Review by: Brandon "Respect" Cackowski-Schnell

At one point in Saints Row: The Third your mission is to drive a live tiger around in the front seat of your car, mollifying it with feats of vehicular artistry lest it get enraged and maul you, all the while dodging vans of animal rights activists. The combination of absurdity and mayhem perfectly describes what it feels like to play this game. By the time the game ends, powersliding a jungle beast around the city is the least crazy thing you will have done.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Steelport.

You can throw genre names around all you want, but make no mistake, this is not an open world game—this is a sandbox game. This is a game where Volition gives you a space and dumps their box of mismatched toys into it. This is the video game equivalent of asking a seven year old to describe to you their idea of what would make the best day ever.

Do you want to parachute on to your co-op partner’s VTOL jet and then surf across town on the way to destroying a group of luchadores? Go ahead. Would you like to dress up in a bear suit, suck people up in a catapult van and then hurl your hapless victims at SWAT helicopters? Here you go. Or maybe all you want to do is run around naked and perform wrestling moves on unsuspecting pedestrians. If so, go nuts.

The absurd mayhem present is nothing new to the Saints Row world; however this is the first time that the game feels truly comfortable in its own skin. The last game had the crazy stunts but also displayed an emotional weight in its story missions that was sometimes at odds with the fact that you could play the game in a hotdog suit. This time around, that emotional weight is largely gone but your connection to your character and your desire to see him or her climb to the top of Steelport’s criminal pyramid is no worse for it.

This is achieved, in part, by the extension of an already excellent customization engine. Every aspect of your character—from their eyebrow ridge to their clothes and tattoos to the cars they ride around in can be tweaked, altered, and tweaked again until you get a character that best expresses your inner gangster. Now though, rather than dole out skills and abilities for performing activities, these abilities are purchased through your cellphone, further tailoring the experience to your liking. Maybe you bought all of the explosive damage upgrades to where you bombs no longer hurt you. I guess we know who’s going to strap on sticky bombs to take out that nest of rival gang members. Maybe your co-op partner can call in a VTOL jet from anywhere in the city. I guess we know who’s providing air support while you try and steal that garbage truck. Whether you want to make more money, get more respect, do more damage, receive lesser injuries or be able to command the biggest, baddest, best armed group of stylishly designed, armed thugs— the choice is yours.