The smartest decision Volition ever made was to make Saints Row dumb. Not just dumb, but plain ridiculous. Upon the arrival of the original Saints Row, many critics and players alike sneered at the unashamed Grand Theft Auto clone’s lack of identity. As a potential franchise, it didn’t look like it would have legs, but when GTA IV took a grittier route for the series, Volition fully embraced the dafter side of sandbox crime sagas and produced a worthy alternative to the Rockstar behemoth. Then, when it came to Saints Row The Third, Volition didn’t so much as embrace daftness as french-kiss it till its mouth went dry. At that point the series truly got an identity of its very own and it was a glorious moment.
Trouble loomed for the series when publisher THQ realised it’d spent its yearly budget on mo-capping muscular men in trunks again and forgotten to pay the bills, but luckily for Volition, Deep Silver plucked Saints Row from the suspiciously oily shipwreck of the THQ and thus Saints Row IV was birthed into the world. I soon realised that the analogy for embracing daftness would get a little bit too risque at this point to put in the article, such was the sheer level of insane silliness on display. With recent expansion Gat out of Hell literally taking what was once a shameless GTA wannabe into the Underworld to allow you an opportunity to punch Satan in the face, it became abundantly clear that Saints Row might have run out of feasible ways to get any sillier short of full-on time-travel with augmented dinosaur steeds.
There have been whispers that Saints Row is getting the reboot treatment and in all honesty, that couldn’t hurt at this point. As I just mentioned, there is little content the series could use to continue down the current path that wouldn’t feel like it was lolloping in its chair, barely mustering a bellow of ‘’lookit me! I’m still kerrazy kids! I’m riding a Cyber-Stegosaurus during the Normandy landings!’’ as it rolls its head with a tired look in its regretful eyes. There is nothing wrong with being the stupid, eccentric alternative to the smug, satire-laden standard-bearer of course. It just seems like its time Saints Row changed tack.
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Something needs to change again if Saints Row is to remain interesting.So how do Volition go about making Saints Row less silly and not actually go backwards by once again becoming a pale imitation of a more refined title? Well, if anything, it needs to dial down the absurd and become a better all round series.
For all the base humour and ridiculous missions, Saints Row IV has some of the most genuinely amusing and clever moments in recent gaming history, but these often come when the point isn’t forced home. The best of them are actually hidden behind a bigger, far more brash joke – usually about a penis- giving a sly nudge or a wink that compliments the overly childish nature of said winky puns. Nobody is going to confuse Saints Row with Seinfeld anytime soon, but there is definitely a slightly smarter side to the series that should remain in any potential reboot. You obviously can’t go without stupid, crass humour completely though, the best solution would be to pace the downright absurd moments so that instead of being hit with a succession of them, you get hit by just one every few hours. Using the meta jokes already in the series could even help to accentuate these moments by having a character make a nostalgia-tinged remark about it.
Plot-wise, there is a simple solution to rebooting the universe found in the expansion Gat out of Hell. This would allow for your character to start from year zero and retain knowing winks to their previous life as an intergalactic superhero while struggling through the gangland brawls of Stillwater. Saints Row IV already played on the idea of modern Saints Row clashing with the old in several of the loyalty missions. Building on that for a reboot, but with the added twist of your character second-guessing the outcome of missions (because they’ve been here before) and changing them as a result due to cockiness and new features not present back then. This setup should allow for a fine balance of fresh ideas and familiar Saints Row themes without going overly nutso on them. Plus, it should allow the series smarter humour to shine through without being bludgeoned to death by the dildo of daffiness.
I think there is no doubt that while the current gameplay mechanics are massive amounts of fun, they – along with the entire engine – need to be rebuilt from the ground up if Volition truly want to make the series feel fresher. Lets not forget that this series is not exactly renowned for dazzling graphical feats as it is. It needs better animation, more refined textures and to at least be up to the minimum requirement visually for a current-generation title. As for the gameplay, stripping down the anarchy of recent entries is a given, but there can still be an ease of movement that doesn’t require zooming up the side of buildings and gliding like a poorly-dressed flying squirrel. Simply put, traversal has to be smooth on foot, enabling your character to automatically jump small obstacles and have basic jumping, climbing and swimming skills. In vehicles, well, they need to control way better than they currently do. Volition can keep it arcadey by all means, just don’t have it so light that you swear the car might take off if you handle a corner wrong.
So, there’s my opinion on the subject, but what do the rest of the fanbase think? Should Saints Row escalate the nonsense further with the high risk of a much-diluted impact? Or should it gamble with rebooting the universe and dialling down aspects that may be the most enticing part for some? Is there another option that can make a better compromise?
This generation provides the first real opportunity for Volition to work on an entirely new Saints Row with Deep Silver’s backing; they will have an interesting task ahead of them.