Saints Row 2 is ludicrously enjoyable, impressively varied, cheaply priced, and simply way too much fun.
Story-wise, Saints Row 2 has its high and low points. While the overall story rarely takes itself seriously (attributing to plenty of hilarious scenes), attempts at being serious never really seem to click. In any case, the gist of the story is that the player character (who is created and customized with mind-numbingly deep variety) starts from nothing and grows to greatness. Development of the plot comes through both pre- and post-mission cut scenes as well as spoken dialogue in mid-mission. However, with the game play being so enjoyable its easy to forget about the story.
Game play is where Saints Row 2 truly shines. The polished, smooth combat system rarely causes frustration and precision shooting is accomplished through the ever-popular over-the-shoulder perspective which works like a charm. Driving is also enjoyable, slick, and easy to negotiate for all vehicle types, even motorcycles. The addition of activating cruise control by tapping L1 makes shooting while driving, a pain to execute effectively in almost every other title in the sandbox genre, notably easier. However, there are control issues with boating and flying, mainly that the water physics can make steering more difficult than it should be and flying jets takes too much time to get used to respectively. Although the aforementioned issues are minor (especially with jets since helicopters are more abundant), several missions will take multiple tries due to these problems but will never cause frustration. Even so, the missions are still supremely entertaining.
Missions in Saints Row 2 have the strangest, boldest variety of any game in recent memory. From the usual "see all, kill all" missions to some truly bizarre goals (e.g. going wild with a septic truck) and everything in between, there is no lack of variety. By far the most enjoyable activity is Insurance Fraud in which the player character takes dives and lets the physics engine go into overtime by flinging the player to and fro like a rag doll. Such activities take such a long time to get boring that the player will most likely be playing it over and over for hours on end. Even better, the amount of activities listed in this review only scratch the surface of what is a truly varied title. However, even with all the previously stated positive aspects, there are still some minor issues to address.
During certain aspects of the game in which there is a massive amount of action going on at the same time, the frame rate may suffer and, though rarely, freeze altogether. Also, and this may be a pet peeve, there is no option for the use of custom soundtrack (although the in-game music is listenable as a whole). Lastly, the sixaxis controls for boats and planes can get incredibly frustrating but, thankfully, there is an option to switch the sixaxis controls off. In all, though, any issues presented in Saints Row 2 are sufficiently silenced by its enjoyability.
Overall, Saints Row 2 is a must-own title for anyone with even the slightest interest in sandbox-style game play. In fact, anyone looking for a varied, well-balanced, and just plain entertaining experience will not be disappointed. With its wealth of positives, including a cheap $20-30 price tag, Saints Row 2 should not be missed.