October 13, 2008 - Two years later and no word of a cease and desist from Rockstar games yet. So here we are reviewing Saints Row 2. In all honesty, the Saints Row series is finding its niche target within the free roaming crime subgenre. It will appeal to those who felt the hastened gameplay of GTA: Vice City, and/or San Andreas was more appealing than that of GTA IV, albeit without the auto-lock aiming. It has its own sense of humor and its customization options give it the feel of a Sims for gangsters.

Volition has continued with the same amount of sickening detail as in the original, raising the bar on themselves with the character creation and modification from two years ago. The single player story begins in a prison medical wing with your character about to be unveiled from beneath a mummy-like set of bandages. Prompt the character creation mode (which you can change later at the plastic surgeon in town). You’ll be setting his or her race, age, height, weight, walk, talk, fighting style, facial expression, hair , facial hair (yes, on her too), clothing, eyebrow thickness, chin width, brow height, and everything else short of being able to scanning your body and mapping your entire existence onto your character. Later you’ll be able to buy layers of customized clothing including under shirts, over shirts, coats, underwear, socks, pants, shorts, belts, shoes, and hats. Don’t forget that you can get inked just about anywhere you like. How about getting iced out with rings, earrings, necklaces (short and long), and pendants? Don’t forget that each piece of clothing has multiple styles, and custom colours, and that all jewelry comes in steel, bronze, silver, and gold.

After breaking out of jail you meet back up with an old pal and decide that the Saints will not be eliminated quietly. You’ll start to recruit to take over Stilwater once again. The story is then wide open, with activities in every corner to earn respect. You’ll need one level of respect to move on to the next mission but the selection has gone up since the original so there definitely isn’t a shortage to be earned. Familiar activities include snatch, mayhem, hitman, chop shop, escort, racing, drug trafficking, and demo derby. Some of the new activities include Fuzz, Trailblazing, Fight Club, and Septic Avenger, although most of the returning activities are also slightly modified from their originals as well. Fuzz has you impersonating a police officer to gain incriminating footage for a ‘reality TV’ series, trailblazing will set your vehicle on fire and place explosive and flammable materials in your path (always a good time), the rest are quite self explanatory (fighting and throwing poo). Doing enough levels in each activity will earn you permanent skill sets such as increased melee damage, decreased injuries from bullets, and faster depleting notoriety levels. The story continues through three sets of rival gangs; The Brotherhood, Sons of Samedi, and The Ronin. Domination will not come easy and you’ll have to protect your turf from time to time, but not too often so that it doesn’t become annoying. Nobody likes to back track too much.

The story in Saints Row 2 has just as much addictive quality as in the original and will pull you in time after time until you’ve exhausted the mission list as well as done each activity more than once. Money comes quite easily in Saints Row, with just about every business having the ability to be bought out once you’ve won over the surrounding territory. Each business you buy then earns you a certain amount of cash per day. Each one costs about $3000-$10000 to buy but will return $200-$500 a day, making it a no-brainer to purchase everything in sight. You’ll find all the weapons you need off the corpses from missions, and style points still come into play when trying to earn respect.

Saints Row 2 plays much the same as its predecessor. Free aim shooting, arcade style driving, jumping over fences, as well as its very quick and effective weapon and health selection menu. There are a handful of new weapons as well as being able to dual wield pistols and SMG’s. You’re able to fly planes this time around, including helicopters, business class jets, and even old fighters. You’ll be able to store all your hard earned vehicles in SR2 as well, earning garages for cars and motorcycles, a dock for boats, a pad for helicopters, and a hangar for jets and planes. The vehicle you’re driving doesn’t duplicate around you magically at all anymore. Rag doll pedestrians are still just as any other game, and hitting cars so hard the occupants are thrown is still entertaining too. The amount of destructive objects strewn throughout Stilwater never ceases to amaze either.