When I heard about Saints Row I couldn't help but be excited. I mean, a game about a bunch of grown men running around in clothes that don't fit at all, wielding all sorts of high-powered weaponry to rob some bling bling and get it on with 'hos and bitches'? And it plays almost exactly like Grand Theft Auto?! This could be a video game revolution! I mean, you can go anywhere you want! Come on!

In case you're part of the crowd this game portrays and can't tell that I'm being sarcastic, then, well I just told you... I'm being sarcastic. Saints Row is easily the least original game I've ever laid my hands on and it doesn't hide this at all. If Saints Row had one goal in mind, it clearly is to emulate Grand Theft Auto as much as possible and improve upon that game's weak points. In this respect Saints does incredibly well, and even manages to in fact be every bit as good as GTA in many ways.

In what is easily one of the worst storylines ever conceived, you play as an unnamed, fully customizable character who is nearly killed in a gang shootout for simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Rescued by Julius (played by the always great Keith David), you are taken in and made an honorary member of the Third Street Saints, one of four gangs in the city of Stilwater. As a member you ride with your crew in an attempt to take back the city by killing off the other gangs and, unlike the GTA series, this game actually does encourage what GTA is often criticized for; namely killing innocents and law-enforcement, and even using drugs to enhance your abilities - NARC style.

Saints Row isn't an educational game and doesn't hide that, although it could do with a serious disclaimer at the beginning, considering the activities involved. Aside from the typical run-and-gunning and carjacking, you can involve yourself in several questionable activities, such as drug trafficking, insurance fraud, becoming a professional hitman, escorting hookers and more. This game is not for kids or the easily influenced, and honestly it's a bit frightening that THQ is trying so hard to emulate the people who do this sort of stuff in real life. Regardless of its downright immoral nature, Saints Row is an undeniably good game. The engine has been built from the ground up by Volition, makers of the Red Faction series, for your Xbox 360 and runs exceptionally well, while looking good doing it. It excels by actually creating a game engine that is more fun than GTA's, whether you want to believe that or not.

First of all, the movement isn't as touchy as Grand Theft Auto's has a habit of being and is more polished. For instance, if your car door is wide open and you go through a narrow opening in reverse (and low speed) then your door will in fact prevent your car from getting by, as it jams against the wall. In most video games the door would clip right through the wall or break off with the slightest nudge, but thanks to the Havok physics engine (the same ones used in everything from Halo 2 to Over The Hedge), Saints Row features some impressive interaction and detail in everything around you. That door will react to anything it touches - and this is modified depending on how fast you're going! For example the previously mentioned instance with the door jamming your car up wouldn't happen if you were going faster - instead the door would break off with impressive detail, but only if you're moving fast enough. Saints Row easily contains the most impressive physics seen in an open-ended sandbox game. Go on and kick that TV! Knock that streetlight over while you're at it; hell, why not try to knock it over and have it land inside your car so you can drive around town with a makeshift tail! Yes, it's possible, and the ragdoll physics as well as just about every in-game animation beat GTA by leaps and bounds.

So, Saints Row has a better, albeit it very similar game engine to GTA. What's next? Well, the artificial intelligence for enemy drivers trying to get away from you is simply phenomenal and takes you on some very exciting chases, no matter where you attack them, and the game has a very well implemented HUD with a great map system to lead you to your destination efficiently. Then there's the shooting... and while it isn't all that great, it is far more reliable than GTA. There is no auto-targeting to be found at all and there is also no way to zoom in to an over-the-shoulder perspective; you simply move the cursor on the screen and let loose - it isn't great, but it is simple and works every time you need it, without ever screwing you over. One excellent touch is the fact that you can run in any direction and always shoot where your curser is; your character will shoot over his shoulder, or even toss grenades behind him without having to turn and face the right way beforehand. [GTA's clunky shooting system has been the source of much frustration and needless dying for me! But, you put up with it because the game is so damn amazing. Tolerate-Ed].

