Preview: Saints Row (360)

THQ Inc. (Nasdaq: THQI) and critically acclaimed development studio Volition, Inc. today announced Saint's Row^TM. An evolution in open world gaming, Saint's Row provides an unprecedented amount of freedom to experience the game as the player sees fit. The game, based in the fictional urban surroundings of Still Water, is action adventure with its core as a third-person shooter. Scheduled to release worldwide on the Xbox 360^TM video game and entertainment system from Microsoft in 2005, Saint's Row will make its public debut at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles, CA, May 18.

"We're building Saint's Row on a new proprietary game engine that's going to take our studio to the next level of game design," said Mike Kulas, Volition's founder and president. "The goal is to build a complete sense of dynamic reaction to every action the player takes. In Saint's Row, the player is not forced to follow a linear story in a pseudo-sandbox world. The purpose is to provide choice and freedom as to how the game is played."

"Saint's Row represents an evolution in open world game design and breaks the mold, pushing the genre in a new direction of choice and consequence," added Jack Sorensen, executive vice president of worldwide studios, THQ. "With this title, we'll establish both a new franchise on a next-generation console and a solid foundation for our future projects."

Currently being developed for the Xbox 360, Saint's Row sets the player as a member of the Third Street Saints, a gang trying desperately to take back the streets from three rival gangs that hold the city.

Words by Press Release