Saints Row 2
- Over 40 story missions with additional bonus missions take place in a transformed Stilwater that is over 50% larger than before.
- Limitless Customization ¿ Play as fully customizable characters that are male, female or something in between. Cribs, vehicles and even gangs all have customization options.
- Multiplayer ¿ Co-op full story campaign has seamless integration (for example one player drives while the other shoots).
- Competitive multiplayer pushes the boundaries of immersion in a living Stillwater environment fully populated with police, innocent bystanders and rival gangs.
- Planes, helicopters, motorcycles, boats and cars can be piloted and used as weapons. On the ground new combat options include melee, fine aim, and human shield
Amazon.com
A worthy successor to Saints Row, the first open-world title on next-generation consoles, Saints Row 2 features all new customization options, including player’s: gender, age, voice, crib and gang. In addition, the sandbox just got larger with a totally transformed and expanded city of Stilwater, offering all new locations to explore with new vehicles, including motorcycles, boats, helicopters and planes. Saints Row 2 will be playable online in 2-player co-op through the ent… More >>
As someone who loved the original Saints Row, I was glad they made a part 2. I am glad the player gets to talk this time around, though the British accent for a white male is really weird in a game like this. The concept is basically the same as the first game except now you are more of a leader than a follower. I like how they tied together the first and second games with all the characters as I was worried they were going to make this game its own entity with the “same character”. I love Johnny Gat and he looks even cooler this time around. The graphics are a disappointment – I know its a cartoonish game, but the first one looked a whole lot better in my opinion. There seems to be this haze that makes it even worse when looking at things, no matter the time of day. I think fighting and the weapons are much cooler in their effects and how they are represented.
That being said, the originality between this game and the previous really isn’t there. It’s basically the same story and goals – earning respect, doing missions against rival gangs, conquering rival strongholds, etc. There is more variety with the respect challenges which I like and its not as easy to succeed in the early level of the respect challenges either. This game is fun, but still seems to be lacking something. I wish I got to choose how to attack the rival gangs for once in a sandbox game. It would also be nice to have the AI of my gang be smarter and have more of an effect with their guns. I watched Johnny fire 8 shotgun blasts into someone and it didn’t kill the guy. Forget it when he uses a regular pistol. It’s like the computer controlled gang members really have no effect.
I like the game, but I honestly felt more of a connection and interest in the original rival gangs than this one. These gangs seem very far fetched and weird to see on the streets just walking around like everything is normal. I like that my character is the leader and not just a silent runner for the big guys. I like that the respect bar adds up faster this time around through various methods besides respect activites. It’s better than GTA in fun and replay ability but still not a perfect “gang” sandbox simulation.
Rating: 4 / 5
As the title implies, I found certain things between this and the GTA series that made the game great, and few things between the two that made me want to grind my teeth down to nubs.
SR 2 picks up rather well after the end of the initial release. You, a Hispanic/African American/oddly hispanic looking but with a cockny accent, awake in a maximum sercurity prison after being blown up at the end of the first game. After an alarmingly easy prison break (I’d expected the tutorial levels to consist of cafeteria fights and an eventual guard bribe, or at least something to reestablish the background other than a 2 minute dissertation), your character proceeds to rebuild the 3rd street saints. You’ve apparently also had a significant amount of facial reconstruction, as its commented on by just about everyone, and also manages to help you free your best friend and head lieutenant after walking past 40-something cops and security guards.
This highlights my only real problem with the games, which is its storyline difficulty. Its far too easy. I expect games to increase in difficulty as they progress, and to a degree it does, but not enough to be more than barely noticeable. Story missions can all virtually be done on the frist try unless you happen to stumble by an exploding car. Your health regenerates if you manage to dodge enough bullets, and you can take more punishment than Robocop, despite having no kevlar or any armor, even on normal difficulty. The diversions and jobs however, more than make up for this. They all consist of 6 levels, the 3rd of which can be completed with 1-3 retries, and the 6th apparently can only be done by people who obsess over these kinds of games to a degree thats unhealthy. The difficulty is also variable, as enemies vanish and appear at random.
