Saints Row: The Third

Saints Row: The Third is a nonlinear third-person shooter video game, being developed by Volition, Inc. and published by THQ. It is to be released on November 15, 2011 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It is the third and final title in the Saints Row series, after the release of Saints Row 2 in 2008. As in Saints Row 2, the player controls the leader of the Third Street Saints. The game world is the fictional city of Steelport, and the story centers around the gang war between the Saints and The Syndicate, a rival criminal group

themselves with free rein in the city. They target a bank, attempting to airlift the vault out of it, but the alarm alerts the Stilwater PD and the Saints are incarcerated. In prison, they learn that the bank they tried to rob was owned by a huge international crime organization called the Syndicate, led by Phillipe Loren. After bribing the police, the Syndicate capture the Saints' leader, Johnny Gat, and Shaundi to try and negotiate a business plan with them, aboard Loren's private jet. While in-flight, Loren tells them they will be allowed to live if they turn over two-thirds of their territory in Stilwater. The leader of the Saints rejects this offer, and a gunfight breaks out, with the Saint's leader thrown from the jet.

With the Syndicate in full control of Stilwater, the Saints relocate themselves to the city of Steelport. Pierce is instructed to remain in Stilwater to make sure everything runs smoothly. Steelport is a city that was created as factories flourished with little city planning, and since has suffered from economic failure, contrasting the glamour of Stilwater. The Syndicate has already begun to take control of some parts of Steelport, focusing on vices like gambling and prostitution. To extend their reach, the Syndicate had divided their control of the city through three gangs. The Morning Star, lead by Loren directly, are typically European men with impeccable taste, selling guns and handling the prostitution rings. The Mexican wrestler Killbane controls the Luchadores who deal with selling drugs and gambling. The Deckers, led by hacktivist Matt Miller, are computer geniuses, and handle the money laundering. The Saints see the opportunity to take control of Steelport from these groups. As the gang wars intensify, a fourth group, the government trained Special Tactical Anti-Gang (STAG) units will attempt to halt any gang activity whether it be the Saints or the Syndicate.
Mission structure

In previous Saints Row games, the player would be able to approach each of the three rival gangs along separate storylines that ultimately culminated into a final conclusion. In The Third, the storylines between the three gangs are interconnected, and decisions that the player makes in dealing with one faction may alter the behavior of the other factions towards the player or missions that may be available later.The developers have focused on developing an open-ended storyline; the majority of storyline missions can be completed in multiple ways, and the decisions that the player makes on these missions will ultimately affect the game's ending
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Setting

The Third's game world is the fictional city of Steelport, which is stylistically influenced by Chicago, IL. It is presented in open world format, allowing it to be explored at the player's will. In The Third's premise, the Syndicate had taken over and rebuilt certain areas of the city to a modernized downtown, while the city's industrial areas remained rundown. The city was not planned with zoned areas; as art designer Frank Calvert described in a March 2011 interview with Game Informer, there are skyscrapers built adjacent to steel mills. Art director Chris Claflin also described the studio's design goal for Steelport, which was to make it easy-to-navigate so that the player would not have to always rely on the mini-map and GPS systems. As such, the city has been specifically designed so that the downtown area can be viewed from any position on the map