Interviews// Saints Row: The Third

The first two Saints Row games have established themselves as putting the ‘Fun’ into sandbox games. It takes the stunts that players of GTA get up to and ramps things up, giving gamers the tools to do even more outrageous acts, all in the name of entertainment.

Saints Row the Third does not shy away from this concept to the point where it even builds the entire game around the idea that the player just wants to blow stuff up, in an entertaining way.

We had a chat with writer Drew Holmes about the game and his role as a writer for Saints Row the Third.


SPOnG: Saints Row the Third must be very interesting to write for. What aspects have you emphasised when writing for the game?

Drew Holmes: It is interesting to write for and we have embraced this crazy, wacky over-the-top guilty pleasure experience. We’re really pushing the comedy angle and the zany weapons to give gamers the experience they’re really not going to find in any other game.


SPOnG: Is this because humour in video games is somewhat more subtle?

Drew Holmes: There are a lot of grim dark themes out there, everything is serious. We really wanted to try to bring the fun back into video games and give the player an enormous toy box to play around with.


SPOnG: Saints Row the Third continues on with the same vein as the previous games, especially with regard to having some bizarre things to play around with in the game’s world.

Drew Holmes: It’s about giving players as many options as possible and letting them experience the game in the way that they want to. If you want to use a giant purple dildo to beat someone down with, you can do that! If you want to shoot someone in the face with a shot gun, you can do that too.


SPOnG: Is there much in the way of consequence to your actions?

Drew Holmes: Well yes, there is. If you do too much damage then the police will start coming after you. There is also a military presence in the game that will also engage with you if you push things too far via the National Guard. So it’s not a complete free-for-all as players need a bit of a challenge as they roam around the city destroying things.


SPOnG: So story-wise, then, can you give us a brief synopsis of it?

Drew Holmes: We built the world of Steelport, the city in which Saints Row the Third is based, and that has to be matched with a story that is just as crazy and bizarre. So the story starts with robbing a bank and escalates from there with a lot of twists and turns, with every mission escalating the stakes for the gang the player is part of. There is no limit to the craziness in the storytelling, none whatsoever.


SPOnG: Is it fair to say then that you’ve taken the spirit of the original games and asked ‘Let’s see how far we can push this’?

Drew Holmes: Absolutely! We started to differentiate ourselves with the crazy wackiness of Saints Row 2, that’s what people really latched onto. We wanted to take the franchise to where its audience wanted it to go. So we decided to push this over-the-top crazy world concept as much as possible and deliver an experience no one is going to find in any other game.


SPOnG: Is it safe to say from this that the game will cater for those who like messing around in a sand box environment as well as those who enjoy a mission based, structured experience?

Drew Holmes: For sure. The mission-based game will take around 20-30 hours to complete, but with the open world gameplay even the most single-minded player will get distracted; this will likely result in at least doubling this playtime.


SPOnG: Can you explain what multiplayer modes you’re going to have in the game?

Drew Holmes: There is two-player online co-op for the entire campaign that will support seamless drop in drop out, just like Saints Row 2. There’s going to be a lot of unique experiences in the game when played in this mode.

SPOnG: Thank you for your time.


Saints Row the Third is due out on 18th November 2011 for the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC.