There goes Volition

Pour one out

Saints Row: the franchise of mids

 Sing it off to Valhalla; chuckie!

So Saints Row is dead, I think that's a truth without question in the eyes of most with the powers of basic observation available to them. Volition alienated their existing fanbase to cater to a new fanbase who, much to Volition's utmost surprise, expect fun and working products... which Saints Row... isn't. Luckily the game is going to get much more exposure and success than it deserves thanks to the brand it's borrowing from and the novelty of pointing and laughing at a trainwreck, but I think it's safe to say that after a mess like this no one with any industry sense is going to have any faith in Volition. Bare in mind that their last game, Agents of Mayhem, was another absolute misread of their target audience and how they should be marketed towards. That game sold as much as a Sunday market stand would, and whilst Saints Row is obviously going to do better than that on account of just how big this brand used to be, something tells me it's not going to change the trajectory of the downward graph investor's are looking at when they examine the Saints Row franchise.

Which all means we've lost the potential viability of a franchise that, to be honest, had already run its natural course and ended up in a pit of mediocrity. Whilst I've never been a screaming, raving fan of the Saints Row games, I have played every single one of them and absolutely remember a time when they could be considered a real contender in the market. I've enjoyed just about every game in the franchise up until 4 wherein I lost interest entirely; and there even a moment where I could have been nutto for the series; but even Saints Row 2 didn't quite live up to my expectations at that time. You see, the more I examine it, the more I come to the same conclusion; that the Saints Row games have forever been and will always be mid. Apart from this reboot which is apparently an actual poor quality mess. So if long term viability is up on the table to be cut into ribbons; I'm saying it ain't no big loss.

If we go back to the very first Saints Row, a game that many people have invoked recently as if recalling some long-forgotten masterpiece that once graced a dirty and dull world; the game was just sort of alright. It was an obvious clone of GTA that didn't even really lean into the humorous aspects the franchise would become known for too much. If anything, they attempted to lean into the same sardonic view of contemporary and thematic issues and topics that the Rockstar franchise does, only without the vast talented writing talent to make it nuanced and fun. The gameplay was as bad as every open world game's gameplay was back then. The characters were fairly one-note and predictable. Although, and I recognise that this is as substantial as waving your hand over your eyes and declaring you've spotted the 'x-factor'; there is a charm to the game. It's not a chore to play, at least not the first time. The clunky dialogue and performances fit their era; and the city of Stilwater has personality to it; which is more than I can say for literally every other open world game that Deep Silver Volition has ever made.

Saints Row 2 was probably the moment where this franchise really stepped out for itself. When GTA was edging more towards realism, Saints Row was pointing and laughing whilst leaning more towards the inanity of video game craziness. That understated side of the original was blown up into the driving force of Saints Row 2, and most all the rest of the minigames and activities that have become such mainstays of the franchise that the team are incapable of envisioning any more, were born for this game. It played significantly better than Saints Row 1, simulated a more complete open world and just generally provided a very malleable playground for destruction, much as you'd might expect from the team behind 'Red Faction'. There was also a point in time when people used to laud the story for Saints Row 2, (which is broadly just the exact same framework as Saints Row 1 refitted to slide atop 2) as the 'perfect balance between comedy and drama'. In hindsight I can certainly say there is a balance, and it is somewhat effective; but that title of 'perfection' seems laughable in a post Yakuza 0 world. Just like Saints Row 1, 2 has sort of shrunken with age and whilst I still think the game stands out as 'respectable'; it's not a generational masterpiece like the PS2 era GTA games are. One might even call it... mid tier.

Saints Row 3 was when the series got stuck. They tried to balance a tightrope with Saints Row 2, and that showed them their audience reacted best to the silly content, so they made a game leaning more into all the zaniness. Now it was all about throwing as much craziness as they could logic out: stripper assassins? We can make it work. Dildo Bat? Amazed we didn't do that earlier. Text-based adventure segment? It would have to be brief, but we could swing it! Zombie invasion? Oh, well that just sounds like a piece of cake! All of which resonated with a lot of people out there who saw Saints Row as the sillier brother to GTA, but which came at the cost of the open world. Steelport has been Volition's worst open world. A stale, grey, industrial block entirely lacking in character and distinction. And as the world became more boring to explore, the activities provided therein became more of a chore than a distraction. A check-list of 'do this for X reward' instead of 'do this because it's fun'. Progression in some angles, regression in others. Perfectly middling.

