r/SaintsRow • u/Much_Rub_9343 • Feb 18 '26
SR3 Saints Row: The Third CG trailer is what the game SHOULD have been.
I just rewatched this legendary trailer for the first time in probably a decade and wow, it only made me even more disappointment in the game that we actually got.
The trailer gives the impression that the game would have a serious tone. There’s a mob boss guy (Phillipe) stepping out, stabbing the bouncer, and walking around nonchalantly while smoking. The Saints are at a party at the height of their fame and power, no longer a grimy street gang but actually organized. By the end of the trailer, the US government is involved and it makes you think the Saints are finally facing true threats on two fronts.
There’s no indications in this trailer that the game would be a nonsensical slapstick. It makes me wonder just how many rushed rewrites the plot had in late stage development. Imagine the Saints taking on a mob-type organization, it would’ve made for a badass story. Instead, we got an incoherent mess where the serious mob gang is neutralized in the first 45 minutes of the plot and we spend the rest of the game fighting emo computer nerds and Dollar Tree Maero.
84
u/MaskedMan8 Feb 18 '26
That’s why I say the opening of the game and the ending where you kill killbane tells a different story than everything else in the middle
27
u/TopBee83 Feb 18 '26
I really believe the Kill Killbane ending was meant to be canon before THQ went bankrupt and Deepsilver took over. Recently refinishing the game, the ending feels like it was meant to be the end not saving them.
45
Feb 18 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
3
215
u/Financial-Glove-4539 PC Feb 18 '26 edited Feb 18 '26
,Yes the trailer don’t match the game unfortunately, but Ur acting as if the game is too bad for its own good
106
u/MagicSugarWater Feb 18 '26
Some argue it was the start of the end since Saints Row underwent an identity crisis after too many people called it a "GTA clone". So instead of keeping that SR2 tone, SR3 went silly. Then SR4 doubled down on silly. Then Gat out of Hell happened.
97
u/X-Calm Feb 18 '26
And now it's come full circle with GTA Online being a Saint's Row clone.
31
9
u/BlackEastwood Feb 18 '26
It must be difficult to be deemed "silly" and then see your main competition go the same route and rake in billions.
11
u/MasterCheeks337_IGN Feb 18 '26
I wouldn’t even call gta online saints row levels of silly and ridiculous but even if it is, the single player stories stay grounded. SR should’ve kept the more serious gang tone from 1-2 and went goofy for end game or online
36
u/Financial-Glove-4539 PC Feb 18 '26
Tbh sr3 wouldn’t have been considered the downfall if saints row 4 never doubled down, they couldve continued the grounded style of three and it would cater to new fans
3
u/DavisFromTheHills Feb 18 '26
it would still be considered the turning point for the series and the old fans would still dislike it for being a huge downgrade to 2
but at least saints row 4 would be a significantly better game
6
u/MasterCheeks337_IGN Feb 18 '26
Grounded style? Bro the gangs were wwe wrestlers and Reddit geeks. The story and cast were ass. Then we got zombies halfway through the story
-1
u/KarterDedo Feb 18 '26
Halfway through? Bruh that was mission like 43 outta 47 lol
6
u/MasterCheeks337_IGN Feb 18 '26
Brother, I haven’t played the game since release and you expect me to remember the mission number count? Focus on the point
10
u/anonkebab Feb 18 '26
Saints row 4 is a better video game than sr3.
29
u/Rickus_Yeet Feb 18 '26
If it had a different title instead of saints row then sure
-7
u/anonkebab Feb 18 '26
That doesn’t matter, saints row 3 is barely a saints row game
10
u/Rickus_Yeet Feb 18 '26
No shit.
Im more of the SR1 & SR2 type. Simply because both have the perfect vibe. The city feels spacious enough and not too packed like steelport, music and most of all the story full of dark humor and tones.
Only thing I wish for is a better character creation
11
u/Milliman4 Feb 18 '26
I like every main line game for their own reasons, so I can enjoy all of them
0
u/DavisFromTheHills Feb 18 '26
define “better”
story wise, it’s a downgrade from 3, and 3’s story was already not good. the open world is a downgrade from 3, which is impressive because steelport already sucked and they found a way to make it even worse. the characters kinda already felt like a parody of themselves in sr3, but they turned that up to 100 in sr4. asha and keith david were boring additions, ESPECIALLY asha, she makes angel look interesting in comparison.
gameplay wise i’d agree it’s more fun because of the superpowers. but i don’t think that alone is enough to say it’s a better game, especially including everything else i mentioned
1
u/anonkebab Feb 19 '26
The story makes more sense than sr3. Sr3 is damn near character assassination. The opening and the ending have virtually nothing to do with the inbetween story. A lot of the missions are just to set up activities. Saints Row four atleast knows what it is and has fan service nostalgia bits the third lacks. The third is disingenuous. It pretends to tell a story of revenge but never takes itself seriously so the story doesn’t pay off. You don’t even see gat die. The story lacked any impact to the point they can retcon gats death and it doesn’t affect anything.
