One of the first things you do in the original Saints Row is pop down to Freckle Bitches to discuss the gang's biz. On the way, you’re gunning down Vice Kings with your newly acquired pistol, but it’s all good. Grudges don’t matter in Saints Row, thanks to Forgive and Forget, the drive-thru notoriety cleaner. It sounds silly in concept, but all of this lends itself to some of the most impressive world-building in the contemporary open-world genre.
We’ve had countless great activities dotted throughout the world of Saints Row which add to that chaos, whether it’s coating Stillwater in a thick layer of sewage, firing ourselves into the air for insurance fraud, or driving around with a tiger in the back of our car while dodging animal rights activists. Genkibowl falls into thaꦕt category - it’s pitched as an optional hustle for some extra cash - but in reality, it’s so much more. The wholesale slaughter of furry mascots highlights how low this world has sunk and it provides a glimpse into what television is on offer in Saints Row’s universe - it’s an incredibly minute detail to hone in on, but adds a lot of unspoken depth and nuance to the background. We get to have fun with the shooting mechanics and emb💫ellished comedy from the announcers, but - like Gangstas in Space - it sets apart Saints Row from reality. Walloping a mascot to death with a giant dildo certainly wouldn’t fly with regulations here, not even after the watershed.
At its core, Saints Row is a character-driven journey about a band of misfits committing heinous crimes for their tight-knit familial group. That isn’t changing with the reboot, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:even if the cast is. Take Johnny Gat, the badass Korean-American rolling on thugs like he’s at a bowling alley hitting nothing but strikes. He isn’t just a two-dimensional “cool” guy: he has a whole world b🌠uilt around hi💃m. He’s dating pop star Aisha who is embroiled in the trappings of a rival gang, leading to her faking her own death. Their romance becomes an integral part of the first two games which ends in Gat’s best moment - he beats Shogo to a pulp at a funeral where it’s pissing it down before burying the poor sap alive. Gat’s a complex, broken man that crossed the line far before we met him, but we can understand him because of his extensive background subtly expressed throughout the first two games.
Gat isn’t returning for the reboot, but the point still stands. Saints Row builds its world on the back of its characters while also taking care of the mundane. We won’t see Julius, Carlos, Troy, Shaundi, Kinzie, Oleg, or any of the other personalities that made these games what they are, but that doesn’t really matter. So many of them were one-offs or introduced in the sequels, but all are memorable. Volition knows how to bring new characters into the fold while making you feel like you’ve known them your entire life. The reboot is expanding on that by focusing on a tighter band of four protagonists - 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Neenah, Eli, Kevin, and The Boss. The prior games managed to juggle sprawling casts so imagine how much depth we’ll see when the writers don’t have to🎶 deal with such an extensive r꧃oster.
Every game has expanded on the last, even the controversial Agents of Mayhem (168澳洲幸运5开奖网:which is great, by the way). Take Saints Row: The Third. It begins with us robbing a bank by stealing the vault itself while police on m🔜egaphones beg for autographs and make fun callbacks like, “Troy can’t bail you out of this one!” Between the ending of Saints Row 2 and the beginning of The Third, the world has grown exponentially. Now, the Saints are big-time stars pulling off ludicrous heists in Gat masks alongside an actor starring in a movie all about them. It’s off the rails, but we’re quickly caught up because we have to show this ac🎃tor the ropes so that he can get into character. The reboot can’t top alien invasions, Earth’s destruction, fighting Satan, or an international band of superheroes, but it can expand on the narrative ideas that make for a great open world.
Genkibowl is one of the best examples of Volition honing its craft because it explains just how our misfits aren’t in prison - it’s not all Troy. It’s a game show about a contestant mowing down mascots to win some cash. Imagine Steve Harvey hosting that. It seems ludicrous, but Saints Row is a world where reality’s rules do not apply. Crime is more acceptable and palatable. We look at people like Pablo Escobar with a distaste for their actions, but the world of Saints Row commodifies its kingpins, turning them into celebrity icons akin to Brad Pitt. People tune into a show where mascots are gunned down en masse for fun, so much so that it has tournaments. Saints Row 3 even saw one in which the action was brought to the streets where we would run over pedestrians for shits and giggles whether it wa💙s in our cat-themed car or giant yarn ball. Regardless of which characters return, the perfect world already exists for the reboot to take advantage of. Plus, let’s be honest - who doesn’t want more Genkibowl?
We’re being thrown into the middle of a new set of characters’ lives, kind of like Frank Reynolds rocking up in season 2 of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. The assholes running the show were degenerates with little morality beforehand, but our inclusion has the potential to make them far worse with more ambition. The key to being thrust into the middle of something is having the world already on track, moving at a steady pace with its own identifiable landmarks. When I visited America, it felt like America, mainly because I knew all of the franchises and chains plastered over our popular culture. It was recognizably America wherever you looked because there was always a Starbucks, IHOP, Target, star-spangled flag, or some outlandish billboard. That’s what Freckle Bitches, Let’s Pret🐭end, Genkibowl, and so much more offer for Saints Row, clearly hammering home that it is Saints Row. Throw in the copious amounts of purple and a family of close-knit characters and no matter who makes up the cast, it’s always going to be Saints Row. The reboot needs to keep Genkibowl for exactly that reason.