Saints Row
How about that Saints Row? That good for the shorties, yo?
Subject: Saints Row
Message: Do you think my 12 year old son should be allowed to play
Saints Row 1 should i decide through if he is mature enough or
the rating of it
-Ryan
No. Saints Row and Saints Row 2 are fairly well-made games that belong in the “Grand Theft Auto” genre of gaming. They are more flexible and less story oriented (players can make their own characters – I made a big fat white lady with red hair) and more concerned with “thug-life” than GTA. Still, they simulate crime in an exaggerated yet realistic manner and allow players to simulate being “gangsta” = murdering people for money, buying/selling/using drugs, using a lot of bad language and they do so in a realistic city-environment that does its very best to look and feel like the real world.
These kinds of games offer an opportunity for satire and parody of the ills of our own urban society, but mainly exist so adults can vicariously and virtual “live” the challenges found in shows like The Sopranos, The Wire and movies like Boyz in the Hood and Scarface.
While I don’t believe the games harmful to kids as a rule, there’s really no good reason to recommend or allow them to be played by immature minds. It’s up to the parent to determine how mature a child is, but with these games and games like them I agree wholeheartedly with the ESRB and recommend them for 17+.
Oh, and you’ll never see me recommend an M game for 12-year olds or under – period.
April 11th, 2010 at 11:44 am
Here I’ll have to disagree with you, Gamerdad. Not on your decision not to recommend the game to 12-year olds, but more on your point about the environment trying its best at looking and feeling like the real thing. I haven’t actually played the original Saints Row (I’m not allowed to own M-rated, or rather PEGI 18+ rated games), but I’ve played the sequel at a friend’s house, and I have to say that it’s probably the most over-the-top sandbox game I’ve ever played, with the possible exception of Just Cause 2. I didn’t feel like the game tried to seem realistic in any way, shape or form (when you have a mini-game where the objective is to hurt yourself to earn insurance money, I think we’ve thrown realism out of the window a long time ago).