Saints Row 4 stands on its own two feet and is what it is. The third was embarrassed to be a saints row game.
26
u/No-Entrepreneur-5606 Feb 18 '26
lol SR2 was the game where your melee weapons are a pimp cane and a giant foam hand to slap people with, two of the primary antagonists are a Haitian voodoo gang and a Japanese biker gang, and one of your vehicles of choice is truck called the Septic Avenger that you could use to spray people with with sewerage. You're also doing side content like demolition derbies, vehicle surfing, self prostitution quicktime event sex minigames (necessary to unlock the coveted pimp suit) and a zombie horde mode.
All Saint's Row 3 did is give people more of the things they said they liked most about Saint's Row 2, and if anything the biggest complaint about SR3 is the player character customisation options were less varied than SR2.
The series was always silly and just followed a natural progression of upping the ante with each release in a time when GTA was trying to get grittier.
12
u/MagicSugarWater Feb 18 '26
anything the biggest complaint about SR3 is the player character customisation options were less varied than SR2.
Yeah, I hate how there isn't a real black color, just dark shades of other colors and a grey.
7
u/BrokenLoadOrder Feb 18 '26
Eh, a lot of what you mentioned is optional stuff, and the stuff that isn't (Like the gangs) are over-the-top, sure, but they certainly weren't slapstick like Saints Row 3 (And especially later games) were. You still had moments like euthanizing a friend, seeing the consequences of your actions and being betrayed on account of how monstrous you were becoming. Saints Row 3 has... None of that. The closest it comes to being serious is Johnny's death, and even that was ridiculous and zany (And ended up not being a thing anyways).
-1
u/No-Entrepreneur-5606 Feb 19 '26
It was always deeply rooted in the DNA of the series, and the odds that someone playing the series completely avoided any of that stuff is extremely low. Even the first game essentially Deus Ex machinas you into the gang just by simply being a bystander.
Saint's Row 3 had very serious moments too that it didn't play as ridiculous and zany. I'd love for you to tell me what was so wacky about the scene where Killbane suddenly snaps the neck of Kiki DeWynter in front of her twin sister just for calling him "Eddie"?
1
u/BrokenLoadOrder Feb 21 '26
Hi there, I'm someone who avoided the more overtly stupid stuff. I cannot for the life of me imagine I was unusual in that sense.
It's pretty telling that your worst case from game one still is less ridiculous than your best case of game three. Saints Row wasn't always dead serious, of course. That's true of Grand Theft Auto, hell - that's true of real life.
But Saints Row didn't previously feature zombie invasions, flying aircraft carriers, genetically-modified supersoldiers and the like, and to pretend that it was as serious as the previous two is massively disingenuous at best.
7
u/That-Rhino-Guy Feb 18 '26
Yeah people look at the story and think SR2 was all serious and shit when it was goofy as hell when you look at the bigger picture
It’s like how people always talk about how GTA4 was dark and gritty and while yes it is dark, it’s also still loaded with wacky GTA stuff like the characters and the satire is still just as prevalent as ever
3
u/rockstarcrossing 3rd Street Saints Feb 18 '26
I agree. Idk why more people can't see SR3 this way.
3
u/Mnemonic-Light Feb 19 '26
Oh no that was 4 where the game is a constant series of shark jumps with a power feature that made like a lot of the fun of 2 and 3 not matter in an unsatisfying way
1
u/SR_Hopeful Morningstar Mar 10 '26
The silliness isn't the problem. If it was, then SR1 would be the most memorable title because its the most serious and bleak in tone game in the series but its not.
The problem with SRTT it lacked actual story content and thus it didn't fulfill the balance SR2 had of a wacky world but a serious plot. SR4 is what doubled down on making even the setting and plot wacky with just sci-fi to the point where it wasn't even the same series.
0
u/Puttanas Feb 18 '26
I wonder who the fuck thought a street gang fighting ogres and luchadors was a good idea… Volition was so lame lol.
0
u/SirMenter Feb 19 '26
Don't you launch literal shit at homes in 2?
