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PAX East 2013 Preview of Saints Row IV

by: Nathan -
More On: Saints Row IV PAX East 2013
Im sure a lot of you found Saints Row The Third to be pretty crazy, wondering how they could ever top themselves but I am happy to say they they topped themselves and then some. I got to see a demo of Saints Row IV at PAX East and talk with the team behind the next great sequel in the Saints Row franchise.

Saints Row The Third was pretty over the top but Volition has gone out of its way to make sure that Saints Row IV is crazier than ever before if you can believe that. Volition started off the presentation by telling us the storyline of the game. You have been the leader of the Saints in previous games so how do we improve on that? How about being the leader of the entire United States. Yes in Saints Row IV you are now the President of the United States of America. Don’t worry because you won’t be signing bills into law and holding meetings about health care and tax reform the entire game. You will be on the streets wreaking havoc like you have been for years and wouldn't you know it aliens come down to earth and start abducting humans along with your homies and it’s your job to be the most badass President ever and free the human race from this horrible fate. Speaking of homies they announced that fan favorites Pierce and Shaundi will be returning. They didn’t announce anyone besides that although they did say that some characters from early Saints Row games may make an appearance as well.

After getting the storyline for the game Volition started showing us some of the new toys in the game you will get to play with. We got to see some of the new firearms in the game such as the inflato Ray. Seen in the trailer the gun lets you to inflate your opponents until they explode complete with hilarious animations as well. We also saw the dubstep gun. Yes you can kill people with dubstep in this game. Shooting the gun unleashes a barrage of dubstep music at your targets forcing them to do silly dances until they die. There are plenty more crazy exotic guns in the game but they haven’t revealed those just yet.

Customization has always been a huge feature of the Saints Row franchise and Volition has improved on said customization features once again. Last year the ability to upgrade weapons was introduced. This feature has returned but a brand new feature we saw is that now your guns are customizable. Say you buy a rocket launcher. Well you now have the ability to change the look of the rocket launcher as well including a SNES Super Scope Six or a guitar case. All of your upgrades will carry over to each customizable gun so you don’t need to worry about having to upgrade each customizable gun.
We also got to see the new enemies in Saints Row IV as well. As announced in the storyline Aliens have invaded earth and have started abducting the human population along with your homies.

Since we are fighting enemies with advanced weaponry you have also been given some advanced weapons as well. How about some gigantic mechs? Yup gigantic mechs have been added to the game. Why? Well why not. By the way they are pretty amazing and of course let you blow away hoards of enemies with rocket launchers and mini guns on said mechs. Even though you have a plethora of vehicles and mechs at your disposal maybe you don’t feel like driving around the city. Maybe you feel like getting around the city rather quickly. How would you like to fly around the city? Yup you now have the ability to fly. In fact you have also been given super powers as well. We saw our custom Saint quickly flying around the city and then delivering devastating ground pounds annihilating everything in the vicinity. Other new super powers include the ability to channel your inner Sub-Zero sending out an ice blast freezing anything in the vicinity and as you would expect you can shatters your victims into a thousand pieces. Finally we got to see the telekinesis super power allowing you to pick hurl cars at your enemies, pick up people and throw them at walls.
 
So what if you are the type of person that just likes to run around Steelport having fun. Well this year tons of collectibles have been hidden around the city for you to find and collect. Activities have always been a huge part of the Saints Row franchise as well so those who love activities in the Saints Row games should be happy to know that plenty of new activities have been added to the game along with older activities returning as well. Volition has added a new twist on activities this time around by adding bronze, silver and gold challenges to the activities. Completing a gold activity will earn you a plethora of different unlocks and achievements. We didn’t get any info on any of the brand new activities or which ones will be returning but I noticed the mini map was loaded with them so I think it’s safe to say that you will have plenty of activities to keep you busy.

We saw so much of the game and yet there is still plenty more they haven’t announced yet. We did get some tidbits about online play including the return of drop in drop out online co-op also and a new game mode including “Death Tag” where each player gets a super power and then its an all out fight to the death to score points. We also heard a little bit about downloadable content. They didn’t announce what would be coming but they did say that the game will have DLC that you would expect from Saints Row including outfits, guns, and other goodies.

If there was only one word I could use to describe Saints Row IV it would be fun. Loads and loads of fun. I already know that I am going to spend hours just just traversing the city causing as much mayhem as I can. There is so much you can do in this game and Its crazy to think that they have so much more to announce.

Saints Row IV releases on August 20th 2013! 
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