For all the issues in the PC version, some of which I find less pronounced then others have indicated, it is still...
Actually I prefer SR2 over all of the GTA games I have played (1-3. SA) because of the amount of content in the game. Sure it is similar in the regard to other GTA games but there are like 18 different distractions and activities, each that add a new perspective to Stilwater's ridiculous gang problems.
Take my favorite activity for instance, The Fuzz. You get to play very, very bad cop and go around killing people with sometimes outrageous weapons for a TV show and the real cops are none the wiser and will even help you.
I was talking to one of my friends the other day and was bragging about my 3 minute Car Surfing run and he was like "Wtf is car surfing?". He had never tried to stand on a car in the 80 hours he played the game.
That is the other thing I like about SR2, how it hides some of it's distractions and activities so that you have to try different things and see what happens.
Then there are also rewards for completing the activities, like unlimited pistol ammo and special cars or players buffs.
All that aside, the game's story is pretty good. Not having played the first Saints Row (it is not available on Steam for some reason) I was able to pick up on the back story fairly quickly throughout the first half of the game.
You can progress the story how ever you want to; I took out the Ronin's first, then Brotherhood, and then the Voodooists (can't remember their weird gang name). But you can do any combination of the three.
The music was good as well, there are plenty of tracks to choose from and almost no era of music is left out. Plus there are hidden, unlockable tracks as well.
The game play is where some people have issues with the game. I myself do notice the pop-in/outs, which is where if you move the camera from one area then back cars and people will have either appeared or been taken out of the game. The fps drops only occur for me when driving really fast though, I get almost no lag during everything else. Again I think this is related to the pop-in's/out's.
I love the variety of weapons, my favorites are the highest level pistols and the Striker-style automatic shotgun. But the RPG and Minigun are defacto favorites as well.
Over all SR2 is an awesome game that you have to invest a ton of time into if you want to unlock everything in it, from hidden music to a special unlockable if you find all of the car jumps in Stilwater, to all of the perks from activities, to the hidden distractions. The story is free-forming, letting you take what ever path of destruction you want through Stilwater.
My Favorite Mission: the one where you get nuclear waste to mix into the tattoo ink (ask descriptive as I will be to prevent further spoilers).