Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

100 or More Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Just plain fun"

The Good:
+Varied location is the open world.
+Fantastic amounts of customization.
+Great mission design.
+Addictive side missions.
+Loads of replay value.
+Simple physics are fun and work well.
+Hilarious Story and dialogue.
+Fun multiplayer.
+Endless fun.
+The entire game can be played in co-op.
+Lots of vehicles.
+Lots of weapons.
+Great soundtrack.
+You get more that your moneys worth.

The Bad:
-Visually unimpressive.
-A few bugs and glitches.
-Pop-in issues.


Saints Row 2 once gain lets you loose in the city of Stillwater expect this time the city is bigger and better. The story of Saints Row 2 is a direct continuation of the first game from 2006. You wake up from a five year coma in prison, the coma was cause by a boat explosion at the end of the first game. After breaking out of prison, the story has you taking over three rival gangs and a cooperation, this may sound generic but the story and dialogue are downright hilarious.
Once you start the game you are given the ability to customize your character and the character customization is fantastic. After completing the first mission you are free to roam the city where you can go and buy clothes for your custom character and the clothing selections are also fantastic and varied. After completing the second mission you have to earn respect to play more, you earn that respect mainly by playing side missions, being forced into playing these side missions may sound like a bad thing but it's not, the side missions range from demolition derby and septic avenger (spraying houses with sewage) to insurance fraud (throwing yourself in front of traffic and crowd control (defending celebrities by throwing wild fans into things like jet engines and helicopter blades) and they are all as fun as they sound. The missions in Saints Row 2 are well designed and varied, most of the missions are based around shooting and driving but each one has it's own twist, one mission will have you defending someone while he rigs some cars to blow and another mission will have you sword fighting in a Japanese restaurant. The range of vehicles is huge and range from simple cars and motorcycles to UFO's and mini helicopters. Like the vehicles, Saints Row 2 has a large range of weapons ranging from simple handguns and shotguns to chainsaws and samurai swords. Outside of the story missions and side missions you can customize nearly any car and motorcycle, the level of customization is varied from vehicle to vehicle, sports cars will have lots of options and big rigs will only have few but it is fun to customize all vehicles. There is also fun to be had just messing around the open world exploring the city and playing around with the vehicles and weapons, and there is plenty of them. To top all that off there is some fun multiplayer modes know as strong arm and gangsta brawl, strong arm is basically team deathmatch and gangsta brawl is basically free for all. There may be only two multiplayer modes but they are just icing on the cake and still a lot of fun to play. To top all that gameplay off, the whole single player story can be played in two player co-op online and it is a lot of fun to do so. I'm pretty sure that looks like enough to review the gameplay but there is more, they game has so many cheat codes to play around with and these cheat codes range from super explosions and low gravity to raining pedestrians and midget pedestrians. There are even cheats to make yourself really tall or really short. You will defiantly get more that your moneys worth with this game. Saints Row 2 also has great driving physics that are simple and make it really fun just to drive from point A to B. The shooting physics are also very well done, there is no cover system or auto targeting system here sp you will have to run and gun, but don't let that turn you off, the controls are so sharp and precise and you will be pulling off satisfying headshots as soon as you start the game.
Saints Row 2's graphics are not great but by no means bad either. The environments are not every detailed and the character models are good but could have been better. Car models look decent but also could have been better. All this may sound bad but Saints Row 2 is by far not an ugly game, just one with graphics that could have been much better. Saints Row 2 also has a few glitches and bugs, nothing game breaking, just occasionally annoying. There is also some pop in issues with vehicles and streetlights but these will soon be unnoticeable if not right away because you will be too busy having a whole lot of fun. The unimpressive graphics to send a message across though that games are meant to be played and not looked at, if you want fantastic visuals and nothing elseI would recommend visiting the art gallery instead of the game shop.
Saints Row 2 has a great soundtrack that will appeal to fans of every music genre, songs range from metal, rock, alternative, rap, pop, classical and more. The voice acting in Saints Row 2 is very well done and a lot the dialogue is downright hilarious.
Saints Row 2 is the complete package if you can look past the glitches and graphics. The gameplay is varied and fun and the story is downright hilarious. The game is also very fun to replay, especially using a new custom character. I can recommend Saints Row 2 for anyone in need of a game with an open word, variety, terrific customization and over the top enjoyment. Saints Row 2 is all substance, no flash and that's how it should be with games. Saints Row 2 gets an almost perfect 9.5/10.

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