Saints Row 2 Review

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(More customer reviews)Saint's Row 2 is just about everything fans of the original could've asked for, and more! Right off the bat, you'll notice just how many improvements have been done over the original. You start off in a coma, and you're asked to either re-create your guy from the last game, or make someone new. And this time, you can have a girl play as Stilwater's legendary gangster! You can go around the 'Saint's Row' equivalent of Chicago as a male or female.

The character customizations have been far expanded, and rival that of another THQ franchise, The "WWE SmackDown! Vs. RAW" series. You can fine tune just about any facial feature to your liking, and once the game starts, you can buy your way up to owning cool clothes, which are far superior to the first game's clothing options. Even in Sloppy Seconds, you can customize color, material, and style of your clothing. Of course, keep in mind that Sloppy Seconds has some pretty awful clothes, too! I had my guy back in Saint's Purple in no time! The women's clothing is far less appealing though, although maybe I just haven't unlocked the hot Victoria's Secret wear, yet. The character cutomization truly is more advanced this time around, but a little bit of things irk me in the customization.

For example, you can't choose height once again in your character. In the first game, the Protagonist was way too short. About 5'6" or so. In this, he's kinda too tall. Maybe 6'1" or 6'2", but he (or she, as females have the same towering height as your men) completely towers over everyone else in town. Also, the body options are kinda weird. It's like, you can only choose a body "type" for them, like obese, or thin, and you can't fine tune things, like their stomach or chest. For women, their breasts are kind of too pointy. For men, their body shape is kind of odd, with big arms and a slightly disproportionate body (assuming your guy isn't an obese fellow). Some things are kind of too in-depth (like ear customization, for example. Who cares about ears?) While the body customizations could've been more expanded. Also, the "Personality" features aren't as in-depth as I was hoping for. Basically, you choose voice, walking style, compliment taunt, and insult taunts. The voices are basically White, Black, and Hispanic male and females. The White guy voice is British, probably because the game developers are also, British, and they wanted a local guy in there. I'm guessing most people will end up using the Black Male voice or White Female voice. The gender equality goes beyond your main character though, and also shows up in the gangs, too, as before, only about 10% of your enemies were female, as now it's about 40% of women in the enemy gangs. And it seems like the entire police force seems to made up of women, which is a little odd.

When you actually begin, you start off with a prison break, and get access to the newly expanded fighting system. While very simple to use, it's actually quite hard to master, and I like that. Basically, you can punch two different ways, do combos, and block. There's other things you can learn later too, like the new Human Shield option, where you can toss people acorss streets like they're only 10 pounds light. Of course, this is just for your basic fighting style. You'll learn new ways to brawl later in the game, as well! You also now also pick up inanimate objects like cinderblocks, trash cans, or virtually anything, and use them as makeshift fighting weapons. Your non-firearm weapons have greatly been expanded, and the variety of different melee weapons rivals that of San Andreas. However, in this game, you can make much cooler use of them! I stongly suggest once you hit the streets of new Stilwater, to find a Ronin gang member and steal his or her katana blade. That thing rocks! Both objects and newer melee attacks are also available in Grand Suck Auto IV, but Saint's Row 2 makes much better uses out of all of them! It's a complete no contest here in which game's are better. With weapons, all your favorites are back, and the annoying habit of constantly having to switch out guns for ammo to get different ones that have been taken off of your enemies is gone! Because now, we have dual-weilding, baby! Your guy or girl will be able to shoot out two Vice 9's, at once, now, and do it like the pro they are! Unlike San Andreas, you won't have to level up skill points to earn advanced weaponry weilding because the game assumes your guy is already a master of the firearms from the first game! I love how convient Volition are! They're willing to cut the crap (like having to swim miles to make it to shore) and just give you the fun gaming goodness you want from the get-go! When you deal with explosives, if you're too close to the blast, it'll blast out your character's ear drums and they'll be temporally deaf! It's a nice touch with really shows you how much explosives can mess your character up! Saint's Row 2 also gives you Autosaving, so if your game freezes on you or the power goes out, you can start off from the last mission or activity you completed. Autosaving at first doesn't seem to useful, but once an unexpected something DOES happen to you or your game, you'll be so glad it's there! I made it to Lv. 6 of Drug Trafficking and didn't save any of it when my 360 shut down on me. But with the Autosave feature, I was able to restart from the end of Lv. 5 and not lose a thing! It's such a great and convient feature to have!

