Today, Deep Silver and Volition announced and dropped the Saints Row Boss Factory – a free, standalone version of Saints Row’s character creator available to download right now on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and PC (via Epic).
We managed to get a sneaky early look at Boss Factory, which includes everything you’ll be able to customise in the full game, and we’ve broken down all of the different options available when creating your own Boss as well as highlighted some of the fantastic and hilarious Bosses we’ve seen so far.
Keen to download Boss Factory for yourself, or check out some of the weird and wild community creations? Head over to the Saints Row website.
Get That Boss Body
Just like previous Saints Row games, there’s a huge amount of freedom when customising your character’s body and bodily features. Right from the outset, it’s clear that Volition hasn’t locked anyone into any specific body types or gender presentation, with sliders and modifiers making it easy to tweak your build and shape in any way you like.
That goes for skin types and colours as well, with the full spectrum of colour available for skin tones whether you’re trying to recreate yourself, a famous figure or just go wild with it. There’s even a whole range of options available for things like body hair (again, available no matter what ‘type’ of bod you’re rocking), glossiness, vein and muscle definition, tan lines, scars and even a bunch of presets for vitiligo. Different types of prosthetics for arms and legs are available as well and seem really well integrated into your Boss’s outfits and animations.
And yes, for those that were concerned the more scandalous stuff wouldn’t make the cut in this tonally-shifted reboot of Saints Row, rest assured that options for chest and groin size are still here. You’re even able to swap out the usual mosaic censor for a bunch of ‘modesty’ stickers and, in a surprising change, Volition has freed the nipple for everybody and thrown in some sizing selections to boot.
Beat For The Gods
Like their body, your Boss’s face is one of the most detailed and customisable ways to express yourself in Saints Row.
I’m a big fan of the approach to presets here, with a bunch of ready-made faces available that can either be applied as a whole or mix-and-matched as you’re going through and modifying every part of your face and head. Of course, whether you start with a preset or a blank slate you’re able to tweak and finesse things as much as you like to get exactly the look you want. It’s also a very nice touch to be able to toggle off asymmetry and customise both sides of your face separately!
When it comes to decorating your Boss’s head you’ve got 63 hairstyles, 22 facial hair selections and a heap of options for eyebrows, lashes, skin complexion, scars, wrinkles, accessories and makeup. The hair options seem to do a good job of covering a wide variety of types and styles, although there’s not a lot of scope to tweak them outside of their colour and glossiness.
Dressed To Kill (A Lot)
Your Boss is going to need to look the part when they’re out causing all kinds of mayhem, so the Boss Factory comes with a fair few options for dressing them up. Whether it’s individual tops, bottoms and accessories or full-body ‘fits there’s something to suit everyone – although the selection is slim in comparison to what we assume you’ll be able to purchase or unlock in the game itself.
It’s also worth noting that while you can change up the colours in multiple parts of most outfit pieces, there look to be options to tweak things right down to the material that aren’t available in the initial character creator. Like the clothing options themselves, and the current selection of tattoo designs, this is likely something tied to game progression so we’re keen to see how that all works.
Express Yourself
Your Boss doesn’t just need to look the part, they’ve also gotta know how to command attention on the streets. With a selection of different emotes available to assign to your character right away, you’ll be able to do just that – and even more so once you presumably open up more options in the game.
A new feature for the series is Walking Emotes, which go beyond the basic emotes and actually augment the way your character moves around the world after activating them!
Naturally, you can also personalise your Boss’s speech with eight different voice over options.
Be Your Own Boss (Or Someone Else’s)
Players can also easily save and share their Boss creations right from the Boss Factory as well as import them into their Saints Row game. This can be done automatically when using Boss Factory and Saints Row on the same platform, but characters can also be shared across all platforms using special share codes. there’s even a Boss Factory hub over at the Saints Row website where everyone can share, upvote and download each others creations.
We can’t wait to see what people come up with once Boss Factory has been out for a little while, but here are a handful of our favourites that’ve come from the development team ahead of launch:
Saints Row is set to release for Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC on August 23, 2022. Learn more here.
Amazon currently has the cheapest pre-order price at $74.90 with free shipping.
