The fourth entry in Volition’s celebrated Saint’s Row franchise hits stores worldwide in August this year, but Volition is already thinking about the fifth entry in the franchise. Apparently, it will be very different from the Saint’s Row we’ve been accustomed to so far.
According to GameReactor, the series developer has confirmed that the franchise’s trademark over the top style is coming to an end, as is the story of the Saints as we know it, with the fourth game. Simple escalation on a game by game basis decrees that they need to stop somewhere, and the fourth game, which kicks the insanity into orbit (literally), seems to be that point for the developers.
“I remember telling people: ‘I don’t know how we’re going to top this. We’ve got a mission on Mars, we’ve got a heli-carrier, we’ve got zombies. Where do we go from here?’” game designer Scott Phillips said.
“But everybody took a vacation, we came back, started fresh, and very quickly we came up with: ‘Well we’ve got to have… let’s do superpowers. It’s something we’ve always been talking about. Wouldn’t it be great to run as fast as a car, or jump over a building, or be able to pick up somebody with your mind and throw them across the city.’
“Things started snowballing from there. You know, fighting aliens came out of that because we needed an enemy that properly fights you, and then being the President felt like the next logical step from being a celebrity. So it all sort of came together. We definitely have a mentality of like: ‘Alright, we did that last time. We’ve got to that, plus one. We’ve got to do better than that this time.’”
If there is going to be a fifth game, he says, it will be a new story, and a new direction for the series.
“We’re definitely considering Saints Row IV sort of the end of that saga of this character and the Saints as they are.
“So if there’s any more future Saints Rows – which you know we always hope there will be, we hope there’s fans for future games like that – they will probably continue in a different direction.”
This breaks my heart, personally, because Saint’s Row’s trademark wackiness filled a dearly felt void that GTA left this generation. Hopefully the series is able to retain its distinct identity.