Saints Row: The Third is an action-adventure game[2][3] played from the third-person perspective[4] in an open world,[3] such that players explore an unrestricted environment.[5] Similar to the premise of the previous Saints Row games, the player's goal is to lead the Third Street Saints gang to overtake its rival gangs in the city turf war.[6] While the protagonist is the same,[7] the game introduces a new setting, the city of Steelport,[c] with its own three gangs: the Morningstar, Luchadores, and Deckers, together known as the Syndicate.[9][d] To further complicate matters, the government's Special Tactical Anti-Gang unit (STAG) is summoned to quell both organizations.[11] The Third is the first in the series to intertwine the narratives of its three-gang structures, and presents the player with story-altering decisions.[12]
The series has been considered a clone of Grand Theft Auto[6][8] that later positioned itself as more "gleefully silly" in comparison.[6][13] In combat, players select weapons from a weapon selection wheel,[14][e] including pistols, submachine guns, shotguns, and rocket launchers alongside special weapons such as UAV drones and a fart-in-a-jar stun grenade. Player melee attacks include running attacks such as DDTs and a purple dildo bat.[15] Players may use vehicles to navigate the city, including a hover jet (known as the F-69 VTOL) and a pixelated retrogame tank that are unlocked through story missions. Once special vehicles are unlocked, they are in unlimited supply and can be delivered directly to the player-character's location.[8] Player actions are intensified with what Volition calls the "awesome button", where for example the player will divekick through the windshield into the driver's seat of a car.[14] The main story campaign missions can be played alone, or cooperatively either online or via System Link offline.[8][f] Some elements are added to the campaign for the second player.[15] There is no competitive multiplayer, but a "wave-based survival mode" called Whored Mode[6] that supports up to two players.[16]
Players customize their characters after the introductory mission. Player-character bodies, dress, and vehicles can be customized,[8][g] as well as home properties. Players can additionally share their character designs in a Saints Row online community.[15] Apart from the main story missions, there are optional diversions to make money and earn reputation, such as Insurance Fraud, where players hurt themselves in traffic to maximize self-injury before a timer expires, or Mayhem, where players maximize property destruction before a time expires. Some of these diversions were introduced in previous Saints Row games.[8][h] Activities serve the plot and are positioned as training the player-character or damaging the Syndicate.[14] They can also be repeated.[10] Outside of structured diversions, players are free to make their own fun by purchasing property, shopping for items, finding hidden sex doll and money cache collectibles, and wreaking unsolicited havoc.[9] There are also "flashpoint" gang operations that grant respect when disrupted.[12] Attacking others increases the player's notoriety level, as depicted with stars.[9]
Saints Row: The Third introduced experience levels[12] and weapon upgrades to the series.[17] Most actions in the game come with incentives in the form of money and respect (reputation). Money buys land, weapons, and other upgrades,[i] and respect is a kind of experience point that can unlock player abilities like "no damage from falling" or "infinite sprint",[8][j] as well as upgrades to the player's computer-controlled gang member support.[6] In turn, players receive further incentive to nearly miss car collisions, streak naked through the streets,[8] shoot others in the groin, blow up Smart cars, and kill mascots in ambient challenges to earn more respect. Lack of respect does not hinder story progress, as it has in previous games.[6] Player progress and unlocks are managed by an in-game cell phone menu that also lets the player call for vehicle deliveries and non-player character backup. The computer-controlled support will dialogue with each other.[9]
