There’s undoubtedly something of a dilemma when first playing Volition’s Saint’s Row. It’s too easy to yell “It’s a GTA clone!” and be done with it – you want to rise above that. But, erk, Saint’s Row is so similar to Rockstar’s series in so many ways that it’s beyond impossible to ignore. The look, the map design, the animations… the gameplay, all walk that incredibly tenuous and crumbling pathway along the cliff edge of Inspiration above the fetid waters of Copying.
There are, however, two decent arguments in its favour:
1) If you make something very similar to something very good, you make something that could possibly be very good.
2) And if you do it on next-gen tech, and add in the multiplayer that was so sorely missed in San Andreas, you justify a fair amount of attention.
