Volition shows off canceled Saints Row Undercover on PSP

By Gabe Gurwin January 23, 2016

Inside Volition: Saints Row Undercover

Volition’s Saints Row series may have never become as huge as Grand Theft Auto, but the wacky and sometimes supernatural open-world games have been among the most creative in the industry. The franchise (and studio) even survived the bankruptcy of former parent company THQ, but there was one game that Volition didn’t make the cut: a Saints Row for the PSP.

Titled Saints Row Undercover, Volition originally planned to port Saints Row 2 to the PSP before deciding to focus on a handheld-exclusive game. In the studio’s own words, it “isn’t a handheld developer,” so work was delegated to a separate studio. Development of the game didn’t get incredibly far before the game was canceled in 2009, but Volition employees still seem surprised by what the studio was able to do on the console with the time it had.

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“It has some minor player customization — there’s an actual open world here,” says associate video editor Josh Stinson. “It was honestly kind of shocking that this was so far along.”

As you can see from the video, this isn’t exactly the “console quality on the go” that Sony pushed when the PlayStation Vita hit the shelves a few years after Saints Row Undercover was cancelled. The framerate is horrendous, there are virtually no shadows, and the draw distance only extends to about 50 feet in front of the player.

“We have it so good now, with the graphics,” says video producer Alexander Mejia. “When we look at a PSP game, it’s just like, ‘oh gosh: how can it be that way?'”

But what you’ve seen in the five-minute video is just a fraction of what Volition is willing to show off. On January 28 at 5 p.m. EST, the studio will be streaming the game on Twitch. Perhaps the support it gets from fans will inspire them to develop a Saints Row for the Vita or the 3DS … but probably not.

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…

Gaming

Saints Row reboot still looks wacky, even if it’s formulaic

The main character of Saints Row glides in a wingsuit.

The Saints Row series is making its grand return after seven years. The Saints Row universe fully reset at the end of the Saints Row IV DLC Gat Out of Hell, so Volition's next game is a full-on reboot of the series. After the underwhelming Agents of Mayhem, this reboot allowed the developer to redefine what a Saints Row game could be without the constraints of classic characters or settings. Unfortunately, that new vision is much more plain than I'd hoped despite the series' expected madcap tone.
While the results of this reimagining have the enjoyable and wacky Saints Row flair that one would expect, I was left quite underwhelmed by a recent hands-off preview of several missions, combat, and the open world in Saints Row. This upcoming game is set in a new Southwestern city of Santo Ileso and features a new cast of Saints characters, so Volition has an opportunity to go big and bold here. Ultimately, it's looking formulaic for a series that's known for being off-kilter and wildly creative.
SAINTS ROW – Game Awards Gameplay Trailer
Grounded absurdism
During my hands-off preview, I got to see the new team of Saints in a variety of missions. These include a loan agency robbery gone wrong that results in a big car chase, a raid of a car-loving Panteros gang's headquarters in a helicopter, and a rescue mission for one of the player-character's friends after he's kidnapped by a bunch of Deadmau5-looking crooks from a gang called the Idols.
The new cast of Saints seems likable enough, but the "angry but endearingly funny millennial" tone of each character's writing has yet to be nearly as endearing as classic Saints Row characters like Johnny Gat or Kinzie Kensington. The "try-hard lulz" writing that the series was known for isn't as funny now as it was in 2015 when the last Saints Row game was released. It's hard to tell from this early look if Volition's writers will succumb to the same unfunny writing problems that plagued 2019's Borderlands 3.

Also, because it's an entirely new cast of characters that have yet to prove themselves to fans, there isn't any nostalgia factor that can help make up for subpar jokes. Currently, Volition's strategy is to give the narrative a sense of "groundedness" despite its kooky aspects to make players care about this character and that narrative.
"Absurdism for the sake of absurdism, that's where everything feels fluffy, and it doesn't feel like anything really means anything," lead writer Jeremy Bernstein said at the preview event. "We worked very hard to avoid that, so there's a groundedness, even to the most absurd things that you do in the game." It remains to be seen if this new, more grounded approach successfully introduces a new cast and setting for Saints Row or just leaves me yearning for the classic Saints and city of Steelport.
Absurdly generic
While each mission that I described earlier does have the Saints Row series' trademark quirk, they aren't exactly pushing the boundaries of what to expect from a third-person, open-world game so far. While I only saw a few side missions, like one where players had to ride shotgun and fend off cops for a jewelry thief, our look at the map and missions suggest that Saints Row may be a fairly boilerplate open-world game.

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Vehicles in Saints Row.

Whereas previous Saints Row games have let players dress up their character however they wanted, the franchise's upcoming reboot title will take that feature a step further. Saints Row gives players even more control over their boss's looks, as well as the final say on how their guns, vehicles, and even gang appear throughout the game.

In a lengthy showcase, Saints Row developer Volition detailed the game's deep customization systems. It all starts with the new boss of the Saints, whom players can make into anyone they want. Customization starts at what has been available in previous games in the franchise -- yes, including crotch and breast sliders -- and then some. If players want, they can make a true-to-life Shrek, or they can create a boss fitted with running blade prosthetics and pearlescent skin. Every part of the body can be customized, and when it comes to facial features, things don't have to be symmetrical either. Players can have their boss look like a veritable Picasso painting if they want.

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The crew of the Saints Row reboot stands against a wall.

The upcoming Saints Row reboot has been delayed from its original release date of February 25, 2022, to August 23, 2022. The game was revealed just in August, with its original release date landing it in the tail end of what's set to be an incredibly busy month for gaming.

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