Our biggest update yet (2024)

Yes, the free Sunshine Springs update is also out today, andbecause the update notes are absolutelymassive, we wanted to give you a shorter breakdown of what you can expect. Notonly have we added a whole new district that’s free for all players, we havealso developed new features such as the Selfie Mode and Emote Wheel, anddelivered major quality of life improvements including a chunky update tocombat throughout the game. Plus, of course, this wouldn’t be an update withouta raft of fixes for things that weren’t quite working as intended (yes –challenges are one of those things!).

Once again we want to take the time to thank you, ourpassionate community for all the feedback, reports and suggestions. We areincredibly proud of this update and the changes we have made to improve theSaints Row experience across the board. There has never been a better time tovisit our stunning, crime-ridden city. So without further ado – let’s dive in.

Yes – Santo Ileso is now even bigger, there’s even more foryou to explore with the addition of Sunshine Springs, a sprawling oasis in theRojas Desert. A resort area that is home to the real elite of Santo Ileso –movie stars. Featuring new threats, photo hunt, @tcha and Riding Shotgunactivities plus stores for all players to enjoy we are giving you extra fun forfree. Sunshine Springs will be thesetting for the Expansion Pass content – The Heistand the Hazardous too.

We have heard your feedback on the game’s combat feel,including the flow, the “bullet sponginess” of enemies and the overallchallenge.

We took a long time to look at this closely and made some significant changes to make youfeel like the Boss you are.

Firstly, combat should just feel more dynamic. Notonly have aiming, crouching and takedowns been improved, but we’ve tweaked thehealth and dodging of enemies to make them fairer to fight

It should also feel more balanced - we have re-timed theenemy reinforcement calls, so its more like “open phone, password, dial numberand call” rather than “instant speed dial” giving Bosses more opportunity tostop those pesky snitches in their tracks!

And then there is a raft of important nips and tucks. Wehave improved reaction animations for heavy weapons and takedowns. We have madelow-level skills much more useful (get those grenades and proximity minesflying, Saints) and your weapon signature abilities will now be automaticallyassigned once you have earned them(this will also be true for vehicle specialabilities), rather than you having to schlep to Friendly Fire or Jim Robs foryour upgrade!

Overall combat feels so much smoother and we can’t wait foryou to get your hands on it.

There are new features included in the update too – some ofwhich you may have seen us talk about on the Saints Row social media channels.

Selfie Mode

First up is Selfie Mode – a new way to show off yourBoss in action. In addition to our usual photomode in-game, you can now turnthe camera on yourself – pick an expression, pause an emote and make wonderfulmemories.

Emotes

Speaking of emotes – we have added 12 new ones inthis update! Roll around the town as a Tumbleweed, eat a Burrito or puke up arainbow – you choose! Emotes are “static” or “steerable” which means some aremade for a stationary Boss and some are made for your Boss to walk (or roll)with, and you can even combine certain ones to create… a monster, probably.Which is even more fun in co-op play. And you can now toggle on up to 8 emotesfor quick fire emoting in the emote wheel.

New Camera Angle

We have also heard your concerns over the camerabeing too far away when driving vehicles – so we have added a new camera angleto pull this closer, activated by pressing up on the d-pad when in a vehicle onXbox and PlayStation controllers as well as the “z” key on PC. This can betoggled to your preference on the fly too!

Vehicles

Enemy and vehicle health bars can now be toggled on and offindependently of the rest of the UI, a feature we know you have been askingfor. Plus we have added the ability to nickname your saved vehicles in thegarage so you can find your favorite car faster by naming it “Fred” or “Carlos”or something super mature like “willybum69” – we know what you get up to 😉.

UI and menus

We have also reviewed all of the UI and menus, cleaned it upand made it easier for you to find and amend any setting you like – we havetons of options for players to customise the Saints Row experience – and wehope that this will give more of you an opportunity to use them to fit yourneeds and preferences.

Voice Lines

Additionally – we looked at some of the voice lines and madesome changes in “First F@#$ing Day,” “Morning Commute,” “Making Rent,” “TheGreat Train Robbery,” “Going Overboard,” and “Severance Package.” To give you abetter idea of the characters and story elements.

There are too many fixes in this update for us to list here(but we have – over on our Sunshine Springs Update NotesPage if you really want to dig into every detail of the work we have beendoing). But lets talk about the big hitters and the ones that the communityhave been talking about and wanting the most.

Challenges

This one has been a trickster for us andwe believe we have nailed it down. A lot of what was reported we couldn’treplicate but we have done a full pass on challenges and these should beworking as intended.

Co-op

There were a few niggles that remained withco-op after our last update, with players reporting dropping out connectionsand desyncing – we believe we have solved this now so you can team up with afellow Saint to your hearts content!

Achievements

There were some issues withachievements not unlocking for some players – these should now all work asintended – if you have completed the task that is 😉

Customization

We have seen some issues with colorsor skins on both clothing and weapons sometimes reverting to the original basecolor – we have worked on this and your colors will now save as intended.

The Playlist App

We have made some feature enhancements to thePlaylist App, will play as intended. We have also added the custom playlist tothe radio wheel for quicker and easier access when driving, as well as adding ashuffle functionality to both the app and radio station. We have also added afunction

Along side all of this we have made changes to animations,stability, enemy approaches, map organization, sound balancing and a whole lotmore! Now is a great time to jump in as a first time player or back in as areturning fan.

And loads more...

We can’t wait to see what you all think – plus don’t forgetour first Expansion The Heist and The Hazardous isout now too so more missions, events and cosmetic options await! As always Ifyou see anything that doesn’t seem right, head to our customersupport page for assistance.

Thank you so much for all of your passion and encouragementsince launch – we can’t wait to reveal more about the rest of our content roadmap!

Keep it Strange

Volition & Deep Silver