The Fashion Sense of Saints Row: The Third

Have you ever watched a film where someone, typically a child, is seen playing an ultra-violent, comically over-the-top video game? Even if it is just for a few seconds, I’m sure you wished to play said game - because I know I have! Even if this Hollywood-made set piece of a game resembles a copycat to Grand Theft Auto or Doom, it would still remain a desire to see its interesting existence brought to reality. Now, we’ve all setlisted a slew of ideas to make the ideal, absurd videogame, whether it’d be with friends or relatives. Who wouldn’t want to create a project that, say, if someone were to overhear a random group discussing a particular scenario within your dream game, you’d want this someone to snicker and listen in further to figure out just what kind of game this is and just how they can get their hands on it. 

There remain many video games nowadays, which feel like that Hollywood film’s iteration of a comically over-the-top violent video game that you wish you could’ve played. One in particular that revisits my mindset is Volition’s own Saints Row: The Third, released in 2011. Why not sucker punch a sniper-wielding furry mascot when playing a deadly Japanese-inspired game show, all while your beautifully full head of Hollywood lead-like hair carefully holds together a pair of designer sunglasses? Don’t want to crinkle your suit jacket top and your suit vest’s custom diamond buttons? Instead of putting up a fighting effort against a gang of drug-running Luchadores, call in an airstrike right on top of them. Ever felt like your trendy, baggy jeans and velcro sports shoes would look so much cooler if you skydived out of one plane and into a military cargo plane, not to mention you somehow don’t wear a parachute? Take the leap of psychotic faith and find out! These are the questions and answers that Volition’s own Saints Row: The Third will provide.

It has been said that the fashion sense of Saints Row: The Third is akin to a hip-hop music video clashing with organized crime. The Third Street Saints have evolved from a street gang to an organized crime syndicate, while interestingly enough, maintaining a celebrity-branded image with merchandise - movie deals, commercials, and energy drinks. The ability to look seriously so cool while you engage in fluidly controlled, fast, and chaotic gameplay is the pinnacle of Saints Row: The Third. Now, what does complement the crisp sense of fashion, in a way, is the atmosphere of Saints Row: The Third. Admittedly, the Third’s map, Steelport, is overall dull in personality when compared to its predecessor map(s), Stilwater. However, this grimy playground, said to be like Bangkok’s abusive father, does offer sections that are littered with an atmosphere of sexed up, drug-rampant, crime-riddled wildness. 

When pairing Steelport’s heavily handed sexual trashiness and Las Vegas-light presentation, with members of the Saints being decked out with the glitzy slews of Hollywood Red Carpet-like clothing, there becomes a visually unique gaming presentation. It is a unification of expensive style and grimy sexualization. Paraphrasing what I heard in a YouTube video (and it may be a controversial take within the community, but it is one that I agree with), out of the entire franchise, Saints Row: The Third really remains to have the most distinctive entry of the franchise. If you’re going to be a slickly tongued and devilishly attractive psychopath on top of the criminal underworld, you might as well sport a head-to-toe fit that could bring a teardrop of pride to the eyes of Flavor-Flav. Hit the nitrous in your sports car as it flies down the sidewalk, proving to Steelport that you are an expensive weapon. Don’t just act like one, look like one. 

-- Julian Enghauser

Guest Writer for WXOU