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Saints Row is getting rebooted into “a whole new world” with new antics and outrageousnessDon’t worry, Insurance Fraud is definitely still in it
Don’t worry, Insurance Fraud is definitely still in it
Saints Row | Announce TrailerWatch on YouTube
Saints Row | Announce Trailer
The impression is that this new Saints is cleaving more closely to the original, back when it was less wacky and more obviously trying to compete with GTA. A little less Professor Genki, a little more action please, as Elvis would have sung about his favourite third-person, run-and-gun crime game franchise. Still, the roundtable of Volition devs (comprising excutive producer Rob Loftus, design director James Hague, art director Frank Marquart, associate art director Stephen Quirk, lead narrative designer for missions Jeremy Bernstein, and chief creative officer Jim Boone) was at pains to point out that Saints Row is still totally funny, don’t worry.
It’s also fair, because in the Saints Row franchise they have blown up Earth and conquered Hell so, as Boone pointed out, there really isn’t anywhere left to go. Bernstein compared it to the Bond movie Moonraker: “It’s so extreme, it’s so over the top, it’s so outside the bonds of reality -Bonds, a-ha, there’s your humour guys - that you can’t go farther, you’ve got to pull it back.”
And they have, as they all said a few times, gone back to their roots, i.e. big guns and big crime. But even a more grounded Saints Row is still Saints Row. One of the options for traversal is wingsuiting off the top of buildings, for example. There are hoverbikes and hoverboards. You can customise your Boss however you like. And Loftus confirmed that the entire story is playable in drop-in/drop-out co-op, and has cross-gen crossplay because “co-op is always more fun with your friends”. It’s also, Loftus said, in a brand new engine - the first game they’ve shipped in it.
What we were shown didlookvery good, I have to say. Santo Ileso has nine different districts, with the goal being to give them all distinct identities. Ranchio Providencia has a “grittier, weathered identity” and is the Panteros home turf, El Dorado is basically old-school Vegas, and Monte Vista is gated communities for rich kids - to name but three.
“Santo Ileso is our amalgam lots of different influences from the Southwest,” said Marquart. “It is definitely not exact replicas of what’s in the Southwest, but I’m sure as you drive around the world you’ll see things that are reminiscent of the actual Southwest.”
This setting probably won’t help to stave off a fresh round of comparisons to GTA, of course, but I for one welcome our new Santo Ileso overlords - if cautiously. I’m a S’row fan, but wasn’t hugely on board once we hit super powers, y’know? So I’m up for some run-and-gun antics that are a tad more subdued without getting into the territory of boring realism. And the team at Volition have apparently been working to refine gunplay and driving, and to give players even more options than before. That all sounds great. But it’s easy to excite me with a cinematic trailer and carefully curated presentation footage. We’ve been burned before. The proof of the pudding is in the eating, but I can at least say I’m excited to grab a spoon. Preferably a spoon and not a giant dildo, also. That would be no way to eat a trifle.
