Stop us if you've seen this one before…
Santo Ileso is one huge, sprawling Wide-Open Sandbox. And where there's a sprawling sandbox, Shout Outs and Easter Eggs will follow.
Story
- The game opens with the main character supposedly being killed and buried in a shallow grave just outside a fictional send-up of Las Vegas... you'd half expect Ron Perlman to start narrating about how "war never changes" just as the scene wraps up.
- One mission is called "The Fastest and the Foodiest", involving Boss and Kevin going on a trip to get some Mechaburgers from FB's.
- In "After Party", you come across a gigantic version of "Petting Zoo Safari". If you look at a couple of the cards, one of them is for a "Lion Attack", with the following description, "Excuse me, you're biting my butt".
- In "Unto the Breach", the cutscene where you take out the Dust King is a shot for shot parody of the infamous death scene from the Turkish film "Karate Girl", known on Youtube as the longest death scene in film.
Side Content
- Tangentially related to the Fast & Furious reference above, one of the Repossession targets happens to be a bank vault that you have to haul back with a car, much like in Fast Five.
- The entire Clean Up Crew Venture is essentially one big sendup to Harvey Keitel's character in Pulp Fiction, where it's the Boss that fulfills The Wolf's role as the clean-up expert.
- One instance references I Just Shot Marvin in the Face, almost verbatim, albeit replacing "Marvin" with "Melvin".
- The First Strike Dojo venture is likewise a reference to Cobra Kai, with First Strike standing in for Miyagi-Do while Final Fist is the titular Cobra Kai dojo.
- One of the reviews the Boss can write for the @tcha Side Hustle is, "Had it with these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking saloon."
- In the northern end of the map is a small golf themed store set up near a country club. As you'd expect it mostly sells golf related clothing. Hats, shirts, footwear... and a wooden prosthetic hand for some reason.
- One "Eurekabator!" mission has you testing a device called the Quantum Aperture, which allows you to shoot through walls. Once the mission is completed, the Boss says this:The Boss: This was a triumph.
- Another "Eurekabator!" device you get is a fully-functional hoverboard, which Chloe mentions was originally released in 1989. The Boss also comments on how it works on water, prompting Chloe to agree that yes, it does, "if it has power".
- The heist-themed "Let's Pretend" venture features a series of missions where the boss and a crew of accomplices rob various locations while sporting president masks. If that alone wasn't enough of a tip off the player contact for this particular venture is a woman named Joannie Utah.
- In various locations throughout the game you can dig through dumpsters to find money and various secret items. One dumpster, in particular, will trigger music similar to the treasure chest jingle from The Legend of Zelda.
- The "Chalupacabra" venture involves hijacking food trucks that are tied to the drug trade, one of which is a fried chicken place pushing Loa Dust. No, it's not Los Pollos Hermanos, as much as a chicken restaurant secretly selling addictive drugs might make one think.
- The Twin Coyotes arcade in the Rojas Desert is probably a reference to the famous Twin Galaxies Arcade. Their store even offers a referee shirt as one of its purchasable clothing items.
- Building the Laundromat Criminal Venture erects a small strip mall which the laundromat shop is a part of. Perceptive players will also notice a very familiar tavern on the far end of the building named... Mac's.
Challenges/Achievements
- The achievement you get for completing "Best Friends Forever" is called, "We could go home, or...", which is acquired for going out for karaoke night with the Saints.
- Yet another Fast & Furious reference, the challenge you get for spending time with the main trio (Kevinnote , Elinote , and Neenahnote ) is called "Nothing Stronger Than Family".
- While "Marshall Law"note might be a pun on the term, with the way it's spelled, it could also refer to the Tekken character of the same name.
- "So Anyway I Started Blasting", achieved for killing 30 enemies with each while going Guns Akimbo - the Handcannon .44, the Idol Lite pistol, and the D4TH Blossom SMG.
- "They See Me Rolein'", achieved for getting 20 kills apiece with the Dustlander Revolver and Shotgun, and 5 Specialist kills with the Dustlander Crossbow.
- "This Party's Over", achieved for killing 50 Idols, 15 Idol Specialists, and getting 15 Idol Double Kills.
- "You Are Already Dead", achieved for 10 takedowns and 15 melee kills.
Collectibles
- The Christmas Tree, Twig from the DLC Festive Felonies Cosmetic Pack resembles a certain sapling complete with a single red ornament bending it over.
- The Model Plane's description mentions the Spruce Goose.
- Doubling as an Easter Egg, the lone island in Badlands South has a certain singing bush surrounded by three blowup dolls dressed in mariachi clothing. Photographing the bush has the description to "summon the invisible swordsman".
- The Interstellar Phone Booth tells you to dial one number higher to reach tomorrow.
- The Mine Cart wonders where can you find a gorilla suit.
- The Metal Coyote mentions a certain road runner is in trouble.
Easter Eggs/Other
- The HUD icon for the High Jump Signature Ability resembles a certain 1970 Dodge Charger from a certain angle...
- One of the buildings in The Frontier (MDI's prison that you break The Nahualli out of later in the game) has "R2" and "D2" on one of the cell blocks from the outside.
- Out in Badlands South, you can find a giant comb in the middle of the desert (shown above). May or may not also be the page image for Visual Pun, too.
- Also in Badlands South, there's a Collectible that's totally not in any way a reference to Thor's hammer...
- In the city, you can find a van for "Hasta La Vista" Exterminators.
- Another business near one of JimRob's garages is E3 Demolition, with a familiar (but more muted) red and yellow color scheme.
- There's plenty of weapon skins that turn them into very familiar items from other forms of media.
- One of the skins for the pickaxe is a Suspiciously Similar Substitute to the Keyblade.
- The description for the Sledgehammer is "Perfect for demolition jobs and offworld guerrilla uprisings".
- The Star God Blaster is just one word away from being called the Star-Lord Blaster.
- The TOGO-13 sniper rifle makes its triumphant return in this game and is still just as good at popping heads as its original inspiration is.
- In the city, one can find a TARDIS, only named TURDIS and with the appearance of a teal port-a-potty, fittingly enough.
- In the desert, one can find a Zohar, of all the things. Better yet, it's a combination of the Zohar from Xenogears (the green eye) and the Zohar from Xenosaga (the cross-shaped design). Somebody on the development team must be a big Xeno fan.
- One of the makeup options in the character creator is Furiosa's face paint, aptly called "Imperator."
- On that same note, masks resembling Immortan Joe's rebreather and Max's steel blood bag cage can be bought.
- The music that plays when you're fighting Dustlanders is very reminiscent of Junkie XL's score for the film.
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