Slowly but surely the Saints Row franchise began to take off. After a little struggle with the original game, all of Saints Row 2, Saints Row: The Third, and then Saints Row IV proved that there was much love and admiration for the Third Street Saints. But once you’ve given your players the chance to rule a city on an exploded planet, and then sent those same folk to Hell with Gat, where exactly do you go next with your franchise? Well, Deep Silver Volition are going back to the start again, with the announcement of a brand new tale in Saints Row.
Coming to Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, PS5 and PC through the Epic Games Store on February 25th 2022, Saints Row will let us witness the birth of the Saints as we join Neenah (the driver), Kevin (the DJ) and Eli (the planner) by becoming the future Boss and heading to Santo Ileso.
It is here where Volition are setting their newly rebooted Saints Row and this vibrant yet highly fictional city found in the American Southwest looks to be an absolute playground for players to get involved in. But it’s also a city full of issues – crime mostly – as various factions fight for survival and ultimate power. The Los Panteros, The Idols and Marshall gangs are all looking to take charge. As you’d expect to hear, each of these gangs come with their own ideas, skillsets, features and abilities. And you’ll have to create the tactics and strategies needed to take them all down.
The thing is, you’re now in town and with individuals who have broken out of those faction regimes kicking around alongside you, the newest team in the land is well-set. Your task is to build your very own criminal empire, working from the bottom and rising to the top, all in a bid to become Self Made. With 9 distinct districts in place though, each of which come with their own feel and theme, this is a land which promises much.
Santo Ileso itself is Volition’s wildest setting yet – and that takes some doing when you consider where Saints Row as a franchise has already been – as the sandbox plays host to a life of hustles, criminal ventures and a host of missions. If you’re ready to shoot, drive and even wingsuit – yes, wingsuit – your way to the top of your game, Saints Row is going to allow for it.
Building this empire won’t be easy though, but Volition are certainly giving the tools to allow the chance. You’ll get to create your empire with a host of buildings, with each dictating how the overall experience plays out. Expect these to be linked to the instigation of series staple mini-games like Insurance Fraud and more too. Ultimately, like many games of the current era, your decisions will affect how the land of Santo Ileso plays out.
Saints Row will allow utter customisation, pretty much how you see fit. This won’t just be limited to the deepest customisation tools that will let you create your own personality and character though – your cars, your crew and more will be your own. And yep, expect Volition to go a little crazy in terms of the weaponry they are giving you too and whilst there may not be a return of a certain purple fan favourite, there are big plans for what will be included. Expect them to be totally over-the-top, whatever they may be.
With Saints Row fully playable as a solo experience, but also presented with seamless, totally untethered drop in/drop out cooperative play whenever you may need it, the limits to what are on offer should well be broken by what Volition have created. And when you consider that they are selling this as a whole new story, with new characters, with Easter Eggs that point to the games of the past, with tons of humour, with all new driving mechanics, with uber precise – yet still arcade-y – gunplay and with plenty of the crazed chaos that has worked for the series previously, this could well be a massive return to form for the Saints.
If you need a breakdown of how the key features work in summary, we’ve got you covered…
- Witness the Birth of The Saints – Play through an action blockbuster original story full of criminality, extraordinary scenes and signature surprises laced with humor.
- Discover the Weird, Wild, West – Dive in to Santo Ileso, the biggest and best Saints Row playground ever, spread across nine unique districts surrounded by the vast, majestic beauty of the Southwest Desert.
- Build Your Criminal Empire – Take over the city block by block, wage war against enemy factions and tighten your grip on the streets with ingenious criminal ventures.
- Fire Guns. LOTS of Guns – Shoot revolvers from the hip, fire and forget with a rocket launcher, or obliterate up close using melee heavyweights, complete with brutal takedowns. A vast variety of familiar and exotic weapons, all customizable, and all deadly fun.
- Take to the Streets and the Skies – Blast through urban and desert environments in any one of the cars, bikes, planes, helicopters, VTOLs, hoverbikes, hoverboards, go-karts or equip your wingsuit to swoop around.
- Unprecedented Customization – Create the Boss of your dreams, with the most extensive character customization suite ever seen in the series, then complete the look with incredible options for weapons and vehicles.
- Seamless Co-Op – Experience everything on offer with a friend at any time, via fully untethered drop-in / drop out co-op, skipping the need to take either of you out of the outlandish action. Play nice together, or play all new pranks on your team mate. After all, who’s the Boss now.
We’ll only find out for sure how things work when the newly rebooted Saints Row gives players the chance to head back to where it all started with release on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, PS5 and PC this coming February.
We cannot wait to get hands-on with it though and after being invited in by Deep Silver Volition to a sneak peak of what is planned, we’re pretty sure the madness that franchise fans call for, will be well-catered for here.
Let us know what you think though. The comments are below and we’re on all the usual social channels. And make sure you take in the trailer below too. It’s a tasty one.
