Recently, the Saints Row reboot's Senior Environmental Artist prematurely shared screenshots online of the Santo Ileso setting, which showcase a closer look at its stunning arid environments. After a lenghty period of rumors and speculation, developer Volition and publisher Deep Silver unveiled the all-new Saints Row during gamescom 2021, promising an adventure wherein players will help build the 3rd Street Saints from the ground up.
Instead of returning to Stillwater or other previously explored locations in the franchise, the new Saints Row takes place in Santo Ileso, a fictional metropolis in the American Southwest comprised of desert terrain, city vistas, and suburban neighborhoods. A contingent of series faithful expressed their displeasure with the new direction from the start, shunning the art style and characters, in particular. Despite the backlash, the development team at Volition plans to stick to its original vision for the reboot no matter what. And though Saints Row's six-month delay to August 2022 raised some eyebrows, developers will use the extra production time to polish the overall quality of the experience.
Saints Row's Senior Environmental Artist, Tim Wasson, recently uploaded multiple screenshots of the reboot's open-world areas to his ArtStation page. Evidently, these images were not meant for public consumption just yet. Before these images were removed from the web, however, Reddit user ExcitedTerror (via GamingBolt) managed to download them, each one offering a glimpse at Santo Ileso's various desert-centric locales. Needless to say, Volition's art department captured the beauty of the American Southwest to a T. Check out several of the screenshots in question below:
Based on the leaked batch of screenshots, it appears as though Saints Row's massive open-world map will provide players with plenty of desert vistas to explore. What this wide-open area will house in terms of points of interest remains to be seen, though a few shots do show off mining, refinery, and abandoned town locales.
For several weeks after its official August 2021 reveal, Saints Row gameplay footage and details regularly made the rounds online. Volition and Deep Silver have kept quiet since the reboot's delay was announced in November, however. And, at the time of writing, there's no word on when exactly the title might reenter the spotlight. But since the reboot originally took center stage during the Geoff Keighley-hosted gamescom Opening Night Live presentation, it could very well resurface during the host's Summer Game Fest 2022 festivities.
Saints Row hits PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on August 23.
Source: Tim Wasson (via ExcitedTerror/Reddit, GamingBolt)