I am utterly confused at the themes of the Saints Row reboot. Full disclosure, I haven't played it, and I'm not very familiar with the series, my experience with such themes are limited to gameplays and reviews.

Volition have clearly stated since very early on that the new Saints Row won't replicate the old ones in tone as they diminished them as products of a certain era incompatible with these times. If the original Saints Row games were all about, say, "careless irreverence", I don't know what they're trying to pull off with this game. The narrative deals, with their attempt at a current group of twenty somethings, themes such as being doomed by the student loans necessary to get a degree and with luck maybe a job (most likely a shitty one), being unashamed of personal expression (sexual orientation, gender, social media slang...), blaming capitalism, corporatism, the bourgeoisie and capitalists for being immoral and destroying the planet... Yet, I find it hard to get what they're trying to say with such sentiments, especially considering that this is supposed to be like a juxtaposition to the original Saints Row games.

My best guess is that Volition have tried to convey such messages honestly while combining humour of a reassuring, self deprecating type to support them. But at the end of the day, considering how poorly handled the narrative and the rest of the game are, it ends up backfiring horribly. It feels like that, in a very meta way, the game conveys that those wanting positive change in social and economic conditions should give up having any kind of hope because at the end of the day those hopes do not yield any positive result besides shallow rhetorical nonsense: there is no alternative. The cast and their surroundings end up being a laughing stock of 2010s-2020s tropes and a sign of how not to do meaningful art right.