On Gamescom’s Opening Night Live, Deep Silver Volition pulled the curtain back on its new vision ofSaints Row. Originally touted as a “GTA-Killer,” the franchise truly hit its stride with the release ofSaints Row: The Third. Rather than a straight imitation ofGTA,Saints Roweffectively became a parody of the sandbox crime genre, featuring increasingly absurd scenarios and juvenile humor. The new sequel, however, seems to be striking off in a new, familiar direction.
While the reboot presents a great chance for the series torecover some sense of narrative grounding, the game also must have a clearer, more distinct identity than the franchise’s first two titles. Deep Silver Volition faces stiff competition fromGTA Online, as Rockstar continues to update the title, and it must bring more to the table than a squad of fresh faces. Fortunately, the fresh start presents the developer with a wonderful opportunity to revitalize and spice up open-world gameplay by drawing from another playfully irreverent title:Sunset Overdrive.
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Make Movement Fun in Saints Row
The greatest strength ofSaint Row’s new traileris its hyperkinetic, mayhem-as-a-joyride nature. Once the Saints make their entrance, everything leaps into motion. If the game plays like it looks, with cars that can climb and reliably leap from building to building, and moto-cross backflips into moving vehicles, gamers are in for a treat. It would be a crime, however, to waste those concepts on flair for a flashy trailer.
Sunset Overdrive— a title that seems like anobvious pick for a remaster— has one of the most satisfying movement systems in open world games. Grinding, ziplining, jumping and dashing to build a combo meter and maintain flow is like playing a level from theTony Hawk’sfranchise mid-gunfight. The game itself feels like watching the trailer for the newSaints Row. Incorporating a trick system, especially one that leverages your four man squad in innovative ways, would be a great way to spice upGTA’s comparatively grounded formula.
Better yet,Saints Rowcould take things even further by introducing such stunt or trick system for vehicles. Being able to flip into cars from motorcycles mid chase, or jumping up a building could lead to some impressive chaos and even serve as a driving hook for the game.
Saints Row: Off-the-Wall Weaponry
The originalSaints Rowfranchise had some truly outlandish weapons, especially in its later installments. Even though the game is going in a more grounded direction, it would be a pity to deprive players of creative weapon mechanics.
Again,Sunset Overdriveprovides a useful point of reference that is worth revisiting —especially if Sony decides to sleep on the series. The game gave players access to an enormous arsenal of cobbled-together weaponry that fired everything from vinyl records and flaming bowling balls, to acid-spewing teddie bears. TheSaintsdo not need to drink deep from this well, but having some unconventional fun weapons that deviate from the pistol/shotugn/assualt rifle/sniper rifle standards would be a great way toward giving the title a unique identity.
There’s still plenty of room for traditional irons, andbig guns that go boom, like the missile pod-esque rocket launchers featured in the trailer. However,Grand Theft Autodoes big booms very well already. Bringing unconventional options to a gun fight would make for a more distinctive, flavorful experience, while offering players something they can’t get elsewhere.
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More Fun, Less Edge
Not all things age equally well, and the humor in bothSaints RowandSunset Overdriveis a product of the time that produced it. But whileSunsetOverdrivecould be irreverant, it never strayed into the realm of penis-bat and mascot murder-spree edginess. Dialing things back a notch, shooting for punkish and witty, rather than crass and ironically juvenile “adult content,” could provide the perfect balance for the new series. Evenif the series doesn’t bring back “The Gat,” it needs to maintain a rebellious sense of humor of some sort.
The delightful thing aboutSaints Row, is that it has freedoms that the relatively groundedGTAfranchise does not. TheSaintscan revel in being inside a video game, and the reboot should take advantage of that.
Saints Rowis coming to PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on Jul 21, 2025.
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