Saints Row’s wild customization features leave GTA V in the dust
What sorts of monstrosities will you create?
Customization options in the Saints Row series have always been wacky, with a plethora of ways to deck out your vehicles, weapons, and of course, your own personal crime boss. The Saints Row reboot expands upon this beloved series staple, with more options than ever to create exactly the character you want. As part of a new video, developer Volition gave us a sneak peek at the nitty-gritty aspects of the upcoming game’s customization features, highlighting all the wild things you can do to make the character of your dreams — or nightmares.
Looks that kill
Candy corn for teeth...why not?
The most important aspect of customization in Saints Row is tailoring the way your character looks. Everything from your skin, size, facial features, hair, and tattoos can be altered as much or as little as you want. But you aren’t forced into changing anything if you don’t want to. Players have the option to skip over the minutiae of character creation and choose a pre-set character and get into the action, fast. That said, if you love spending lots of time modifying every little aspect of your character, you’ll feel right at home in Saints Row.
One of the noteworthy new features is asymmetrical face customization, allowing you to isolate each side to personalize as you see fit. You can truly make some horrifying monstrosities in this game, which goes along with the zany themes and story twists we can expect from Saints Row.
You’ll also be able to change your skin type, with options ranging from a metallic look, to broken glass, and even one that resembles a galaxy with stars and planets. We’re also excited about the different contacts you can use, such as cat eyes, and one that resembles the Eye of Sauron from The Lord of the Rings. A variety of prosthetics, voice types, and emotes allow you to further customize your character.
Saints Row is known for its risqué sense of humor, and the games often play nudity for laughs. That doesn’t appear to be changing in the reboot. But you aren’t forced into viewing naked folks if you don’t want to — or if you’re a content creator who doesn’t want to get demonetized. You’ll be able to discreetly blur or place emojis on your character’s bathing-suit areas to make for a less explicit experience. That said, this game probably isn’t going to be especially kid-friendly.
Fully loaded
Weapons can be customized in a number of ways, including various skins, colors, and optics.
Customization isn’t limited to your character — there’s no shortage of rides to choose from, with a slew of cars, boats, hoverboards, helicopters, bikes, and jets for you to customize however you like. You’ll be able to change colors and add different hood decorations, patterns, spoilers, and tire types.
A lengthy list of functional mods are available as well. Add nitrous to your monster truck to get away from the cops with ease. Or, completely modify your car to work well in off-road situations, making it easier to handle in the desert.
There’s even a towing cable you can use to pull other vehicles along as you wreak havoc across the city. (We’re particularly excited about attaching a ball and chain to the back of a car to absolutely decimate everything we drive past.) When things get rough, make sure you use the ejector seat to launch into the air for a speedy getaway, leaving all the destruction behind you.
Weapon customization seems to be a little less in-depth than characters or cars, though there are some eye-catching mods for your firearms. Nearly every part of a weapon can be altered, from the stock, magazine, body, barrels, and optics. Just like the various skin types for your character, weapons also have a variety of material surfaces, such as rainbow, rock, and various camos.
One of the most intriguing features on offer is the ability to turn your weapon into something completely different. You’ll be able to convert your rocket launcher into a guitar case (like in Desperado), and your assault rifle into an umbrella. There’s something so wonderfully ridiculous about going on a rampage while firing an umbrella at anyone who stands in your way.
Home, sweet home
Don’t forget to make your home base look snazy!
Another extremely cool feature of Saints Row is being able to completely personalize your home base. When you first start out, your HQ will be in rough shape, but as you accumulate more experience, cash, and Saints to fight alongside you, your home will eventually begin to take form.
As you find collectibles throughout the world, you’ll be able to use some of them to decorate your home, such as a massive statue of a robot, dinosaur heads, and a fire-breathing tree (which sounds on-brand for Saints Row).
Your HQ will also serve as a hub for you to modify everything we’ve mentioned so far, so long as the items are already in your possession. All items purchased from stores in the world will appear at your HQ, giving you a convenient place to adjust your character, their weapons, clothes, and vehicles.
But it’s not just about flash — HQ will be functional, too. For one thing, it’s where you’ll swap out the vehicles your Saints use. In addition, the second-floor Criminal Empire Table — every good hideout has one — which allows you to plot your takeover of the city. In total, there are 14 different locations you can expand to across the city, so there will be plenty to do in Saints Row.
Saints Row launches for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on August 23, 2022.
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