Hands-on: The Saints Row reboot is a clever mix of Saints Row 2 and 3

destructoid.com:

When the new 2022 Saints Row game was announced, I was legitimately surprised. A full reboot feels like the best direction to take a series that once brought us to hell and tangoed with aliens and superheroes, and we recently had the chance to put this to the test with a Saints Row hands-on session.

So what’s the verdict? Well after playing the first few story missions and four full hours of the open world (via a later save file), I can safely say that it feels like a comfortable mix of the seriousness of Saints Row 2, and the silliness of Saints Row 3.

Our story begins with the “boss,” our plucky protagonist (who is fully developed with a highly customizable character creator) who joins up with the PMC Marshall Defense Industries [MDI]. It’s here that the tutorial picks up and you start to see the aforementioned silliness in action. While the monetary plight of the boss is at the forefront, the MDI commercial also showcases how the organization is “serving the community” by saving an old lady from getting hit by a car by…blowing up said car with weaponry right on the street. It’s a tone-setter!

Speaking of the character creator, it’s also another neon sign of how weird Saints Row can get. I had the chance to flip through the boss creator social channel in-game, which included a dev creation of Shrek, fully decked out in Shrek garb (which you can click on as a loadout if you have the in-game cash to buy said outfit). Another writer next to me was making Thanos, complete with purple skin. So far, so good.

Whatever you end up deciding on looks-wise, the tutorial has the boss try and track down a notorious and elusive villain, disobeying orders in the process (which sets up a chain of events that leads to said boss creating