Originally published at: Preview | The Saints Row's Reboots Massive Customization Systems - XboxEra
In Santo Eliso fashion is king. As you build your criminal empire in this rebooted world of Saints Row one of the first things that you’ll get to do is access one of the deeper player customization systems out there. Developer Deep Silver Volition is so proud of what they’ve built that they’ve just released a full presentation alongside a 5+ minute long trailer showcasing the systems on offer, so let’s check ‘em out.
Your Murderer Your Way
At any point in the game, you can pull up your cellphone and head to the Style menu to customize the look of your player character. From there you have a mix of preset looks that you can then customize or the option to spend as much time as you want breaking down the nitty-gritty. The options on hand are:
- Presets – Various styles that let you get a new look without having to fully build it out yourself.
- Outfits – Choose from an enormous assortment of clothing to create custom outfits with Head, Upper, Lower, Feet, and Fully Body options.
- Hair – A wide variety of options are available both style and color-wise with no gender-locked options.
- Head – A selection of templates for your head’s shape that you can customize more fully as well.
- Face – A large selection of makeup and scars.
- Body – Change your body shape to exactly what you want including many prosthetic limbs.
- Skin – A truly dizzying amount of realistic and over-the-top cartoonish skin color and texture options.
- Tattoos – A similarly large assortment of tattoos for each individual area of your Boss’ body.
- Emotes – Choose the emotes to fit your personality best when playing the game including different walking and running animations.
A Car Lover’s Dream
Next up is a look into the car customization options. Bring any vehicle to Jim Rob’s garage and you can repair and customize your ride with a bevy of options on hand. Each vehicle has four stats which are Max Speed, Performance, Durability, and Off-Road capability. Along with those is a signature ability that can be activated with a press of the left bumper while in the vehicle. Much like with your Boss player character each vehicle offers up a wide variety of customization options. These are:
- Preset – A select combination of choices for the vehicle that radically alters its appearance for a set price.
- Body Paint – Exactly what it sounds like with options for the Body, Trim 1, Trim 2, Rim, and more with six variants of paint types along with a veritable rainbow of color options.
- Body Mods – A variety of fenders, hoods, tires, rims, bumpers, trim types, side skirts, and even different looks for the roof of your vehicle. There are options for the engine, horn, and transmission audio as well.
- Equipment – Each car can have multiple types of equipment added on as well ranging from Nitrous Boosts to Off-Road kits and even a Towing Cable.
- Upgrade Kits – Spend your hard-earned cash to upgrade the stats of your vehicles and unlock more options and abilities with them.
Alongside the typical road vehicles, there are hoverboards, watercraft, VTOL (Vertical Take-off and Landing) Jets, and Helicopters on hand that share all the same amount of varied customization options as well including their own Signature Abilities. There is more on offer but as it is tied to story progression the devs aren’t talking about it just yet.
(Beautiful) Weapons of Mass Destruction & Your New Home
Last up are the comprehensive weapon customization systems. The first thing we saw is that you can change the material type and color of multiple areas of each weapon. Say you want a different-looking muzzle, stock, grip, body, and magazine on your AK? Have at it! From the glossiness of the paint to how metallic it looks you get full control over each piece. On hand are several decal stickers you can plop on that take over the look of a weapon in a more preset fashion.
Weapon models can be swapped out entirely as well. For instance, you can take the Rocket Launcher and change it onto a Guitar Case that still functions the same but lets your inner Antonio Banderas come out to play. Are you a big fan of The Kingsman or even The Penguin? Turn your assault rifle into a gentleman’s best friend, an umbrella! “Cardboard” weapons were shown as well. Things like boxing gloves that shot out comically far before returning back to you on a string or finger guns that were actually powerful long-ranged weapons look to turn the game’s combat upside down and lead to some hilarious moments.
Next up we saw “The Church” which is your new and fully customizable home base. The Church features an armory to access your weapons, a wardrobe to change your look, and a garage that features all the customization of a Jim Rob’s as well. Various pedestals litter the area allowing you to customize the statues that they can feature. Another feature shown allows you to set how your crew dress. Styles shown were Saints Row classic purple suits, dungaree overalls, or even full-on hazmat outfits. This dress code system applies to your crew’s vehicles as well, allowing you to customize the look of your gang as they cause mayhem around the area.
Capitalism, Baby!
How do you unlock more and more of these customization options? We know the story will give you some but Brick & Mortar stores dot the map in various locations and offer up the majority of your looks in exchange for cash. Leather & Lace returns from the previous titles alongside new stores such as Branded and more.
One of the last things shown was the War Table on the 2nd floor of your home base. This is the place you visit to plan out just how you’re going to expand your criminal empire throughout the city. Ventures weren’t customization items so much but you still have a lot of choice on where and what you’re looking to build as you attempt to become the bestest murderers around. There are fourteen locations available for expansion. Your choices will matter in dictating just how the city looks and grows as you play through.
Wrapping Things Up
Whew, that was a lot. Keep your eyes peeled here at Xbox Era as Saints Row’s August 23rd launch date moves ever closer. It is releasing on Xbox Series X and Series S, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows, and PlayStation 5, and if this preview is any indication this might be one massive game.