Round, Round, I Get Around
Saints Row’s Santo Ileso is a huge and sprawling place, a greatest hits collection of Las Vegas, Albuquerque, and other southwest landmarks. As they say, the city has a million stories, and in the course of the game, you’re going to see much of what the city has to offer. But not everything. There are a lot of nooks, crannies, and secrets to find in Volition’s big, open world. To see everything, you’ll need a four-wheeled partner in crime.
Of course, a lot of the missions don’t give you a choice. Sometimes you’ll be bulldozing a job site, or maybe lying on your belly on top of a speeding truck. The rest of the time, getting around is on you. The game might tell you where to go, but not how to get there. Here are a few of our favorite modes of transport.
Hoofin’ It
Everyone knows that the best way to get to know a city is on foot. In addition to getting your 10,000 steps, it’s fun to take in the sights from street level. Although 99% of what you see is window dressing and can’t be interacted with, there are still lots of things to discover, like treasure in dumpsters or landmarks to take a picture of, which is one way to open up fast travel points. Because the city is so big and your missions are wide-ranging, walking is not a great way to move quickly. But it is a great way to become familiar with Santo Ileso’s many distinct districts.
Grand Theft Auto-ing It
Most of the time, you’re gonna be getting around in some form of car, truck, or motorcycle. Throughout the game, you’ll collect a garage full of sweet rides and you can customize just about everything. No matter how badly you bust up your rig, it’ll come back to life good as new in your garage.
Driving in Saints Row is arcade-style fun, and everything controls pretty well. Even without trying to, you’re always completing challenges. Driving on the wrong side of the road, near-misses, intentional sideswipes all earn you something. That’s the great thing about the game–just about everything you do rewards you in some way. Car culture is big in Saints Row, especially with the Los Panteros faction. What you can do with a car is only limited by your imagination. If you can dream it, you can do it, from lying on the roof with a rocket launcher to using an ejector seat and then wingsuiting to earth.
If you need a quick ride, just jack a car and most of the time, you’ll meet with little resistance. Unless, of course, you’re on gang-controlled turf, or stealing an armored car. Then, be prepared for a shootout somewhere along the way.
Wingin’ It
If walking is slow, and driving is faster, the game’s wingsuit has to be the most fun way to travel. You get the wingsuit early on, and there are some tutorial challenges to get you up to speed with it. Of course, you need height to start with but once you make the leap, you can glide amazingly far. Rough landings aren’t a problem, either. There’s no fall damage in Saints Row.
Fast Travel-It
With a landmass as big as Santo Ileso, you can bet there’s some sort of fast travel system. Fast travel points are all over the map, but you have to make a tiny bit of effort to open them up. Open your map app on the phone and find the fast travel icons. When you click on it, it’ll show you a photo of a landmark. Go to that place, take a photo of it and viola! you have a new fast travel location. Easy peasy.
Destroy It
Some of us are lucky enough to have a daily driver plus some sort of special vehicle we reserve for special occasions. You know, like a tank. Or maybe a helicopter gunship or a bulldozer. A jet-propelled hovercraft motorcycle? In the course of playing Saints Row, you’ll get to command all manner of futuristic and military-style weapons, courtesy of the Idols or Marshall Defense Industries. Sometimes you can steal these and add them to your garage, too. “You know, honey, I think I’ll take the missile-equipped speedboat out for a spin on the lake today.”
Are you playing Saints Row? What’s your favorite vehicle so far? Let us know!
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