Saints Row 2
by THQ
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List Price: Category: Video Games See more product details |
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Video Game Reviews of Saints Row 2
Customer Review: Almost 2008 Game of the Year
Summary: 4 Stars
I would have to give this game the 2008 Game of the Year award but it has to go to Gears of War 2 because it is a much more polished game. I played both in CO-OP and they are both a blast. Saint's Row 2 is a much more fun game than GTA IV and co-op is hilarious. If it was not for a few game glitches that are mentioned in other reviews this would be a five star game. I am looking forward to the DLC and will purchase it the first day it is available (I cannot say this about GTA IV). Pick this up and play with a friend. You will not be disappointed.Customer Review: Very good, but not great...
Summary: 4 Stars
I liked the game a lot, still playing it actually. The missions and story are much better than the first title, but not better than GTAiv... They only compliant i have about the game is that the side missions to earn respect aren't as fun as the GTA iv side missions...
Cruise control... How was that never included in these games before?!?!
Customer Review: Far more fun than I thought it would be
Summary: 5 Stars
I have avoided violent, sandbox games because I don't like the thought of shooting law enforcement (even in games ... yeah, whatever), and I just never understood the desire for people to play "the bad guy". Call it my own moral and ethical compass or something. But I decided to throw caution into the wind and actually buy one of these games. Considering how popular they are, they must be doing something right.
I was amazed at how much fun and expansive "Saints Row 2" is.
When I first started playing it, I walked/drove around for hours just marveling at the attention to detail in the buildings, landscape, and activity that went on around me. Even sidewalks that you would have zero chance of seeing under normal circumstances, hidden behind derelict buildings, can have small details like gang symbols painted on them. The attention to detail in Stilwater is just amazing!
I'm the kind of person who has to play a game to the utter completion when possible. When playing fantasy RPG games like "Neverwinter Nights", I hate leaving side-quests unfinished. I hate having incomplete maps. If I'm playing a game, I want to experience the whole game. "Saints Row 2" has such a huge amount of side material to play that I anticipate at least 80 hours of gameplay from running around, exploring, and performing side quests, before I consider it to be done to my satisfaction. Getting 80 hours from any kind of game is utterly unheard of! I've already played for over 24 hours, having done a large number of side quests and activities, and I'm only at 20% completion!
What really helped me to overcome the "playing the bad guy" issue is that Volition loaded the game with just utter silliness. They clearly made the smart move in removing some of the realism to add humor and goofy playability. Whether the humor comes from the outrageous commercials on the radio or the sheer toilet humor (pun intended) in spraying sewage all over the place, there is a ton of off-the-wall humor and irreverent activities in this game. Even being able to just wave "hello" to passers by and have them respond adds another bit of over-the-top silliness. Here you are trying to take over the city, having just ruthlessly killed rival gang members, but wave "Hi" to a person walking down the street and they respond like you're the friendliest person on each. It's one of those stupid, subtle bits of humor that had me chuckling not because it was genuinely funny but because of its absurdity.
I share the frustration with other reviewers that cars, people, or objects have a tendency to disappear once they are out of your view. There have been many times where a car that is wanted at the chop shop would pass me, and by the time I turn around to try to carjack it it's gone. Other times I'm just so frustrated with running that I turn around to steal the car in the parking lot that I just ran past. The car's not there any more. This happens often and can be incredibly annoying. This game should be fixed so that there is a certain radius around your character where all items or people stay where they are until they are completely out of that radius.
The only real WTF moment was when I saw that the "streaking" game utilized censorship over the character's nether-regions. Once again, the American need to act Puritanical shows itself. Blood, violence, swearing, running over people with the car, mowing them down with a machine gun, killing law enforcement -- hey, no problem! But show a certain part of the body and suddenly it's "NO, NO, NO!! We can't show that! Blowing people's heads off is fantastic! Go for it! But don't expect us to show a nipple! We have to censor that!" { face palm } Volition, either we're mature enough to handle the whole package or we're not! Pick one! Don't treat us like adults and use the "M" rating for cover when it comes to violence, then hide in cowardice and treat us like children who need to be shielded when it comes to nudity!
Regardless, I was shocked at how much fun this game is. The violence is cartoonish more than anything else; the gameplay can be fast and furious; hidden items and quests abound; there are lots of absurd humorous bits; and the number of side quests and activities can keep you occupied for dozens and dozen of hours.
Buy it. Once the absurdity of the gameplay and the scope of what you can do in Stilwater kick in, the fun factor takes over and you could end up spending a lot more time with it than you thought.
