If you played Saints Row The Third, like myself, around the time of it's release, and have not touched it much since beating all those years ago, you might take a look at the screenshots and gameplay videos of this remaster and be fooled into thinking very little has changed. Well, like myself, you'd be wrong. Our memory has clouded that I guess. The remaster actually managed to touch up on quite a bit. The character models have gotten a massive overhaul for starters, and on top of that, redone textures of surfaces all over the place, as well as improved lighting and shadow effects. I mean on the surface the game looks great.

But it's not without faults. The game appears to have an FPS cap. Not 30 frames. Not even 60. No, this is an very odd case of a game having a frame limit of 65 frames per second during gameplay. Cutscenes even less.

But that's not even the worst thing. Unlike Saints Row IV, in the previous Saints games you spend a LOT of time in vehicles. And there are some major audio issues that break the immersion of this game due to the vehicles. I have seen several topics about this, and have found it to be true myself. When you drive a vehicle there is no sound for most vehicles. and the louder vehicles, such as trucks, have a low engine sound that is very muffled. I probably would not have noticed the trucks even having any audio unless I cranked the sound effects volume up. It's that low.

And the last thing? And this might be a big one. This game has some stuff censored. I mean, it's a Saints Row game. It literally has a giant dildo weapon. It's a game with tons of sexual references, and no shortage of violence. But it's got things removed from the original. Things you may not have noticed unless you do a direct comparison, but it's still not there. This one baffles me.

The only real positive I can say to this one is that they have touched up the visuals. But that's about it. If you want the real Saints Row The Third experience, play the original.

After many complaints, some people have found a fix for the audio and framerate cap. I went ahead and posted up a guide for it also. This is for Nvidia users. If team red is having similar issues, there might be a fix on their end also. But for those Nvidia users who are still going to buy this game, despite the issues, at least you can play with some stability now.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2494334622

I still do not recommend this game though, because these are issues that apparently have been in the game since it launched on EGS. That was what, a year ago? Just because we can fix the game does not excuse the fact that is a sloppy release. And WE should not have to be the ones that fix it.

Despite the character designs being improved, the remaster removed some songs from the radio stations and censored most of the sex references through the open world environment. Stick to the original, it's better.

Last time I trust a big naked dude...

Car noises are either non existent or occur when they're not supposed to (like how the tire screeching sound happens while you're going full speed on a highway). I've also tried to call for a vehicle delivery and my car spawned in the wall of the power plant. Very cash money!

If the glitches don't bother you, then get the game! If they do, I suggest getting a "less" glitchy version, aka: the original Saints Row the Third

How did you make a remaster less stable than the original?

While Saint's Row 3 was an amazing game, the original 2011 release had a ton of technical issues - all of which are relatively easy to fix (on Nvidia GPUs at least).

If you're thinking about buying this "Remaster" to get a smooth experience, think again. It's simply unplayable. It has all the issues of the original release as well as new ones specific to this release. Namely, a totally broken framerate limiter - it's a stutter fest making it absolutely unplayable at 1080p maxed out, on a R7 3800X & 3060ti. Needless to say, I should be able to run the game at 4k120, but even a smooth 1080p60 is simply not possible.
Edit: I recently upgraded to a 5800X3D and it doesn't run any better. Edit 2: Upgraded to a 3080ti, booted the game just out of curiosity... Yep - still broken alright.

I'm used to games that need a bit of love, I'm a contributor on the PCGW and a modder. So obviously I tried everything I could in the NVCP, Nvinspector, DXVK, SpecialK etc... There's just no way to fix the framepacing. The devs do not care about it. And so should you: don't buy this.

Average experience at best. Whole game felt less consistent and more buggy than the original. The "remastered" aspect of the game does not really shine through anywhere, except for improved lighting that makes for shinier screenshots. Needs a couple to tweaks to properly run on modern hardware because it'll fall apart otherwise.

If you played the original, leave it at that or get that to run, the remaster is not worth buying for you.
If you have not yet played the original and really want this game, you may as well get the remaster, but expect some hassle in order to actually play the game.

Remastered is meant to be a better version off the original
This is a pure cash grab that is a buggy mess
Character hitting invisible walls and running on the spot in 2022

The fact too many developers are putting out games in this state shows the industry is in trouble.

As a whole, Saints Row The Third is a good game. This review is based on the nature of the remaster rather than the game itself. I fully recommend that you buy the original version of the game, which is worth playing.

For some reason, even though it almost always leads to bad results, when publishers remaster a game a lot of them choose to outsource the development to some no-name team rather than having the game's original developers handle it. Imagine being able to learn from other people's mistakes and then choosing not to. Pfft.

SRTT Remastered is rife with glitches and anomalies that were not present in the original game. Most vehicle audio is broken and only functions properly when the car is stationary, resulting in moments where you're either speeding along with no engine sounds at all or having your eardrums grated by constant tire screeching that will not stop until you bring the vehicle to a complete standstill. There were times where cutscenes would stutter and become desynced with the audio. Menus also seemed inexplicably choppy and sluggish, despite the rest of the game running smoothly. Lastly, the visual upgrades themselves are a mixed bag. While there are marked improvements with the game's lighting and textures, the new character models shoot for realism instead of sticking with the original game's cartoony aesthetic. The reason why this is bad is because the facial animations all remain identical, and the new faces aren't nearly as expressive as the old models. Pierce Washington in particular appears completely lifeless and emotionless for the entire game. The characters visually appear extremely out of place with the world around them, and it ultimately reeks of the uncanny valley.

The original version of Saints Row The Third has worse lighting and lower-res textures, but the visual tone is far more consistent and the game itself doesn't have the annoying bugs that are present in the Remastered version. The Remastered version of the game comes off as an amateur and unpolished package, and I cannot recommend it as long as the original version of the game is still available for sale on Steam.

It's buggy AF, with vehicle sounds happening half the time, horns not working properly until you get into a wreck... sometimes? And the glitchy framerate of cutscenes? Forget it, just get the GOTY original version.

Trash. Beyond disappointed that this left QA. 1/5

4/10
Nah man, this aint it cheif

pros
- err, updated graphics, some vehicles redesigned for better or worse

Cons
- Many bugs were not fixed, just replaced with different bugs
- Play the original, its more stable, you get more music, and better experience
- the last level crashed so frequently i just called it quits