The reboot of Saints Row sounded a lot more ambitious than what we ended up getting. In the 2000s, there was a trend of games that were labeled as “GTA clones”. These were typically open-world crime games that more or less followed the formula of Grand Theft Auto, though were lacking that same degree of quality. One of the better “clones” was Saints Row, a game that focused more on gang warfare and extensive customization while also bolstering a great co-op mode. The series arguably peaked with its second game, but the third game was still fun, just more silly. However, Saints Row 4 jumped the shark and fans longed for a return to a more grounded story.
Eventually, Volition opted to reboot the series with the simply titled Saints Row. I actually thought the game had some fleeting fun, but generally speaking, it was undercooked and was lacking basic ideas from previous Saints Row games. Not only that, but the tone wasn’t quite there. Some felt it wasn’t gritty enough and was more about hipsters with guns than gangsters, making it feel a bit inauthentic. Ultimately, the reboot failed and Volition shuttered its doors, though Saints Row is expected to live on under another roof.
Saints Row 5 Could’ve Been Much Better Than the Reboot We Got
With that said, Saints Row YouTuber mrsaintsgodzilla21 visited Volition back in 2019 and got to see the Saints Row reboot in its earliest days. The YouTuber finally detailed his visit in a new video and revealed he was shown a vertical slice of the game and a presentation meant for investors to help sell them on the game. While a lot of general ideas ended up in the final game, such as it being set in a desert city and following a new group of characters, it was going to be called Saints Row Cinco and it sounded a bit more ambitious than what we got.
This indicates that it wasn’t always a full blown reboot and that’s further backed up by the fact that Saints Row would’ve had returning characters like Pierce, voiced by his original actor. In fact, actor Arif S. Kinchen recorded almost all of his lines for the game before Volition decided to cut all of the old characters out entirely. Saints Row was also meant to be more like Saints Row 2 tonally, but have a bit of Saints Row The Third mixed in there for more over the top set pieces. However, they eventually just decided to reboot the whole thing.
On top of that, Saints Row had grander plans for its open-world and gameplay. Human shields were set to return, but were reportedly cut after publisher Deep Silver felt they were too violent despite it being an M-rated game about crime and murder. It would’ve had a deeper perk system and more of an emphasis on controlling the city.
Players can own businesses in the final game, but the missions associated with this would’ve had more depth to them to make it more challenging and interesting. Not only that, but those businesses would have a greater effect on the open-world. If you owned the toxic waste company, NPCs would become mutated and grow extra limbs in addition to other side effects. If the player owned a district, they’d also be able to enact laws that change the world such as legalizing streaking for NPCs and prostitution. There was also a feature that would let players record their own library of voice over for civilians that could then be used in your friends’ games, but it was possibly cut due to the potential issues that could come from allowing that kind of freedom.
The YouTuber noted there were some more bizarre ideas for gameplay mechanics, such as a Doom-like system where enemies would be stunned and you could run up to them to do a takedown which would reward you with health. Ultimately, a lot of the big, ambitious ideas for Saints Row reportedly got watered down or cut entirely because of memory limitations and difficulties with the engine. I highly recommend checking out the full video so you can get a better picture for the game, but it sounds like there’d be a lot more nuance to the world in this early version of Saints Row.
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