Saints Row: The Third - Boxed - PS3

Saints Row: The Third. There is an extensive character creator that lets you tune every aspect of the protagonist's appearance, and a choice of seven voices (three male, three female, and Nolan North).

Saints Row IV continues its predecessor's course towards over-the-top action and humour. The game's gimmick is that the protagonist gains superpowers within the simulation, such as super jump, super sprint or telekinesis, which help them move around quickly and kill aliens who replace cops as law enforcers. These powers make driving practically unnecessary, but the player can still hijack and use cars. Third-person combat with melee and ranged weapons still plays an important role.

Like all Saints Row games, it offers various side activities that can be activated at certain points in the game world. The game then switches to the mini-game, and upon completion the player is rated with a bronze, silver or gold medal depending on performance. While some of the mini-games are familiar from previous instalments, such as Fraud or Tank Mayhem, most are new and revolve around the superpowers. For example, there's a race where the player has to complete a running course as fast as possible, and another where you have to jump precisely across platforms. While these mini-games were an essential part of the main missions in earlier Saints Row games, this time they are only needed for the teammates' side quests. The main storyline offers varied missions, mostly involving moving to a point and killing everything in sight, but also various sequences that parody other genres such as side-scrolling brawlers or top-down shooters. There are also additional side activities such as collecting audio diaries or destroying alien infrastructure points.

While the team members need to be rescued from their nightmares within the simulation, they are physically trapped on the main alien ship. To rescue them, the protagonist visits the ship a few times during the main storyline without access to superpowers - but sometimes with a mech instead. Otherwise, the real world only plays a minor role: the simulation can be exited to walk around the ship and talk to teammates. Besides starting missions, its only purpose is to parody the Mass Effect series and its romances.

There are rewards for progressing in the game: experience points (for unlocking personal upgrades such as better damage resistance or more damage with certain weapons) and Cache (for buying weapons, ammo and weapon upgrades) are earned for all actions in the game, but of course completing missions and activities is the most lucrative. New superpowers are automatically unlocked as the story progresses, but they also have upgrades such as gliding through the air after a super jump or more explosion damage. These upgrades require another currency: small glowing orbs found all over the city that need to be collected. Some powers can also have their effect altered, for example the explosion can be set to fire or ice. Using the phone, you can call unlocked cars and unlocked homie helpers (the main crew gains superpowers once they complete their side quests), check the map, or play licensed music in the background.

Multiplayer either means playing in co-op mode during the campaign (the second player basically replaces the homie) or starting one of two competitive activities.