The Saints Row games have seen a variety of side missions through the years, and many of them would be great to see again in the reboot. These side missions provided plenty of entertainment outside of the main story, and could get pretty challenging at higher levels to boot. The Saints Row reboot needs to show what an upgrade it is, and side missions are a perfect chance for that.
The side missions in Saints Row games have been one of the series’ best ways of keeping the games entertaining. With so many challenges to accomplish, the player is not likely to run out of things to do until they are near the very end of the game, especially where completionists are concerned. These side activities played a big role in getting Saints Row out of Grand Theft Auto‘s shadow. While some side missions were more tied to their game of origin, like Saints Row 4‘s cyberspace chases, most could easily be brought to the reboot, possibly in a better state than before.
Saints Row can take some of the series’ best sidequests and rework them into an even better state than before. After all, taking what fans loved about the series and giving it a fresher, better coat of paint is exactly what a reboot should do. Fortunately, Saints Row has a generous amount of side missions to choose from in that regard.
Saints Row’s Fraud Minigame Turns The Player Into A Pinball
The Fraud minigame sounds simple and strange, but is one of the most fun things in Saints Row. The goal of the minigame is for the Boss to get hit by as many cars as possible and build up money in the process to reach a set goal. This task perfectly fits the absurdity of Saints Row as a series, which found a way to make this goal plenty of fun to accomplish.
During Fraud missions, the player can go into a ragdoll state that causes them to get knocked back further by cars, collecting more money by flying and hitting things while doing so. Once the player has collected enough points to fill the Adrenaline bar, they go into Adrenaline mode, where the game really gets fun. In Adrenaline Mode, the Boss will fly much further upon impact to a hilariously unrealistic level. It is not just possible, but very likely to see a Boss in adrenaline mode go cartwheeling into the sky like Superman taking flight after getting hit by a truck. Chaining hits by landing on other vehicles keeps the cycle going, making one of the most fun minigames in the series.
Saints Row already has three planned expansions, and hopefully that amount of content include bringing back the Fraud minigame. Pinballing across the city is a great way to spend free time in Saints Row, especially when it involves earning money and respect in the process. With Saints Row looking at least close to as wacky as its predecessors, fans would probably love to bounce across Santo Ileso in Fraud minigames as well.
Saints Row’s Hitman Missions Require Planning As Well As Bullets
Past Saints Row games have featured Hitman missions. Rather than full-fledged missions in their own right, they exist primarily as lists of characters that the player needs to track down and kill in combat. This may not sound particularly interesting, but Saints Row found a way to keep this list of tasks engaging.
In the Hitman lists, every character listed has a description that reveals where they can be found and what the player needs to do. Saints Row‘s Santo Ileso having 15 districts, for example, would give targets plenty of places to hide. Some are a simple as simply visiting the area, while others require extra conditions. For example, one Hitman target in Saints Row 2 will only show up if the player gets a tattoo in one specific district of the city. While not exactly a puzzle, it does give the player plenty to do on their way across the city. In addition, each target earns the player valuable cash and respect, and those rewards add up, especially on higher levels.
The Hitman side missions in Saints Row give the player an extra route to gain money, and the fights can be exciting when the targets have backup. They are another big plus for completionists as well, since there are plenty of targets scattered across the map. Saints Row may not have returning characters, but bringing back Hitman missions would still be a nice throwback.
Crowd Control Is Saints Row 2’s Best Unique Activity
Crowd Control is an activity that only appeared in Saints Row 2, and it’s an entertaining way to pass the time. It takes a generally disliked gaming mechanic, an escort quest, and puts an arcade-like twist on it. Crowd Control may have only appeared once before, but by no means should that disqualify it from making a return in the reboot.
In Crowd Control, the player is tasked with defending a celebrity during a public appearance. When fans run up to harass the celebrity, it is the player’s job to ward them off by either fighting them off or throwing them into a damaging object. Most of the fun of the minigame comes from the various things the Boss can throw the unruly fans into. The chaos style of Saints Row provides plenty of amusing knockouts, ranging from breaking cars by throwing fans at them to launching people off of an airport luggage conveyor. Crowd Control is the source of a lot of slapstick violence, which suits the world of Saints Row perfectly.
Saints Row 2 had a lot of side activities, and it is a disappointment that Crowd Control was one of the number that was left behind. The only downside to the minigame is the very high difficulty of some later levels, but that difficulty curve could be smoothed out by the reboot. Crowd Control is too good to be relegated to a single game, and seeing it again in Saints Row would be a treat. Saints Row 2 tops many fans’ lists of the best Saints Row games, so taking inspiration from it would be a good move.
Santo Ileso is going to need a lot of things for the player to do once Saints Row releases, and plenty of old side missions would help to fill out the world. Not only could these activities be fun throwbacks for fans, but they could be reworked and improved like many other aspects of the game. The Saints Row reboot could benefit greatly from a slate of the best activities from games past.