Once again, you'll have to earn respect to do new missions, but the Activities now are a lot more fun, and many of the lame ones from the first game, except the stupid Insurance Fraud ones, which I've always hated, are gone. Activities are now divided by Diversions (the lesser, old Activities) and the true "Activities" now are the ones that take much longer time to complete, such as Chop Shop and Hit Man, which once again make a return. I hopped in a car with my girl and immeadially started a Drive-By activity on some Sons of Samedi. Now, in the Diversions, there are six levels instead of eight, and for some, you can continue up to each level without interuption. I didn't even know I was on Level 5 in Drive-By until I actually checked up the top of the screen. The new diversion activities are awesome. "vehicle Surfing" is tricky but fun, until you fall of the car, that is! In "Trail Blazing" you get to race to a checkpoint all while on fire, blowing up cars on impact and lighting people on fire, earning time. It's sort of a mix of Mayhem and Racing, and it's very fun. "Fuzz" is the Stilwater equivalent of Cops and you get to play as the all-around corrupt police officer, hurting people breaking the law, and getting good and violent footage for the TV show. By the further levels, it gets really fun and interesting, like stopping a Pirate-Ninja war! "Crowd Control" has you playing as a celebrity bodyguard, stopping mobs of crazy fans from hurting your client! Depending on the level, you can trhow people into chopper blades, toss them into attack dogs, crush them with a bulldozer, cram them into an airport security x-ray machine, or chuck em into an oncoming el train!

There are more ways to earn respect now, too. Inspired by the Balls Meter from the "Scarface: The World Is Yours" game, you can now earn respect by doing ballsy things that Tony Montana did in his game, like driving in the wrong lane of traffic and taunting bad people like cops and gang members, and also now pimps and hoes, who are now official "enemies", as well. The only thing missing is the ability to yell at people who crash into your car while driving. Just don't get TOO much respect before using it up on missions, though, as after Lv. 99, your respect is Infinite, and that sort takes all the fun out of it, having Infinite respect and all.

The new Stilwater is a much darker, depressing place than the old Stilwater, which is ironic considering that the old Stilwater was probably much more violent. It's about 50% larger, and the new places are less inviting to you than you'd think they'd be. They clearly don't like your kind around there. The new gangs have a bit more unity than the old ones did, and respect each other's territories, leaving the endangered Third Streets Saint's pretty much their only common enemy. Many parts of old Stilwater have been rebuilt by Ultor's multi-million dollar city renovation. With Ultor Corporation owning Stilwater and turning it into a bleak metropolis for the Upper Class and snobby, you'll have the incredible feeling of both familarity and newness, all at the same time. Some old, favorite neighborhoods will look familar, but will be dark, barren and full of bums and prostitutes. Others, such as the humble Saint's Row, have been completely taken over! Seems like at least 20 years of change since 2006, though, when our old familar Stilwater was Ultor-free. Only a few list of people actually return for the sequel, but luckly, it's all the ones you would want to see return, including your best pal, Johnny Gat. Also in Stilwater are the new gangs. They also follow the same trend of having a Drug gang, a street punk gang, and a Corporate Business gang. Taking the place of the Latin Los Carnales, the Caucasian Westside Rollerz, and the Black Vice Kings are the Haitian Sons of Samedi, the Caucasian Brotherhood of Stilwater, and The Asian Ronin. The fourth, "unofficial" gang are the Ultor Corporation, themselves, and they run pretty much everything in new Stilwater, including all of the police. The Ronin are probably the deadliest gang, as they all carry katana blades and chase after you on high speed motorcyles, which comes off as a lot more vicious and scary than the standard street car pursuits the other gangs do. I won't say too much, but there's a little bit of "Kill Bill" as you progress through the Ronin storyline. They're definitely the best to take on out of the three...Read more›

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