Despite this nit, which is a big one, this game is fantastic. The jobs are fun, and some of them could make a game on their own. A few will make you wince, nmely the one where you spray poo on everything that moves, but aside from, the side missions are almost more fun than the story missions. The story missions are also fantastic. While none so far have made my jaw drop, they are unique enough to not feel repetitive, they are well voice acted, and have a compelling storyline for each of the gangs, and a few you’ll gleefully replay over and over, as the villians get theirs in rather entertaining ways (Case in point: “Get up.” You’ll know it once you reach it)
The customization is fantastic, and creative, though a few points are obscure, namely why some items are more stylish than others. The guns are entertaining, and a bit too easy to acquire. Items are cheap, so you won’t have to grind for 10 hours to buy new gear or houses. The AI for enemies and your allies is vastly improved. All told, if this was made a little harder, and a little gritter, just a drop or two, this would’ve been 5-stars, and probably a top ten of all time.
Rating: 4 / 5
First and foremost, I won’t even compare this game to GTA IV because it’s not MEANT to; Volition has come out and said long before the game’s release that it’s not trying to replace GTA.
One of the biggest selling points for me was that I could play as both a man or a woman. And once I learned that I could visit a plastic surgeon at any time and change my gender back and forth, I was even happier. I also appreciate the fact that Volition supplied six different voice tracks for the protagonist, each with its own personality and nuance, giving the game a distinctly different feel for each playthrough. For example, the British actor would read one line as “hey mate” when it’s supposed to be “hey man.” Little touches like this give the voice tracks their own personalities. I was struck at how different a cutscene feels when the hero has a different voice and attitude.
Pros:
-Be male or female (or a freak; be a man with a high, female voice!)
-Great VO work, engaging supporting characters with personality
-Variety of missions and activities (especially Septic Avenger; spraying sh** on people is hilarious!)
-New features such as human shield, cruise control, fine aiming, dual wielding
-More customization options (clothing, tatoos, hairstyles)
-Excellent GPS is back, plus now you can place “bookmarks” on the map as reminders (i.e. during a mission you find a tag spot, and want to remember its location for later)
-Stores are now open 24/7, meaning you no longer have to wait around endlessly to buy that one specific shirt you want
-Fresh soundtrack with songs you haven’t heard in other games
-Instantly warp between a store and your wardrobe, making it easier to mix and match your clothes
-Some cool easter eggs to be found
Cons:
-Bugs/glitches from first game are back (such as cars disappearing, NPCs getting stuck in your vehicle)
-Idiot homie A.I. (guys, did you know you can walk AROUND obstacles?)
-No way to give commands to homies
-No auto-lock on or aim assist of any kind, making shootouts harder than they need to be (the option to toggle it on or off would have been nice)
-Digital music player from SR 1 has been canned (you can’t listen to music when on foot anymore)
-Melee fighting system (Brotherhood style, Ronin style, etc) largely feels gimmicky and wasted; outside the “fight club” activity, there is no reason whatsoever to use fisticuffs when you could simply shoot your enemies
Rating: 3 / 5
The game says I’m 45% complete. I own 7/11 cribs and lots of cars… I’ve messed around extensively with the customization of the character, the cars & cribs. Below is my current impression of the game.
Pros:
* Customization of the characters, cars, your gang, and the cribs are awesome, even more extensive than SR1.
* Cruise control
* All sorts of real-time facial expressions.
* Peds aren’t totally suicidal anymore (they don’t readily jump into the street like SR1).
* Now there are motorcycles, helicopters & planes… and many more interesting vehicles. One I like is the “Bear” which you can steal from the police ~ it’s an armored vehicle with a powerful machine gun on the top, and you can customize it =)
* Lots of fun things to do. Many of the old activities are still there, plus new ones.
* There are lots of interiors. The scope of the city, inside & out is impressive.
* Both a pro and a con ~ your character doesn’t remove the body when killing someone and taking their car. Sometimes results in weird overlap… other times it just looks funny and realistic.
Cons:
* Cars disappear and appear right next you… so if you spot a car that you want to steal, don’t take the camera view off of it, even if it’s right next to you. SR1 also had psycho car pop in/out… and I was REALLY hoping they would fix that for this game, they didn’t.
* Customization is completely buggy, it often doesn’t save or view properly. That goes for both the cars & the character (especially the character).
* Physics in SR2, or should I say “physics” is terrible. Everything about it is unrealistic. Generally this doesn’t affect the fun-factor, but it would be nice to have some realism.
