With Deep Silver’s reboot of the Saint’s Row franchise right around the corner, you may be wondering if it could fill a Grand Theft Auto-sized hole in your heart. The series is a lot like GTA in many aspects, but over the years, it’s also stepped out of Rockstar’s shadow to forge its own success and identity. Here’s everything you need to know about Whether Saints Row is like Grand Theft Auto.

Is Saints Row Like Grand Theft Auto?

The original Saints Row was released back in 2006 and featured the player’s character driving around an open world based on real American cities, engaging in shoot-outs, and taking on a host of missions from NPCs to advance the story. If that sounds familiar, it’s because it is. The original Saints Row was coined as a ‘GTA Clone’ and to be honest for the first two entries, that description is pretty accurate.

However, even in those early days, a foundation was established that set Saint’s Row apart from GTA. Saints Row gave players the ability to create their own character and determine their ethnicity, fitness, face, and hairstyle. Saints Row 2 would later offer players the option of a female character. GTA didn’t include a character creator until 2013 with the release of GTA: Online.

Saints Row: The Third marked a complete tonal shift for the series, with developers Volition aiming to take the franchise in a more comedic direction. They stuck to their guns. Saints Row IV sees your character become President of the United States as they fight back against an alien invasion in a virtual world with an expansion that sees a fan favorite character battle against the legions of hell. GTA has its zanier moments, but Saints Row takes it to another level.

The franchise also takes a different approach to story-telling. Grand Theft Auto titles are typically one and done with a few exceptions like Vice City: Stories and Liberty City: Stories. Saints Row, on the other hand, before the reboot, told one continuous story over the four games and largely focused on the same cast, for the most part.

GTA Protagonists also tend to be lone-wolfs who are self-motivated, whereas Saints Row places the focus on your gang, the Third Street Saints, which feature a likable, bunch of characters in their own right. As The Boss of the Saints, your goal is to help the gang defeat rivals in turf wars and eventually become pop-culture icons.

If you like to cause carnage and mayhem in GTA: Online, then there’s a good chance that Saints Row will be right up your street. You may prefer the darker and more mature GTA stories and feel you might be put off by the franchise’s zaniness. Developers Deep Silver Volition has promised the reboot will have a return to the more subdued and balanced tone of Saints Row 2.

These games are fun, first and foremost, and embrace their silliness. If you enjoy the core gameplay and mechanics of Grand Theft Auto, then there’s a good chance you’ll have a lot of fun with Saints Row.

Players can explore a living, breathing city as they take on rival gangs with a huge arsenal of weapons that can be discovered along the way. Some are a little more out there, like the Shark-O-Matic, which can summon a shark to devour enemies whole.

There’s also a similar mission structure to most GTA titles, as players take on missions from various NPCs and gang members with their corresponding icons littered throughout the map. It’s a very familiar layout and way of taking on missions. Side-Missions can also be undertaken, including drug deals, joining a fight club, earning your gang’s loyalty, and taking down enemy gang strongholds. If you feel like taking a break from Los Santos or Liberty City, you’ll be right at home in Steelport.

That’s everything we know about whether Saints Row is like Grand Theft Auto. Be sure to check out more of our Saints Row coverage in the coming weeks ahead of its release on August 22nd.

Feature Image Source: Deep Silver Volition.

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