After re-watching some Saint's Row: The Third trailers, I found myself reading the comment section of this Kotaku post. There's nothing unusual here in the debating/screaming; however, the comments forced me to look back at my experience with GTA and dissect how I played those games.
Being first introduced to Grand Theft Auto through the revolutionary GTA3, I can't really speak to the earlier bird's-eye-view PlayStation versions. My neighbor and I went to a FuncoLand (do those even exist anymore?), traded in some crap games, forked over some cash, and had his mother give her permission for both M-rated purchases. This was, of course, done without my parents’ permission; they didn't like me spending money on games (period) let alone M-rated ones. We both walked out of that store as very happy kids, we played the opening sequence and the first couple of training missions together, and then split up with our copies for the who-can-beat-it-first competition.
With Grand Theft Auto 3 it was close, but I ended with the prize, only because I spent most of my time playing the missions instead of screwing around in the open world. To this day, GTA3 is the only GTA game in which I've reached that 100 percent achievement (before there were achievements). I'm not sure why I focused on the missions. It certainly wasn't the story. Maybe doing whatever-the-eff-I-wanted wasn't very appealing. I don't know. GTA3 was a mission-based crime-spree to me, not a sandbox.
Grand Theft Auto Vice City changed all that. It's hard to pin-point where exactly the paradigm shift occurred, but I remember seeing these screenshots:
And I thought: Rockstar is going to give me motorcycles and swords! Shit is going to get crazy.
Had the crotch-rockets and katanas been in GTA3, I may have played the game in a totally different way. But that was it, I had more fun doing crazy stuff with my motorcycle and doing killing sprees with my katana, so I never finished all the missions in GTA: Vice City. That's when it happened. GTA became a do-whatever-the-eff-I-want game with motorcycles and swords. And I loved it. Plus the eighties music, awesome!
Grand Theft Auto San Andreas was released in fall of 2004, my freshman year of college. I completed just enough missions to unlock the San Fierro island, but not the Las Venturas island. I would swim to that island, get the five-star wanted level, and see how long I could survive. San Andreas also came with motorcycles and swords, plus four-wheelers, planes, jet-packs, chainsaws, and I could dress-up like a complete lunatic.
Eventually, I did have to complete the missions to unlock Las Venturas to play with some of this stuff. Seriously though, the most fun I've ever had with San Andreas was just doing the craziest shit in that sandbox of a game.
To be honest, I bought a PS3 for the sole purpose of playing Grand Theft Auto 4. I even have the silly lock-box (I'm a sucker for pre-order swag, remember), but I haven't completed all the missions as Niko. And I haven't touched the DLC (probably never will). I enjoyed the game, but it's probably my least favorite GTA to date. The portable titles don't count; I haven't played them. The humor and satire in GTA 4 was amazing and kept me coming back to the missions. The chaos and destruction I could cause kept me sandboxing. Plenty of motorcycle fun. But no katana.
For whatever reason, I came up with sound excuses to skip out on the Saint's Row series. When Saint's Row first arrived, my reaction was: "I'd rather play Grand Theft Auto. One crime-spree sandbox is enough for me. Thank you." When Saint's Row 2 arrived, I just didn't care. Maybe I missed some awesome gameplay (and if what I'm seeing with Saint's Row: The Third is a clue, I probably did), but I just wrote them off. Now that November 15th rolls in, I'm getting more and more excited about The Third. All their crazy trailers made me remember all the fun times I had in Vice City and San Andreas.
All I want from Saint's Row: The Third is what I grew to love in Vice City and San Andreas. Crotch-rockets and katanas, please. With a side of pedestrian cannon.
I can't find a screenshot with a sword. Does a hoverbike make up for the lack of swords?
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