* Anybody can pull you out of your car, even if you’re going 20mph and you’re flooring it.
* Car handling is like SR1 ~ unrealistic. For those that complained about GTA4′s realistic driving, you’ll be pleased with SR2′s arcade style handling.
* Car damage is as unrealistic as SR1.
* I don’t remember exactly, but I’m pretty sure the police work exactly the same way – they know where you are no matter what, they can warp instantly, their cars are ridiculously fast, and the stars are removed by simply killing time (or going to Forgive & Forget).
* The game freezes (not often though). Save often.
… and a whole host of other bugs I won’t bother mentioning. Some of them are huge, most small.
It’s hard to compare this game to GTA4… I’d say it’s more fun in the sense that there’s more to do… but when it comes to technical issues this game is just sad. The thing that really bothers me is how cars disappear/appear so quickly and easily. That totally drives me nuts, especially when I spot a car that I want but I can’t stop it immediately. Taking your eyes off of it means it’s probably going to disappear.
I would recommend waiting till the price drops. This game is good (and better than SR1) but not $60 USD good.
Rating: 3 / 5
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. The Brotherhood of Stilwater are basically just giant-sized bullies. They’re all very large people with even bigger vechiles. They like violence just for the sake of it. The weakest gang has to be the Sons of Samedi. Bascially, all they do is sell “Loa Dust” (a kind of cocaine you smoke out of broken lightbulbs!) to college students. They’re all very easy to take out and all of their vechiles are pretty weak. With these new gangs though, comes new vehicles, such as bikes, boats, and planes. They’re all just about as cool, if not better than the selection in GTA: San Andreas. There are also plenty of new cars, including three new ones that put classics like the Zenith and the Attrazione to shame. Even though they’re now a lot more common in a Stilwater that caters to the heartless and corporate republican Upper Class, you’ll probably want the three new luxury/sport cars even more. They are the ‘Hayate Z70′, the Ronin’s offical car, the ‘Bezier’, which is like a MUCH better Attrazione, and the ‘Superiore’, which is like a Lamborghini Countach. Just don’t own more than two of each or else, you’ll ruin their rareness of owning them.
The graphics, which I’ve yet to mention, are incredible compared to the old game, and yet, still have that Saint’s Row “toony” look to them. They almost rival GTA IV in their beautiful lighting effects and such. Saint’s Row 2 now, also like GTA IV, has the “blurring” effect of when you go too fast in a car or quickly turn the opposite way while running. The beauty of the new Saint’s Row really makes you appreciate your 360. Name-brand artists are now featured for the music. No longer any obsure, underground third-rate Hip Hop stars. Arguably, it’s a better sounding soundtrack than Grand Theft Auto IV (At least in the Hip Hop department, anyway). This time, when you listen to the radio, it actually sounds like you’re listening to the *real* radio, thanks to the more mainstream artists and songs. The one thind thing that sucks though, is there’s only about half the number of songs on this game compared to the original. There’s also no more custom playlists, either. Instead, you get your own radio station to replace your old audio player. But at least the music is from people like 50 Cent, Nas, Fat Joe, Joss Stone, and Kelis. They’re not my favorites, but I know people out there like them. Unfortunately, Aisha singles are still circulating around… not much we can do about that, though. And no, Saint’s Row 2 doesn’t allow you to go to the Cabaret for a nice Sunday evening out, or have your character watch TV while you’re watching him watch TV!
Saint’s Row 2 is a bigger, better, more FUN version of the original! I’d rate it about a 4.75 out of 5! *JUST* slightly short of perfection! There are some little problems still around, like the ragdoll physics of your character, and the fact that a six foot fall can still pretty much kill them. Also, don’t expect EVERYTHING to be new and wonderful! But, would you really want the game to not have ANY shades of familiarity in it at all, anyway? If you liked Saint’s Row the original, then it’s virtually impossible to dislike Saint’s Row 2! It’s very, very easy to lose coutless hours in this game with all the fun, exciting, and crazy things you can do. It’s the FUN game Grand Theft Auto IV failed to give us! There are tons of enhancements and new features in the game which will make it THE game you’ll still be playing a year from now! (or at least, longer than you did with that Rockstar title!) This is a Don’t Miss! Buy it! Buy it now! You won’t regret it. I promise you.
Rating: 5 / 5