Saints Row reboots, returns to its roots with a new gang and a new city

It should come as no surprise that the next row of saintsReleasing in February, it’s a full reboot of Volition’s open-world crime spree franchise. As fun as it was to make, the studio realized that they could have been painted in a narrative corner, eight years later than completely surreal. Saints Row 4 expanded the mob canon to include an alien invasion, Vice President Keith David, the Dubstep Gun, and author Jane Austen.

“When we were talking about row of saints 4We were talking about how you came from the crack house, to the penthouse, to the White House, ”reflected Jim Boone, Volition’s creative director, in a live preview broadcast two weeks ago. “By the time you’re done with Saints Row 4, you are the ruler of the galaxy. If you thought, ‘Where would we take it from there?’ – We went to hell and even conquered it, right? So there’s really nowhere to go beyond that. “

So it was “a pretty easy decision for us to go back to our roots,” Boone said, and that’s how we got row of saints – without numbering or subtitles – will be released on February 25, 2022 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Windows PC via the Epic Games Store. In the game, players lead a cohort of Gen Z crime entrepreneurs in taking over an entirely new city, the corrupt Las Vegas-like playground called Santo Ileso.

So this, with the reboot, is a whole new story; It doesn’t fit chronologically with any of the ones we’ve done, ”Boone said. “We have little nods here and there to some of our previous pets and things like that, but it’s a whole new story.”

“Uninjured” means “uninjured” or “uninjured,” and it’s a fitting theme for over the top action, peppered with explosions and smiles, as Volition showed Wednesday in a reveal trailer at Gamescom. Players will continue to create, design, and control the new 3rd Street Saints Boss, but will get all-new lieutenants whose backstories and characteristics are much more up-to-date. All have been expelled from one of the three established gangs of Santo Ileso. Taking down all three factions, the goal of the first three Saints Row games, serves everyone’s vengeful desires and criminal ambitions.

“While this is a more grounded game than Saints Row 4, it’s hard not to be a more solid game than Saints Row 4honestly, ”said Jeremy Bernstein, narrative designer for the game’s main mission. But, “we are still going to have outrageous antics; we’re still going to have a lot of fun. This is not a grim Saints Row. “

The updated premise for the origin of the Saints: They are a startup, they are just criminals. The idea comes from Eli, a bow tie MBA and one of the four founding friends who start the Saints. “He just didn’t realize that the business he was going to build was a criminal empire,” Bernstein said. “That means the next step is to make connections with people who can shoot guns.”

Neenah is the helmsman of the gang and was expelled from Los Panteros, one of Santo Ileso’s enemy factions. The Idols are another faction, and they brought out Kevin, a partying DJ character. The third enemy faction is Marshall Defense Industries, basically a mercenary company that makes its own weaponry.

Players will build territory in the nine districts of Santo Ileso (Volition makes the necessary promise that this is the largest map in the series) and launch criminal enterprises within them. The reveal video mentioned getting drugs out of a fast food restaurant, as well as car theft and junkyards, gun smuggling and one of the show’s favorites, insurance fraud.

“I’m continually amazed at how much play there is (in this game),” said James Hague. row of saintsdesign director. “You are building criminal companies, and each criminal company is unlocking its own custom gameplay with it. And that is in addition to all the other things you can do in the world. “

After the Saints become powerful enough, they will take on a gang on a large stage at their headquarters. Boone said that action and combat players will find in row of saints is inspired by movies like John wick, Baby Driver, and Fast & Furious Gifts: Hobbs & Shaw. Obviously, that means a lot of driving action, with no cruise control, Boone said.

“We spent a lot of time with a driving model to try to make it as manageable as possible,” he said. “You can still shoot out the window like you did in previous games, but we’ve taken a different path in terms of the way car combat works. You’re using the car more as a weapon in row of saints of what you are using your firearms. As a result, we didn’t feel like we needed to try and create that cruise control mechanic of the past. ”Cars aren’t the only means of transportation – there are also planes, hovercraft, wingsuits, and bicycles in the fleet. are even the premise of one of row of saintssecondary hustle and bustle.

Co-op multiplayer remains a staple of the reboot row of saints as much as previous games. “Every mission in the game is a cooperative mission,” promised Volition Executive Producer Rob Loftus. That also includes cooperative play between console generations, Loftus said.

“I think that’s when you are going to feel something that has a very different formula, not just from Saints Row. [the franchise] but honestly, any game I can think of, “added Boone. “You have the opportunity to decide which buildings you want to demolish, you can decide how you want to interact with them; you don’t have to interact with them if you don’t want to. But there is a lot of depth there, and there is a lot of aggression with this whole area of ​​the criminal empire, and I think it’s a big separation from everything we’ve done before. ”