Setting
The setting of both Saints Row and Saints Row 2 is the fictional city of Stilwater, located in the mid-western state of Michigan, USA. Stilwater is primarily based on the real-world American cities Chicago and Detroit. During the early development process of Saints Row, the city was designed before the script was assembled and was more than four times the size of its final revision but was cropped to a smaller revision because development resources could not support a city of that size. During its development phase the city went through consistent expansion and cropping; examples such as the shopping mall and trailer park districts in Saints Row 2's city revision were originally included in early designs of Saints Row's city revision. A design challenge was creating the city without load-screen interferences and as such the engine was designed to stream around the player's location in individual chunks of the city. The city was designed to feel diverse and have a variance of districts; Saints Row product art director Matt Flegel commented that "We wanted the city to cover all styles, from the towering sky scrapers of downtown to the gritty industrial feel of the factory district. We want the player to feel the changes between the districts, rather than just noticing the visual difference." The districts were also designed to feel relevant to the gangs that controlled them.
The Stilwater of Saints Row 2 is significantly different from its original rendition; the city is 45% bigger than its older counterpart. Much of the city from Saints Row is redeveloped in Saints Row 2, albeit becoming more "alive" and full of depth. Saints Row 2 lead producer Greg Donovan said that "Stilwater in Saints Row 2 is very different from Saints Row. In fact, every detail has been touched to some degree or another. I think that what will end up happening is that people who played Saints Row or are fans of the franchise are going to have a great time exploring the city and looking for new things., people that are new to Saints Row 2 are just going to be presented with a huge, very dispersive and very different looking environment, it's very well polished and detailed." There are no in-game load screens in Saints Row 2, a notable feat as the game allows for seamless co-operative play. There are over 130 interiors within the city, including over ninety different shops. The city is more dynamic and lifelike in Saints Row 2, as the artificial intelligence is smarter i.e. civilians will interact with each other. Additionally, certain elements of Saints Row 2's environment are destructible as the game shares some technology with the Volition-developed Red Faction: Guerilla game. Its environment also features numerous landmarks and Easter eggs; one such feature won "Top Easter Egg of 2008".
The game Saints Row: The Third is set in the sister city of Steelport, a city that flourished in the 1800s and has since succumbed to economic failure. Steelport's districts are almost distinctly the same, and the city size is smaller than Stilwater but has larger buildings. Steelport's most memorable feature is the large statue on Magarac Island, south-east of downtown Steelport. The statue is that of a factory worker and is a parody of the real-life Statue of Liberty. The overall design and look of Steelport can be changed via progressing through the story. At certain points the player is allowed to choose whether to do one thing over the other, which will change how Steelport's skyline appears. Some of these choices include deciding whether to keep or blow up the Syndicate Tower, a large military ship named the Thermopylae will be located south-east of Steelport after completing the first STAG mission, "Gang Bang", and the Deckers' hub will become a Saints' penthouse and subsequently a skyscraper after conquering it in the mission "http ://.deckers. die".
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Famous quotes containing the word setting:
“Only in the problem play is there any real drama, because drama is no mere setting up of the camera to nature: it is the presentation in parable of the conflict between Man’s will and his environment: in a word, of problem.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“The trees stand in the setting sun,
I in their freckled shade
Regard the cavalcade of sin,
Remorse for foolish action done,
That pass like ghosts regardless, in
A human image made....”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)
“The supreme, the merciless, the destroyer of opposition, the exalted King, the shepherd, the protector of the quarters of the world, the King the word of whose mouth destroys mountains and seas, who by his lordly attack has forced mighty and merciless Kings from the rising of the sun to the setting of the same to acknowledge one supremacy.”
—Ashurnasirpal II (r. 883–59 B.C.)