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Saints Row: The Third - The Full Package
Volition
About This Game
Super ReviewSaints Row: The Third - The Full Package offers over-the-top open-world action with extensive customization and cooperative play. However, parents should be aware of its frequent graphic violence, strong sexual content, pervasive profanity, and drug references. It prioritizes shock value and crude humor, making it strictly for mature audiences capable of discerning fantasy from reality.
Super Review
Parent verdict
Saints Row: The Third - The Full Package earns a 'Decent' health score due to its highly mature content, including graphic violence, sexual themes, and pervasive strong language. While it offers solid co-op gameplay, extensive customization, and a complete premium package without additional monetization, these benefits are overshadowed for younger players by the adult nature of its world and scenarios. It's a qualified fit only for truly mature players who can engage critically with its themes, not a casual recommendation.
What players actually do
- Players engage in chaotic combat using a wide array of weapons, from conventional firearms to outlandish tools like a 'Dubstep Gun', requiring quick reflexes and target prioritization.
- Players drive various vehicles, including cars, tanks, and aircraft, through a sprawling city to complete missions and evade enemies, exercising navigation and vehicular control skills.
- Players customize their character's appearance, clothing, and voice, along with vehicles and gang members, allowing for creative self-expression and personalization of the experience.
Where it shines
- The game offers extensive customization options for characters, vehicles, and gang members, allowing players significant creative freedom to express themselves through their in-game persona and crew.
- A robust cooperative multiplayer mode enables two players to experience the entire main story campaign and other activities together, fostering shared experiences and strategic teamwork.
- As 'The Full Package,' this version includes all previously released downloadable content with no additional in-game purchases, providing a complete experience without hidden costs or monetization schemes.
Parent watch-outs
- The game features graphic and intense violence, including dismemberment, chainsaw attacks, and frequent harm to civilian non-player characters, which can be disturbing.
- Strong sexual content and mature themes are prevalent, including partial nudity, environments depicting sex toys, and storylines involving strip clubs and references to sex work.
- Dialogue and the game world are filled with constant strong profanity and frequent references to illegal drugs and drug use, contributing to its very adult tone.
Family rules worth setting
- Strictly enforce an age limit of 17+ or 18+, aligning with the official ratings, as the content is unsuitable for younger players.
- If playing cooperatively, ensure any co-op partner is a trusted individual who also meets the mature age requirement.
- Set clear expectations that the game's actions and themes are purely fictional and not to be imitated or normalized in any real-world context.
Talk about this
- Discuss why games like Saints Row: The Third contain such mature and explicit content, and how it differs from real-world consequences and morality.
- Talk about the line between entertainment and desensitization when exposed to constant violence, profanity, and sexual themes in media.
- Discuss the game's depiction of criminal behavior and drug use, contrasting it with societal values and the real-life impacts of such actions.
Play style
Saints Row: The Third features a player-paced session rhythm, allowing players to tackle missions and activities at their leisure without time-gated content or pressure. The difficulty is dynamic, offering chaotic action balanced by player freedom in approach. It supports cooperative play for two players, allowing friends to experience the story together. Younger players would likely struggle with the mature themes and complex missions, and may require significant guidance to navigate its content responsibly.
Score Breakdown
Positive Aspects
Risk Factors
Why this rating
Educational Value
0/5The game offers no discernible educational value. Its design explicitly prioritizes over-the-top action, shock value, and crude humor, rather than fostering any meaningful learning or imparting academic knowledge.
Addictive Monetization
2/5As 'The Full Package,' this version of the game includes all major DLC and bonus items with the initial purchase. There are no additional in-game purchases, loot boxes, battle passes, or time-gated rewards designed to induce addictive spending or a fear of missing out.
Content Intensity
4/5The game's content intensity is very high, scoring a 4, due to pervasive graphic violence, strong sexual themes, and constant strong language. Players will encounter dismemberment, explicit environments, and frequent profanity throughout the experience, making it unsuitable for younger audiences.
Negatives
- •Contains graphic and intense violence, including use of chainsaws, dismemberment, and frequent harm to civilian non-player characters.
- •Features strong sexual content and mature themes, including partial nudity, environments with sex toys, and storylines involving strip clubs.
- •The dialogue and game world include constant strong profanity and frequent references to illegal drugs and drug use.
- •Offers no educational value, with a design that prioritizes shock value and crude humor.
Positives
- •Offers extensive customization for characters, vehicles, and gang members, promoting creative self-expression.
- •Includes a cooperative multiplayer mode, allowing two players to experience the main story campaign together.
- •As a 'full package,' this version of the game includes all previously released downloadable content with no additional in-game purchases or monetization.
- •The game contains no time-pressure mechanics like daily login rewards or limited-time events, allowing players to progress at their own pace.
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Official Ratings
Age Fit
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