And then Saints Row 4 went off the deep end. Like your drug addict friend that you watch slowly lose all grip on themselves; Saints Row slipped into the crazy and went too far with it. Not to the point where it became offensive; but to where it became boring and predictable. Rather than be a great game in it's own right with comedic elements, Saints Row decided it was going to become a parody of it's own genre and mock any others it could get it's sights on too. Stakes stopped mattering, characters stopped developing, (which, as much as I knock Saints 3; they were still progressing as characters until 4) nothing had any weight to it anymore; which made the act of breaking the rules inconsequential. Heck, they blew up the earth and replaced it with a matrix-like simulation, subconsciously erasing all stakes and giving them the go-ahead to do whatever they wanted. And when logic doesn't matter anymore, the question then comes up about how crazy you can go; and Volition just aren't that creative. It was all pretty bland-silly, not head-churning silly, and to call the game 'mid' is honestly something of a glowup.

Agents of Mayhem is a curious matter. Created as a kind of clean break away from what Saints Row was becoming, whilst staying beholden to it's brand and a choice selection of its character's in a confusing display that made the marketing as convoluted as the Wii U's. The original pitch appeared to be that it was a television show set within the Saints Row universe, but that couldn't be possible because the entire earth was destroyed at the beginning of 4. And then Johnny Gat was in the show? How could that be? He was killed in the 'real world' which meant he'd have some trouble playing himself on TV. (Also, he was one of the gang that believed the celebrity-status was 'selling out', so he wouldn't star in a show anyway.) Basically, no one knew what Agents of Mayhem was supposed to be even contextually let alone in gameplay. (They kind of made it look like a hero shooter.) And so the game sold about five copies. I was not one of them, I can't really attest to if the game was another mid or not.

Which brings us back around to the reboot. Saints Row is not the golden standard of the industry so delivering a thoroughly average game is not, in itself, a betrayal to the shining ideals of the franchise. However, delivering a hardly functioning mess knocks an average down to a pitiable low. Also, I hear tell that Agents of Mayhem is still increadibly buggy five years after launch, so it's somewhat possible that Volition leave Saints Row in a decently shoddy state when they abandon ship from this cursed franchise. Does that mean we'll never get the masterpiece that Saints Row is capable of? Honestly, I don't think this series ever had itself a firm enough grasp on it's own identity in order to create that masterpiece. It's entire life it has existed purely within context of others. Saints Row 1 was Grand Theft Auto but scrappier and back to 'the streets'. Saints Row 2 was 'Gta but fun and silly again'. Saints Row 3 was 'your typical open world game but crude and wild where it's purpose is to make meta jokes on as many pop culture topics the team can think of', and Saints Row 4 was just an episode of Family Guy but a game. Maybe somewhere in the minds of Volition's the point of this reboot was to give Saints Row that identity, as the game that identifies with the modern struggling young adults; but they're fear of committing to a new direction, whilst simultaneously fearing associating with what came before, led to a final product totally pulled apart at the seams.

Me and my terrible, horrible, no good, weakness for marketeing

I'd buy it for a dollar!

I have a problem. A sickness, if you will. I like to think that I have something of an ingrained resistance when it comes to marketing ploys. I see them coming from a mile away and find it easy to disseminate and debunk them. If I find that marketing gimmick to be cheap and insulting enough it doesn't just hurt my opinion on the product but on the industry as a whole. (That is part of the reason that I will never actively support the music industry. Although I can't say the same for the perfume industry; they weren't really gonna get my money anyway, now were they.) And yet, with all that said, I still find myself whooping and hollering whenever someone announces that their game will have a 'Raid'.

'Ghost Recon: Breakpoint' will feature series-first raids? A stealth-game raid! I've never played that before, have no idea how it will work, or even have an inkling if it will be fun. Sign me up! Fallout 76 will also feature series-fresh raids in the coming months? Well, the base game is already cursed with a final boss so overpowered that she can only be felled with 'specialised' (See: broken) builds. I entirely trust the Fallout team to put together a decent raid. At no point does deductive logic ever enter into my reasoning, I hear 'raid' and I start bouncing of the walls like a madman. Maybe it is merely the idea of some illusive endgame that perpetuates the mythos of the game, or maybe I'm just a total rube.

Oftentimes we see this type of marketing in gaming, buzzwords revolving around vague promises that attempt to spark the imagination. It is a lot safer and cheaper than the big look-at-me media stunts, but they require a lot more guesswork as to the type of audience you foster. Mess that up and you could end up falling flat. Luckily for the above two games, I'm the kind of idiot who loves the idea of in-game raids even if he lacks the allies and friends to actively partake in one. (Don't ask me why, I clearly don't know!) Although, in the past video game marketing has not always been so low key.

Who remembers the overblown stunt that Treyarch pulled during the marketing push for Black Ops 3? For those who don't remember, Black Ops 3 was the game set twelve years before the next year's Cyberpunk game, and was Activion's second step down the road of more sci-fi elements in their flagship series. Despite being set in the future and surrounding itself in wild technologies, Black Ops 3 tried to tell a relatable story about betrayal, terrorism and drones. (Or was that Advanced warfare? These games all blend into one.) Someone in marketing (Let's call him: Man-who-was-likely-fired) decided that the best way to get the word out, whilst staying true to the themes of the game, would be to play a little prank on Twitter.

