Saints Row‘s 2022 reboot is currently free to keep from the Epic Games Store. It’s bittersweet considering its developer, Volition, was closed down in August, but it’s also an opportunity to experience the last game the 30-year-old studio got to make.
Head over to the Saints Row store page and you can add the game for free to your account anytime before 4pm GMT tomorrow (the 31st). This is the latest in the Epic Games Store’s daily holiday freebies, which has previously included Cursed To Golf and Cat Quest, among others.
Alice B explained in her Saints Row review that Volition’s attempt to reboot their open world shooter was fun, but too derivative to make a lasting impression:
It’s not exactly Saints Row, but it’s not exactly its own thing either. It just is, and the lack of creative purpose makes me think it exists almost exclusively for balance sheet reasons, which isn’t a nice conclusion to come to. I wish we lived in a world where the people who made the pun food trucks and the big, weird city and conceived the interesting duality of the Idols gang (and their cool helmets) were given a large pot of money and several years to make whatever game they wanted, no strings attached, no legacy series hanging over them. But that’s not the world we live in.
The Saints Row series began in 2006 as an early carjack ’em up that was unsettlingly similar to its obvious inspiration, Grand Theft Auto, prompting accusations that it was a clone. Volition argued that GTA was a genre – and they were right, in fairness. The series found its own identity in Saints Row 3, which amped up its characters, writing and action setpieces far past the point of absurdity and embraced a joyful silliness. Saints Row 4 took things even further and arguably left the series with nowhere to go – making the reboot a decent idea in theory.
As part of Deep Silver, Volition was swallowed during Embracer Group’s wild acquisition spree in 2018, and this year was a casualty of their “restructuring” which has also included several other studio closures and 900 layoffs.
