It seems like these days every single free-roaming gaming experience has to be compared to at least one of the Grand Theft Auto games, which must be pretty frustrating for game developers. More so than with any other style of game, their product is fanatically compared to arguably one of the most successful videogame franchises of all time. Which means it must be even harder for Volition, whose ‘next-gen' console debut, Saint's Row, not only is a free-roaming target, it's also a helluva lot like GTA in terms of themes and content. What they do have going for them is that they've beaten Rockstar out of the ‘next-gen' gate, and then there's the fact that Saint's Row is a pretty damn awesome game in its own right.

Saint's Row is a tale of crime and corruption, much like GTA, that puts you in the shoes of a nearly-mute protagonist (much like GTA 3), who has to negotiate the minefields of bent politicians and crooked cops (much like GTA Vice City), while at the same time helping his gang earn respect and gain new territories, much like, you guessed it; GTA San Andreas. Yet despite the litany of GTA comparisons people can level at Saint's Row, Volition's title puts its own unique stamp on the genre from the get-go, and after you spend a couple of hours with the game, you'll probably forget what G-T-A even stands for.

It's hard to pin down exactly *how* Saint's Row distinguishes itself from a series it has so much in common with, but its possible that it doesn't so much distinguish as it does assume the mantle of spiritual successor on the new console. Either way, Saint's Row is a powerful, engaging experience from the minute you load up the character creation screen, to the shock ending some 20-30 hours later. Indeed, the character building is the first thing that really sets the game apart, allowing you to put your own unique, personalized stamp on the experience in a manner GTA San Andreas flirted with, but never really went all the way.

You start by picking ethnicity, which includes Caucasian, Hispanic, Asian and African-American, and from here, there's not a whole lot you can't change...aside from gender, of course. Like Fable you're limited to playing a male character, but anything from fat and muscle-tone through to the size of your earlobes is able to be adjusted. Those of you who dabbled in the epic that was Oblivion will be familiar with this sort of customization, but even Bethesda's mammoth undertaking comes up a little short compared to Saint's Row's level of detail.

Once you're done with your designer dude, Saint's Row eases you in with a few introductory missions that anyone who downloaded the demo from the Xbox Live Marketplace will be familiar with, and then it's pretty much up to you! That's right folks, there's no cordoned off areas or bridges down for maintenance, from the very beginning you can go anywhere you want in Stillwater, and start whatever missions you want, whether they be part of the main storyline, or just one of the many petty (and not so petty!) crimes you can engage it. There are no load screens either, just one massive metropolis and you.

This unbridled freedom is the key to why so many people enjoy the GTA games and others of its ilk, and Saint's Row is no different. The variety of side-missions and criminal enterprises is great, ranging from simple find-a-car Chop Shop errands, to stealing hookers from their pimps and all points in between. There is literally something for everyone to get stuck into, and Saint's Row rewards your dedication by granting you bonuses for completing these missions at one of the various locales.

Throw yourself in front of (or out of!) enough moving vehicles in Insurance Fraud and you'll be toughened up and made more resistant to bullets, explosions or - not surprisingly - being hit by cars, depending on which location you complete the activity at. Some of the bonuses are less practical, like unlocking pimp clothes or a unique variant of a car, but if you manage to beat all 3 locations for a certain activity, you're bound to get a pretty decent reward.

These criminal enterprises are all well and good as a distraction or to toughen your character up, but sooner or later you're going to want to take a stab at some of the story missions. Once the 3rd Street Saints take back their own `hood, boss-man Julius charges his three lieutenants with each taking down a different rival group. The Westside Rollerz are sort of your fast'n'furious car-modding, nos-snorting rev-heads; the obligatory Latino crew Los Carnales are Stillwater's main drug-pushers, and the Vice Kings are ruled by an old acquaintance of Julius, and have their dirty little fingers in a number of pies, including legit ventures like the record industry. Which group you decide to take down first is entirely up to you, and it isn't a lock-it-in choice either; at any time you can go and partake in a mission for another group.

In this way, Saint's Row alleviates some of the frustration that comes with open-ended games and their wildly fluctuating difficulty. If a Los Carnales job gets too tough, you can simply go and help Lyn take down the Rollerz instead, or just cruise around doing some activities. But the key word was some of the frustration, because a large chunk of it simply comes from a few poorly designed missions and the utter lack of mid-mission checkpoints or saving. Given that a lot of the missions require you to first drive halfway across town before you get to the mission-proper, there will be times when you'll want to hurl your wireless controller at the TV when you find yourself driving back to the airport from the Saint's crib for the twentieth time.

It's lucky, then, that Saint's Row has so much going on that even the most annoying mission issues can be forgotten in about five minutes once you start driving around town. In addition to all the activities mentioned above, Saint's Row has a number of other things to do, including graffiti tagging, pimping your ride, and of course, retail therapy. In fact, your appearance is quite important in the world of gang warfare, and displaying your colours is an integral part of that, not to mention having all the right brands to bolster your street-cred.

