Don’t call it a comeback, but Saints Row, the Volition sandbox game that struggled for sales and plaudits in 2022, is set for a sweeping overhaul courtesy of a sizeable lineup of DLC, including additional maps, modes, missions, and cosmetics, all set to be drip fed throughout 2023. Will it be enough to draw people back? Is the goodwill for Saints Row 2 and Saints Row The Third still strong enough? Volition is certainly going all out, so let’s hope so.
The Saints Row DLC roadmap starts in humble style with a free Dead Island 2 cosmetics pack coming in April. Given some of the criticisms we raised in our own Saints Row review, it’s naturally going to take more than that to fix the open-world game, but Volition has a lot up its sleeves.
In May, there’s a free update adding an entirely new district to the city of Santo Ileso, alongside an overhaul to Saints Row’s combat and the addition of a photo mode – to reiterate, everyone will get all of this stuff for absolutely nothing.
If you have the Saints Row expansion pass however, you will also get new missions, events, and cosmetics courtesy of the ‘Heist and Hazardous’ DLC. Didn’t buy the expansion pass? Nevermind, you can purchase Heist and Hazardous separately.
July will bring another free update introducing additional features (though we don’t know precisely what these are yet) as well as numerous quality-of-life fixes.
There will also be a brand-new solo game mode called ‘Doc Ketchum’s Murder Circus,’ which Volition says will take place in “an (even more) twisted version of one of our favourite areas of Santo Ileso.” More details are expected to arrive soon. Like the Heist and Hazardous pack, the Murder Circus will be available to anyone with the expansion pass, or purchasable separately.
And then lastly, in August, there’s a new, free district, more quality-of-life changes, and again, some anonymous new features. Expansion pass owners will also get a third pack containing additional missions, enemies, and cosmetics – and again, you can buy this separately.
In resumé then, it looks like Saints Row is undergoing a total, top-to-bottom transformation throughout 2023, with massive DLC arriving in May, July, and August. Will that be enough to bring people back to Santo Ileso? We love a good redemption story, so let’s hope so.
In the meantime, check out some of the other best action-adventure games on PC. A big fan of the classic Saints Row series? Try some of the other greatest old games that still run on PC.