Those sly folks at Volition/Deep Silver have evidently noticed that the world is lacking in fun superhero sandbox games, and have steered the next iteration of the Saint’s Row franchise in a more “comic book” direction. Lego Batman 2, inFamous and Prototype have all attempted the formula to varying degrees of success, but none have quite offered the open world freedom, character customisation and vehicular mayhem of the Saint’s Row or Grand Theft Auto series.

This teaser trailer contains all the superhuman abilities, alien weaponry, censored nudity, neon Tron cycles and ironic nonsense that you could possibly expect from Saint’s Row IV:

If you’re wondering why Volition has not made much in the way of aesthetic improvements over Saint’s Row: The Third, it’s perhaps because this installment was originally conceived as the third game’s Enter the Dominatrix DLC. That add-on pack was cancelled last year, but you can see it’s mark all over this game; the trailer features both the extraterrestrial invasion and the bizarre giant angry can… thing… shown in the original DLC promotional material.

Saint’s Row IV will be released this August 2013.