The game received "favorable" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. Reviewers likened "Saints Row" to the "Grand Theft Auto" series; some felt the game improved upon the gameplay of "Grand Theft Auto", but others criticized the game's lack of originality. Steven Embling of play.tm wrote that while the game "isn't going to win any awards for originality", the game's graphics and sound design were "impressive" and "highly commendable". Ryan McCaffrey of GamesRadar+ considered the game a worthy entry into a genre beholden to "Grand Theft Auto", praising the game's graphics and use of the Havok engine, but lamenting the Respect system for disrupting story progression. Will Tuttle of GameSpy considered that while not all players would respond positively to the Respect system necessitating mission progression, the Activities "offer some of the game's most memorable sequences". Scott Sharkey of "1UP.com" noted that "Saints Row" removed frustrating elements from previous "Grand Theft Auto" games, like load times between city sections and combat reliant on auto-aim, but considered its attempts to recreate urban gang culture and satire "so hackneyed that they cast an embarrassing shadow over the whole thing". In Japan, where the game was ported for release on June 21, 2007, "Famitsu" gave it a score of one nine, two eights, and one nine for a total of 34 out of 40.