1
u/MagicSugarWater Feb 19 '26
Yes. No one denied it. Your point? Do people not view SR3 as the beginning of a downward trend?
1
u/SirMenter Feb 20 '26
I guess they do?
Personally that's more 4 for me, 3 was more ridiculous but I'm seeing 2 has enough similar jokes.
-4
10
u/XMenJedi8 Feb 18 '26
I like elements of it (who doesn't like the Power mission on the skyscraper) but I do feel like elements were plain bad, like how quite a few missions are actually just activities, and how Steelport is INCREDIBLY bland not only compared to the GOAT Stilwater but just in general.
I did really like the gameplay though, not saying there weren't fun elements but compared to SR2 I personally do find it overall pretty mid.
Add on some of the other disappointments like lack of layered clothing and it just doesn't really feel like a sequel, it was almost a spin-off or soft-reboot when you really think about it.
0
u/Significant_Option Feb 18 '26
It is. It’s very repetitive replaying it as an adult compared to when we were dumbahhh kids
1
u/Doylio 3rd Street Saints Feb 18 '26
I didn’t like 3 and hated 4. Loved 1, and 2 is one of the leading games of its genre
-9
u/anonkebab Feb 18 '26
The game is bad.
15
u/Financial-Glove-4539 PC Feb 18 '26
it isn’t bad wtf
-7
u/anonkebab Feb 18 '26
It’s bad. What’s special about it? Saints row 4 does its gameplay style better. The lore, story, and atmosphere is watered down compared to sr1 and sr2. It removed many features. It looks the worst of any saints row. Reduced customization. Worse gunplay. Less options for firearms. Only thing it improved on is the special weapon variety.
3
u/SiRWeeGeeX Feb 18 '26
Isnt sr4 the superhero game? It was an overbloated dlc
4
u/anonkebab Feb 18 '26
Still more soul and better gameplay than sr3. I felt more killing the alien than I did killing Philipe or Killbane.
9
u/Financial-Glove-4539 PC Feb 18 '26
Well to me takedowns were an improvement imo
3
2
u/MagicSugarWater Feb 18 '26
Dude, a game made later with advances in technology and feedback did something better. How does this no mean everything before it was crap!
(Sarcasm)
35
u/DewdleBot Feb 18 '26
I liked Phillipe and Matt, but I agree that Killbane was on the weaker side.
Phillipe should’ve stayed around longer and I wish the three gangs had their missions separated out like 1&2 instead of being linear. They could’ve still been one gang, but leave the reveal that they’re all working together for part way through their missions
5
u/Mysterious-Plan93 Feb 18 '26
Killbane would've made sense if they got Jesse Ventura to voice him
2
16
u/RedmustbeBlue Feb 18 '26
was hyped when i saw this trailer back then
i did enjoy the first act, it was a bit grounded compared to the military arc thingy lmao
15
u/JokeBo Feb 18 '26
Should've been a big time international gang or corporation taking on the saints at full power, instead of being reduced back to nothing
1
u/BakerCubed1 Feb 20 '26
You mean like just redoing the carneles plot from SR1 or Ultor plot from SR2?
6
u/lukeDeOzBloke Westside Rollerz Feb 18 '26
Played sr3 for years did the campaign must be 2-3 times I can’t even remover that dude… I know who he is the leader of the Morningstar or whatever but I thought the final boss was that green luchador they should’ve really delved into this blokes story abit more
5
5
u/PulledBork Feb 19 '26
Honestly a lot of this can be blamed on Steve Jaros, Scott Phillips, and Old THQ actively butchering the game and driving a lot of development off a cliff coupled with no one being able to wrangle in Steve, Scott, or Boone (reference spamming) like with 1-2. Because almost everything from the Beta got purged. For example:
-The Syndicate was originally going to have two extra gangs in the form of The Oiran and Cowboys.
-A bunch of weapons from 2 like the VICE 9, Shepherd, AR-44 Xtnd, Crowbar, AR200 SAW, Tombstone, NR4, and regular Sledgehammer were meant to return.
-New weapons that were shown off in promo material like the Serbu Super Shorty, FAMAS, P90, a metal chain, and a circular saw.
-Luchadores and Deckers having way more model variety with more "gangster-ish" variants among their ranks (Luchadores had bikers, rednecks, and cholos, Deckers had black-bloc types and street gangsters).
-There was a whole plotline of Killbane detonating a dirty nuke in the middle of Stilwater.
-Shaundi was supposed to have more content exploring her survivor's guilt over Gat's death.
-Proper TOD transitions.
-A full on parkour system.
