The new Saints Row was recently released, and unlike some preceding installments, the new title is a reboot which attempts to capture the early games' more grounded mixture of comedy and drama. After Saints Row IV saw the protagonist protecting Earth from aliens as the President of the United States, the series fully embraced the absurd, and the prospect of returning to the original premise of building a criminal empire seemed impossible. This Saints Row at least partially returns to the series' roots, but it still has plenty of absurd moments in its crime-centric story.
[Warning: The following article contains spoilers for Saints Row (2022).]The 2022 reboot takes place in a Las Vegas-like city called Santo Ileso, and like Stilwater and Steelport in the first three installments, the city's crime is initially controlled by three factions. Saints Row's promising new chapter follows the traditionally unnamed player character and their roommates as they form their own gang in an attempt to take control of the fresh setting. This entry's gangs require some suspension of disbelief, but they are reminiscent of Saints Row: The Third's overly-thematic, semi-cyberpunk criminal lineup.
Among the Saints' rivals are the Panteros, a more traditional group straight out of the first two Saints Row games; the Idols, a high-tech neon-laden communist organization similar to Saints Row: The Third's Deckers; and Ultor Corporation-like private military firm, Marshall Defense Industries. Like some previous installments, the game's side quests take the form of Saints Row's criminal ventures, meant to strengthen the gang's control over Santo Ileso. Considering that a previous title took place in Hell and allowed players to recruit Vlad the Impaler, the new Saints Row doesn't get quite as absurd, but there are still some very whacky story beats.
The Saints Win A LARP Tournament
This section of the plot reigns supreme as Saints Row's most absurd story moment. The protagonist, who was fired from their position at Marshall Defense Industries, s their roommate Eli in a yearly live action roleplaying tournament. The mission starts as a way to get back at the protagonist's old boss, who is obsessed with the event, and leads to the player establishing their own LARP faction. This allows the player to take over an entire area of the city that somehow generates revenue, so it's less of a throwaway gag and more of an instrumental step in ruling Santo Ileso. Clearly, the Saints Row reboot didn't learn much from past games; it felt similar to Saints Row: The Third's crazier moments, where the Boss enters a virtual reality network to take on the Deckers' leader, or when the gang stars in a sci-fi movie. Though the LARP tournament is technically more plausible, it is equally strange given the series' premise.
The Boss Guards A Mayan Artifact At A Museum Gala
A decent portion of the story is devoted to fighting over a Mayan artifact, an entertaining conflict, but one quite absurd in and of itself. In the beginning, the protagonist acts as the head of museum security for Marshall Defense, and their failure to protect the artifact at the gala is the reason they fall out with the company in the first place. The Indiana Jones-like conflict is at least rooted in reality, but it's a bold way to start Saints Row's new story considering previous beginnings. As ridiculous as it turned out to be, at least Saints Row: The Third started with a classic bank robbery. Publicly stealing a known treasure seems like an inefficient move for an organized crime ring, and it begs the question: where can one sell a stolen Mayan artifact?
The Boss Drives A Tank Through The City
Near the end of Saints Row, the protagonist steals a Marshall Defense tank and uses it to destroy some of Santo Ileso similar to Saints Row: The Third's Tank Mayhem mini-game. The stunt is intended to hurt Marshall Defense's stock price at the expense of hundreds of innocent lives, and though there is probably a better way to make the company look bad, it feels very true to the best Saints Row games. Previous futuristic private military groups Ultor and S.T.A.G. were fantastically destructive, and if anything, Saints Row's tank joyride is a comparatively tame final battle.
