndicate's leader Phillipe Loren, to try and negotiate a business plan with them aboard Loren's private jet. While in-flight, Loren tells them they will be allowed to live if they turn over 2/3 of the Saints' business in Stilwater. The Boss and Gat immediately reject this offer, and are able to fight their way out, with Gat commanding the plane back to Stilwater. The Boss and Shaundi use a parachute to escape the plane, but Gat is believed to be killed in the process. Upon landing, the Boss and Shaundi find themselves in Steelport, the dystopian criminal city controlled by the Syndicate, a group of three gangs: The Morning Star, a gang with advanced technology equipment, controlled by Loren himself, the Luchadores, a Mexican gang lead by the killer wrestler Killbane, and the Deckers, a hacker-based gang led by Matt Miller. After calling Pierce Washington, the Boss's second-in-command, to Steelport, the Saints seize a Morning Star penthouse for their new headquarters, hijack a UAV from a military base, and begin attacking Morning Star's businesses, culminating with an attack on Syndicate Tower, Loren's headquarters, in which the Saints rescue Oleg Kirlov, an apparent superhuman and template for the Syndicate's Brute clones, and Loren is killed. When the Saints try to transport Gat's body to Stilwater for his funeral, Killbane, now leader of the Syndicate, leads an attack on them. The fight destroys Stilwater's Hughes Memorial Bridge in the process. To retaliate, the player seeks out anti-Syndicate talent, recruiting Oleg as an enforcer, ex-FBI hacker Kinzie Kensington as an informant; Zimos, the oldest pimp in Steelport; and Angel de la Muerte, Killbane's vengeful former tag-team partner. They are later joined by Viola DeWynter after Killbane kills her twin sister Kiki out of rage due to a failed assassination attempt on the Boss. Her defection, however, coincides with the arrival of the paramilitary S.T.A.G. (Special Tactical Anti-Gang) forces in Steelport, created by Senator Monica Hughes after the destruction of the bridge to end gang violence once and for all. The Saints take on STAG regardless, resulting in Steelport going under martial law, whilst also dealing with the Syndicate. After providing Kinzie with the appropriate technology, the player enters the Deckers mainframe, defeating Deckers leader Matt Miller's avatar in a virtual reality fight and driving him and most of the Deckers out of town. At Angel's insistence, the player opts to take on Killbane by killing the other contestants in his Murderbrawl XXXI pay-per-view to gain entrance, and then, with Angel's help, defeating Killbane in Murderbrawl with the option to unmask or spare him. Following his humiliating defeat, an enraged Killbane responds by instigating several attacks on the Saints and STAG throughout Steelport to cause chaos. Whilst quelling the fighting between the Luchadores and STAG, the Boss is simultaneously informed that Killbane is escaping the city while STAG second-in-command Kia is holding Shaundi, Viola, and Mayor Burt Reynolds hostage at a Steelport monument rigged to blow to frame the Saints. The Boss kills Kia and saves Shaundi and the others, the Saints are hailed as heroes for saving the monument and STAG pulls out of Steelport with the threat that they will be back. The Boss tracks Killbane down to Mars and kill him in what is ultimately revealed to be a scene from the Saints sci-fi film Gangstas in Space, which the Boss and several members are acting in. An alternate, non-canonical ending plays out should the player opt to eliminate Killbane. In which the destruction of the monument is used as a pretext by STAG to attack Steelport with the airborne aircraft carrier Daedalus. The Boss destroys the Daedalus, killing STAG leader Cyrus Temple in the process, and declares Steelport an independent city-state under the Saints' control, with Pierce taking charge as mayor, and the Boss as the ultimate leader.