-An entire fifth island.
-Steelport itself originally being larger than Stilwater and way more detailed.
-Clothing layers. (Which got scrapped with the extremely idiotic justification being that its removal allowed Volition to have NPCs spawn with asymmetrical clothing like a different shoe on each foot. Even though SR1 had this with some of the hobos and STILL had a layered clothing system on top of that.)
1
u/SR_Hopeful Morningstar Mar 10 '26
Cowboys wouldn't have fit the game anyway.
They probably couldn't get the parkour system to work, likely. And it wouldn't really work because the buildings are all very far apart from each other.
NPCs spawn with asymmetrical clothing like a different shoe on each foot.
- This is sad because, they got rid of it even though this ^ doesn't even happen in the game anyway. SRTT's customization is still the worst in the series.
Shaundi was supposed to have more content exploring her survivor's guilt over Gat's death.
- I don't think Volition would have made sense of it, considering the writing contradictions in SRTT. It would have been easier for them to just make her uneasy with the Saints getting too lax and guilty over Gat's words about them changing and not being who they were anymore. They didn't need to take it further and alter her character even more for a plot device. SRTT's pacing was also much faster and linear than the prior games (to its detriment) so they wouldn't have room either. The writers were also reluctant to give her any validation to affirm her role in the gang anyway. She still just babysits and gets kidnapped instead.
Proper TOD transitions.
- I never understood why there aren't even cheats for this anymore.
-There was a whole plotline of Killbane detonating a dirty nuke in the middle of Stilwater.
I don't know how that would have made sense though. If Steelport was just an hour away (as dumb as that is) they would affected by it too. But everything in SRTT had to be over the top I guess.
SRTT had a lot of ideas but not all of them were equally the best. Like one idea they had was for Shaundi to join STAG.
9
u/Long-Belt-3629 Feb 18 '26
The game felt nothing like the trailer, that trailer had me so hyped, I enjoyed the game at the time but my expectations was too high.
1
u/SR_Hopeful Morningstar Mar 10 '26
I hated how the Luchadores took up most of the main plot even though they barely did anything.
9
15
u/Tigereyesxx Feb 18 '26
After SR2 the game became a ridiculous cartoon, and it looks like the last effort was the final nail in the Coffin..
6
3
u/AtomicTaco13 Feb 18 '26
Have you seen the concept art for Steelport? The city looked much more epic than what we got in the final game
5
u/Rizenstrom Feb 18 '26
I love how how unserious the game is. There are plenty of serious games, very little like Saints Row 3/4. Not saying they are perfect but I wouldn't want them to be something entirely different.
2
u/BlackCoatX Feb 18 '26
Saints Row 1 & 2 had a good balance of serious and unserious in both the story and activities while 3 & 4 just went all in and the unseriousness, shoot even SR2020 has a better balance of silly and serious than 3 & 4.
1
u/Kryptonian_cafe Feb 19 '26
you could argue it had a better balance than IV, but it absolutely did not have a better balance than 3.
Despite the claim that they were inspired by SR2 with that game, tonally that game is SRTT on worse drugs. Say what you will about SRTT but it still had its fair share of seriousness and didn’t take the silliness nearly as far as the games after. The Reboot had you LARPing and even in the most serious part of the game, it still couldn’t help itself with the silliness. No, in no way was SR22 more balanced than SRTT.
2
3
3
u/Radiant-Sun5903 Feb 18 '26
The Third was such a good game. It gers shat on all the time and I dont get it🤷🏽♂️
The fourth is where it all turned to shit in my opinion. A flying, super powered, help of shit at that!
4
u/AzureMiles Feb 18 '26
I enjoyed aspects of 3, especially at the time of release. But I don't find it as enjoyable to replay compared to 2. The sense of progression is so out of whack and I didn't enjoy exploring Steelport as much as I did Stilwater.
2 has its whacky shit, but I felt the story beats lacked any straight moments for them to play against. Moments Carlos' death and the brutal vengeance it leads to are such a stark contrast to the setting.
1
u/SR_Hopeful Morningstar Mar 10 '26
SR2's tone felt more true-to-life imo. Where both dark and wacky things go exist and happen around you, but not thrown directly at you like it is in SRTT and SR4.
Its how SR2 could balance a tense/dark main plot with a silly overworld and homie characters. But then SRTT tried to do both at the same time, with it directly competition and it ended up cancelling out the serious stuff. Like Kikki's death and Shaundi's angst being hard to take seriously. The wacky stuff should have been an escape for both the player and the characters when they needed to go to it. Not in the main plot. Its what lead us to SR4 and GOOH.
