Saints Row

**Release date** | * 2006-08-29 (US)

***Saints Row*** is a game in the *Saints Row* series.

## Overview

*Saints Row* was released August 29, 2006 in North America, and on September 1, 2006 in Europe and Australia. Though the game was also announced for the Sony PlayStation 3 to be released at a later date, this port was canceled in favor of putting more resources towards the game's sequel, *Saints Row 2*, for release on both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. On May 29, 2018, *Saints Row* was added to the XBox One Backwards Compatibility list.

*Saints Row* is similar to *Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas* in terms of story and gameplay. The game takes place in the fictional city of Stilwater which is plagued by urban violence between four rival gangs. Playa, caught in the middle of the violence, is offered the chance to join the 3rd Street Saints to help fight the other gangs. In addition to several common elements with the Grand Theft Auto series, *Saints Row* introduces many additional features, including extensive Player Customization, a 64-vehicle garage, a GPS, an activity and respect system, and online multiplayer modes.

The game was released to commercial and critical success, selling over 1 million copies by the end of 2006, and prompting for development of its sequel.[*reference?*]

## Official Description

*Join the 3rd Street Saints in their battle for control of Stilwater in the 1st urban open world game for the Xbox 360! Offering extensive character customization, 13 unique pick up activities, 4 story lines, and a sprawling city that's unlocked from the start, Saints Row is the next evolutionary step in open world gaming.*

*Welcome to Stilwater, a city where the streets are everything but tranquil. Divided by rivaling gangs, you'll need to adopt savvy street smarts to build respect, make money and gain notoriety, let alone stay alive. As a member of the 3rd St. Saint's, you need to push back against a city looking to wipe you out, in order to rise up the ranks and eventually control the streets. If it takes theft, extortion or tried and true brute force, then that's what ya gotta do. Only then will you rule the streets. BUT watch your back - on your purpose to rise as the city's controlling syndicate, reputable and powerful gangs, including politicians have you in their crosshairs.*

* *The way you like it - Never seen before non-linear game play in a completely open environment, delivering an experience unlike any other inside a fully realized living city, where anything can happen and undoubtedly will.*
* *Be who you want to be - Create your character from 1000's of options and outfit him with the latest threads as you rise up in the ranks. Knuckle up or pop a glock to shape your street cred and build an increasingly feared gang.*
* *Clunker to a Classic - Use money to collect, customize and trick-out your cars gaining 'much respect' in the process.*
* *Smokin' tunes - Whether in a stolen ride or one bought through racketeering, chill to any of 12 radio stations to hear dope tracks and pick up tips that could help you on your rise to the top.*
* *Multiplayer mayhem - Recruit gang members or take out rival gangs online in several different modes of play. Use the money gaffled to maintain your growing need for cars, women and gear.*

## Gameplay

*Saints Row* is a third-person shooter that takes place in the city of Stilwater, a large sandbox environment. The game is structured around completing main storyline missions and side activities, earning in-game Cash and other benefits to assist in future missions. These missions typically entail travelling around the city, carjacking vehicles, meeting people, collecting objects at checkpoints, facing off rival gangs in firefights, and other tasks. The game's main story missions are split into three separate arcs, each dealing with a rival gang in Stilwater. Missions are started manually, and free-roam is available immediately after the opening cutscene, and all missions may be exited at any time to return to free-roam.

After failing a mission, there is an option to restart it immediately rather without having to return to the mission origin. It is possible to recruit fellow Saints gang members, and to unlock specal "Homies", who can either assist in missions or grant a quick benefit such as a vehicle driven to their location.

*Saints Row* introduces a "Respect" system that are tied to "activities" within the game. These activities are located in various places around Stilwater, and include street racing, carjacking, robbery, Drug Trafficking, pimping, kidnapping, and Insurance Fraud. Each set of activities has 8 levels representing the difficulty of the task. Completing each level earns a fixed amount of "respect" relative to the difficulty of the task. A certain level of respect must be earned in order to initiate a new mission, which can be earned by completing any activity. It is optional which activities are completed, there are no compulsory activities and it is not necessary to complete all activities in order to complete the storyline,

Stilwater is separated into Districts and Neighborhoods, initially under control of the rival gangs in the city. Neighborhoods are taken over by the Saints upon completion of Missions and Strongholds.

Police and Gang "Notoriety" bars show the current level of attention from enemies, causing Stilwater Police Department and enemy gangs to give chase.

