It takes guts to reboot something, doesn’t it? Guts, and no doubt a lot of hand-wringing. It’s a taciturn acknowledgement that something, at its core, still has value – something is worth sticking with – and yet it’s also a painful public admission that something else isn’t quite right. Be it a TV show, movie, or video game, I don’t think that’s ever an easy conclusion to reach… well, not with the eyes of an ardent fanbase looking on, anyways.
Whatever you feel about the decision to reboot the flailing Saints Row franchise, it’s hard not to respect developer Volition and publisher THQ for that gutsy decision. I’ll admit to you now, ahead of the series’ reboot, Saints Row and I were not on good terms. It’s the purple, I think: the purple and the silliness. I know all that was deliberate – that the franchise sought to differentiate itself from the numerous other GTA clones around it by slapping on some purple paint and making every entry just that little bit more larger-than-life – but there was too much of both for my tastes. It became too big and too unwieldy and – like Violet Beauregarde’s similarly purple silhouette – that overshadowed everything else it had going for it. No, not every game needs to be serious and no, not every story has to be emotive… but not every game needs giant dildos, either.
So whilst I enjoyed Saints Row and its sequel, I didn’t enjoy my stay with The Third, and side-stepped Saints Row IV altogether, which should give you some indication of my trepidation coming in, reboot or no reboot. I knew Volition can make engaging games with excellent characters and delightful gunplay, just as I knew Saints Row wasn’t for me. Well. Until now, anyway.
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