Saints Row is Shaping Up to Be a Fun Throwback

ign.com:

Having watched roughly 50 minutes of Saints Row gameplay, I’m encouraged by what I’ve seen. Deep Silver Volition’s reboot of the series looks a lot of fun, filled with the wackiness, carnage, and humour you’d expect. It feels comfortably familiar, but with enough new ways to play to make it not just seem like a retread of what’s come before, and promises to be a welcome throwback to an era when playful, urban open-world games were a much more common occurrence.

The first thing that caught my attention was the huge emphasis placed on customisation. Everything – from your playable “Boss”, a huge range of vehicles, arsenal of weaponry, and your base – can be tailored to your own designs. Car customisation in particular looks substantial with everything from paint jobs to neon underglows available. The character creator is also extensive, giving players the option to create just about anything human-shaped their mind can imagine. You can also completely overhaul the look of your character at any time - simply open the in-game phone app to perform the most advanced cosmetic surgery known to man. In a weird way, it reminded me of The Sims as you build a library of characters, each with their own backstory you’ve made up in your head, to take control of.

However, the setting is less SimCity and more Sin City. The world of Saints Row is a fictional depiction of the American Southwest and looks colourful and bustling with life. The main city of Santo Ileso – a well-observed riff on Reno, Nevada – is a perfect example of this as little vignettes play out as you stroll down the street. A band might start playing out of nowhere, or you may even decide to provide the music yourself by pulling out a guitar to entertain or annoy the