The new Saints Row combat is loyal to the franchise's legacy, with tons of opportunities for ridiculousness. During 12DOVE's Saints Row hands-on, we spent hours tooling around in Santo Ileso, gunning down rival gangmembers and, uh, kicking people in the genitals.
The Saints Row franchise has always been about excess and absurdity, but fans were notably concerned when developer Volition revealed that the reboot would be without dildo bats and dubstep guns. Some worried that the new Saints Row would feel too sanitized, too clean, devoid of the silly personality that defined it for the last 16 years. We're happy to report that isn't the case.
In Saints Row, you can shove a grenade down an enemy's pants before hucking them back into a crowd of their peers so they can explode together in gory glory. You can don a wingsuit, climb to the top of a weather tower, and jump off to glide around Santo Ileso, divebombing unsuspecting civilians like some kind of mutated peregrine falcon. You can kick someone in their nether region and when they fall to their knees, gently cup their chin before slapping them a few times in the face. You can attach a tow to a porta-potty and drag it around behind you, undoubtedly dousing the poor occupant with some unholy muck.
If all of the aforementioned combat techniques don't reassure that the Saints Row reboot is sticking to its ridiculous roots, I'm not sure what will. Volition may have told us that a Saints Row reboot was necessary to "keep moving forward with the times", but it's great to see that they're staying loyal to what made the franchise so iconic. It's a delicate balance, but it seems like Saints Row just might pull it off.
Saints Row just recently went gold, which is unsurprising as it's due out on August 23 for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, and PC.
After reading our hands-on above, check out our Saints Row preview from May.
