A new Saints Row was announced to be in development a few years ago, but the developers have remained largely quiet about the title ever since. Despite this, the announcement of the new Saints Row claims that the game is reportedly going to reboot the series. Exactly what this entails, or how much of a soft reboot this new Saints Row remains to be seen.
However, a Saints Row reboot makes a lot of sense to bring the franchise to modern times. Not only would it help circumvent having to develop some of Saints Row 4's more difficult story beats, like the entire earth blowing up, but it also would help the series redefine itself. The games industry is very different than it was when Saints Row released, or even when Saints Row: The Third and Saints Row 4 were released. This puts Saints Row 5 into a perfect position to return to the series' roots and take it back to what made players fall in love with the franchise in the first place.
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Saints Row's Roots
The first Saints Row was released in 2006 and was followed by Saints Row 2 in 2008. At the time, the games were largely seen as clones of the incredibly popular Grand Theft Auto; offering a similar experience focused on open-world gameplay, loads of driving, a focus on criminal activity in a fictionalized United States, and very mature themes. The games saw players joining a gang known as the 3rd Street Saints, after which the player had to help the gang with turf conflicts, shootouts, and drug deals. However, even early on the series was more than just a distraction for Grand Theft Auto fans.
From the series' inception, it has always embraced a more light-hearted and juvenile tone than Grand Theft Auto. Stories in Grand Theft Auto have always focused on delivering a satirical look at the culture of the United States at different points in time, but Saints Row was more concerned with giving players an outrageously good time. Enemy gangs in the games are caricatures, while side activities include spraying sewage on the city, or demolition derbies. The story of the games still has a more serious tone to them, but side activities and player customization focus on just giving players a good time, leading to Saints Row doing some things better than Grand Theft Auto.
How Saints Row: The Third and Saints Row 4 Changed the Franchise
Saints Row was forever changed with the release of Saints Row: The Third in 2011. The third entry in the series dialed up its ridiculous and comedic aspects to new heights, with ridiculous character customization and an insane story to match. The game sees the 3rd Street Saints becoming a media empire, complete with energy drink commercials, movie deals, and penthouse apartments.
Then, Saints Row 4 was released in 2013 and managed to take things even further. Not only did it start the player as the President of the United States, but it also saw all of humanity getting abducted by aliens and put into the Matrix. In the case of Saints Row 4 sounding too bland, the player also gets superpowers.
The ridiculousness of the later games was also evident in Saints Row's weapons, with some highlights like a dubstep gun, a gun that shoots sharks, and one that lets players create black holes at will. Saints Row 4 even introduced a new attack that saw the players defeating enemies with a quick strike to the groin. Embracing the absurd helped solidify the game's unique identity for many gamers, but it also went a little too far for some who felt like superpowers ruined the point of using the game's guns, or that missed a slightly more grounded experience.
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What the Saints Row Reboot Could Look Like
With the next Saints Row rebooting the franchise, it seems likely that it will be rolling back the ridiculousness the series is now known for, at least a little bit. Following up on superpowers, in a digital world, constructed by aliens, by going even more ridiculous, is a very difficult task. Saints Row 5 is evidently better served by taking the series back to its roots and focusing more on modernizing the experience for today's players.
However, the game will still have to capture the tone of the series that fans love it for, so it is likely best off not becoming overly serious or else it will likely alienate many of its fans. It seems the best approach for Saints Row 5 is to include a bombastic and funny campaign, while keeping its mechanics a bit more grounded. Keep combat revolving around gunplay, but have some fun guns thrown into the mix. Thankfully, the game's community developer said that Saints Row 5 is going to "blow the roof off," so it sounds like it could be doing just that.
Saints Row 5 has been a long time coming, so it will have to bring something great to the table to satisfy series fans who have been waiting for years now. With the new generation of consoles and modern PCs, there is a lot that the developers can add to the series, and it could be very interesting to see how the game could help re-ground the series. Hopefully, Saints Row will be able to maintain the spirit of the series that fans love while still being able to take the franchise to new places and be something totally unique. It will undoubtedly feel great to revisit the 3rd Street Saints yet again.
Saints Row 5 is currently in development.
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