Saints Row reboot is ‘more grounded,’ ‘not grimdark,’ Volition promises
No surprise, the new Saints Row will be a complete reboot of Volition’s open-world crime spree franchise. The studio realized that they had been too creative eight years after Saints Row 4, which was a surreal and wildly entertaining event, that the gangland canon has been widened to include an alien invasion and Vice President Keith David, Jane Austen, and the Dubstep Gun.
“When we would discuss Saints Row 4, it would be about how you were coming from the crack house to the penthouse to the White House,” Jim Boone (Volition’s chief creative officer) said in a preview stream two weeks ago. You are the ruler of the galaxy by the time you finish Saints Row4. You could ask yourself, “Where would it take us from there?” We went to Hell and won that battle, right? There is no other way to get there.”
It was, therefore, “a fairly easy decision for us” to go back to the roots, Boone stated. Saints Row, which has no numbering and subtitling, will be purchased on February 25, 2022, for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and Xbox One. The game sees players leading a group of Gen Z crime opportunists to take over a new city called Santo Also, which is corrupt and Vegas-like.
Boone stated that this story, rebooted, is completely new and doesn’t follow any chronological order. While there are a few nods to our previous mascots, it is a completely new story.
“Ileso” means “unhurt,” or “unscathed,” and it’s an appropriate theme for the over-the-top action, punctuated by explosions and smirks, as Volition showed Wednesday in a reveal trailer at Gamescom. The players will control the new Boss of 3rd Street Saints, although they’ll have to create and style them. However, the new lieutenants are much more up-to-date and come with new characteristics and backstories. Everyone has been expelled from one of the three established gangs in Santo Also. The goal of the Saints Row 3 games was to eliminate the three factions. This serves everyone’s criminal and vengeful ambitions.
According to Jeremy Bernstein (the game’s narrative lead), “While this game is more grounded than Saints Row 4, it’s still hard not to be more grounded than Saints Row 4 honestly.” “We’ll still have outrageous antics; we’re still going have lots of fun. This is not a grimdark Saints Row.
The new premise of the Saints’ origin is: They are a startup company, but they happen to be criminals. Eli, a bowtie-wearing MBA who was one of four founder friends of the Saints, came up with the idea. Bernstein stated that he didn’t know the criminal enterprise he was building was coming up. “So, that means that the next step is to connect with people who can shoot guns.”
Neenah, the gang’s wheelman, was expelled from Los Pateros (one of Santo Ileso’s enemies factions). Another faction is the Idols, who tossed Kevin, a DJ animal character, out. Marshall Defense Industries is the third enemy faction. This is a mercenary firm that makes its own weapons.
Players will create turf in Santo Ileso’s nine districts (Volition promises this series’ biggest-ever map) and launch criminal enterprises within these areas. In the reveal video, it was mentioned that players would run drugs from a fast-food restaurant…….
