The Puzzling Predicament Of The Saints Row Franchise

With the recent revelation regarding Saints Row’s creator Chris Stockman reaching out to Embracer Group to kickstart a resurgence for the ailing Saints Row franchise, now is the perfect time to look back at the franchise’s highs and lows, and whether or not Saints Row can come back better than ever before. 

Saints Row’s roots were birthed in the indomitable shadow of the GTA series. The original Saints Row came out in 2006 and was an unashamed GTA clone about a street gang called The Third Street Saints, who were embroiled in a war of supremacy with rival gangs The Rollerz, Los Carnales and The Vice Kings. Saints Row carried its own brand of destruction, sense of humour, activities and personality that marked it out as a worthwhile alternative to GTA. However, it was tame in comparison and served as a satisfying stop gap before Rockstar unleashed GTA IV on us all in April 2008.

Next up, Saints Row 2 arrived in late 2008 as a whole different animal. While the aforementioned GTA IV doused itself in semi-realism by containing immersive physics and an emotional story, Saints Row 2 swung in the other direction by going balls out (sometimes literally). Featuring an insane level of lunacy and outrageousness that prioritized fun in its most enthralling and captivating form. Activities like Septic Avenger and Trailblazing were utterly insane and demonstrated new heights of lunacy because they featured activities no other open-world game dared to incorporate. After all,  who wouldn’t want to throw excrement at houses or participate in an activity where running over pedestrians adds time to the clock during a challenging side pursuit? 

 Those Gary Busey ads for Saints Row 2 definitely highlight how outrageously all-out Saints Row 2 was. Saints Row 2 is often considered the best game in the series, and it’s because it truly established Saints Row’s identity by differentiating itself from GTA in every way that mattered. While GTA went serious, Saints Row went stupid, and-because videogames should be fun- Saints Row was the best counter anybody could’ve asked for. 

Things got particularly intriguing with Saints Row: The Third. The Saints moved to a new city, Steelport, and since the end of Saints Row 2 they’ve become a huge media juggernaut. While SR3 was a more polished and better-playing Saints Row, it lost some of the irreverent charm of its predecessor. Gone were the activities that were obscene like Septic Avenger, but the new Professor Genki challenges and the autotune-voiced Zimo and his pony cart indicated that there was still some gumption remaining in the franchise. The Saints started their ascent towards bat-shit superheroism in The Third as well, and that was marvelous to behold.

When Saints Row IV turned up in August 2013, all conceptions of reality were brushed aside as The Saints fully leaned into their superhero status. The lowly gangsters with guns from the original game are now full-on superheroes with powers to fly and leap into the air like they just graduated from the Crackdown games. The Saints finally reached their zenith, and with this supremacy it heralded the end of the Saints Row series as we knew it.

In 2022, we witnessed a soft-rebooted Saints Row in what many would consider a total disaster. Chris Stockman himself stated during an interview with Esports Insider, that  the Saints Row reboot was a ‘terrible idea’ and going onto say ‘there’s a level of expectations for a Saints Row game, and they missed the mark on all of them.’ This was a little bit harsh because the reboot did have some good ideas such as its diverse setting and generally taking Saints Row in a new direction. Of course there were many flaws in the reboot, but it wasn’t without some merit. 

While this newly christened Saints Row retained some of the carnage and irreverence of its predecessors, it tried to capitalize on modern gaming audience trends and failed miserably. These audience trends include inoffensive characters who aren’t aggressive or slinging slurs around like a bunch of cigarette-scented school bullies, and the everpresent allure to appeal to a wider audience was a front and center focus. The tone was more “internet teenage culture” and not the brash wannabe gangster allure which gave the series its zest.   

This led to a problem: everything felt pared back and the characters were too nerdy and uninteresting to care about. How the series can go from the spontaneous bombast of characters like Johnny Gat, to a group of ill-fitting misfits was simply a misfire. Gamers wanted Saints Row to be destructive, in your face, ballsy, and loaded with existentialist thrills - but the 2022 Saints Row failed to do this and thus failed altogether, even if Santo Ileso was a lovely, diverse getaway from the concrete cities of Stillwater and Steelport.

One of the most glaring and obvious disappointments about Saints Row is it signalled the end of the The Saints’ steadily escalating ascension towards becoming mastodons of the universe. Throughout the series we witnessed the rise of The Saints from bog-standard street gang to all-conquering space rulers. Once you’ve conquered space where else can you reasonably go? The reboot attempted to start afresh with something new, but it was like a castration rather than an evolution. As Stockman said, the reboot missed the mark, and did so in spectacular fashion. 

Were gamers too harsh on this reinvented Saints Row though? Considering that many gamers aren’t in-tune with how cultural shifts forge the industry’s identity, it can be argued that gamers just weren’t prepared for Saints Row’s change of course. The identity alterations don’t inherently mean it was a bad game, but Volition/Deep Silver didn’t respect the Saints Row fanbase by keeping to tradition, and instead chose to water it down with a lack of raw gangster identity, and a load of silly nonsense like those weird LED emoji helmets. By cohering with modern trends, the most-recent Saints Row turned against what brought the series to stardom, and aptly paid the price for it.

 Saints Row is still massively popular and there is still a roaring demand for the series to return to its roots. However, if a new Saints Row game does indeed get made, how will it fit into the videogame industry landscape? Obviously it cannot return to a softer take on the franchise or it will fail, but perhaps a ballsier Saints Row will cause unrest and may not sell as well if it tries to unearth its old identity-considering just how much the videogame audience has changed over the years.

All we require for this Saints Row prequel is the ability to feel like Saints Row truly got its balls back with every trait strengthened and tattooed onto itself like The Brotherhood’s leader, Mero, in Saints Row 2. We want bombastic characters, more incendiary ebullience, and the signature sense of silliness we’ve come to know. Ok, so it’s 2025 not 2008, but that doesn’t mean Saints Row can’t break boundaries and rattle a few cages-we gotta get our classic style experience with no filters or restrictions.   

If this prequel cannot be the Saints Row we want it to be, then we will respond in the same manner we did a few years ago regarding the reboot. There’s no more messing around, no more dumbing down or playing in the kiddie pool-it’s time for Saints Row to return to its fullest glory. Whether we see this prequel come to light is questionable, but unquestionably Saints Row has to come back bigger and stronger than ever to succeed.