Let me read this "no edgy Saints Row" take on
the reboot:
Volition wants to tell a "contemporary" story that people can relate to. Alright, this is off to a great start.
This time around, the Saints crew is a close-knit group of four young friends, each with their own expertise: planner and business mind Eli, expert driver Neenah, DJ and smoothtalker Kevin, and the slightly off-the-rails Boss (that's you). As the Boss, you can still create a completely custom character (and choose one of eight voices) that's big or small, young or old, and anywhere in between.
Oh yes, four college students that want to lead their own crime syndicate in a desert town. We've ALL been there before. At least Watch Dogs 2 got around it somewhat with Dedsec being against the corporate computerized overload that is CToS.
but the story centers around the four Saints founders. Volition talks about the burgeoning crew—a quartet that's tired of working for big criminal organizations that decide to start their own thing—more like a startup company than a gang. I guess that means your mission is to "disrupt" crime?
What on Earth are they doing being in crime with qualifications like those?
The new crew seems like a spirited bunch. Their appetite for chaos is reminiscent of the old gang in the best ways, but I detect less meanness and cynicism this time around. Speaking only from the few minutes of cutscenes and gameplay I saw, the four feel like a proper friend group that accepts and supports each other, similar to Watch Dogs 2. I want to learn more about them,
Hahaha, she mispelled spoilt. I've watched that trailer at least five times. I see no relation or similarities between them and the original Third Street Saints. Not even the Third. "Accepts and supports each other," what is this, diversity training? Elementary school?
Creative director Briant Traficante told press in a closed briefing that Santo Ileso is "one of the largest cities we've built for a Saints Row game."
How big is "largest" exactly? Volition didn't say, but it did talk about a few of the nine districts that make up the world.
Bigger isn't always better. You'd think they'd learn that from Ubisoft. With the desert setting, I am expecting lots of dead space with desert and sand inbetween the nine districts to travel through. Pass. I hated that in San Andreas.
A big chunk of the map is a wide-open desert that looks ripe for offroading hijinks. Car customization is back, of course, and now every vehicle can be outfitted with offroading tires.
Yep, pass. I'm getting Mad Max and Rage vibes with that statement. I do not want to explore a desert with little stuff in between.
I remember laughing often at Saints Row The Third when I played it 10 years(!) ago, but it took some googling to remember just how embarrassingly edgy its writing was. Between memorable setpieces and lovable characters were moments of casual sexism and homophobia within its main cast and beyond—the sort of stuff that I breezed by in all media when I was a dumb 15-year-old.
Sexism, homophobia in a CRIME OPEN WORLD GAME?
Gee, I sure wish there was an indicator on games that tell you the recommended age range for its content...
studio development director Jim Boone said the Saints Row reboot will bring the series into the 2020's. "We love [the old Saints Row games], but we also recognize those are games of a time," he said. "They made sense within that era, and we were able to do things that felt good back then. But that tone is not something that we feel like we want to do today. We had a different kind of story that we wanted to tell."
The foundation of Saints Row was urban gangsta culture. So, they're sacrificing creative integrity for political correctness and a short-sighted audience. Great. Why not make another IP or a spinoff? No, tack an existing IP onto this mesh and hope it sells on name recognition alone.
I hope this flops. This is NOT Saints Row.