All of this is tied into the Respect system that drives Saint's Row. Every time you engage in a story mission, you'll use up one level of your respect bar, and when you reach zero, then it's time to hit the streets and make yourself known. You can do this by engaging in the activities mentioned earlier, or by just killing enemy `bangers, and no, we're not talking about sausages. The way you're dressed has an impact on your Respect too, and if you're flying the gang colours with enough purple-pride while on the job, you'll get a nice boost to the respect you earn, ranging from 10% to 20% in fact. What's so startling about Saint's Row is that it isn't just the mathematical computations of the game that acknowledge this: pedestrians on the street do to. Wear the same clothes for too long and they'll make a snide remark about your BO, but strut your stuff in a mac-daddy pimp suit and the ladies will lap it up. They'll also comment about other things affecting their world; the amount of gang-violence in the area; the current power-struggles you're embroiled in with the rival factions, the police's efficacy or lack thereof, and so on.

This does a good job of bringing the city of Stillwater to life, as well as highlighting some of the fundamental flaws of the genre. One minute a hippy-guy may be congratulating you on saving water by not washing your clothes, and when you turn around two seconds later he's gone. This is particularly true of vehicles – often you'll see a cool car drive past and by the time your can execute a three-point-turn (and anyone who gets in your way) the street is empty. Not even tricking out your car will help you here, but it's still fun! Some of the vehicles only have a few customisation options while others - like sports-cars, SUV's and other rapper faves – have a host of cool mods available. Better yet, any of these custom-cars that are in your garage can be retrieved for a minimal fee if you blow them up or simply ditch them on the side of the road when you're busy on a mission, which is very handy indeed.

Visually, Saint's Row looks absolutely stunning, and Rockstar's ‘next-gen' effort with GTA IV is going to have to be pretty remarkable to raise the bar that Volition just set. There's just so much going on in Stillwater that it's hard to pin down what catches the eye the most...the explosions look phenomenal, the day/night cycle casts varying shadows depending on where the sun is, vehicle damage and physics is excellent, and the character detail is second to none. So the most impressive thing is probably that all of this is going on in real-time with zero loading as you cruise around the city causing havoc.

The framerate is fairly stable (with a few hits during bit explosions or pitched battles), so the only downside to all this high-res loving is that the game sometimes has streaming issues when you're fanging it across Stillwater without pause. Occasionally the road on bridges becomes transparent, or the physics will get a bit silly, or the dreaded pop-in raises its ugly head. But for the most part, these problems are minimal, although the game does have a few more severe problems such as freezing and locking up at random. Some people are also encountering problems with certain missions crashing at exactly the same point, although this particular headache eventually clears itself up.

Far less problematic is the game's stellar audio, which is second to none on the Xbox 360 to date. The game boasts an incredible soundtrack in excess of one-hundred tracks, ranging the gamut from Mozart to Xzhibit and every conceivable genre in between. The variety is great, and unlike comparable games in the genre, your listening pleasure doesn't have to stop because your ride just exploded – you can buy your favourite tracks at the in-game music store (or use your own mp3s on your Xbox 360) and load them onto a portable audio player and listen to your tunes while on foot.

The soundtrack is a highlight, but the voice acting is a very close second. Featuring the likes of Michael Clark Duncan, Tia Carrere, Michael Rappaport, Daniel Dae Kim, and Joaquim de Almeida among a celestial confluence of other stars, the dialogue is fantastic and the cast brings it to life. At the risk of offending the fanbois, the characters in Saint's Row jump off the script-page even more than some of the GTA games, which is saying something. It's just a shame the story doesn't really ramp up until the very end, indeed, after the end even.

But when the story does eventually reach its shock climax, and the credits roll (again), the game is far from over. Saint's Row boasts an incredibly robust multiplayer mode, again taking it into territory the GTA games are unfamiliar with on the Xbox platform. Included are decidedly gangsta versions of your usual multiplay staples: Protect da Pimp is your VIP mode, platinum bling chains replace flags to be captured, and of course there are the usual deathmatch options and requisite team variants. There are a few other novel additions, including a mode that sees you collecting bling and cash to be the fastest team to pimp your ride. It sounds simple, but if your car gets totalled by the opposition, you lose a level of pimp upgrades and have to start again, making the game a delicate strategic balance between getting the dosh and protecting your ride.

It has to be said that at the moment Saint's Row suffers from some truly awful netcode that makes for an incredibly laggy, often unplayable experience unless you're having a 4-6 player game with locals. Ranked online games generally devolve into a stop-motion seizure of blind firing and dying when nobody is even visible on your screen. Volition has promised a speedy fix to the problem, but as yet it hasn't materialised. Once it does we hope it addresses the serious multiplayer issues, because the ranked games have a lot of fun potential, and you need to play them if you want to unlock new outfits and accessories for multiplayer. And speaking of outfits, there's a free Downloadable Content pack in the pipeline that adds some new attire options, and it's pretty obvious that Volition is planning more of this in the future, which can only be a good thing!