Saints Row quickly looks to be every bit as good as GTA, but then you start to play the actual game. Though there are some cool mission scenarios, the overall story - and the main missions - are nowhere near GTA quality and lack the freedom that the notorious series provides. Granted, no gangsta will end up breaking into Area 51 to steal a jetpack, followed by a harrier jet, in real life, but I now see why San Andreas was so over the top... Saints Row's storyline is absolutely trite, with only one redeeming quality - there's a twist ending, although it isn't very good and it's very poorly thought out. In fact, saying it's "thought out" at all is giving it far too much credit, because it clearly was a last minute addition to get players talking!

Most missions have you either doing something that will piss off another gang (Los Carnales, Vice Kings, or the Rollerz), such as messing up their supply shipments or killing a handful of them, while others are setup missions for bigger things down the line. This basically applies to all the missions in the game, and instead of creating a big, progressive storyline, we're given three small ones with nothing very special about any of them. The only time the story gets interesting are in each gang's final mission, plus the aforementioned grand finale.

In an ironic twist, then, that the activities you must do carry out - mainly to earn enough respect points to do the main missions - are vastly superior to any side quest found in GTA, and lacking any of the good deeds such as Vigilante or Ambulance missions. The fan favorite of the bunch, Insurance Fraud, challenges players to throw themselves into harm's way in an attempt to rack up insurance cash. Players can even drive into things at high-speeds to launch out of the car window and earn an eject bonus! Other activities, like the challenging Hitman or Drug Trafficking mini-games, keep Saints Row fun when most games become tedious and dull (Ultimate Spider-Man for instance). Generally speaking, forcing players to partake in side-quests like these is not a good idea, but Saints Row has so many different ones, each with up to eight levels each, that you could beat the game and have only completed your favorite side-quests; for instance, I finished the main game with enough respect by only doing drug-trafficking, insurance fraud, destruction derby and hijacking missions (the latter of which challenges you to reach a specified moving car, jack it and bring it back under extreme wanted levels!) I didn't even touch the racing, hitman or escort missions until later, after the main mission was finished.

If you try hard enough you can even get all of your respect without touching any of these activities, but it takes some extra work. One way is to always help protect your gang's territory - like San Andreas you'll often find other gangs trying to take back your areas and you'll need to get in there and stop them, because apparently your gang can't fight for themselves. Personally I hated these missions and found it distracting from the story at hand, but then again you aren't required to do them until you finish all three gang storylines.

Outside of gang invasions you'll find two main non-activity activities - the first you can do any time you hijack a car with a passenger; drive away fast enough and you can activate a Hostage mode where you need to drive recklessly enough to get cash out of the passenger without letting them escape - and without getting busted by the pursuing cops. The other, and much more fun activity, is Robbery. Any time you go to a shop (of which there are many) at night, you can break in and rob a safe via a very touchy safe-cracking mini-game and either rob the cash inside or carry a box of goodies to your car, load it up and head to a pawn shop with extreme police interest. Finally, you can even do some good ol' fashioned graffiti and spray over rival gangs' tags to earn some extra respect, but not a whole lot.

Though Saints Row may have a superior game engine and improve on many problems with GTA, such as a poor targeting system and touchy on-foot controls, it lacks many of the additions made to the series after GTAIII. Sure, it lets you customize the main character, even buying new clothes and jewels, but the character lacks (mostly) any personality, whereas Vice City and San Andreas had two very memorable characters, which ultimately made the game that much more enjoyable. Saints Row also lacks sea and air vehicles; hell, there aren't even motorcycles! The weapons can't be dual wielded or upgraded in any way, with the selection of guns being considerably smaller than the GTA franchise (with a good yet predictable variety in type) and the driving feels a bit slippery in comparison. In fact, Saints Row could easily be confused for a direct sequel to GTAIII to people who aren't in-the-know; the writing is very similar with many tongue-in-cheek gags and even some surprisingly clever scripting (such as an argument between two characters over referring to the Los Carnales gang with a "the" prefix, as Los is spanish for the same word), while many billboards and gags throughout the game feature obscene sexual references or extreme profanity.

