"GTA clone" ? no way, saints row 2 is twice as good as GTA 4 DETAILED REVIEW
The Good: amazing level of customization, bright and vibrant graphics, great driving,a HUGE amount of things to do, loads to spend your money on and loads of ways to earn it, the game rewards you alot for doing well, loads of interaction with everything, lets you do so much more than any 3rd person open world game ever has before
The Bad: story could have more of a climax, music can be annoying sometimes
The beginning of saints row 2 see's you wake up from a long coma after a horrific disaster , this allows you to create your character from scratch and i had no idea how great this would seem later on. The character creation is more detailed than any other game I've played , the elder scrolls games 4 & 5 (oblivion and skyrim) are known for their very detailed character creation tool but surprisingly saints row 2 beats that of skyrims hands down. SR 2 gives you the same detailed facial options such as nose size,height,width etc. lips colour,width,postion etc. as well as selecting your characters gender, muscular definition, hair style etc. you then go on to some very pleasing options not seen in elder scrolls games such as your characters voice,the way he walks and his facial expressions and taunts/compliments.
After finishing of my guy i proceeded to start the prologue in which you must escape the prison your in and the island that the prison is on , so we'd already established that the customization virtually non-existent in GTA 4 had been blown out of the water by SR 2 and now i was to discover how else SR 2 excelled. After leaving the narrow confines of prison corridors and reaching the roof i had also noticed how much better the general movement and run and gun mechanics were, while there is no auto -aim ( i was pleased about this) or cover mechanics the shooting was still better than any 3rd person game i had ever played, partly due to the excellent mechanic of grabbing. Your saint can grab almost any person unless they are skilled enough to push you away (this is rare) and once you have grabbed a person alot of fun opportunities open up, initially your character will hold the grabbed person in front of him and use him as a human bullet shield , he will also pull out a pistol with his spare arm and aim it forward. From here you can move around and shoot any hostiles using your unfortunate captive as a bullet sponge, execute your hostage in one of many different ways or throw them into a hard object/of a high place/into the path of a car etc. Your saint is also faster at running and better at climbing than any playable GTA character which makes for epic downtown battles.
Now, many reviews i read claimed SR 2 is very unrealistic but did it on purpose to be more fun, in some ways its true saints row is unrealistic but never to the point that it ruins the game, however in other ways it is actually more realistic than GTA for example while SR's driving is far more arcade style making for far better car chases, your characters falling damage is extremely realistic in SR 2 meaning that a fall that would have taken only half of your health in GTA 4 will kill you in SR 2. This takes a bit of getting used to if you played alot of GTA 4 however this issue brings me perfectly onto the next topic, reward for progression.
Another thing i love about SR 2 is the way it rewards you, the game provides a huge amount of things to do in free roam which are categorized into diversions and activities, they are very varied and dole out great rewards for playing them.Some of the activities are FUZZ (a T.V reality show about cops) , insurance fraud(hurt yourself for money) , demolition derby, crowd control,drug trafficking, fight club and more. All these activities comprise of 6 levels and completing the 3rd and 6th level of each activity give you great rewards ranging from double as much sprinting energy and 20% discount on all car mod's to no falling damage and unlimited ammo on all pistols. These rewards makes the activities worth playing to make the whole game more fun as well as the actual entertainment value the activities hold, even if there weren't any rewards in these activities you'd likely still want to play them just because they are so fun.
Diversions are an equally excellent idea, they basically turn fun things you'd want to do in free roam anyway like kidnapping someone or jumping out of a plane into mini games.For example if you kill 3 or more enemy gang members in under 10 seconds then you get a prompt saying "press triangle to start the drive-by diversion" doing this will give you temporary unlimited submachinegun ammo and mark enemy gang members on the map for you and will also give you a time limit to drive round a gun them all down for a respect and money reward plus a special reward for completing the minigame.
The thing that really makes SR 2 special is the level of interaction with whats going on around you, you can buy and smoke marijuana, buy and drink alcohol,hijack a car with passengers and take them hostage for money, kick random guys in the testes for to apparent reason, take all your clothes of and streak, rob stores and more, plus it all feels very real due to mainly one thing, the fact that you made your character from scratch. When watching the game's cut scenes i felt a strange feeling of pride and enthusiasm in the story which i realized was because i was watching my guy that i designed, up there talking to characters made by professional game designers. Its something about your character being so personalized to you that makes the whole game feel more immersive than any other free roam game, instead of watching A character that you control talk to some other people ,its YOUR character speaking to other people and though this sounds like a small thing, it really makes the game special.
The customization continues in the game allowing you to design your own clothes choosing the way your character wears them (e.g a shirt, open,buttoned,half buttoned, tucked in etc.) and how they look , starting with a white t-shirt i bought at the start of the game for $50 i proceeded to make it dark blue with bright green sleeves and neck seem with a marijuana leaf logo on the front and back, rings,necklaces,belts,jackets,jeans,hats ,glasses you name it and you can buy and personalize it.
You can also customize any car you store in your garage, changing its body kit,colour,performance, interior , vinyls, roof and loads of small details. The cars are great fun to drive and do show visual damage but only after taking quite a battering do peices of car start to hang/fall of or show deep dents.Unlike GTA if you lose your car or it dissappears during a cutscene it will re appear in your garage and you will have to pay for any damage it had when you left it. One of the things that really annoyed me about GTA was the fact that half way through the game you got £250,000 and there was virtually nothing to spend it on, however in SR 2 it is quite the opposite. You can buy clothes, jewelry, tatoo's, car mod's, music tracks,alcohol, drugs, guns,melee weapons, ammo, houses,house upgrades and brand new cars,boats and helicopters that are higher quality than the ones you might steal and take ownership of in free roam.
The story comprises of (i think) 45 missions however you can replay them all and replay all completed activities and diversions as much as you want without having to start a new game, there are also 3 rival gangs and the police department to tangle with in the large free roam city of stillwater, you have a notoriety bar for the police and gang members. The police bar rises for committing crimes of any kind while the gang bar rises for killing members of spray paining your gangs tag on the turf or rival gangs.
Progressing through story missions gains you cash as well as new territory which earns you money and new abilities like having fellow saints follow you and attack anyone who opposes you or who you decide to assault. Stores in owned territory can be bought for more daily income and a discount on whatever they sell, money earned from stores and territories can be collected from your safe in almost any owned gang hideout or house.
So in conclusion saints row 2 is a long , well made 3rd person open world shooter with an attractive personalized feel and LOADS to do long after the end credits role
Graphics: 8.5/10
Sound: 9/10 Great music
Gameplay: 9/10
Replay value: 9/10
overall : 9/10