Saints Row: The Third Remastered on mobile keeps all of its chaos and plays beautifully by touch

We played Saints Row: The Third Remastered on an iPhone 18 Pro Max using a code from Feral Interactive, the studio behind the iOS and Android versions. We had a great time with it on PC years ago, and carrying that full console open world in your pocket now is a genuine thrill. It ran smoothly throughout our sessions, and the touch controls are superbly adapted. Our verdict is two thumbs up: very good.

What Saints Row: The Third is

Saints Row: The Third is an open world in the GTA mold, only far more over the top. A heist gone wrong strands the Saints, the gang you lead, in Steelport, a city run by the Syndicate, and the game is about taking it back one district at a time through turf wars, property deals, stolen cars and a juvenile sense of humor that refuses to take anything seriously.

With GTA 6 arriving in nine days, on November 19, Saints Row: The Third feels like its mirror image. Nobody here is chasing realism. You can base jump off a skyscraper, throw yourself into traffic to collect an insurance payout or tear across town in vehicles that shoot flames. This version builds on the 2020 Remastered release, which rebuilt the original's models, lighting and textures.

Touch controls that simply work

This was our biggest worry, and it turned out to be the port's greatest strength. Shooting, driving, swapping weapons and bailing out of a moving car with two thumbs on glass never turns into a fight with the screen, and within minutes we stopped looking for the buttons.

The virtual controller is fully customizable and offers two joystick styles. The dynamic stick appears wherever you put your thumb, while the fixed one always stays in the same spot. Auto-aim can help while you move, when you aim or both, so firefights do not hinge on pixel-perfect finger placement. An accessibility setting swaps rapid taps for press-and-hold. If you would rather have physical buttons, you can connect a controller.

Built for short sessions, with nothing cut

Feral has added save-anywhere, which even remembers the state of your vehicle, plus mid-mission saves that drop you back at the last checkpoint. On a phone, where a call or your subway stop can end a session without warning, that means never replaying half a mission. Saves also sync through iCloud or Google Drive.

There are three graphics presets: Performance, Graphics and Battery Saver. On the iPhone 18 Pro Max it looked great. It does chew through battery, though, and the phone gets warm during long sessions without ever getting uncomfortably hot. If you're settling in for a while away from a charger, Battery Saver makes sense.

The package is complete. The App Store listing puts the campaign at 47 missions, joined by the three original expansions (Genkibowl VII, Gangstas in Space and The Trouble With Clones) and more than 30 bonus weapons, vehicles and outfits. The game hands them out gradually so they do not wreck the early balance.

Two-player co-op across iPhone and Android

The entire campaign can be played with a friend in online co-op, with cross-play between iOS and Android. We have not tried it, so we cannot vouch for connection quality. It tops out at two players. For bigger groups, our roundup of mobile multiplayer games has other options.

Why it stops at two thumbs

Two things hold back a third thumb, and neither is Feral's work: the game's age and what it demands from your phone. This is a 2011 release with a fresh coat of paint, and it shows in some of the mission design and in humor that has not always aged well. Steelport also feels a little empty once you stop following missions, and some textures take a moment to pop in when you swing the camera.

It is also huge. On iPhone it needs 22.12 GB of free space, and Feral recommends having double that, around 44 GB, during installation. It requires iOS 18 or later, or Android 13 on a phone with one of the chipsets Feral supports, so check that your model is on the studio's compatibility list before you buy. At $19.99 as a one-time purchase on the App Store, the price is fair for a complete game with all three expansions. In the stores it is listed simply as "Saints Row: The Third", without the Remastered tag.

Even so, if your phone is supported and you have the storage, this is a great way to carry an entire open world wherever you go. Just as with Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris, Feral shows that a port can feel made for the phone.