Between the late 2000s and early 2010s, Saints Row managed to carve out the perfect niche for itself. At the time, open-world crime games were largely quite serious, with huge titles like Grand Theft Auto 4 having some moments of levity, but largely adopting a more serious tone, which was all the rage back then. The Saints Row franchise managed to stand out from the crowd with its irreverent, crude humor, and its freeing sandbox gameplay, but by the time of Saints Row 4's release in 2013, franchise fatigue had started to set in. While Grand Theft Auto 5, released in the same year, managed to innovate on its predecessor in some big ways, Saints Row 4 felt like more of the same, and the series has remained largely dormant ever since, slowly fading into memory.
But that all changes this year, with the release of Saints Row, a reboot of the franchise. Releasing in just over a month, on August 23, 2022, Saints Row is once again being developed by series' creator Volition and looks to be bringing the franchise back to its roots. While some elements still exist, like in-depth character customization, quite a bit has changed, and now the player is tasked with once again becoming the biggest and baddest gang around. Though Saints Row is proving to be quite a divisive title, fans should wait until release day before delivering a final judgement, but the trailers released so far do give a good indication of what's to come.
Saints Row - Official Announce Trailer
First unveiled on the 25 August 2021, nearly a year ago, the first Saints Row trailer does a good job of setting up the reboot's new Santo Ileso location, and one of the main gangs that inhabits it, Los Panteros. In the trailer, fans are introduced to the four core members that make up the new Saints gang. There's Neenah, the mechanic and wheelman, Kevin, a DJ and the wildcard of the group, Eli, the businessman and strategist, and the player-character, The Boss, who's decided to start up this criminal empire from scratch. This announcement trailer shows a day in the life of the new gang, who steal some high-tech weaponry from Los Panteros.
Saints Row - Official Criminal Ventures Trailer
The next update for Saints Row came in October, when Volition released a trailer focused on the game's main activity, Criminal Ventures. Using this feature, players get to choose exactly how their criminal empire is built, choosing what type of building to take over and where to build it. The gameplay for each of these missions is then briefly shown off, showing the player-character dumping toxic waste, evading the police, and participating in one of Saints Row's most iconic activities, Insurance Fraud. Completing these Criminal Ventures will apparently progress the Saints' reputation as a criminal empire.
Saints Row - Game Awards Gameplay Trailer
The 2021 Game Awards saw a high-energy Saints Row trailer appear, this time showing off a wide range of different gameplay types via a speedy montage. Some vehicle combat and chases were shown off, as was some third-person shooting, and the wingsuit mechanic was also briefly highlighted. Where the previous Saints Row trailers have seemed fairly grounded, this one certainly gives fans more of a taste of classic Saints Row anarchy. Some pretty wild weapons and vehicles are unveiled, such as a hoverboard and a high-tech laser minigun
Saints Row - Official Customization Trailer
The most recent Saints Row trailer was released two months ago on April 20, 2022, and it shows off just a handful of the game's vast customization options. The first section of the trailer reveals some of Saints Row's expansive character customization options, ranging from hairstyles to body types to every type of clothing imaginable.
The next section showed Saints Row's vehicle customization opportunities, which is just as expansive as the rest of the game. It gives players the option to swap out paint jobs, add decals, and change each individual component of the vehicle's body. A range of practical upgrades for vehicles was also showcased, ranging from ejector seats to nitrous boosts and even attachable wrecking balls.
The penultimate section of this trailer unveiled some of the game's weapon customization options, beginning with some standard cosmetic options like changing a gun's finish and ending with some pretty unique options like the ability to change the entire look of a weapon, such as packing a rocket launcher into a guitar case. The final section of the trailer gave a brief tease of the empire customization options included in Saints Row, which give gamers the ability to shape their HQ however they see fit.
Saints Row is scheduled to release on August 23, 2022 on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
