Bear Grylls will tell you that the fastest way to absorb anything is up your butt. By that rationale, Saints Row: The Third can be likened to a fun-enema; that is ‘fun-enema' as a noun, not ‘fun' as an adjective. Providing you possess a penchant for toilet humour, Saints Row: The Third will flush away all the seriousness of recent games and replace it with pure liquid fun. It is a game that will not be to everyone's tastes, but for those who can take it, Saints Row: The Third proves to be a refreshing experience.

Saints Row: The Third is the game that the Grand Theft Auto series was going to be before it got all serious and technically impressive in GTAIV. Right from the ridiculously over-the-top awesomeness of the opening action sequences, Saints Row: The Third invites you to check your brain at the door and settle in for the ride. I had not played the previous games in the series but this was no impediment to my enjoyment or understanding of what was going on around me. In this third game in the series, you play the leader of a highly successful gang called the Third Street Saints or just the Saints for short. The brilliant opening sequences setup the current state of affairs for the Saints and also introduce new players to just what rock-stars the Saints have become. Essentially, a new larger and stronger gang or group of gangs to be precise have moved into Stillwater and reduced the once mighty Saints to a minor player. You now need to work your way back up to the top, this time in the new location of the city of Steelport.

Character customisation options are both insanely varied and just plain insane. If you can dream it up, chances are you can make your character look like it. Not only that, but your customised character is used in all of the in-game cut-scenes which in itself adds to their overall hilarity. If you feel like a change, fear not as you can always purchase one of the plastic surgery businesses in Steelport for a cheap cosmetic makeover. Purchasing properties is the key to both securing a decent cash flow and to ultimately controlling the city. The more properties that are owned by the Saints, the more money you will make and the harder it will be for opposing gangs to encroach on your turf. Building your physical presence in the city is just one of the ways that you will increase your influence and become the top dogs in town.

After the opening sequence, your first few hours in Saints Row: The Third will consist of a series of tasks which introduce the player to the various mission types in the game. Some of these early intro missions are more fun than others but before the game begins to feel like a chore, you are thrust back into the main story. I can honestly say that every story mission in Saints Row: The Third is great (with perhaps the exception of the finale) and just when you think the game has peaked, you will find yourself in an even sillier situation.

It is worth mentioning if you haven't figured it out already that Saints Row: The Third is a mature game that is aimed squarely at mature gamers. The humour in Saints Row: The Third is best described as the kind of late-teen immature gags that you would find in pretty much any film set in a university frat house. I did note that the vast majority of the development team were male and that influence certainly shows in the game. It is not suitable for anyone under 15 years of age due to the high levels of violence, coarse language, sexual references and adult themes and this is reflected in the games rating. Some of the content in Saints Row: The Third may be considered overly offensive or just too much for some gamers, but it got past the Australian Classification Board so how bad can it be?

Questionable content and themes aside, for an experienced gamer the overall difficulty of Saints Row: The Third is fairly forgiving. There is no lock-to-cover system so you are encouraged to just keep moving to avoid taking damage. Your character is capable of absorbing a lot of punishment and will regenerate health over time. Violent actions attract the attention of rival gangs and law enforcement but they give up the chase easily. Upgrade points which are awarded as the game progresses can spent on a variety of areas including quickly clearing your notoriety or reducing the amount of damage that you sustain in combat. The upgrades can significantly increase your survivability and lethality, further lowering the difficulty of the game as a result. Rather than make Saints Row: The Third feel too easy, it just encourages players to take more risks and embrace the carnage and mayhem on screen. Driving a burning car trailing an assortment of police vehicles is so much more satisfying when you can dive off the freeway, deploy a parachute and glide to safety as your car and pursuers explode behind you in fiery carnage. The forgiving nature of the game means that you will not find yourself victim of many cheap deaths or frustrating missions that require multiple attempts.

Any fan of third-person sandbox style games will be right at home with Saints Row: The Third. None of the game mechanics are overly original with many nods to games such as the GTA series added more for player familiarity than as an attempt at satire. Saints Row: The Third does not take itself too seriously and expects players to do the same. Graphically the game looks good but not great. It may lack the polish and technological advances of GTA IV but it is not an ugly game either. Character models, some textures and animations could have been better but considering the game runs at an acceptable frame rate except during the most insane on-screen moments, it can be forgiven. The occasional bug or glitch only add to the silliness and curiously, most do not look that out of place.

Car physics are as arcadey as you would expect for a game of this type but are still accurate enough so that you can avoid high speed collisions and make sudden corrections at speed. Aircraft, however, are a different story and can be quite frustrating to control. Additionally, there appeared to be an odd scaling effect applied to aircraft motion. The relative speed of helicopters and planes etc. seems to reduce the higher you fly. I am guessing this was done to give a greater sense of scale to the game world and to prevent players from traversing it too quickly. In reality, all this does is make the aircraft feel like they are flying too slowly and feels weird.

My only real disappointment with Saints Row: The Third was the conclusion of the storyline missions. These missions were a clear highlight with some truly spectacular set pieces but the ending was a major letdown. Without giving anything away, it felt rather out of context or tacked on like the developers ran out of time (or ideas). Considering what the rest of the missions were like, I was expecting a massive conclusion but what I got instead was probably the least enjoyable mission of the whole game. Once the story missions are over the game continues as a sand-box experience. You have the option to repeat the penultimate mission if you wish which allows you to make a different final choice before the ending. Regardless of which ending you choose, it does not save the game from what is ultimately an unsatisfying conclusion.

In addition to the main game mode, Saints Row: The Third also offers two-player online cooperative play and a take on Gears of Wars' Horde mode called, wait for it... "Whored" mode. These online modes require an online pass which comes with the retail game or can be purchased separately if you buy a second hand copy and the supplied code has already been used. When playing cooperatively, both players are free to roam the game world and do their own things or you can team up and complete story missions together. There is also and option to play against each other in a limited game of cat and mouse with cars and helicopters. Unfortunately, you cannot each control your own gang and play through the whole game as rivals. This would have been an excellent feature and maybe we will see something similar to this in the next game in the series. Whored mode is a fun diversion and features some truly twisted and invented matchups which are best discovered by yourself. Needless to say, Whored mode will have you giggling but gets old fairly quickly.