History VideoGame / SaintsRow1

''Saints Row'' is a WideOpenSandbox game and the first entry in the ''VideoGame/SaintsRow'' series. It was released in 2006 exclusively for the UsefulNotes/Xbox360.

After over a decade without any sort of rerelease, port or remaster, ''Saints Row'' was finally made backwards compatible with the UsefulNotes/XboxOne system in mid-2018, much to the rejoicing of long time fans.

** Stores close during the night time. They can be broken into to steal the safe, which can then be sold to a fence. This was done away with in later games, where stores are always opens.

* ShoutOut: Joseph Price, the leader of the Westside Rollerz looks just like a character Creator/VinDiesel played in ''Film/TheFastAndTheFurious''. The achivement for actually wiping out the Rollerz is another ShoutOut: [[Film/MadMax2TheRoadWarrior Road Warrior]].
** Freckle Bitch's is also pretty clearly a much less wholesome version of Wendy's.

* [[WhamEpisode Wham Level]]: "Saints and Martyrs" (usually and erroneously referred to by the cutscene name, "Salting the Earth").

* KarmicInjury: [[DarkChick Tanya Winters]] and [[TheDragon Anthony]] "[[ScaryBlackMan Big Tony]]" [[TheBrute Green]] have taken [[HeroicComedicSociopath Johnny]] [[BloodKnight Gat]] and the PlayerCharacter captive. Johnny doesn't hesitate to openly insult Tanya and Tony to their faces, despite Tony furiously ordering him to shut up. Tony promptly punishes Johnny by [[{{Kneecapping}} unloading a shotgun into his left knee]], whereupon Johnny retaliates by [[AgonyOfTheFeet sticking a knife into Tony's foot]].

* FiveManBand: The main Saints
** TheLeader: Julius
** TheLancer: Troy
** TheSmartGuy: Dex
** TheBigGuy: Johnny
** TheChick: Lin
** TheSixthRanger: Playa

** Beating one of the Escorts in this game unlocks a homie named Samantha. She works as an actual stripper and joins the player in battle while wearing nothing but a thong and pasties. Note that since she, by default, carries a rather powerful [[CoolGuns/AssaultRifles K6 Krukov]], she's [[LethalJokeCharacter actually one of the more useful unique Homies around]].

** [[spoiler:There is no ''true'' PostGameEpilogue, as finishing "Saints and Martyrs" kicks the player back to the title screen after the credits, and reloading your save file still has the mission marker on the map as if nothing happened. Thankfully however, "Saints and Martyrs" is not required for HundredPercentCompletion, making the lack of an actual post game a non-issue.]]

** Unlike later games, you are unable to unlock the main lieutenants as homies (not even Johnny Gat, who gets to be a unlockable homie in later games), as unlockable homies come from side activities, with the exception of the Wheel Woman after "Canonized". [[spoiler:Though you can unlock Zombie Lin, it's still a big stretch anyway.]]

** There’s a talk radio station that’s unlike that of ''[[Radio/GTARadio GTA]]'' [[Radio/GTARadio radio, especially with Lazlow]]. Future games did away with this and only had radio stations playing music.

* CleanUpTheTown: The whole plot of the game is Playa being caught in a crossfire between Stilwater's various gangs as he is walking down the street and joining the 3rd Street Saints in an effort to curb the gang violence tearing the city apart. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, after wiping out all the rival gangs Playa is caught in a massive boat explosion that leaves him in a coma. By the time he wakes up in the second game all he cares about is reclaiming the city for himself.]]

* DeusExMachina: [[spoiler: Of a sort. At the very end of the game, it looks like [[TheBadGuyWins Hughes is going to succeed and destroy the Row]]... when a bomb suddenly goes off with no more warning than two beeps, destroying the boat and killing Hughes. It's not without its price, though -- before the sequel, it appeared the main character had also been killed... and even when the sequel revealed otherwise, your character was in a coma for five years between games.]]

* DownerEnding: The game ends with your character being blown up on a yacht, spending five years in a coma, and undergoing major reconstructive surgery prior to the second game. On the plus side, this justifies any and all appearance changes between the two games... except for, perhaps, the possible different gender and/or ethnicity. But just pretend it was always like that.
* DragonAscendant / DragonWithAnAgenda: There's actually no storyline where the enemy gang's boss is killed last - [[spoiler:Hector Lopez is assassinated early and succeeded by Angelo, Benjamin King is betrayed by Warren, then Warren by Tanya and William Sharp is killed before Price]]

* EnemyCivilWar: [[spoiler:The Vice Kings still loyal to King vs the Vice Kings who sided with Tanya.]] You only have to deal with the latter faction, however.

* DownerEnding: The game ends with your character being blown up on a yacht, spending five years in a coma, and undergoing major reconstructive surgery prior to the second game. On the plus side, this justifies any and all appearance changes between the two games... except for, perhaps, the possible different gender. But just pretend it was always like that.