Volition announces Saints Row: Self Made, a unique reboot of the beloved franchise

[Cal Jeffrey]

In context: At the opening of Gamescom, Volition revealed its next game in the Saints Row series as promised, but it's not Saints Row V. It is instead a reboot of the franchise titled Saints Row: Self Made, and should not be mistaken as a remake of the first title in the series.

Saints Row: Self Made is an entirely new game set in, as some predicted, the American Southwest in a fictional city called Santo Ileso. There are four main characters—Eli, Kevin, Nina, and the player character, the "Boss." The quartet is just starting out building their "criminal empire," but they have three rival gangs to take care of first.

Volition shared the announce trailer (masthed) and a very brief pre-alpha gameplay teaser (below) during the opening of Gamescom. It looks a lot like the familiar Saints Row action fans would expect. The developers told Engadget that they abandoned some more juvenile humor, but the game's irreverence remains intact.

Fans can also expect to see crazy weapons that are somewhat iconic to the series. Volition even hinted that a couple of the more popular ones from previous games would appear but wouldn't elaborate which ones. Some of the crazier mission types are also coming back, including my personal favorite, Insurance Fraud. There is just something fun and satisfying about throwing yourself in front of cars to see how long you can keep yourself ragdolling.

The tonal change and the fact that Volition is doing a reboot rather than Saints Row V came from the idea that the original narrative had run its course.

"The original story, by the end of Gat out of Hell, had burned through all of its narrative runway," Lead mission designer Jeremy Bernstein told Engadget. "When your player protagonist has conquered Earth, ascended to Godhood, and escaped hell, there's not much you can do to top it."

Saints Row: Self Made is slated to release on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC. It should hit shelves on February 25, 2022.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/90948-volition-announces-saints-row-self-made-unique-reboot.html

 

[RudyBob]

I played one of them for a little while. Didn't appreciate it at all

 

[winjer]

Damn, this reboot looks really bad.
And considering the downvotes, it seems most people dislike this as well.

 

[arrowflash]

A shame Volition apparently has completely disowned the first title... wouldn't care for a remake but I'd love to see a remastered port of the first SR on PC.

I played one of them for a little while. Didn't appreciate it at all

Same, I don't like any of the sequels which I only played for a little while before realizing they're not for me. But I really appreciate the first SR (it has a very different tone and atmosphere from any of the sequels, it takes itself more seriously), which remains a Xbox 360 exclusive, and still can't be emulated in Xenia (it boots but freezes and crashes the emulator when going ingame).

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Sexually ambiguous, quirky millennials cracking flat jokes to generic action music is NOT "saints row". This trailer has none of the soul, music, or character (GAT) of the earlier games. The 18 seconds of gameplay show generic open world flying/shooting/driving, and the graphics look like every other big money game these days.

I mean look at 1 through 3, where are our hardened street thugs? The likeable characters?

Hopefully the writing in the actual game is WAY better, but I'm not holding my breath.

 

[theruck]

Never heard of it. so much for the beloved franchise

 

[Ren128]

After the end of no.4 and Hell expansion (or was it stand alone?) they had so many options and directions they could have taken the game in, but nooo, had to do a reboot.

I probably would have been ok with a reboot if they kept original characters.

 

[arrowflash]

Sexually ambiguous, quirky millennials cracking flat jokes to generic action music is NOT "saints row". This trailer has none of the soul, music, or character (GAT) of the earlier games. The 18 seconds of gameplay show generic open world flying/shooting/driving, and the graphics look like every other big money game these days.

I mean look at 1 through 3, where are our hardened street thugs? The likeable characters?

Hopefully the writing in the actual game is WAY better, but I'm not holding my breath.

The character designs in this remake look straight out of Fortnite.

Like stated in my previous post I'm not a fan of SR past the first game, but I have to concede that they do have character and soul.

 

[human7]

I played one of them for a little while. Didn't appreciate it at all

I loved Saints Row 2 the best, and the first one and the third were good, too. I felt like IV and Gat out of Hell just took things to such a ridiculous level that I frankly lost interest. I don't know why; they looked awesome until I got into them. I completed IV, but could never get more than an hour or two into Gat out of Hell. I guess it was just too disconnected that it didn't feel interesting. In Saints Row 2, the advertisements for fast food chains were perfect, and while that may seem silly, the whole experience of getting fast food or shopping or whatever is at least relatable. Superpowers are fun, but without the things that rooted the city into reality, it felt, well, like a game. It was, but it screamed in your face that it was a game. In the best open world games, you can forget you are playing one and enjoy the world for what it is. Only felt that way a little in IV, and never in Gat out of Hell.

Frankly I'm glad they are doing a remake. We'll see if it's a worthy reboot.

All that being said, I will say that the dialogue in IV and Gat out of Hell were sometimes awesome (I did watch YouTube videos of the cutscenes for Gat when I decided not to play through it, hopefully they are still able to keep that soul for humorous dialogue that has existed throughout the whole series in this remake).