Saints Row 2 - Review
Added November 12th, 2008 by Kenneth Rathburn
In 2006 gamers were given their first next-gen sandbox-style fix with Saints Row, seen mostly as a time killer until Grand Theft Auto IV rolled around. Perhaps the biggest surprise with Saints Row was that it turned out to be a good, recommendable game. GTA IV has since been released and now Volition’s given us Saints Row 2, aiming to liven the experience its older cousin offered. Does Saints Row 2 manage to be a worthy alternative, or is it still living in GTA’s shadow?
Saints Row 2 opens with you waking from a five year coma in Stilwater prison (on a separate island) and lets you create a character with a robust customization system. There are so many options that it might actually become overwhelming for some. When finished making your character, a fellow prisoner helps you escape. The ensuing jailbreak sequence serves well as a means to help you adapt to the basic gameplay mechanics and leaves a good first impression. Upon arrival in Stilwater you’ll see that much has changed with new landmarks and old areas being given either facelifts or deteriorations. Since the events of the first Saints Row, the 3rd Street Saints have broken up; it’s up to you and any followers you can gather to become the leading gang once again.
The first thing to clear up is that Saints Row 2 is not another Grand Theft Auto IV. In fact, other than containing the essential sandbox-style aspects there’s very little both games have in common. This game is more colorful than GTA IV, Stilwater isn’t as big as Liberty City; multiple side-stories comprise the main story; missions are oftentimes outrageous and the game itself is geared towards complete obscenity. GTA IV is a more serious, down-to-earth crime drama, wherein Saints Row 2 is more a light-hearted satire.
Like its predecessor, Saints Row 2’s main single player experience has you take on multiple gangs to gain territories (forty-five are attainable). The gangs you’ll face this time around are the Brotherhood, Sons of Samedi and the Ronin. Each group has their own storyline, avoiding interference with any of the other plotlines. While the stories for the gangs in Saints Row felt like they had a bit of significance, Saints Row 2 doesn’t offer too much to push the tale forward and has a fairly weak narrative.
Very little has changed in regards to the game’s overall design. As with Saints Row, you’ll need to take part in side missions to boost your reputation so you can partake in gang missions. There are plenty of activities to find with old favorites making a return along with a few new additions such as Trail Blaze (drive an ATV while on fire to checkpoints), Crowd Control (protect celebrities from crazed fans) and Fight Club (beat multiple enemies with melee attacks). The only real downside to these tasks is that there are way more areas for some than others. For instance, roughly half the activities are racing events, yet there are only one or two Demolition Derbies, Insurance Frauds and Mayhem operations each. If players focus on progressing through the story they can expect roughly twenty hours of gameplay with plenty more achievable through side missions.
Outside of new activities, a fair amount of content has been added for accessing. New weapons such as a laser-guided RPG, samurai swords and stun guns are among the new arsenal selections. A decent number of aircraft and watercraft variants are accessible, a small melee combat system has been integrated (with the ability to pick up certain objects to bash or toss), multiple cribs can be purchased and customized, gang styles and vehicles can be selected, and gunplay has been improved thanks to more precise aiming (click the right thumbstick). These are among the many niceties added to the game that, while not too significant, are very welcoming and make the game feel more alive.
Playing the game itself is almost always a blast, with the first few hours being the most exciting since players will be able to experiment with what’s been added to the mix. While there are plenty of missions to tackle, most of the time you’ll wind up shooting and blowing stuff up with a few driving sections tossed in. The structure does start to show its flaws during later missions, which are the only points the game proves to be challenging. Even during these parts, the enemy numbers are what will typically overcome the player. The AI is simply idiotic, proving to be quite the nuisance whenever needing to protect allies who can’t die during missions. Fortunately, the game is generally fun to play, with the potential for a plentiful amount of ridiculous roadkills and deaths to take place.
One of the most enticing features of the first Saints Row was that it included a fairly decent online component. Unfortunately, Saints Row 2 falls short in this department. As with the offline portion, you can customize and buy outfits for your character, yet you can’t transfer characters between the two modes. Match options are lackluster, with deathmatch, team deathmatch and a new mode called Strong Arm being the only choices. Strong Arm is essentially a marathon; your team will take part in several activities until one side reaches $100,000. When a team wins a single event they receive a $10,000 bonus added to their score. What makes Strong Arm disappointing is that you have to play what the game chooses; you can’t change any of the variants. During matches players are cut off from most of the city and there isn’t even a cruise match type for those who just want to mess around with their friends in the city. Take into account a maximum of twelve players per lobby and we’re “treated” to a mediocre online segment.
Another area Saints Row 2 leaves much to be desired is the visuals. While it’s more colorful and lets you do crazier, more chaotic things than GTA IV, it seems the game was barely polished prior to release. Stilwater’s landmarks and features look decent enough but issues such as pop-ins and cars sometimes disappearing when looking away from them get in the way. Character models usually look pretty good, especially in cutscenes. However, roaming pedestrians and gang members were obviously given less detail than the main characters. As before, cars usually look good and fall apart nicely in big crashes and explosions. The framerate holds up well with dips only occurring in the midst of the most hectic events. The visuals aren’t bad; it’s just that they could’ve used some much needed TLC.
Sound, on the other hand, is not a major issue with the game. Voice acting is once again solid with slapstick and crude dialogue being delivered nicely, if randomly, at every turn. Sound effects are also satisfying, especially hearing enemy cars crash and explode around you. Then there’s the soundtrack, which is a good improvement over its predecessor. As expected, radio stations play songs at random via stations. You can control what stations will play and create your own station by purchasing songs, adding them to a playlist. Artists like Deftones, Lloyd Banks, Kasabian, Opeth and even Europe have songs in the game for your listening pleasure.
At the end of the day, Saints Row 2 manages to be a mostly satisfying sequel with a few key issues holding it from true greatness. Comparisons to GTA IV might come up, but both are very different games. What’s nice is this game accomplishes exactly what it sets out to do. This means if you’re looking for an obscure and fun sandbox-style game you needn’t look any further. Be ready to wreak havoc.
