Saints Row: The Third Remastered

There are remasters and then there are remasters. Some companies would have just taken Saints Row: The Third, tweaked the lighting a little, bundled it with all of its DLC and shoved it out on current-gen consoles with an improved resolution and called it a day. With Saints Row: The Third Remastered, however, Sperasoft and Volition have pretty much improved every single asset and implemented graphical features that make it stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the prettiest open world games available right now. This is still Saints Row: The Third – which is to say that it’s one of the most enjoyable...

Saints Row: The Third Remastered brings the classic three-quel back warts and all, and that's okay. Even if some elements haven't aged gracefully, the majority of the experience still retains the chaotic fun of the original and provides an experience most anyone out for some mindless fun could find hours of enjoyment in.

Running around, shooting people, stealing cars and shoving grenades down throats. That’s what you want from a Saints Row game. Newcomers to the franchise will enjoy the heck out of it, but longtime fans won’t find anything new. Pretty, but not new.

When Saints Row The Third released nine years ago, I was one of the people who played it religiously. I had the strategy guide, I’d watched the “Power” trailer a million times over and I spent all of that Christmas nut-punching civilians and dive-bombing into cars. Ahh, the good old days.

If you’re a fan of Saints Row, or if you’re at all curious about the franchise, this remaster is well worth the time and money. But if Saints Row’s particular style isn’t for you, there’s nothing new here that will change your mind.

I may have wanted more out of Saints Row: The Third Remastered, but it's still as much a blast to play today as it was in 2011, and now it's prettier to boot. Grumbles aside, what more could I ask for?

The big positive, at least for me, is that running around Steelport with my Homies again has me more than excited for whatever Saints Row 5 ends up being. They lost the plot a bit with Saints Row 4, but I’m hopeful that, much like the great Han Seoul-Oh, SR5 can rise from the ashes as something greater.

Hearing Troy Baker shout "get the **** out of here!" as you punch a policeman square in his privates is still pretty funny. In fact, Saints Row The Third in general is still pretty funny — at least, some of the time. The game's almost nine years old, yet Saints Row The Third Remastered is a welcome reminder of just how refreshingly stupid Volition's sandbox can be.

Saints Row 3 is mechanically the best the series has ever been, and narratively the worst it's ever been, leaving this born-too-late remaster a mixed bag.

Saints Row The Third: Remastered is probably the best version of this classic action-adventure about gangs 'n' guns. It just depends what that means to you in 2020.

Verdict: Saints Row The Third Remastered is sadly an outdated mess of mayhem that while fun in short bursts, isn’t great over the long haul. Add in the fact that there are still weird bugs that kept me from finishing more than one mission, despite having done everything I was told to do, it falls short. This is one of those games that unfortunately can ruin the memory of when it was in fact, groundbreaking. The game isn’t terrible, in fact, it still rates as good. Any more superlatives beyond that though, and it feels like lying.

Saints Row: The Third was one of 2011’s shining jewels. Blinged out in a mess of gaudy purple necklaces and chains, the third Saints title marked the series’ full transition into its true destiny of being a ridiculous parody of the open-world crime genre. SAINTS ROW: THE THIRD REMASTERED sees the Saints gearing back up with the same getup from 2011. And while the chains are more shiny, it’s just not at the apex of style that it used to be.