Saints Row 2

Saints row 2 contains a big open city, run and gun gameplay and plenty of thick accents. the question is whether this is just another cheap GTA clone or it actually has some qualities of its own.

The story of Saints Row 2 kicks off a couple of years after the original Saints Row. The main character wakes up in prison after a long coma caused by a huge explosion, and now he is ready to take back the city from whoever is currently controlling it. After a prologue where you gather your gang and evict the homeless from your new headquarter the real game is ready to begin.

Saints Row 2 is generally a very straightforward game, espessialy when compared to GTA4. all the main missions consists of different combinations of killing and blowing stuff up, and your character is has very few emotional problems to complicate the experience. This could easily make the game repetitive and boring, but luckily the game forces you to pause the story every once in a while to try some of its sidemissions, and this is where the game shines although most of these sidemissions are in themselves pretty repetitive, the sheer number of different activities more than compensates for this. on top of these minigames there is also a lot to do in the city by yourself. Among these can be mentioned things such as carsurfing, robbery, stealing planes at the airport, styling your cars, working as a taxidriver etc.

The main story itself is actually well presented and contains both plot twists and an interesting group of people, and it worked at keeping me interested throughout the game, however the lack of depth keeps it from reaching it full potential.

The technical side of things is ok, however you will rarely be impressed by the graphics and objects have a strange ability to drift in and out of existence, especially at the airport. Despite of this it is obvious that a lot of work has gone into making the city come to life, with a lot of special types of character walking around in certain places in the city. The audio is generally good, with a solid soundtrack and a lot of different vehicle sounds. There is not much to say about the controls, as they generally work well.

A thing that annoyed me slightly about SR2 is the amount of recycling stuff from the original Saints Row. Fans will be able to recognize almost all of the vehicles as well as the general structure of the game. Not that using the original Formula is wrong, but some new cars would have been nice.

All in all Saints row end up being a pretty good game. It is sometimes plagued by technical issues, the graphics are unimpressive and the concept haven't changed much since SR1, but its combination of a decent story and hugely varied gameplay guarantees that you will be entertained for long enough to see the end credits, which for me took about 25 hours.
If you are uncertain about buying SR2 and have a X360 lying around i can also recommend SR1 very much.

Story: 8/10 Gameplay: 9/10 sound: 7/10 graphics: 6/10

Overall: 8/10

Info:
Developer: Volition inc.
Publisher: THQ
Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3, PC