The Saints Row reboot is set to release later this summer with a brand new story and characters, letting players build up the Saints in the southwestern setting of Santo Ileso. While the new Saints Row may be a bit more grounded in terms of narrative, it maintains the classic over-the-top action sequences Saints Row is famous for. Screen Rant recently attended a special hands-on preview event that included four hours of time with the upcoming title and new information from the game's developers.
After taking a spin with the extremely detailed Saints Row character creator, players will begin their story at their first day on the job for mega-corporation Marshall Defense Industries in an extreme, action-packed first mission that immediately sets the tone for the game. Alongside their character, players can customize their play experience through 5 different difficulty levels and choose between a solo or co-op experience. However, according to developers, the third level of difficulty is how the game is ideally intended to be played.
Although there have been some concerns over Saints Row's new designs and tone, the game's cast of characters and plot still maintain the series' absurdity in key ways. There's a nice contrast between characters - for example, the protagonist's supervisor Gwen perfectly fulfills the role of the hard-nosed, militaristic boss seen in many action films, portrayed in a somewhat tongue-in-cheek way, while the main character's close friends Eli, Kevin, and Neenah are more grounded. This blend of outlandish and relatable elements comes through in the game's missions and action sequences as well: an early robbery mission is sparked by the group of friends needing rent money, but ends with Neenah speeding her car along the front of a billboard to save the protagonist.
The new Saints Row isn't a sequel, and as such does away with previous titles' superpower abilities, replacing them with a set of satisfying new mechanics that players will expand as their boss gains experience. Over time players will be able to afford some seriously powerful weapons that offer features like electric shocks alongside their bullets, as well as lots of creative melee weapons. Rechargeable takedowns remain a part of the combat system, allowing players to immediately incapacitate close-range enemies through entertainingly violent takedown animations. Car combat is another large part of Saints Row, featuring many scenes where as a passenger players will need to shoot and explode enemy cars while clinging to a vehicle's roof for dear life, or as a driver take out enemy cars with the new side swipe feature that's reminiscent of Burnout titles.
Saints Row gives players a sense of accomplishment in several different ways, offering both skills and perks as unlockable fighting features in Saints Row that can be earned as players level up. Four skills can be equipped at a time for use during combat, with a huge amount of both offensive moves, that allow players to do things like shove a grenade down an enemy's pants, and defensive moves like throwing smoke bombs available to players. Perks on the other hand add a passive boon, like increased accuracy while crouching or faster speed when a player is near death. Player weapons and cars can also be improved through completing challenges as in previous games.
Saints Row rewards exploration just as much as it rewards gaining experience, with plenty scattered around the open world of Santo Ileso to do outside of the main story. The southwest, Vegas-esque environment is full of things to discover - some things, like drug caches that fell off a shipment or special Golden Dumpsters will simply net the player things like money and experience, while other discoveries can launch entire side missions, like an investigation of a series of strange sculptures players can stumble upon in the middle of the desert. Saints Row's Santo Ileso also contains fun and sometimes useful stunt-centric features, with ramps placed around town for epic jumps and special contraptions that launch the player high into the air where they can majestically glide over the city in the game's new wingsuit.
The game's gorgeous environment makes simply driving through Santo Ileso a sort of reward in itself - even when players aren't pursuing any specific sort of goal in Saints Row, they are free to roam the streets and desert areas of the highly-detailed city, jamming to any of the 10 available radio stations while taking in the sights. The game's art team included a lot of things solely for the sake of world building and humor, with a huge amount of murals, advertisements, and fake companies scattered throughout a landscape that's much different from the settings of previous Saints Row titles. Players can even take a breather from missions and go on Photo Hunts, in which they'll travel to different scenic Santo Ileso locales and earn rewards for capturing good shots.
Since players are an up-and-coming criminal in Saints Row, it means they may want to take on a few Side Hustles in order to make more cash. These Side Hustles can be found through the protagonist's phone and take on many forms, from more driving-focused missions to full shootouts and hit jobs. Players can also partake in Criminal Ventures, which are more business focused secondary activities that involve things like insurance fraud, as well as spend their time expanding the Saints territory and reclaiming spaces occupied by rival gangs The Idols, Los Panteros, and Marshall Defense once players have formed their own gang.
It seems as though the previously-delayed Saints Row will likely be worth the wait. The most standout elements of hands-on preview were the sheer depth of the game's open world and the opportunities the game provides the player both in its main story and secondary activities. Though they may be somewhat differently stylized than those in previous titles, the game features both relatable and entertainingly ridiculous characters. Long-time Saints Row fans can rest assured they can still look forward to cinematic and absurd action sequences like a flaming motorcycle crashing through a skylight and descending down the back of a giant dinosaur and vehicles falling from great heights on to enemies below, and it looks like there's a big sense of accomplishment to be gained from building the Saints from the ground up when Saints Row releases later this summer.
Saints Row releases August 23 for Playstation consoles, Xbox consoles, PC, and Google Stadia. Screen Rant attended a hands-on preview event for the purpose of this article.