Developer Deep Silver Volition has claimed that the Saints Row reboot will feature ““the biggest customization suite” ever in the franchise. Those are some bold words, as prior games have offered an impressive array of options for creating your Boss. And, as we know, those customizations can take some time. I’ve spent hours pouring over every pore when creating characters in games. Thankfully, those thinking about picking up Saints Row can save some time. The company has released the Saints Row Boss Factory, a free standalone character customization tool. And it’s available today.
Yes, you’ll be able to create and save your Boss or Bosses before the Saints Row launch, and transfer them into the game when it’s out. It comes with every option that’s available in the full game, save for some that only unlock with story progression. You can’t customize weapons or vehicles in Boss Factory, but you can at least get your character up to spec before the game’s release on August 23.
I got to try it out ahead of its announcement today. And, as promised, there are just a ton of customization options. Yes, you can have hand-drawn Rick and Morty pupils. But it’s not all perfect. While there are more ring options than I can count, some features seem oddly limited. There aren’t that many facial accessories to choose from, even if you have a choice of all the colors of the rainbow for your nose stud. Tattoos, such as full leg or sleeve tats, don’t offer many interesting choices.
Just give me the accent
When I loaded up Boss Factory, I decided to try and recreate my freaky, green-haired skeleton of a man with an awful cockney accent I had in Saints Row 2. The good news? I got pretty close, even if I somehow ended up with a guy who looked too similar to the Joker. The bad news? No awful cockney accent. There was a British-sounding female voice, but that was it. I had my pick of eight voices consisting of several street kids and a few with Southern drawls. I went with what I called ‘street kid 2.’
As you would expect, Boss Factory includes a massive amount of options to create your boss. Many bodily features such as brows, noses, eyes, and more all have presets if you want to use them, and swapping through them was instant. You can also customize those presets, if you so chose. With the presets, you could easily create a unique Boss, even with those pre-made options. There are also a ton of clothing options, from full, layered dress suits to cowboy hats and everything in between. I didn’t notice any options for face masks, but I suppose the mission for the new Saints is to be noticed after all.
No restrictions
As mentioned before, the Saints Row reboot customization suite has “zero restrictions based on gender.” And Boss Factory does give you all the choices. There is no “choose your gender option,” just a triangle-shaped slider where you can change your character’s build and body type. You’re also not tied down to any specific voice options.
To add, there are also options for artificial limbs. Of these, there are many, and you can have one or all limbs be prosthetic. And, like with most clothing options, you can change up the color palette.
But for those who just want to create something completely off the wall, Boss Factory has you covered. You can create a vampire with candy corn for teeth, or wrap your Boss up in scars to look like Frankenstein’s monster. Skin colors run the gamut, allowing you to Smurf it up or get Shrek’d, or go for full-body chrome. You can also set skin gloss if you want your Boss to look like a freshly licked Jolly Rancher.
Trading Bosses like cards
Once you finish your Boss, you can save them to get ready for the game — unless you’re in the sharing mood. If you want your friends to beat the mean streets of Santo Ileso with your own custom creation, you can. Bosses can be shared with a seven-character code. These codes can be shared to anyone across all platforms. So if you’re playing on PC and your buddy is on the PlayStation 5, you can still send them a code and vice versa. And since you can hot-swap Bosses, you don’t have to stick with someone else’s design throughout your own story.
Overall, I believe Boss Factory will be appreciated by anyone who plans on picking up the Saints Row reboot. There are an incredible amount of options available in most cases, even though I would have like to see more accessories and tattoos. It can also use some tweaking, as it really seems to hate it when I alt-tab on my rig, and I did notice the odd frame drop or two. And that’s odd, since its recommended specs ask for a GTX 1070 GPU and an i7-6700K CPU or equivalents. Regardless, it’s a free tool interested folks can try out ahead of the game’s launch this year. And any time saved before starting the game proper is always a positive thing.
Published: Jun 9, 2022 04:00 pm