Call of Duty stealthy changed their Twitter icon and name to something that, at a glance, resembled a semi-official news outlet (They literally called it 'Current Events Aggregate: where we bring you real news'); then they began to live tweet about an ongoing terrorist attack that was happening in Singapore. Great way to freak people out across the globe, especially people who currently had family and friends in Singapore. Or people who lived in Singapore. Or anyone, anywhere. Needless to say, this went over about as well as you would expect: outlets accused Call of Duty of trivializing tragedy and I remember at least one call for a boycott. In the end, however, it was effective, everybody was talking about Call of Duty and the game went on to sell well. Seems Man-who-was-likely-fired is owed an apology.

I find it strange that we, as a society, respond so well when companies make an ass of themselves like this. Sure, Treyarch received a few public lashes for this dumb prank but all was said and forgotten in a matter of weeks. Perhaps if this had happened to today's climate, engrossed as we are with 'cancel culture', things might have played out differently, but I suspect not. Deep down we all like to look and point at a train wreck but the memory of it inevitably evaporates within the no time flat. Although, I will admit there have certainly been a lot less big stunts of late, but that may have as much to do with the cost of putting such an event together. I don't even want to think about how much the Saints Row 4 stunt cost.

Saints Row is a franchise that delved further into insanity the longer it went on. What started as a fairly soulless GTA clone evolved into an audacious party-of-a-game that specialized in trying to shock and surprise it's fanbase. By the fourth entry, that meant changing things up by having aliens blow up the planet and forcing the protagonist to enter a matrix-esque version of the game-world in order to fight back. It didn't really make any sense but this franchise no longer needed to. What it did need, was a marketing stunt equally as audacious as the game. Somehow, Volition reached the conclusion that the biggest 'stand-out' feature of this new game was the fact that most of it was set in space, so in order to market the game they needed to offer a trip to space. (I'm not joking.)

The 'Super dangerous Wad Wad pack' offered purchasers; a special copy of the game, a full-size replica of the in-game Dubstep gun, a hostage rescue experience, plastic surgery, a spy training day, a personal shopper, a capsule wardrobe (Whatever that is.), 7 nights at the Top Royal Suite in the Burj Al-Arab in Dubai, a week for two at the Jefferson Hotel in Washington DC, first class flights to Washington and Dubai, a Lamborghini Gallardo, a Toyota Prius with 1 year insurance, a years Super Car membership (Again, no clue.) and finally, a Virgin Galactic space flight. All of that will only set you back a cool 1 million dollars; not too much to ask considering what the package offered. Although a report from Arstechnica did value all the items as being roughly $630 000, so that's almost $400 000 going towards set-up convenience. (Which is fair, I suppose.) As far as I am aware no one actually bought this edition of the game but the fact that it exists makes for a fun story. Like most of Saints Row, in hindsight. Fun to talk about, less so to experience.

Gaming companies don't need to go so extravagant in order to sell their products. Some can pull of marketing stunts without attempting to cause a diplomatic incident or trying to launch their fans into the stratosphere. Capcom found a wholly original way to stick their foot in their mouths when it came to advertising for Resident evil 5. As ostensibly a zombie game, (See last Sunday's blog.) Resident Evil 5 features heavily in the gore department, so Capcom decided to lean on the aspect of their game in their marketing. This resulted in the bright idea of planting fake body parts all over London and sending 50 fans out on a scavenger hunt to find them. (Ingenious?) "What could go wrong?" I here you ask. Well, a few body parts were spotted by unaffiliated members of the public and the police were called, but no charges were made. Then there was the fact that a handful of body parts disappeared and were never recovered. (Spooky!)

When you see all of these incidents, suddenly my predilection towards 'Raid marketing' doesn't sound so dire. Things are a lot more tame these days, now that games companies no longer want to be the next 'Jackass' and just settle with trying to be WOW. It does make me a little nostalgic for the days of old, I miss the times when Video Games showed up in the news for some reason other than scape-goating and fear-mongering. And to cap it all off, the stunts actually worked. All of the games that I mentioned sold very well and where not hampered by any of their silliness. It all reminds me of that time when U2 had that deal with Apple to upload their album onto everyone's playlist for free. There was a big controversy as people ranted and raved how they didn't ask for this and wanted it gone. Bono shared his thoughts about it in an interview. "A lot of people who didn't know who U2 were before, now hates our guts. The way I see it, that's an improvement in the relationship." If that doesn't sum up marketing stunt culture, I don't know what does.