Exclusive: Saints Row developer interview.

Saints Row interview with Jacques Hennequet of Volition.

Questions about the game:

Q: Saints Row is made up of several neighbourhoods which the player has to take control of; will each neighbourhood have its own theme in terms of people and will there be any other noticeable differences between neighbourhoods?

There are a lot of ethnic neighbourhoods, such as Barrio or Chinatown, and each neighbourhood has its own flavour.

Q: Other than completing missions and robbing stores are there any other ways for players to earn money?

Every time you kill an enemy gang member or a civilian, there is a chance that they will drop cash that you can pick up. Once you start conquering neighbourhood, a certain amount of money is generated by them over time, and you can collect it at any of your cribs.

Q: Will players have any direct control over gang members actions or will they simply tag along and attack when attacked? What kind of AI can we expect here?

Pretty simple follow and attack. SR is not a tactical game, so we did not want to get into a system of "orders" for your recruits.

Q: Other than the preset "homies" you can call upon using your cell phone, is it possible to recruit a random gang of armed and dangerous females or are random recruit-able gang members preset?

You can recruit any Saints that roam the streets in addition to the unlockable homies.

Q: Other than having to keep an eye on rival gangs how much of an influence do the police have in the game, for example are they always on patrol and what happens to the player when busted? When your notoriety rises will police actively seek you out?

Absolutely. There is a whole range of police response. Policemen patrol the streets and your notoriety rises if they see you commit a crime. If your notoriety reaches two stars or above, the police actively try to arrest you. When you are busted, you "wake up" at the nearest police station. Some money is deducted from your stash for legal fees.

Q: When creating characters will having large characters effect movement speed for example?

No, we did not want to encourage players to create extreme looking characters and then penalize them for it.

Q: How many weapons will be available in the game and will these include melee weapons as well?

About twenty. Yes, we have several melee weapons.

Q: There are many stores in the game which players can rob; how frequently will players be able to rob the same store and will store owners get better at deterring players from trying to rob them?

You can rob any store in the game at any time. Things vary a bit depending on whether you do it during daytime or at night. If you rob stores multiple times, owners will take steps to make it more difficult for you to rob them again.

Q: When robbing stores if another NPC enters whilst you are in the process of holding up the store will the NPC run away and call the police? What kind of NPC AI can gamers expect?

Yes, witnesses will call the police.

Q: What kind of age rating are you aiming for with the game; will there be blood, violence and sexual themes?

Q: Will there be multiple ways players can attempt to tackle missions within the game?

There are always different ways you can win any mission, but the bulk of the choices are more about what you do to unlock the missions than within the missions themselves.

Q: In relation to the game's respect, will acts of good or bad deeds be remembered by the NPC's and will players get respect from being bad or will they lose it? Could you have a situation where by doing a certain act will gain respect from one group and lose respect from another?

No. SR is not a "moral" game. Respect is earned and then spent to unlock missions, but once you have earned respect, you do not lose it.

Q: How will having low respect levels effect how player characters are perceived by others in the game world?

People treat you differently, talk to you differently. Also and most importantly, you need respect to unlock the missions.

Q: In total how many story and sub missions are you aiming for? What kind of replay value can gamers expect from Saints Row?

There are thirty six missions and thirteen activities. Each activity has eight levels of difficulty. We think there will be a lot of replay value in the game as you can approach it differently, try to max out your scores, unlock all achievements etc...

Q: Saints Row is divided into neighbourhoods, will players be able to travel through any neighbourhood at any time or will neighbourhoods unlock when more respect is gained?

You can go anywhere at any time, although not everything is unlocked from the get go (missions, strongholds etc...). There is a "fog of war" at the beginning: you need to go to a certain neighborhood to discover what activities and stores are available there.

Q: Can you give us any more details regarding the online portion of the game for example will players be able to duke it out in specific multiplayer neighbourhoods?

Yes there will be multiple modes and multiple levels, but I cannot tell you more about this until we fully unveil the multiplayer.

Q: What will be the main aim of the multiplayer? Will players have to take control of certain areas or will they simply have to kill opposing gangs perhaps both?

You aim is to defeat the other three gangs that dominate Stilwater and to conquer the whole city.

Questions about development.

Q: How easy or hard has it been working with the new platform and can you say whether Saints Row will be using all 3 cores? What advantages has the 360 architecture given you during development?

We are using all cores. Developing on a new platform is always hard, but we Microsoft has been very cooperative and helpful, in particular their ATG group. The Xbox 360 is a powerful piece of hardware, and Microsoft has a tradition of developing hardware that is fairly developer-friendly.

Q: "Next gen" seems to be a buzzword with regards to the Xbox 360, can you name one thing about Saints Row that you would describe as next gen?

A very large, entirely dynamically lit world that streams at all times (no load times anywhere).

Q: Although a demo was never officially announced are you still planning on releasing one via the marketplace or otherwise before the game ships?

Absolutely. Stay tuned for the date and the contents. It will be a very large demo.

Q: How long has Saints Row been in development and will it be exclusive to Xbox 360?

Saint's Row has been in development for almost three years and is currently exclusive to the Xbox 360.

Q: What feature are the development team most pleased with?

I think we'll only be able to answer this question after we ship, but I would say that the simple fact that we have created our first open world game and created it for a new platform at the same time has to be a greatest source of satisfaction. This was not an easy undertaking.

Posted By: Robert Cram

Date: 2006-04-11