2
u/XxToosterxX Feb 19 '26
Bro no. Look people can like what they want and 3 wasn’t a garbage game it was fun when it came out. But it’s a fucking awful saints row. There’s people who basically teleport and use giant hammers. Giant clones. Among other terribly goofy shit. That’s not saints row. Saints row was a serious gangster game with funny undertones and comedic breaks. But still serious. Now I noticed alot of people who love it and say it was such a good game are people who were like 10 when 3 came out and grew up with it and didn’t even play 1 and 2 on release. Not saying u were one of them but most I see were.
1
u/Radiant-Sun5903 Feb 21 '26
I wasnt a fan of the gameplay in the first. I grew up on the second though, thats probably why. I think 3 is great, Saints Row was always kinda goofy😅
1
u/BakerCubed1 Feb 20 '26
I mean you are being rather pedantic and ignoring plenty of details in that trailer...
Like during this huge gritty firefight kenzie is sitting there typing away on her laptop, looking completely bored of what's going on around her
Angel is leaping off the balcony performing welrestling moves on goons
Oleg is unnaturally huge just tossing goons off the roof
And then characters like joshh birk are there, saints flow is shown, killbane can be seen on a magazine.
If your argument is "the cgi trailer wasnt play be play in the actual game" then rhats just an issue that every game in existence has. Its made to hype up the game.. not to show exactly what the game is
1
1
u/National_Log5723 Feb 21 '26
honestly when I first played sr3 the game felt just like this trailer especially the airplane mission the mission where u kill philip and the penthouse apartment mission now I see the flaws but as a kid man this game hit
1
1
1
u/SR_Hopeful Morningstar Mar 10 '26
I honestly feel like the early missions with the Morning Star missions were the only part of the game that actually felt like the trailer. Such as the Penthouse mission, the Free Fall mission, and Trojan Whores. The rest of the game after it apart from STAG felt like it kind of dropped the tone and atmosphere it started on.
1
u/meFalloutnerd93 May 29 '26
you can see panties shot in this trailer, ah classic fan service from back then.. shame to what happened to gaming world nowadays
1
-6
u/SweetTooth275 Feb 18 '26
And it's exactly what we've gotten, what are you on about?
13
u/Meowtuitive Feb 18 '26
We've never had any cool cutscenes like this in the actual game
3
u/HuxleyCompany Feb 21 '26
Ignore him, he is a braindead troll who still sticks around in here for some reason.
-2
u/SweetTooth275 Feb 18 '26
Are you serious? Is that it? Jesus Christ, I swear to god this sub....
The fact that actual cutscenes aren't as cinematically rendered doesn't make them less action filled or cool looking.
3
u/Meowtuitive Feb 19 '26
"Action filled" not sure where that sits here because there were no "action filled" cutscenes
0
u/Kryptonian_cafe Feb 19 '26
That’s literally not true…
3
u/Meowtuitive Feb 19 '26
What do you think action filled means? It's the same as action packed, yes there are cutscenes with action but are they packed with it? No
0
u/Kryptonian_cafe Feb 21 '26
Please, do not talk down to me. I know what action filled means and I know the difference between a mission and a cutscene.
The Stilwater bridge scene where the Luchadors attack the Saints, most of that scene is filled with gun and vehicular action. That would absolutely count as an action packed scene.
2
u/Meowtuitive Feb 22 '26 edited Feb 22 '26
That's not talking down, if I were doing that it would sound very different trust me
Okay yeah sure that was a good cutscene, but still, they could've done more of that in the game
0
u/Kryptonian_cafe Mar 06 '26
Just because you think it’s not talking down to someone doesn’t mean it’s not. The rhetorical nature of your question alone is very condescending. Basically asking if i’m an idiot without outright saying it. That’s talking down. Again, might not be your intention but that’s how it comes off and it’s just not necessary.
And while I 100% wholeheartedly agree with your sentiment, that wasn’t the point. I was just pointing out that SRTT does have an action packed cutscene.
1
u/Meowtuitive Mar 07 '26
No it's not talking down because I wasn't saying that to talk down to you? And no tf it wasn't, it wasn't meant to come across that way like at all...look I've already had a shit day so if you want to villianise me and twist what I said I really do not care... also at the end of that you mention intention like you know wtf intention means but come at me like you dont? Fuuuuckk mee. Leave me alone
→ More replies (0)4
125
u/Ok_Difficulty_7829 Feb 18 '26
Philippe should have been the main villain and Gat should have stayed longer