Customer Review: Saint's Row > GTA IV; GTA IV > Saint's Row 2
Summary: 2 Stars
I bought the CE of this game at launch (Major waste of money, very cheap extras) and lost interest within a few days of playing for reasons I will note below. I'm writing this "review" now as I'm 'bout to start playing it again to just get through the game and feel I must get off my chest the problems. Not a review so much as a rant as I'm sure everyone has a fair idea of what this game is.
For starters, GTA IV lacks in comparison to GTA:SA. IV was a major step backwards in comparison to SA. Saint's Row I was a huge fan of as it was the same concept of GTA but taken to a higher level in terms of customization. Of course much of the praise for SR could be attributed to the fact the last GTA wasn't on a current-gen system but considering how GTA IV was a major setback, not valid. After the release of GTA IV, as hyped as I was for it, I was really looking forward to SR2 even more which sadly was a greater let down than GTA IV.
SR2 is the exact same game as SR. From the start I knew it was going to be set in the same city some years later. Very nice idea as opposed to GTA that goes from city to city, especially the larger map size and claimed underground areas. The game itself failed to deliver on this. At the start of the game I was wondering what changes were made to the city as it felt and looked exactly the same until I seen the new college area. Okay, and there are a few other new areas but for the most part the entire city is pretty much the same thing and it doesn't feel too much larger at all. The underground areas are very limited and nothing as it was said to be in interviews before the release.
So basically this is the same game from controls to graphics to location to everything as the first. The only difference I noticed was the music wasn't as good as there is absolutely no Chat Radio. Since GTA 3, a staple of this "genre" of game has been the chat radio station as it really bring the city to life and immerses the player into the virtual world. In SR2 there is no chat radio. In fact, out of the few stations there are I really don't care for a single. Upon this revelation of there being no chat radio station was when I stopped playing the game as I just couldn't tolerate this overpriced, lesser repeat of SR. (Yes, it took me a good number missions before I realized the lack of a chat station as I just couldn't believe it)
Another issue is how short the game is. My brother played through the game in a few days and was done, another reason I didn't care to finish. Was really disappointing.
Overall this game is an immensely disappointing sequel. As I said, SR in comparison to GTA had so much more going on especially in comparison to IV but SR2 totally dropped the ball. This game could've probably been released a week after the first SR considering the very, very little things done to it. The only really noticeable change is the character customization at the start which is far more robust but it feels that is the only improvement other than the numerous de-provements. On that, I don't care for the voice overs either.
You have three voices to choose from and for the male character you have one that sounds black, one that sounds Hispanic, and one that sounds British. The Hispanic voice is the most annoying as it sounds totally "white" except for certain phrases that suddenly sound Hispanic. Very, very poor job from the "white" guy feigning a Hispanic gangster.
Overall I must urge you to rent this. Obviously I regret buying the CE due to the extreme cheapness of the extras made in China but even the standard edition, with what I knew moments after playing it I wouldn't have bought this title whatsoever.
You may find this a fun game, which it is, but do yourself a favor and save the money. You can easily run through this within a week. As for me, I didn't find this game fun at all as I was looking forward to the sequel and this just totally takes the cake at worse, least-done, cheapest sequel.
Another thing, aside from the lack of a chat station the radio advertisements are nearly non-existent. Aside from the chat station it is fun to listen to the ads inbetween songs and the DJs chatter (True in both GTA AND SR), in SR2 you have no chat station and you have barely any commercials and almost no DJ chatter.
Very, very weak sequel.
Customer Review: Gonzo Gaming
Summary: 5 Stars
Let it never be said that the Saints Row franchise is merely riding the GTA Franchises' coat-tails. With SR2, it has gone in an entirely different direction, one of a little less realism and a lot more FUN.
You play an open world game like this for the freedom to move around and do what you want. I still felt constricted in GTA4, but in SR2, you can really do as much or as little as you one. Linearity is pretty much gone, and I found myself this time around playing a lot more of the respect missions because they were fun, not tedious like many in SR1. The depth of Stillwater is massive, and now you dont just drive around the surface, but navigate miles of caverns, oceans, and the like in your quests. Having solved it, I am aware that there is still a chunk of the land I havent even seen yet. The crib customization is a really cool idea as well, and brings a lot of ownership to the game for the player.
The thing I like the most about the SR games is the lunacy of Stillwater. Things are just wide-open all the time, and its a lot of escapist fun to reside there for a few days. I highly recommend this title.