When the trailer to this reboot of the long-running gangster adventure series arrived last year, gaming’s gutter world of gatekeeping nerd misanthropes swung straight into action – and by that I mean a lot of angry boys whined online about Saints Row going “woke”. The game’s archetypal white male protagonist had been sacked and replaced by a diverse gang of twentysomethings seeking to build an underworld empire while sharing a flat, cruising social media and getting into polyamorous relationships. If you wanted to know what would happen if Grand Theft Auto was handed to the writers of Riverdale, here you are. You’re welcome.
And that’s the thing. You are welcome. Because Saints Row has dropped the dudebro “anything goes as long as it celebrates the patriarchy” shtick of the previous title, with its giant dildo baseball bats and sex pest humour. Now, everyone is in on the joke – and the joke is about trying to exist as a young person in the post-capitalist hellzone of the 21st century.
