Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Top 5 Ways GTA is Better Than Saints Row


A couple of weeks ago I was fawning all over Saints Row like a teenager during his first trip to Hooters. But now that some time has passed, am I still enjoying the game. Absolutely. But I stick by something else I also said a couple of weeks ago, its not GTA.

I'm still enjoying Saints Row and it certainly will last longer than most games I play but it has flaws. Flaws that become more and more noticeable the longer you play. Some of those flaws are why the GTA franchise doesn't need to be looking over its shoulder any time soon.

Top 5 Ways GTA is Better Than Saints Row

1. Deeper storyline - While there certainly is a decent storyline in Saints Row, its more or less just an excuse to shoot people and blow stuff up. I don't really need excuses to do these things in games but if there is a plot, at least try and keep my interest. The GTA franchise does a great job of creating lead characters that are likable bad guys.

2. Wider variety of missions - The missions in Saints Row can get a little repetitive. Even though there is quite a variety, gamers more or less do three things: pick people/stuff up, drop people/stuff off, shoot people. Again, this isn't a bad thing but there are only so many ways to do them. The limited missions are mostly due to things you can do in GTA but not in Saints Row. In GTA you can go into buildings, there are a greater variety of vehicles to drive (helicopters, boats, motorcycles) and there are the very fun vigilante missions.

3. Better soundtrack - I'm not dogging the Saints Row soundtrack, its actually pretty good. But having tons of great songs from the 80's and 90's, like Vice City and San Andreas has, is almost impossible to beat.

4. Crazy innovation - Is Saints Row innovative at all? Aside from its mapping/waypoint sytem, no. Everything in the game is "borrowed" from GTA. I could list all of the great things the GTA franchise has come up with but it would take me all day. But Saints Row has nothing to be ashamed of because tons of other games have done the same thing. As the great Kevin Federline once said, "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery". I think it was right after he started dating Britney Spears and tried to become the next Justin Timberlake.

5. Its just plain funnier - Outrageous radio DJ's, hilarious commericals for fake products, pedestrians who comment on your actions, guys cracking on each other - and those are just the things I thought of in the last 10 seconds. Sure Saints Row has all of those things but after seeing how well GTA has done humor, it just can't keep up. Its like listening to a guy who's naturally funny tell a joke and then his slightly less funny buddy repeats it right after him. Not nearly the same reaction.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

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