If Saint's Row got greenlit for a REAL & PROPER return to roots (1 & 2), what would that even look like? I feel like Volition tanked the reboot on purpose due to embracer just buying up a bunch of rando studios hoping to get a big hit. It would explain why they took everything that's bad about cash grab games today & turned it up to 10. Either that or they sabotaged it due to not being able to give Saints Row a proper Identity.
Saints Row, before 3 & 4, was a game about being the hardest most gangster-est dude around. Big chains, Big rims, Spinners, Stealing hoes from Pimps, Flashy Cars, Good Music, on top of all the extras we got in between. I feel like they didn't want to cross the line into "Blaxploitation" territory with the concept borrowing heavily from AA & Latino gang culture.
If not any of the reasons above, then Volition just got old on us. They started off making fun of wanna be gang members because it was hidden self-deprecation which was funny, & the last game was their hire ups. Larping, Student Loan Debt having Millenials who are trying to revive a gang with no real attachment to the OG ethos.
For some reason, I see volition doing the 1970s Saints Row game if they weren't forced to have a publisher. I wonder what a self published Saints Row Series would've gotten us after THQ closed.
What do you think a REAL reboot would've looked like?