The will restarted Saints Row is not out yet, but some sites got some time with it via a recent hands-off preview. Impressions of the 40-minute gameplay, full of the explosive and crazy hijinks series that fans have come to expect, are coming online and the mood seems to be the same: This new Saints Row the game is familiar and refreshing, with so much customization you can really put your unique stamp on the world.
Saints Row, unveiled in August 2021, is an upcoming reboot of Volition’s long-running action-adventure series in the open world. These games typically put you in control of a street gang member who rises up the ranks to become the team leader while protecting its affiliates. Saints Row has a similar story. You’re The Boss, a gang member disillusioned with the state of gang affairs in the fictional American southwestern city of Santo Ileso. So you leave your old crew to start a new one with the sole purpose of conquering power from the three gangs that control Santo Ileso: the Los Panteros muscle heads, the anarchist The Idols and the well-known international private military company. as Marshall Defense Industries.
This narrative setup is the basis for Saints Row‘s bonkers action, according to the hands-off previews. There is still some polish that the game can use and the tone is a total shift for the seriesbut those invited to the preview event went at least hopeful that this reboot would seemingly retain its lavish action, while providing something different – in the form of new frames and characters – for longtime fans to get lost in.
Saints Row hits PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X / S on August 23. Here’s what some of the game pages say about the game so far.
During my hands-off preview, I got to see the new team of Saints in a variety of missions. These include a robbery from a loan agency that has gone wrong, resulting in a major car chase, a raid on a car-loving Panteros gang’s headquarters in a helicopter, and a rescue mission for one of the player character’s friends after he has been kidnapped by a bunch Deadmau5-like villains from a gang called Idols. The new cast of Saints seems sympathetic enough, but the ‘angry but endearing funny millennial’ tone of each character’s writing has not yet been nearly as endearing as the classic Saints Row characters like Johnny Gat or Kinzie Kensington. The ‘try-hard lulz’ writing that the series was known for is not as funny now as it was in 2015, when the last Saints Row the game was released. It’s hard to say from this early glance whether Volition’s writers will succumb to the same uncomfortable writing problems that plagued 2019’s Borderlands 3.
Saints Row still looks like it holds the potential for fun. Be it because of the entertaining way you can jump off pedestrians’ heads to get a boost when wearing your flight suit (an item that even other Saint Kevins seem to have access to, despite being shirtless in all the footage I’ve seen so far) or because you can change the look of your character on the go, when and when the mood takes you. And by changing the look, I do not mean just adding a new hat or jewelry to your Boss character. I mean a complete top-to-toe transition. In fact, in the preview I saw of the game, the player’s Boss went from being a young, casually dressed woman to a fat man with a perfect cowboy aesthetic. It all happened in a matter of moments before the player went back to continue their business.
Customization was a big focus at the event, where Volition showed many ways your boss can look. However, character customization is not a one-and-done option in Saints Row. At the touch of a few buttons, you can switch your style at any time from a handful of presets you create on Saints HQ; not just clothes, but every body fit and clothing option is on the table. Do you want to throw yourself out with a fleshy green giant in a gorgeous suit for a mission and switch to a stylish but casual look with a completely different body shape, skin color, face and hairstyle? As long as these customizations are part of your visual loadouts, you can become a brand new you whenever you want. Shops around Santo Ileso will fill up with more clothing and weapons options as you progress through the game, adding more ways to make The Boss your own as you take over the fictional American Southwestern city. Brian Shea has recently previewed all the things you can customize in Saints Rowand you can read all about it here and dream about how to make your Boss look like.
Saints RowThe Santo Ileso setting plays a major role in finding the balance between old and new. Despite the persistent appeal of the past Saints Row games, the last main series entry, Saints Row IVlaunched way back in 2013. Its Got out of hell DLC arrived two years later, and while Saints Row: The third got a modern makeover in 2020, it has been a long nine-year wait for players looking for something new in this universe. GTA online has gone from strength to strength in the same time frame via a series of comprehensive free updates – not least last year Dr. Dre with The Contract in the lead role– but as a result of being bound to the same framework throughout, part of me has always longed for a new landmass to probe and plunder.
It is here, in this new framework, that Saints Row should show the most exciting potential – the developer touches on a completely different culture, and presents the possibility of new types of stories, gang activities, musical expressions and player interaction to freshen up a nearly two decades old franchise. And although I have not been convinced that Volition has done this, I can tell you that a lot of effort was put into creating the set-dressing for Saints Row‘s history.
A thing Saints Row has always benefited from its large selection of unique weapons, and it is no different here. I’ve seen guns firing bullets through walls as if they were paper, finger guns firing bullets from giant foam fingers, and my favorite – Thrustbuster, a throw-away football that sticks to enemies and vehicles and makes them fly in the air before it explodes into small pieces. Each weapon, even the more conventional ones, also has their own unlockable signature features, such as turning a simple gun into a quickfire submachine gun at the click of a button. As you might expect, the action and the violence are all very cartoonish. It is also fluid, and finishing an enemy with their own weapon before diving with their feet first into a nearby car for a quick escape – and then climbing onto the roof to ward off chasers while the car is surfing – looks very slippery . Enemies look a bit spherical, with some taking several shots in the head to take down, and it’s often completely ridiculous, but it’s always been a part of Saints Rows charm.
The old cliché that the city is part of the cast lives on well, but at least with Saints Row it’s a cliché that Volition has earned the right to use it, especially after the eccentric, lively cities Saints Row: The third and Saints Row IV. Each district in Santo Ileso is meant to have its own vibe and NPCs, not just wandering the streets, but getting into trouble with the law – or at least getting parking fines – or just hanging out and listening to an impromptu musical performance . Possibly from you. Of the 100 emotions you can knock out, you have musical options and those that let you keep going so you can strut down the street while strumming on your guitar while people dance and clap. Around here, this would probably inspire a mob to chase you down and smash your instrument over your head, so that’s a good change.
However, not everything has been renewed. The low-key humor of the series is lively and kicking, and you will hear more f-bombs than you would in a Tarantino movie. Its gunplay, character comedy and lots of customization options are all staples in the series. That Saints Row reboot, however, has adjusted the formula to try to make them so much more sincere.
Saints Row is set to be an interesting addition to the range of games released this year. Although the last few games in the series were not hugely well received, this restart of the series would like to remind you why you loved Saints Row for all those years ago and it wants to show you what’s possible in the new generation of consoles when it comes to this series. One can only hope that it feels as good as it looks and that the developer Deep Silver Volition has made this game one that you will soon forget.
Based on these previews, Saints Row seems to be making an interesting comeback. While not everyone is sold on the script, and the open world-checklist nature could make it hard to get through, the fluid struggle and emphasis on customization at least makes this reboot sound like a fun time.