Playa can be customised using a number of different facial and body features, hair, jewelry and tattoos, as well as numerous styles of clothing available from Stores around Stilwater. The choice of color and style of the clothes can affect the game, as by dressing in the Saints' colors (purple) earns a respect bonus when completing activities. Additionally, vehicles can be customised at Rim Jobs with custom parts and paint jobs, and music can be purchased through Scratch That.

## Plot

*Saints Row* starts in the year 2006 with an unnamed character in the fictional island City of Stilwater, based on cities such as Detroit and Chicago[*reference?*], in the middle of a gang war between several gang factions. Though he attempts to maintain distance, members from one gang attempt to gun him down; however, the 3rd Street Saints, led by Julius Little, step in and save him. After proving himself to the Saints, he's initiated into the gang and then asked to assist to take over the city from three rival gangs: Los Carnales, Westside Rollerz, and the Vice Kings. Over the course of the game, Playa assists in various offensive and defensive actions against each rival gang, slowly bringing the entire city under control by the Saints.

Because of the three different gangs, there are three linear plots that deal with the conquest of each gang, though events in one plot do not affect any of the other plots. At the end of the game each rival gang has been defeated, and all of Stilwater is under the Saints' control.

The game has a false ending showing Playa receiving a call from Julius, who says he he is making him his new right hand man. However, he implies that he is about to be pulled over by police. At this point, other members of the Saints ask Playa for their orders.

After the credits roll, three more "epilogue" missions are unlocked in linear order. The Saints are contacted by the corrupt chief of police who demands that they assassinate the mayor of Stilwater in return for Julius' release. Once the mayor is dead, however, the police chief goes back on his word, and the Saints kill him in retribution. Playa is then invited to the private yacht of Alderman Richard Hughes, the only other candidate in the upcoming mayoral election. He thanks Playa for eradicating his political rival and announces his plans to use his mayoral power to destroy the Saints. During his speech, scenes of several Saints members after the events of the game are shown, with several of them seeming anxious and looking at their watches. As Hughes is about to order his bodyguards to kill Playa, the yacht explodes, ending the game on a cliffhanger.

## Gangs and characters

Stilwater is ruled primarily by four gangs:

### 3rd Street Saints

*Main Article: 3rd Street Saints*
The purple-clad gang which Playa joins. The gang is racially diverse, specializing in gang warfare in an attempt to take back the city from the other gangs and restore peace. The Saints are led by Julius Little, with lieutenants Johnny Gat, Dex, and Troy Bradshaw backing him up. Lin works as a spy to infiltrate the Rollerz and Aisha is a R&B singer from Saint's Row signed on with the Vice Kings' record label, Kingdom Come Records. The Saints start their operations from a derelict church in a run-down residential area on East side of Stilwater.

### Los Carnales

*Main Article: Los Carnales*
Primarily made up of Hispanics and Caucasians and sporting red colors, Los Carnales specialize in arms and drug trafficking. Hector Lopez leads the gang with his brother Angelo Lopez, who is dating Luz. Victor Rodriguez is their enforcer, and Manuel Orejuela is the contact between Los Carnales and the Colombian drug lords. The Carnales operate primarily out of the region around the airport and the run-down industrial areas of Stilwater.

### Vice Kings

*Main Article: Vice Kings*
The Vice Kings are a mix of African-Americans and Caucasians, and run much of Stilwater's entertainment, including retail, prostitution, and music. The gang is led by Benjamin King with the assistance of ex-hip hop artist Warren Williams and enforcer Tony Green. Tanya Winters is a prostitute who hooked up with Anthony and worked her way into running the prostitution ring. The Vice Kings' gang colors are yellow. The Vice Kings' main territory is the opulent commercial/downtown area, home to big business, museums and exclusive shopping areas.

### Westside Rollerz

*Main Article: Westside Rollerz*
The Westside Rollerz are composed of Asian-Americans and Caucasians, and dress in blue. They specialize in illegal street-racing and automobiles.The gang is run by William Sharp and his nephew, Joseph Price. Donnie is the lieutenant in the Rollerz and also is their expert mechanic. The Rollerz operate from the northwest area of Stilwater, encompassing expensive suburban housing as well the area round the Stilwater stadium.

## Multiplayer

*Main Article: Multiplayer in Saints Row*
The game also has an online multiplayer mode for Xbox Live that supports up to 1-12 people. Players can join a gang and engage in street warfare with other gangs online. *Saints Row* features 4 different online games. Gangsta Brawl is a standard deathmatch. Big Ass Chains forces players to collect chains by killing people, and then depositing them for points. A bonus is awarded for delivering more chains at once. Protect Tha Pimp is a team based game, in which one team must escort the pimp to a destination point, while the other team must kill the pimp or prevent their opponents from reaching this point. It is very similar to the VIP mode from Counter-Strike. Blinged Out Ride is another team based game in which two teams must raise enough money from killing opponents and collecting chains to upgrade the team's vehicle several times in the Mechanic.

