Saints Row has always featured some creative character customization options, and the upcoming entry in the franchise is no different. In fact, it has been hailed as the franchise’s deepest customization to date, and it’s believable. The Best War Games recently viewed a presentation ahead of the latest Saints Row trailer, and the in-depth look at customization options was really impressive.
This applies to the characters, to their vehicles, to their weapons, to their crew, and, to some degree, their HQ. In terms of basics, everything fans want is there, including Saints Row’s approach to layered clothing. Those who want a simple, gangster-like character can certainly do that, but anyone wanting to really push the customization options are going to find that their creations don’t even have to be human.
Saints Row Character Creation
When it comes to face and head customization, there are more options than one would imagine. Even the mainlined options come with a bunch of odd possibilities. Saints Row players, for example, could choose from head options that make them chiseled, baby-faced, elven, or a witch. The latter isn’t subtle at all, such as a long nose; it looks almost exactly like the witch from Snow White. Better yet, the face options let players expand on this in a multitude of ways, with an interesting asymmetrical approach.
In short, players can design one side of the face one way and the second side completely different, should they so choose. This was described as having two faces to essentially customize in Saints Row, and to even go deeper than that, there are a ton of material options for skin. Yes, material options—these can make characters look like an Android or even further with a character looking like Thor: Ragnarok’s Korg. Simply, their characters can be as human or as far from it as players want.
Hair receives a lot of attention, with Saints Row promising not just cuts and lengths but a true variety of options. This hair, then, is also as deeply customizable as the above, with one character clearly having two or three colors fading into each other during the presentation. But it’s just the face and head that get attention—all parts do.
There are all the basic character options players have come to expect from Saints Row, but then there’s a lot more piled on top of that. Players can choose body prosthetics of all sorts to make as cyberpunk or as alien of a character as they want. Emotes are also in Saints Row, but they go a deep further than most game emotes. Some of these are able to impact a character’s walking animation, with one example shown being the “creep” emote doing a super exaggerated tip-toeing creep walk.
Options like tattoos, body shape, sun tans, scars, and more are all there too; most things that can be imagined are likely accomplishable with this character creation. The best part is nothing is locked to a specific gender, with players able to adjust options related to this too. Players even have nipple options, though this wasn’t shown off, or they can hide nudity. There’s a middle ground too called “modesty options” that allow players to censor these body parts with cute images and emojis, with players having plenty of choices there too.
Saints Row Character Creation Could Take a While, But…
It’s not hyperbole to say that players could spend hours here, with as deep as all these options seem. Players already spend hours on character creation in games like Cyberpunk 2077, Dragon Age, and Mass Effect, and none of those games are anywhere near as zany as Saints Row appears to be. But, for those who don’t really want to spend hours here, there is some good news.
There are 6 or so presets in the game, which can then be customized further, but helps give players a pre-generated character to roll into the game with. They can return to all of this later, but this means players don’t have to put off starting the game to make a character. Indeed, across the character creation, there are a lot of supporting quick start elements.
But that still may not work for someone who doesn’t want to put off starting the game but also want to get every single detail of their character fine-tuned. Volition and Deep Silver have an answer for that too. Details are forthcoming, but players will somehow be able to access Saints Row’s character creation and design their characters ahead of launch. This is the best of both worlds for many players.
Saints Row releases August 23 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.