Saints Row 2 Review
A
Journalistic Review by DefiantParrot
Originally Written: 12/22/2017
*Spoilers May Be Ahead*
Developer: Volition
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| Many fond memories here |
Platform: Xbox 360
Genre: Action-Adventure
Release: October 14, 2008
Well
I think it’s time to revisit Stilwater what do you guys think? What happened
after that boat blew up? Who caused the explosion? What happened to the Saints?
Did Volition improve upon any of the complaints that I had with their first
one? How did this GTA clone do after the release of the newest GTA? Let’s take
a look at Saints Row 2.
Set a few years after the events of the first game it
begins with your character waking up from a coma. After customizing your
character with an improved creation system including various voices and now the
ability to play as a female, you and your new friend Carlos escape back to the
city of Stilwater to find much has changed.
 |
| What you looking at?! |
The Saints have disbanded, Julius is missing and three
new gangs have risen up in Stilwater, it’s your job to rebuild the Saints this
time with you in charge and some new blood to show why Stilwater is your city
and anyone who wants it has to deal with the 3rd Street Saints.
So as a whole the story is much better here than prior,
being the leader of the Saints this time is much more fun than being an errand
boy. The Protagonist having a voice this time also makes me feel a hell of a
lot better, and helps give them an identity and that identity is… insane.
Saints Row 2 is insane in both having the humor of the
first game and also being a lot more brutal. The game is very good at being
funny and serious when the time calls for it and some of the the things you do…
will either make your stomach turn or if you’re a horrible person like me, make
you laugh your ass off.
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| Fear me motherfucker |
This game can be described as the first game with small
improvements throughout for instance just like the first game there are three
gangs in the city to take out The Brotherhood, Sons of Samedi and The Ronin and
their missions can be tackled in whatever order you wish. Respect is required
to access these missions just like last time and respect can be earned by
completing activities.
However unlike the first game once defeating the three
gangs, a fourth appears for you to take down with an epilogue mission
afterwards to answer some questions from the previous game.
The activities in this game are improved quite a bit from
the first game, for starters at most there are two instances of these
activities instead of three and there are six levels to complete in each
instead of eight, drastically lowering the monotony of repeating these over and
over. Once again you don’t have to complete them all to finish the story, but
it does help those completionists out there not pull their hair out.
There are new and returning activities including Chop
Shop, Drug Trafficking, Demoilition Derby, Escort, Hitman, Insurance Fraud,
Mayhem, Racing and Snatch.
With new activities being
Crowd Control – Where you play as security for a
celebrity and beat up their raving fans
Fight Club – Where you pretend not to think of Tyler
Durden as you fight your opponents
FUZZ – Where you’re a cop on a reality TV show earning
good ratings
Heli Assault – Where you perform objectives in a
Helicopter
Septic Avenger – Where you destroy property by spraying
fecal matter all over it
Trail Blazing – Where you ride a flaming ATV while
causing explosions
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| EAT SHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
All of these activities are fun, except for Heli Assault
because like GTA helicopter controls are the absolute worst, and this time you
can restart an activity if you fail! Hallelujah!!
As for things that have been added well there are
motorcycles now so I’m really happy about that. There are Diversions now as
well as activities. These include collecting 50 hidden CD’s in Stilwater,
Tagging over other gangs artwork etc. Collect-a-thons basically.
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| Grab a friend for this one though |
If you want to be boring there are also jobs you can do
including being an EMT, Taxi Driver, Tow Truck driver etc.
There are stunts you can perform with your various
vehicles and finally there are mini-games such as playing Blackjack at the
casino, Streaking, Mugging or even Zombie Uprising a video game you can play by
accessing your television in your Crib.
So there is no doubt a lot to do in Stilwater and with
the new characters in this game, Stilwater became another home for me when I
was in high school.
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| One of my video game wives |
This game was an escape for me when I was younger and I
do love it, but as an older, wiser, sexier bird there are some things I
recognize as being wrong here.
The AI in the game was not improved for enemies or allies,
and several times enemies would stand around in the middle of a gunfight, or
one of my homies would be stuck on a tiny bit of sidewalk while trying to run.
The hit detection in this game was pretty wonky too, not
for myself or enemies but for items and walls, I counted several times where
I’d be behind a wall and would inch myself out of cover to take a shot but even
though I was aiming inches away from it, the wall would still block my shot and
I’d be forced to run out of cover to get a shot instead of playing carefully.
The framerate in here would also shit the bed if too much
happened on screen at once just like the first game, however this time around
you could see this as early as the first mission escaping the prison and that’s
not a good first impression and was far from the only time it happened here. In
fact it was much more frequent here than last time.
I mentioned earlier how you can restart activities with
the press of a button now and that’s an improvement no doubt, but this game can
be pretty stingy with checkpoints at times. Be it for missions, strongholds
etc. which wouldn’t be that big of a problem if the glitches and crashes from
the previous game had been fixed… but they weren’t.
This game crashed or glitched up on me so many more times
than previously and pissed me off to no end, and that is DEFINITELY effecting
the rating here just saying.
Another tiny complaint I have is during the Ronin
missions on two occasions you’re forced to fight an opponent using only a sword
and the controls here feel stiff and clunky.
The only way to cause damage to your enemies here is to
counter their attacks which you must do by hitting right trigger as they are
attacking. But there were several times I’d take damage even if I hadn’t
pressed the button and overall the whole thing is stupid.
 |
| I can explain this... |
I’m a gangbanger not a samurai I don’t live by a code of
honor why can’t I just shoot this motherfucker? Well in a cutscene that is what
I do, but why do I have to watch that instead of playing it?!
The last thing I’d like to talk about is the multiplayer
which I failed to mention in my review of the first, now a good thing is the
entire game can be played through in co-op. That is awesome any game is
improved with friends and being able to take back Stilwater with a buddy is a
lot of fun.
There is actual Multiplayer in this game however and try
as I might, I could not find anybody else playing this. Not really a surprise
but from what I could find the multiplayer here wasn’t much to write home
about. Offering less options than the first game and is just generic compared
to how fun the campaign is.
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| For when I have fond memories of better times |
So all of that taken into account, what’s the verdict
here? There have been some really good things here and some really bad so where
does this fall? Well with the improvements to the Story, Characters,
Acvtivities taken into account and with the Crashes, glitches, and AI taken
into account I’m going to give Saints Row 2 my
Silver Seal of Recommendation… but just barely
From what I have seen there are not as many crashes or
glitches on the Playstation 3 or PC version so I would recommend those over the
Xbox 360 version, but with everything taken into account I believe a revisit to
Stilwater is definitely worth it.
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