StoryWelcome to Santo Ileso, a vibrant fictional city in the heart of the American SouthWest. In a world rife with crime, where lawless factions fight for power, a group of young friends embark on their own criminal venture, as they rise to the top in their bid to become Self Made.
CustomisationCreate the Boss of your dreams, with the most extensive character customization suite ever seen in the series, then complete the look with incredible options for weapons and vehicles.
This includes eight voice options
WeaponsShoot revolvers from the hip, fire and forget with a rocket launcher, or obliterate up close using melee heavyweights, complete with brutal takedowns. A vast variety of familiar and exotic weapons, all customizable.
Volition promises that it's still planning to introduce some ridiculous over-the-top weaponry as is the series' trademark by this point.
Game WorldDiscover the Weird, Wild, West – Dive in to Santo Ileso, the biggest and best Saints Row playground ever, spread across nine unique districts surrounded by the vast, majestic beauty of the Southwest Desert.
Santo Ileso will have nine unique districts, each one having its own theme and culture.
El Dorado district looks like a low-rent Vegas with rundown buildings peppered with neon lights, while Montevista is a more affluent area with gated communities guarding large houses with swimming pools.
PropertiesAs the Saints begin to battle with the three other factions and slowly take over each of the regions, players can take over vacant lots in each region and use them to set up new bases.
Players will be able to buy real estate properties and use them for various criminal enterprises. One such example includes starting a drug-running business using fast-food meat trucks as cover, like Gus Fring's chicken operation from the TV show "Breaking Bad."
"These buildings come with player choice, where and which structures you opt for will impact the world," said James Hague, design director. "Will you build your own fast-food drug-running ring? How about a protection racket? Auto theft? Arms dealership?"
These bases can be used to launch new criminal ventures, usually in the form of legit fronts that are secretly disguising dodgy jobs. Players can choose what should be built on each lot, and which criminal business is actually being run – protection rackets, , auto theft and arms dealing were some of the examples Volition gave us.
"You're building criminal ventures, and each criminal venture is unlocking its own custom gameplay with it. And that's in addition to all the other stuff that you can do out in the world."
There's apparently a lot of freedom when it comes to that - you can build a toxic waste dump in a financial district, if you want.
Quirk further expanded that, "As you place buildings in your criminal empire you're building a crew, you're acquiring employees. Based on your choices of what buildings you place, you're also placing additional Saints there."
Insurance Fraud supports a "sort of questionable medical clinic" you can build, and isn't the only returning activity, though the lads are tight-lipped on any others for now.
VehiclesBlast through urban and desert environments in any one of the cars, bikes, planes, helicopters, VTOLs, hoverbikes, hoverboards, go-karts or equip your wingsuit to swoop around.
The demo I saw showcased plenty of cars, motorcycles, helicopters, bulldozers, wingsuits, huge stunt jumps, off-road driving, and a ton more
We did spend a lot of time with a driving model to try to make it as drivable as possible," he said. "You will still be able to fire out the window like you could in previous games, but we've gone a different route in terms of the way the car combat works. You're using the car more as a weapon in Saints Row than you are using your firearms. As a result of that, we didn't feel like we needed to try to come up with that cruise control mechanic from the past." Cars aren't the only mode of transportation — aircraft, hoverboards, wingsuits, and bikes are also in the fleet. Wingsuits are even the premise for one of Saints Row's side hustles.
For one, you can upgrade any vehicle to go off-road, so if you want to take a garbage truck out to the desert and spin donuts, knock yourself out.
