Criminal Ventures, according to Volition chief creative officer Jim Boone, is the system through which Saints Row players will build their criminal empire. It starts with a map of Saints Row’s setting, Santo Ileso. The Santo Ileso map shown in the trailer is covered in circled locations, each of which appears to be one of the game’s Criminal Ventures. A Criminal Venture is what Boone describes as an “organized crime operation,” each a step forward from upstart criminals to leaders of Santo Ileso’s sole criminal empire.

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However, Criminal Ventures aren’t just missions to visit and complete. There’s an extra layer to building a criminal empire in the new Saints Row game. That’s because empires are built, so players must first build. Each of the circled locations on the Santo Ileso map is a location where players can build a venture. Early ventures include food trucks, hairstylists, and laundromats, while later unlocked ventures understandably get much larger, more expensive, and introduce additional gameplay options.

The new Saints Row trailer explores just a handful of these Criminal Ventures, explaining how they add to the game once they’re built. The Bright Future Disposal facility, for example, introduces gameplay where players have to transport and dump toxic waste. The Let’s Pretend family entertainment location is the Saints’ base for plotting out heists, involving casing out locations and acting as a getaway driver. The third example, Shady Oaks Medical Clinic, lets players get into deadly accidents and then claim hefty insurance bills.

Saints Row fans hopefully have an idea of what Volition is going for in terms of structure for the new game. Players will expand their empire by building these Criminal Ventures, each unlocking new ways to play and earn money. As the in-game empire grows, new Criminal Ventures unlock with bigger and even more exciting ways to play and collect cash.

There’s obviously much more to Saints Row than just the Criminal Ventures system, but this seems like the heart of the open-world action-adventure experience. Expect Volition to further explore what players can expect in Saints Row, including details on its story and characters, in the months to come.

Saints Row releases February 25 on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

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