## Reception

The game has received generally positive ratings. Although most critics have noted the striking similarities in gameplay that *Saints Row* shares with releases from the *Grand Theft Auto* series, they have also praised the game for the inclusion of new features and its improvement of existing ones from *GTA*. *Saints Row* has received ratings of 95/100 from GamePro, 8.75/10 from Game Informer, 80/100 from Official Xbox Magazine, 8.5/10 from IGN, 8.4/10 from GamerNode, and 8.3/10 from GameSpot. GamePro called it "the best reason to own an Xbox 360 this side of Oblivion", while IGN noted, "Hate it if you want to, snicker at its obvious me-too qualities, but don't forget to recognize impressive, kick-ass gameplay as you walk out the door." *Saints Row* has received an average critic score of 82% on Game Rankings and 81% on Metacritic.[*reference?*]

Most critics have praised the "Activities" and the online multiplayer, as well as the free-form control scheme. Common complaints about the game are over graphical problems, as well as forced, hit-or-miss humor. While the robust character creation mode was praised, several gaming publications also complained about the main character's lack of dialogue.[*reference?*]

Although welcomed by critics and fans alike, the online multiplayer suffered from significant lag upon the game's debut, making it difficult to play. This issue was mostly fixed by a patch that took 2 months to develop.

As of November 2006, *Saints Row* had sold more than 1 million copies.[*reference?*]

*Saints Row* received awards from GameSpot for "Most Surprisingly Good Game of 2006", as well as Gaming Target for one of 52 Games We will Still Be Playing From 2006 selection.

*Saints Row* has since joined the Xbox 360 lineup of "Platinum Hits" games, being rebranded and sold for US$19.99.

## Demo

Prior to the retail version of *Saints Row* being released, the demo set an Xbox Live Marketplace then-record for being downloaded more than 350,000 times in the first week of its release.

The demo was released in several forms: Xbox Live, Xbox Magazine #61 demo disc, and a standalone demo disc given to people who pre-ordered at ToysRus and Gamestop.

All version of the demo have exactly the same content: the packfiles are identical. However, the main executable file in the 3 versions are different, with the XBL and XBM versions having the fewest differences, and the pre-order version having additional differences.

## Patch

*Saints Row* received only 1 Title Update.

Patch Notes

General
* Enabled 4xAA (anti-aliasing) for 480i standard-def and 480p resolutions (was 2xAA).
* Enabled 4x anti-aliasing during initial player creation screen.
* Added player options to enable v-sync during cutscenes and/or gameplay, with warning that it will affect framerate.
* Fixed widescreen formatting issues in certain resolutions.
* Fixed issue where button icons would sometimes not appear during tagging activity.
* Fixed problem where camera could rapidly rotate around player when exiting vehicle.
* Added dialog reminding player to save before final mission in the game.
* Fixed rare crash bugs due to variants and fast shader constants.
* DLC - Car dealership now skips paint selection for car if the car has no color data.
* Fixed issue when signing out of a gamer profile on The Wheel Woman unlock screen.
* Added missing audio tracks to music stores, including "Pickin' Boogers."
* Added long sideburns and four other missing hairstyles to Shear Intensity salons.

