Saints Row: The Third to drop multiplayer, keep co-op and add air strikes

Saints Row The Third

The first details on Saints Row: The Third have arrived. The sequel will have you playing the same character as the first two games, as the Third Street Saints move to expand their empire into the new area of Stillwater. Local kingpins, The Syndicate, aren't to happy with this, and gang war erupts. Familiar faces from Saints Row 2 will return, and there will be a number of new toys, including upgradable weapons, air strikes and a bug that can take control of any vehicle it's attached to.

spective, letting you hammer enemies from the stratosphere.

The info all comes from Game Informer's first look at the game. One thing Saints Row is known for is a ludicrous sense of fun. While GTA IV was busy being a bit gritty and serious, Saints Row 2 doubled up on the insanity of the original. One of the stand-out missions in that game had you and a rogue anarchist hijack a sewage truck to cover local banks and parliament buildings in poo. Saints Row: The Third shows no signs of backing down from there. Novelty weapons include a giant, vibrating purple dildo and the ability to call in air strikes. This will shift your view to the gunship's perspective and let you nuke enemy gangs from the stratosphere.

New features to the series include a new levelling system, which will let you pour points into fist fighting or gunplay, and customisable weapons which will let you attach scopes and underslung grenade launchers to your favourite guns. The game won't have any competitive multiplayer, but the co-op mode remains.

Other toys include an RC car that can plant bugs on other vehicles. The bugs will let you take over a car and drive it as though you were inside. This can be upgraded to take control of larger vehicles. The Mayhem events will also make use of the game's biggest vehicles. In previous games these would give you unlimited ammo and let you loose an sections of the city. Saints Row: The Third will introduce "Tank Mayhem." No prizes for guessing what that involves.

Saints Row: The Third is set to come out later this year.

Tom Senior

Part of the UK team, Tom was with PC Gamer at the very beginning of the website's launch—first as a news writer, and then as online editor until his departure in 2020. His specialties are strategy games, action RPGs, hack ‘n slash games, digital card games… basically anything that he can fit on a hard drive. His final boss form is Deckard Cain.