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Intro to Game Development 課的第一份功課.. 我不是誇張，但我真是很享受寫的過程（但不認同必需給予分數的評論）．不過畢竟是用英語，略嫌不夠痛快．我也很久沒寫這種東西嘍.. 各位有空的話不妨讀讀爛文一篇～！

Game Review: Saint’s Row (Xbox 360)

Introduction:

Published by THQ, Saint’s Row is the latest project from Volition, the company that brought us titles such as The Punisher and Red Faction. Being a combination of third-person action and an open-ended game that does not have a linear storyline, this game is inevitably often compared to the Grand Theft Auto series by Rockstar. The game features a main plot, accompanied by various side missions as well as a detailed customization scheme for the user character and the vehicles in the game. A large selection of weapons and vehicles will be available, as well as a huge city for the player to explore in. Besides exploiting the advantage of the Xbox 360 power by allowing gamers to enjoy the visuals at 720p resolution, Saint’s Row is the first of its kind to offer online multiplayer gameplay for up to 8 players on Xbox Live.
The story begins with you being the newest member of the gang Third Street Saint’s, followed by appearances of other main characters including the members of the other three gangs in the city. As the story unfolds, the gamer is given a choice to prioritize his goals to eventually dominate the whole city. Paralleled plotlines combined with various side missions offer a unique path and pace for each gamer.

Visual/ Presentation: 8/10

Before actually engaging into the game, one can already find the graphics and 3D effects in Saint’s Row much better than its competition, given that the game is able to run at a high resolution of 720p on a HDTV. The pause menu is very user friendly, providing virtually all the information the gamer needs to begin his journey. On-screen display items are well equipped as well, saving players the trouble to always having to press pause to look for certain information.
Real time rendered cut-scenes fill the gap in-between missions, unlike titles such as “Mafia” which uses pre-rendered CG movies for cut-scenes. This increases the player’s immersion into the game.
The action control scheme is rather easy to get familiar with, and is pretty neat both when the character is on foot or driving in a car. Unfortunately the game suffers from a clumsy camera angle control, which can be a pain during events such as a car chase or a heated battle.
Despite of the fact that the polygons in game are quite solid and consistent, there are rare occasions where slowdowns are observed (e.g. in one of the mayhem side missions where the player needs to demolish everything in sight using a rocket launcher.).

Gameplay and Progression: 7/10

Fully customizable character allows creativity and breaks the “Tommy mold” in all open-ended games, you can now choose to roam the neighborhood as an obese albino.
A “respect meter” is placed in the corner of the screen, which will rise whenever the player successfully accomplish things that will bring up the morale of the Saint’s Row gang. These things include attacking enemy gang members, the police, or completing side missions. As a consequence for raising your “respect meter”, the count in your “hate meter” will also rise, which works very similarly to the accumulation of “police stars” in the Grand Theft Auto series.
The game lets players progress in their own pace, and into their desired directions. One can conquer all the side missions first, or choose to defeat one of the three opposing gangs. Difficulty is relatively low, proven by features such as the ability to carry food in addition to weapons, as well as certain places on the map that allow players to zero their hate meters at a price. Getting away from killing cops has never been easier.
Saint’s Row features some original ideas when it comes to side missions, some of them can be really amusing. One of the side missions is called “Insurance Fraud” in which the player has to go to a designated area where no one obeys the traffic laws, the player then has to catch the perfect moment to run out on the streets and hopefully receive a severe crash by vehicles. More money is earned if the crash results in more damage. This particular also fully showcase the game’s advanced ragdoll physics engine, which longer gives the gamer a rehearsed set of motions everytime. Some of the other side missions are your typical “hitman”, “mayhem” and “car race” types.
A cell phone in the game allows you to call up your buddies which will come to assist you if they are available, which can be very helpful in some of the missions. Player can also recruit members of the Third Street Saint’s who usually appear on the streets of the Saint’s territories.
A good feature is the level up system of the character. Upon successful completion of missions or acquisition of territories, the gamer receive more support by gang members or a new helper on his cell phone name list, rather than power-ups for the character himself. This way the gamer will tend to always depend on partners while doing a mission, rather than becoming a powerful but solo gunman.
Online multiplayer support (up to 8 players) provides not only deathmatch and co-op games, but most importantly the feeling of “fighting as a gang member” to the gamer.
Some of the shortcomings of the game include a short storyline and the lack of depth in the side missions. The difficulty of each side mission can only be raised to the eighth level, and maxes out after that. There is also a lack of different things to do in this well-built city, due to the fact that land vehicles are the only transportation in game. Things will be a lot more different if the player gets to drive a speedboat or a mini plane.

Audio: 6/10

The majority of soundtrack in the game will be the music and chatter from the car radio, which are well recorded but can be annoying. The game also does not want the gamers to play their own music in the player, apparently wanting gamers to find the 60 hidden CDs in order to unlock special music, or simply walk into a virtual record store to purchase a tune. If sounds from one radio are enough to drive you nuts, avoid a gang war at all cost because one does not need to sit in a vehicle in order to hear the radio.
The sound effects and the voice acting are done decently, however.

Conclusion:

Saint’s Row is definitely a worthy competition of the Grand Theft Auto series, with enough unique features to stand on its own instead of duplicating its opponent. The variety of side missions as well as the enhanced game elements such as better graphics and physics engine will definitely give gamers something that other open-ended games cannot.
This game takes over all other open-world games in many aspects, and is the perfect title for those who think the difficulty in Grand Theft Auto games is way too insane.
The slight lack in depth of the game should never prevent players to give this title a try – just the customizable characters and online multiplayer modes alone will be sufficient in order to keep one’s fingers crossed for a sequel.

Total score: 7.5/10