Saints Row: The Third

Saints Row: The Third is the first Saints Row game set in the city of Steelport. As in the first two entries, the story centers on the Saints taking over the city by dismantling and absorbing three rival gangs: the Morningstar, the Luchadores, and the Deckers. Unlike the earlier games, all three gangs answer to a larger criminal organization called The Syndicate, which the Saints must also confront.

Some time after the fall of the Ultor Corporation, the 3rd Street Saints have transformed from a street gang into a global media empire. They are now icons and household names, with their own energy drink, Japanese commercials, toys, a massive fanbase, and a movie deal in progress. But their new “business as usual” image shatters when they attempt a bank robbery with actor Josh Birk—cast to play a Saints member—and the bank tellers suddenly erupt into an all-out gunfight against them. The Saints try to airlift the vault out, but Birk foolishly triggers the alarm, drawing the Stilwater P.D. After a major firefight with police and S.W.A.T., the Saints are arrested. In prison, second-in-command Johnny Gat vents his frustration with what the Saints have become, disappointed that they have drifted from their roots. Soon after, an international criminal organization known as the Syndicate bribes the authorities to release the Boss, Gat, and Shaundi. They are taken by force to Syndicate leader Phillipe Loren to negotiate aboard his private jet. Loren offers them their lives in exchange for two-thirds of the Saints’ Stilwater business. The Boss and Gat refuse, fight back, and Gat takes control of the plane to head for Stilwater. The Boss and Shaundi parachute out, but Gat is believed to be killed. Instead of Stilwater, the Boss and Shaundi land in Steelport, a dystopian criminal city dominated by the Syndicate’s three gangs: the high-tech Morning Star under Loren, the Luchadores led by killer wrestler Killbane, and the hacker crew known as the Deckers led by Matt Miller. After summoning Pierce Washington, the Saints establish a new headquarters by seizing a Morning Star penthouse, steal a UAV from a military base, and begin dismantling Morning Star operations. Their campaign culminates in an assault on Syndicate Tower, where they rescue Oleg Kirlov—an apparent superhuman and template for the Syndicate’s Brute clones—and kill Loren. When the Saints attempt to bring Gat’s body back to Stilwater for a funeral, Killbane—now the Syndicate’s leader—attacks them, and the conflict destroys Stilwater’s Hughes Memorial Bridge. To strike back, the Boss recruits anti-Syndicate allies: Oleg as an enforcer; ex-FBI hacker Kinzie Kensington as an informant; Zimos, the oldest pimp in Steelport; and Angel de la Muerte, Killbane’s vengeful former tag-team partner. Viola DeWynter later joins the Saints after Killbane kills her twin sister Kiki in rage following a failed assassination attempt on the Boss. Viola’s defection coincides with the arrival of S.T.A.G. (Special Tactical Anti-Gang), a paramilitary force created by Senator Monica Hughes after the bridge disaster to end gang violence. The Saints fight both the Syndicate and STAG, pushing Steelport into martial law. With Kinzie’s tech support, the Boss enters the Deckers’ mainframe, defeats Matt Miller’s avatar in a virtual reality battle, and drives him and most of the Deckers out of Steelport. At Angel’s urging, the Boss targets Killbane by entering the Murderbrawl XXXI pay-per-view, eliminating other contestants to gain access, and then defeating Killbane in the arena—with the option to unmask him or spare him. Humiliated, Killbane retaliates by provoking attacks across Steelport, escalating the chaos between the Saints and STAG. During the fighting, the Boss learns Killbane is fleeing the city while STAG second-in-command Kia holds Shaundi, Viola, and Mayor Burt Reynolds hostage at a Steelport monument rigged to explode and frame the Saints. The Boss kills Kia and saves the hostages. The Saints are celebrated for saving the monument, and STAG withdraws from Steelport while warning they will return. The Boss then tracks Killbane to Mars and kills him—only for it to be revealed as a scene from the Saints’ sci-fi movie Gangstas in Space, in which the Boss and several Saints are acting. An alternate, non-canonical ending occurs if the player chooses to eliminate Killbane. In this version, the monument’s destruction becomes STAG’s pretext to assault Steelport with the airborne aircraft carrier Daedalus. The Boss destroys the Daedalus, killing STAG leader Cyrus Temple, and declares Steelport an independent city-state under Saints control, with Pierce as mayor and the Boss as the ultimate leader.