Multiplayer
* Improvements to the way the game handles packet loss and bandwidth management between players. This addresses issues commonly cited as "lag", and general synchronization problems between the players' clients (vehicles/players warping around, etc).
* Various bandwidth optimizations.
* Fixed connection issues with gang servers (done server-side, update not required).
* The system for rating a player's quality-of-service has been improved, and made less conservative. This means you'll see many more matches with 10-12 player limits.
* Fixed "clothes stealing" exploit. Stolen clothes will be deleted, legit clothes will be unharmed.
* Various changes to Matchmaking phase, to get players in the game faster.
* Team-based, non-Gang games are now required to have even teams. Gang matches still allowed to be off-by-one to allow easier matchmaking, since single people cannot be matched-in.
* Fixed issue that could cause the Blinged Out Ride vehicle to get stuck inside the garage when the driver disconnects.
* Fixed crash that could happen during server migration.
* Fixed rank reporting errors in Leaderboards for Team Gang Brawl and Team Big Ass Chains.
* Fixed problem where end of games stats display could be improperly sorted.
* Fixed issue in server migration where statistics would not be properly updated for the newly selected server.
* Fixed issue where incorrect server was elected for game size.
* Fixed issue where car could get stuck in a chop shop or get pushed out of the level and destroyed.
* Added caching to pimp hat and multiplayer chains to reduce delay when they are loaded.
* Fixed problem where PC could become bald after importing from single-player savegame.
* Fixed problem where multiplayer garages had problems with client vehicles colliding at the entrance with an invisible mesh mover.
* Item sync improvements.
* Fixed problem that could prevent twelve people from getting into a match due to not having enough security associations.
* Points stored in Big Ass Chains are now being reset between games.
* Fixed issue where gang stats retrieval could fail and not be retried.
* Addressed "standby" hack where a player would temporarily disconnect their network connection to move around without others seeing them.
* The proper number of custom vehicle choices now appears for the Hustlin multiplayer level.
* Gang sizes limited to 100 members.
* Fixed cases where gangs match but not all players get into the game.
* Only servers with sufficient bandwidth are selected to host a match.
* Fixed bug where multiplayer garages had problems with client vehicles colliding against unseen geometry.
* Big Ass Chains points scored stats are now reset between games.
* Fixed bug where player would have pipebombs in inventory but would not be able to throw them.
* Fixed problem in Protect Tha Pimp where a player would respawn at the beginning of a round in observer mode.
* DLC - Always display name of level server has selected, even if client does not have that level downloaded.

## DLC

In September 2012, all *Saints Row* DLC were removed from the Xbox Live Marketplace. In July 2015 all DLC were readded.

## Trailers

 *Saints Row* trailer
 Mayhem Video Strategy Trailer

## Trivia

* At the end of the first *Saints Row* trailer, Playa meets with Los Carnales, including Hector, Angelo and Mr. Sharp in the background. Backing up are Johnny Gat; Joseph Price, one of the leader of the Westside Rollerz; Donnie, the mechanic of the Westside Rollerz; and Anthony Green, a Vice Kings lieutenant; who are all wearing purple.
* The box art features Lin, Dex, Playa, and Johnny Gat. Most of the "skyline" behind them is composed of oversized firearms.
* The game was originally going to be named "Bling Bling" and released on PlayStation 2.
* The original Flag Color for the Saints was Green.
* Part way through each gang arc, one of the leaders of each gang is either killed or betrayed, resulting in a change of leadership. In *Saints Row 2*, the original leader of each gang is the opponent in the final mission of each arc. In *Saints Row: The Third*, the gang arcs are intertwined, and only one gang leader is killed before the demise of their gang.
* Although it was only released for Xbox 360, the game files for *Saints Row* contain references to a PC build.
* The file which defines the gangs in the game include 2 unused gangs: Dragonz and Kings. The Vice Kings gang is referred to as "Vice Lords".

## References

1. ↑ **Microsoft store**: Saints Row
2. ↑ **Xbox**: Backward Compatibility Available Games
3. ↑ **Cutscene**: The Streets of Stilwater
4. ↑ **Cutscene**: Battlefield Promotion
5. ↑ **Mission**: Stuffing the Ballot
6. ↑ **Mission**: Hail to the Chief
7. ↑ **Cutscene**: Saints and Martyrs
8. ↑ **Gamespot**: volition repaving saints row
9. ↑ **Gamingtarget**: 52 Games We'll Still Be Playing From 2006
10. ↑ **Gamespot**: saints row canonized platinum hits line
11. ↑ **Gamespot**: saints row demo sets record
12. ↑ **gamespy**: Official Xbox Magazine Demo Disc 61
13. ↑ **Engadget**: Pre-order Saints Row, get the demo
14. ↑ **Note**: Binary file comparison shows that the majority of each file is identical, with each having a different header section, and the pre-order version having additional differences much later in the file
15. ↑ **Saints Row website**: Saints Row Title Update on Xbox Live
16. ↑ **Xbox marketplace**: Mayhem Video Strategy Trailer
17. ↑ **Xbox marketplace**: Insurance Fraud Video Strategy Trailer
18. ↑ **Xbox marketplace**: Hitman Video Strategy Trailer
19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 **YouTube**: *Saints Row* trailer
20. ↑ **YouTube**: The Secret History of Volition
21. ↑ **File**: *<Name>PC\_old - not used</Name>*— Line 22 of user\_interface.xtbl
22. ↑ **File**: Teams.xtbl

This article contains no references. See Help:Refs.