Earlier this week, Deep Silver announced that "Saint's Row 4" is on the way and should hit stores this August.
The development of "Saint's Row 4" has been a windy road: The game started out as DLC for "Saint's Row: The Third," until former THQ president CEO Jason Rubin told developer Volition to expand development to a full-fledged sequel. Of course, months later, THQ went bankrupt and sold off all its assets, and Volition was sold to Koch Media, owner of "Dead Island" publisher Deep Silver. Deep Silver confirmed that it would continue to support "Saint's Row 4," but the game's fate remained largely a mystery until now. What does that mean for the game itself? "Saint's Row 4" is going to look and feel a lot like "Saint's Row: The Third," and some parts of the game may feel more polished than others.
With that in mind, "Saint's Row 4" has potential shooting out of its ass, and we have some ideas about how it can overcome its checkered past to recreate the magic of its shockingly fun forebears.
(WARNING: This includes spoilers for "Saint's Row: The Third")
1. More Gonzo Set-Pieces:
While Saint's Row: The Third" was able to create and foster a world crazy enough for even the most psychotic, chaos-worshipping players, the game's personality shined brightest during its spectacular set-piece missions. Whether you're raging in the machine during in the game's infamous "Die, Deckers, Die" mission, or blowing up a massive mid-air battleship, "Saint's Row: The Third" proves that its one of the few games in recent memory where pre-designed action makes the spectacle more spectacular without making the player feel caged.
2. Customizable Super-Powers:
The trailer for "Saint's Row 4," which you can check out below, reveals the game's basic plot revolves around an alien invasion and the leader of the Saints–aka you–getting super-powers. One of strongest features of "Saint's Row: The Third" was the its wide variety of character customization options, all of which could be changed pretty much any time. Not only do we want those customization options to make a comeback, we hope the game includes a range of abilities, which seem to include flight and some kind of purple lightning, that can be tailored to match players' personalities.
3. "Saint's Row: The Third" Save Data Carryover:
Speaking of character customization, we all made some great characters in "Saint's Row: The Third," and we'd like to keep using them if at all possible. Given how similar the games will likely be, it doesn't seem like an unreasonable request. Better yet, it'd be great if "Saint's Row 4" took a cue from "Mass Effect" and made those critical decisions we made in "SR3" affect the game's plot.
4. Mr. Genki:
We're expecting new enemies and ridiculous characters to give "Saint's Row 4" a unique flavor, we'd like to see a few characters make a comeback, and number one on our wish list is murderous game show host-cat Mr. Genki. We may have gotten an overly large dose of Mr. Genki during his admittedly mediocre DLC, "Genkibowl VII," but the non-sensical violence and hilarious commentary from Mr. Genki's game show missions are quintessential "Saint's Row," and would be missed if they didn't make it into the sequel.
5. A God-Like Character Upgrade Track
By the end of "Saint's Row: The Third," fully upgraded characters were basically invincible. Every gun could get infinite ammo. Player could become immune to fire, falling, and pretty much everything besides bullets. Not having to worry about silly things like running out of ammo or the reprecussions of ditching a plane in mid-air gives players the freedom to the craziest things they can think of. If you can't push the limits of open-world insanity, then why are we even playing?