Saints Row is returning to its roots in the first all-new chapter from Volition in eight years. Ditching the crazy plots that crept into the franchise from Saints Row III and on, the developer is effectively rebooting the series and, as such, this is no Saints Row V.

Instead, it adopts the original name, just "Saints Row", although from gameplay footage we've seen so far, there will still be plenty of opportunity for zaniness - it just comes in the form of customisation and combat instead. You're the one bringing as much humour as you fancy.

We've had a couple of private briefings with Volition on the new Saints Row, so here's everything you need to know about the forthcoming open-world reboot.

Saints Row release date and formats

Although it was previously planned for last-gen consoles too, we've been told the new Saints Row will be released on current-gen formats only: PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC.

After an initial delay the game will hit stores on 23 August 2022.

Saints Row (2022) plot and characters

The new Saints Row may have a few Easter Eggs in it for fans (we've been told), but it tells an all-new story with an all-new line-up of characters.

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Set in Santo Ileso - a fictional south western American city - it is the first to feature both urban and sparse, suburban districts. This makes for a much larger, more varied sandbox, with Vegas-style zones, the desert and plenty of other themed backdrops.

You play as a fully customisable character known simply as the "Boss", who must create a new criminal organisation (The Saints) with three-likeminded but very individual allies: Neenah, Kevin and Eli.

These each have their own traits and abilities, and generally know the inside stories of the different factions of Santo Ileso: Los Panteros, The Idols, and Marshall.

Each of those are also radically different in fashion and combat styles. Marshall, for example, is a defense organisation so it's followers are heavily armed with the latest weaponry. While The Idols are influencers and very much tech-centric.

One major part of the original Saints Row that returns is a simulation-style aspect to growing the business. In the case of the latest game, this means earning cash and buying up business plots, which you can set to be whatever type of criminal venture you fancy. Want to turn a wastedump into a takeaway drugs frachise? Of course you can.

That's one of the reboot's most exciting features (for us). As well as a mission and story based campaign, the game allows you to cutomise and built your enterprise as you like.

Saints Row features

There are several big features coming with Saints Row. Here are our highlights so far. We'll also update this list as more features are announced.

Co-op

The entire campaign can be played in co-op, with a drop-in/drop-out system so a friend can join you online for any mission (or all of them). You can even play pranks on your mate along the way.

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Vehicles

Much of the action in Saints Row is vehicle-based - with Volition citing Baby Driver and Hobbes & Shaw as a couple of influences on the sort of crazy, but still grounded stuff you can get up to. One thing we learned is that the car itself is a weapon this time around, rather than just rely on you firing a gun out of the window. You can side-swipe other vehicles now, for example, which wasn't possible before.

You will also be able to take to the skies, with helicopters, planes and wingsuits available alongside cars and bikes.

Customisation

As we've detailed above, you get to fully customise your own "Boss" character, including the choice of voice, clothing, and more. From what we've seen so far, this is very much living up to Volition's claims that it's the "most extensive character customisation suite ever seen in the series".

Weapons and vehicles can be fully customised too, down to the texture of the barrel or even the shape and feel.

In addition, you can build your criminal empire as you like, placing dodgy endeavours in areas you buy or take over. This is very much a game that will be different for just about everyone, thanks to the extraordinary amount of tweaking that can be done.

Boss Factory demo

To further show you how the Boss customisation works, Volition has created a Boss Factory demo that you can download for PS5, Xbox Series X/S or PC now.

It gives you the entire Boss creation tools to play with, although you can't take your character into the game yet.

It will, however, allow you to transfer your created Boss into the game on release.

Traversal

Perhaps one of the coolest features we've seen so far is the freedom afforded to getting around the vast open world setting.

As we mention above, vehicles can be customisedl with numerous gameplay elements added to the aesthetic ones. For example, you can fit an ejector seat into your car, launch yourself from it then activate the wingsuit you're wearing to zip across the landscape.

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Deep Silver

It may have ditched the more ludicrous plot elements, but this Saints Row still wants you to have fun.

Emotes

Another new element we saw in a recent hands-off preview session was the ability to use emotes. You can choose from a large library of different actions (some unlockable) that even work well in single-player as NPCs react to them. For example, we saw a character play a guitar and a nearby group of NPCs started dancing.

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Deep Silver

There could be a lot of fun just finding out what each emote does in the game world.

Saints Row 2022 trailers

You can watch the first trailer for the game at the top of this page (the one released during Gamescom 2021). Volition also released a video explaining the new setting: Santo Ileso.

And, another gameplay trailer was released during the Game Awards in December 2021, which you can see below.

Saints Row screens

The latest collection of screengrabs were released after the second preview phase in May. You can flick through them below.

In addition, there were several original screens released in late 2021. Check them out here.