Saints Row 2 Review

Miss me? I just spent a sleep deprived night finishing the last few campaign missions in Saints Row 2. I found the game to be fully awesome and filled to the brim with win.

I did encounter One. Small. Problem. The game freezes now and then. I thought it was just my xbox at first, then I looked it up, and it seems that the game itself causes this problem, and it doesn’t matter what system you play it one (pc, ps3,xbox). So this one bug is the downfall of an amazing game. Just remember to save after you do anything significant, and you’ll be alright. I froze on me maybe ten times while completing the campaign, which took me about 35 hours. My only other complaint about the game is that the in game music selection is pretty weak. Whoever was responsible for choosing the music must have been asleep behind the wheel.

Okay, now that we’ve got that out of the way, did I mention how awesome this game is? This game kicks the pants off of GTA4, hands down. The campaign itself is a blast, with a decent storyline and lots of cutscenes (but not too many). Spoiler: you end up eliminating all other gangs and ruling the city.

Even after the main storyline is complete, there are still tons of activities to try out and places left to explore. I found a hidden island that was called “super secret place” and it had a shrine to Volition (one of the parties responsible for making the game) hidden in it. That was cool.

Saints Row 2 offers up many ridiculously random side quests that crack you up. In Septic avenger, you spray people and things with the sludge from a porta-potty servicing truck. Then there’s the car surfing activity where you rack up points for riding on the roof of someone else’s car. Insurance Fraud is brought back from the first Saints Row, and your mission is still to hurt yourself as much as possible. Hilarity ensues.

Other activities in the game include streaking, where you are supposed to shock a certain number of people in an allotted time. Then there’s trailblazing, where you don a flaming firesuit and drive a quad runner through the town. I don’t know how they come up with this kind of awesome stuff, but it really is pure genius.

In Saints Row 2 , customization is king. You can take your cars to the mechanic to customize them to your liking. You can buy tons of clothes and then run around dressed as a pimp, ninja, pirate, etc… Don’t like your face, voice, sex, hair or weight? Drop by the plastic surgeon to change any of this. It’s like having the best diet pills money can buy… you can drop your weight in an instant… You can even customize your houses, though that is a bit limited.

Did I mention that this game was awesome? Here’s my final analysis:

Overall: 8.5/10 The game itself provides heroin-level addiction, rewards you for doing stuff and the campaign missions have (mostly) well-placed save points. Sadly, the music was pretty lame and the real drawback is the freezing, which can happen at the worst of times (like during the after-mission cutscenes, making you play the mission again). Otherwise, this is a damn good game. Loads of fun to play, tons of stuff to do, and lots of action. I also noticed that cars will tend to disappear as soon as they’re out of sight. This isn’t normally an issue, unless you see a car you really want to jack and it disappears when you turn around to chase it… But in the end, it’s supposed to about fun, which this game provides heaping helpings of at every turn.

Sound: 7/10 Overall, the sounds in the game are good. Cars sound like they should, people in town say funny stuff, etc… the in game music brings this score down from a 8 to an 7.

Graphics: 8/10 Graphics were decent, especially considering just how much stuff is going on at times. I didn’t notice any popup, though details are lost in the distance.

Gameplay: 10/10 This is really where this game shines. Controls are solid, the physics engine works well, and the game is just loads of fun to play.

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