Saints Row: The Third: The Full Package

Genre: Open-World Action-RPG

Players: 1-2 Co-Op (Local Wireless, Online)

The Nintendo Switch 2 Difference

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Review:

(Note: This game is included in the Saints Row: The Big Purple Package compilation, along with Saints Row IV: Re-Elected)

Saints Row the Third: The Full Package is a port of the 2011 Open-World Action-RPG in the vein of the Grand Theft Auto series. This version of the game includes all of the previously-released DLC.

Okay, I’m going to start this by recognizing a big elephant that happens to be standing in this room. When this game was released, is was absolutely thrashed by critics for its poor performance on the Switch – framerates, poor textures, and interface delay being major ones flaws many pointed to. However, in the time since, the developers have released patches to address many of these issues.

Full disclosure, I have neither played the version of this game released to Switch prior to the patch, nor have I played any other version of Saint’s Row: The Third. As such, I cannot tell you about the changes the game’s patch introduced, nor can I compare this to other versions of the game. I can only give you my own personal impressions based on what I have here before me. And what I have here before me is… actually, pretty good.

Don’t get me wrong, this game still has graphical problems. The resolution is great (1080p in docked mode and 720p in handheld mode), and I didn’t have any issues with the framerates, textures, or interface delay. However, this game has very noticeable aliasing issues, causing lots of jagged edges and flickering visuals (In handheld mode, the flickering is a bit less noticeable, but the lower resolution is a bit more noticeable). What’s more, there’s some pop-up that happens pretty frequently as well. On top of this, multiple times while I was playing, characters “glitched” into the wrong position, or even outright popping in or out of existence.

Now, none of this made the game “unplayable” for me. I was able to roll with the game’s oddities just fine, in part because they seem in keeping with the game’s ridiculously exaggerated world that could only exist within a videogame. However, if you’re looking for a clean, smooth, bug-free experience, this ain’t it.

Even beyond this, ignoring the flaws, this game very much has the look and feel of a game from 2011. Character models are a little rough, and while this game’s world does have some nice details, it pales in comparison to more recent releases like Grand Theft Auto V. It doesn’t look bad, just dated.

Okay, I think that’s all the major complaints out of the way, are you still with me? I said I thought this game was good, but I wasn’t going to ignore the flaws, and this game definitely has flaws. However, now that we’ve made it through all of that, let me just say that… largely, all of that stuff I just complained about doesn’t matter all that much, because this game is a blast to play.

Switch owners, this is currently the closest thing to Grand Theft Auto on the Switch, except Saint’s Row The Third takes the extreme and absurd elements of Grand Theft Auto and pumps them up to eleven. This is a game where a violent murderous gang has become a cultural phenomenon, gone corporate, and now stages bank heists like they’re a publicity stunt. This is a game where you can run around completely nude (with pixelation filter on the naughty bits) and beat people to death using a giant purple dildo. This is a game where rival gangs summon super-speed ninja schoolgirls and chain gun-wielding giants. The opening bank heist sequence is followed up by a mid-air gunfight, where you’re actually skydiving while fighting skydiving thugs, busting into and out of an airplane while dodging falling debris.

This game is off-the-wall bonkers, and I totally love it.

While the game is filled to the brim with absurdity, it also works amazingly well as a straight-up competitor to Grand Theft Auto, giving you plenty of things to do in its open world, whether you just want to steal cars and weapons and bring them back to your base, take down competing gangs, take on various mission challenges, invest in businesses around town, or actually, you know, do the game’s story campaign. The amount of variety and things to do here is fantastic, and tons of fun, whether that’s getting into a gunfight, using a car to flee the cops, or jumping into one of the game’s setpiece battles.

Don’t get me wrong – this game is no rival to the likes of Grand Theft Auto V. But it’s no lazy cash-in on the GTA series’ successes, either. Rather, you can see this as an absurd, rougher cousin to the GTA series, with its own unique personality that still manages to stand tall when placed next to its more famous competitor.

A few things make me slow down in my enthusiasm for this game, though. Beyond the issues I noted above, it needs to be said that this game is nearly a decade old, and by all accounts it has not been improved in any way since The Full Package was released one year after its initial launch. Yet, despite this, the game has an absolutely insulting $40 price tag slapped on it. If the game were improved in any way, or if it hasn’t been so long since its initial release, that price tag might make more sense, but with the game we’re being given, it really should be half that price. And there really are no improvements here – no gyroscopic aiming, no touchscreen controls (not even for stuff that would make sense, like the in-game Smartphone menu), and we’ve already gone over the game’s graphics…

Still, despite Saints Row: The Third’s technical issues, despite its age, and despite its ridiculously high price tag, this game is still an absolute joy to play, and pretty much the only thing like it on the Switch (well, at least until Saint’s Row IV comes out). If you’re a fan of games like Grand Theft Auto and somehow haven’t played this game yet, definitely give it a try. If you’re looking for a great open-world crime game to play on the go, this does an excellent job filling that role. However, if you played the original release and are expecting anything improved here… don’t.

tl;dr – Saint’s Row: The Third is a Grand Theft Auto-style Open-World Action-RPG with the absurdity level set to absolute maximum (including the sex and violence). The game still has some graphical issues even after being patched, but they don’t interfere too much with the gameplay, which is absolutely brilliant, and well worth playing for anyone looking for a game like GTA on the Switch. However, I don’t appreciate that this decade-old game looks and feels like a decade-old game but is still being sold for $40. Still worth it if you can get a good deal on it, though.

Grade: B+

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The Nintendo Switch 2 Difference

Saints Row: The Third: The Full Package

Genre: Open-World Action-RPG

Players: 1-2 Co-Op (Local Wireless, Online)

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Review:

(Note: This game is included in the Saints Row: The Big Purple Package compilation, along with Saints Row IV: Re-Elected)

Saints Row the Third: The Full Package has had a really tumultuous run on Nintendo Switch, from a disastrous launch to a patch that greatly-improved things, and now the question is how things have changed on Nintendo Switch 2. I should note that it isn’t reflected in my original review, but the price has since dropped from an absurd $40 to a more reasonable $20. However, we still need to ask whether the game is worth that price on Nintendo Switch 2.

We need to start by looking at the original game on Nintendo Switch, because it’s an interesting case. The framerate is decent and the resolution is… okay… but there’s all sorts of nasty aliasing, ugly shadows, pop-in, and a weird environmental shimmering that just makes the game look ugly. I’m honestly not sure what’s going on here. It’s playable, but it does not look great.

So the good news is that playing the game on Nintendo Switch 2 improves it in numerous ways. The original game had dynamic resolution, which tops out on Nintendo Switch 2 meaning the resolution overall looks pretty good. The framerates, also, are much smoother here. What’s more, the loading times seem to have been greatly improved too, with it taking 18 seconds to load up a game on Nintendo Switch and only 9 seconds on Nintendo Switch 2.

The bad news is that all of the problems I noted above are still present here, resulting in a game that still looks pretty terrible.

I would absolutely love to get a port of Saints Row: The Third Remastered on Nintendo Switch 2, as the game itself is still outstanding, and it would be nice to get a version of the game that actually looks good. Sadly, Nintendo Switch 2 owners will just have to manage with this version of the game which, while much-improved from what we got on Nintendo Switch, still leaves a lot to be desired.

tl;dr – Saint’s Row: The Third is a Grand Theft Auto-style Open-World Action-RPG with the absurdity level set to absolute maximum (including the sex and violence). The game still has some graphical issues even on Nintendo Switch 2, but they don’t interfere too much with the gameplay, which is absolutely brilliant, and well worth playing.

Grade: B+

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