There's even a side-quest where certain cars need to be collected and brought back, exactly like every GTA has had; throw in a drive-through confessional that removes wanted levels at the start of the game and things are looking very familiar! Players can obtain cribs and stash cars as well, though Saints Row's system is completely different and lets you keep a huge list of cars that can be called up at any time from any garage. The radio stations are perhaps the biggest GTA influence you'll find, though! Rap, techno, rock, talk and, yes, even classical stations await you in any vehicle on the block - most of which are just as good as the ones found inside GTA, complete with a huge selection of songs. Ironically the overall tone of the radio, especially the talk station, is very mellow and subtle when compared to the rest of the game; the hosts of the talk show, for instance, often attempt to have serious debates and mostly do just that, and it's actually incredibly interesting to listen to. I'm almost sure it was improvised, as it sounds very authentic.

This is only the tip of the sound greatness, as one of the best aspects of the entire game, and one that features high quality throughout, is the sound. The guns, particularly pistols, are full of impact, and the voice acting is pretty good as well; but what really impressed me were the explosions, muffled music effects and the timing of civilian phrases. The muffled music is really an ingenious touch that I should have seen coming; if you get out of a car with music blaring, you still hear it! Imagine that! And it sounds authentic - as you move further and further away you hear it less and less, always with a very convincing muffled filter on it that sounds exactly like listening to music, or DJs, through a car radio whilst outside the car. Oh, and just wait until it starts raining and tell me that those aren't the best in-game weather sound effects you've ever heard!

The rain looks quite nice as well, but that isn't what stands out most when it comes to the graphics; it's the textures, character models and most especially the explosions, which rival even the excellent blasts found in The Godfather, and that's quite a compliment in my book. There is slight pop-up unfortunately, but it balances out considering that the game runs smoothly through the entire city with nearly no loading times, even into numerous indoor areas.

As good as the graphics and special effects are, Saints Row is sadly hindered by some disturbing technical issues. There is quite a bit of tearing found in specific areas of the game, particularly the highways, and this issue crops up on both older systems and a brand new one. It also has a very limited memory when it comes to cars being where you left them, something GTA is much better at doing (even on the PS2!) One other major issue is the camera and how it controls whilst driving - it isn't really a noticeable issue until you start to use your gun in conjunction with driving and aiming, but there most definitely needed to be either a way to map your own controls, or the fire button should have been mapped to the right joystick when you click it, like in Full Auto; as it is, it's very difficult to aim and fire while still holding down the gas and not crashing your car into the side of a building or another vehicle.

Easily the biggest feature Saints Row has over GTA is the inclusion of online play, which is very well thought out; players can import their single player characters and buy new clothes or equipment with money earned from playing ranked online matches, of which you can earn a bonus by getting multiple kills in a row. Easily my favorite part of online is something we should have had in every 360 game from the start... PARTIES! What good is a matchmaking system if you can't enjoy it with friends? That was the beauty of Halo 2, the innovator of matchmaking, and finally a game has taken notes and allowed players to play ranked matchmaking games with their friends, together. Available modes include two co-op levels that play out more like a match of Ghost Recon instead of Saints Row, with no vehicles and all shooting. The actual competitive modes are quite innovative, with Protect the Pimp or Blinged Out Ride standing out, the latter of which has two teams competing to get their ride to an upgrade shop first whilst trying to take out the other team's wheels. Overall the game is a blast online, but with an extremely limited map selection and, as of this writing, horrible lag issues, it doesn't have the longevity an online mode needs.

Saints Row is easily the best GTA clone out there, and that could have something to do with the unhidden fact that it blatantly takes a lot from GTA. It's even superior to the larger-than-life franchise in a lot of ways, but many redeeming qualities are lost because of the short and completely un-involving storyline, boring lead character (you can combine customization with an actual character, just look at San Andreas), and lack of features found as standard in the later incarnations of the Grand Theft Auto franchise. Still, Saints Row is a solid new franchise and a great title to pick up for your 360, yet you can't help but feel that it only has certain advantages over GTA because of the enhanced hardware. We shall see, come the release of GTA4...

Reviewed by Christopher Martin for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).