Framerate cap is weird in this game. Out of the box, on my system, gameplay is capped at 67 FPS and cutscenes are capped at 22, regardless of video settings and whether or not v-sync is enabled.

If you are on Nvidia, you can fix this strange behavior by setting the game's Max Frame Rate to 120 FPS in the Nvidia Control Panel and turning off V-Sync in-game. Cutscenes will be stuck at 30 but actual gameplay goes up to 120 and the frame pacing improves considerably.

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.

Sure, I put a "yes" for recommended, but it really should be some kind of Orange Cassidy-esque half-assed thumb-barely-up-at-all sort of deal. It's... fine. Just fine. I just don't really see a reason to get this remastered version instead of the original.

---EDIT---
In fact, I went back to play the original game with my wife, after I wrote this. You should still get *a* Saints Row 3. But which one?

Do you need 4k textures? Get the remastered version.
Do you need fewer bugs, a smoother gameplay experience, better framerates, a manageable level of traffic, and textures that match the overall art style? Get the original one.

You know, just get the original one anyway.
----END EDIT---

You want a short version? Here's your short version: When you take a game built around a cartoony look, and then make the textures hyper-realistic but leave everything else untouched, everbody looks like a Rob Liefeld refugee. They've not changed anything else in the game, so all the old garbage is still garbage, especially driving. This is the second-worst driving implementation I've ever experienced. But that still means the coop is there, and coop makes every game even better.

This game is built around gradeschool humour, knows it's ridiculous, and knows you know it's ridiculous. So if you're okay with fart jokes and nutshots, you'll be fine. If you're not, you're not going be wringing a masterpiece of literature out of this.

So for those of you who've stuck around past that, well, have you played the original Saints Row 3? No? Go buy yourself a copy, send a second copy to a good buddy, stop reading this right now and go do that instead. You owe it to yourself. The original version will still look decent, will run on a potato, and is absurdly good fun. Seriously. Get on that.

So if you're still here, that means you have played the original Saints Row 3. This remaster adds some fancified textures and updated the graphics engine, but I can't really see anything else going on. There's really no new assets, and I'm honestly hard-pressed to find much meaningful difference between the old and new versions of this game. This is the game in the Saints Row series that stopped trying to be Discount GTA and struck off in its own direction, a direction of over-the-top bombast. It's still (arguably) the best in the series.

Ultimately, here's what matters: it's still Saints Row 3, and apart from the gaming blight that's the driving model, it's still great. It's still coop, it still has the "Penetrator", and my wife still loves smacking people with the assault dildo. We'll find our fun anyway. And for that reason, it's still thumbs up.

(But seriously. Just get the original version.)

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 kid I wanted realism and played GTA SA while wondering why people would play the knock off that is saints row. As an adult now in the mundane world; there is something great about being able to hit a random pedestrian with a giant dildo. 10/10