Yesterday during Gamecom’s Opening Night Live! we finally got our first look at the upcoming Saints Row reboot. While most of their time on the stage was dedicated to a cinematic trailer, today we are starting to get more information about what players can expect from the new and revamped outing in this universe.
Volition chief creative officer Jim Boone sat down with Games Radar and discussed several movies that have helped to shape and influence the game. The three biggest action films that seem to fit into the game are Baby Driver, John Wick, as well as Hobbs and Shaw. He stated that Baby Driver helped reaffirm the games “commitment to driving,” John Wick influenced the game’s intended “brutality,” and that Shaw and Hobbs was “a little bit of that Saints Row sort of flavor, the over-the-top kind of nature we’re known for.”
The city itself will have nine different areas across the largest playground Volition has created. The city is called Santo Ileso and is inspired by Cities across the American Southwest. These will include a version of Los Vegas, which is named El Dorado naturally. It will also feature a run-down area known as Rancho Providencio after the Mexican land grant in Los Angeles, as well as a high-class part of town called Monte Vista.
Across these area’s you will face off against several new gangs such as The Idols, Los Panteros, and the Marshalls as you attempt to start your own crime empire. Similar to the original game, the action focuses on a group of nobodies trying to conquer the city. While ‘The Boss’ Character is fully customizable, as is tradition, they will be joined by Neenah, Eli, and Kevin who were each kicked from one of the gangs. The trailer does not show any returning characters, though it is possible they could appear.
while the superhuman antics of Saints Row IV are being done away with in this entry, the game will still feature many different ways for your character to get vertical. Polygon reported that the game will feature aircraft, hoverboards, and wingsuits just to name a few.
Polygon also quoted Boone, who stated “We did spend a lot of time with a driving model to try to make it as drivable as possible,” which is a sentence, I guess. He actually went on to say:
We’ve gone a different route in terms of the way the car combat works. You’re using the car more as a weapon in Saints Row than you are using your firearms. As a result of that, we didn’t feel like we needed to try to come up with that cruise control mechanic from the past.
Co-op is a major part of the game as every mission within the game can be completed in co-op. As part of this, the game will have cross-gen support allowing gamers on the PlayStation 4 to play with friends on the PlayStation 5, and Xbox One owners to play with Xbox Series X|S owners. There has been no word on if the game will also feature cross-play between the PlayStation, Xbox, or PC.
While the game will still feature its signature humor, a lot of emphasis is being placed on the new cast, and the fact this is not a continuation. The characters are younger, with more to prove, and seemingly more optimistic… Though to be fair, they never spent five years in a coma.
Boone described the previous Saints Row games as “of a time,” and that they felt some of the nature of those games might be harder to sell now. Though he also went on to point out how, at the end of the last games you murdered an alien king and took over the galaxy which, let’s be honest, leaves very little room for a direct follow-up.
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