A lot of things are being thrown out in the new Saints Row reboot. Gone are the Saints we know and love or, in the case of Oleg, tolerate, as well as the wackiness of the third and fourth games and the grit of the first and second. It’s Saints Row, but not as we know it, and yet all feels familiar. There has been considerable backlash to the trailer already, but developer Volition has fronted up and told critics to suck it and see in February. The reboot is an interesting prospect, but in all the carnage, everyone seems to be forgetting the woefully underrated Agents of Mayhem, and that simply will not stand.
If you ask me, the new Saints Row reboot looks great, so you can adjust how much you’re prepared to listen to me based on that knowledge. While I loved the superpowered, alien-fighting direction the series went in, I’m well aware that many of you wanted it to go back to its roots – especially when GTA, the game it began as a parody of, has moved into equally zany territory through GTA Online. This reboot, which is nestled in between the series’ conflicting grit and chaos, is trying to be the best of both worlds. If it was being criticised by both camps for heading too far in the opposite direction, I’d at least understand where people were coming from, but the complaints are ridiculous – especially when you consider they are compounded by the fact Agents of Mayhem has already demonstrated how this premise could work.
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It’s high time for us to say goodbye to Gat and co., and let’s face it – the series was always woke. That the new cast don’t look like gangsters is an especially weird criticism when you consider the cartoonish designs of the original quadrilogy that, from SR2 onwards, attempted to avoid stereotypes in order to create more distinctive, visually eccentric characters as opposed to typical gangbangers. As for “it looks like Fortnite” – what, you mean it’s brightly coloured and not photorealistic? Like every Saints Row game ever, you mean. I will grant you there’s a distinct lack of purple, and I admit I find that a little odd, but writing off a game you’ve seen precisely one trailer of based on a different colour scheme to what you were expecting is ludicrously entitled.
You might be wondering what all this has to do with Agents of Mayhem, but we've actually been here before. When Agents of Mayhem launched, it was cycled through the same criticism, only quieter, since Agents had a much more low-key release than the Saints Row reboot did. "Aha!" you scream with glee, throat hoarse from cheering as you watch the downvotes on the Saints Row trailer ratio the upvotes. "But Agents of Mayhem did terribly, so that proves Volition is a bunch of woke cuck soyboys! I am very intelligent!"
You're right. Agents of Mayhem had some disappointing returns, and while the original idea was to transition away from the Saints at a much slower pace, its flop caused things to go back to the drawing board. Considering Piece, Oleg, Gat, and Kinzie are in Agents though, that should at least be proof that relying on the nostalgia of old characters doesn't guarantee success, and if anything, justifies the decision to go for a full reboot rather than a gradual shift away from the core group.
However, you're also wrong. While the game didn't sell well, it carved out a cult niche for itself. Most of the criticism at the time revolved around the fact that it's not Saints Row, and… yeah. It's not. They gave it a shiny new title to underscore the fact that, actually, it's not Saints Row. It brought a slew of great ideas though, and hopefully some of them remain for the reboot. It toned down the powers of Saints Row 4 but kept that type of speed and traversal, giving you a range of different characters to play as and letting you swap between any three of your choice at will. The issue was a lot of the starting heroes were pretty bland, with the notable exception of Fortune. By the time you unlocked Daisy, Joule, Red Card, or Rama, things had begun to feel a little stale. These characters and their unique abilities freshened things up, but too many had written it off by then. If the nucleus of Rama and Fortune make it into Saints Row though, the reboot will be borrowing the best elements of Agents of Mayhem while smartly ditching the name and reverting back to the more popular Saints branding. It's a move Pierce himself would be proud of.
I have no idea how good the reboot will be, but I know that writing it off from a short trailer that didn't give you the perfect video game you've been having wet dreams about since 2013 feels like a little bit of a kneejerk reaction. Agents of Mayhem proved this new twist can work, but it also proved it can be a commercial flop too. Hopefully, with lessons learned, the Saints name, and a fresh start, Volition won't make the same mistake twice.