Saints Row 2 boosts hours of fun gameplay but technical problems can get in the way of your fun.

User Rating: 8 | Saints Row 2 (Collector's Edition) X360
By Cobra2525 | Review Date:
Story: The story takes place five years after the first, the main character (he/she does not have a name) is in a hospital ward,in the Stillwater prison, and has been in a coma due to an explosion at the end of the first game (please note I have not played the first game). You then break out of with the help of another inmate,Carlos, and you return to Stillwater to lead the 3rd Street Saints and take back the city. I was surprised because the story is not bad at all. It is very entertaining to watch and listen to and makes you feel like you are part of this world. The story also has some great characters, the villains in particular are well done and they are written very well and some of them can get very personal and when you get to them you are ready to rip their heads off for what they did to you. The story is serious and also manges to be funny at times. Lastly and probably my favorite part is that some of the cut scenes are awesome and intense to watch. However this doesn't make the story amazing. Toward the end the story starts to lose its fire and gets rather boring compared to the rest of the story, I also felt the ending wasn't great either. The story is still great for having great tone and feeling like a 80's action movie thats ridiculous but fun.

Graphics: The graphics are a mixed bag and are probably the weakest part of the game. First let me start with the good;the city can be nice and colorful at times,the character models look fine,the voice acting is great,the explosions look nice and the soundtrack is excellent. Now what isn't so good is that the raw power is not the best for a sandbox game, it doesn't look as good as say GTA 4 or Assassins Creed 2, there is a lot of pop in gliches like cars and people just popping up out of no where. Some (not all) of the animations look bad like when your character falls. There are more goods then bads in the graphic section but there is a lot of technical flaws holding it back.

Gameplay: Now the gameplay is where this game truly shines but it too is held back by technical issues. First off this game focuses a lot on customization. From the beginning of the game you get to create your own character and you can change everything from the color of his/her hair to the way they talk, the same goes for your cars,clothes,the Saint's outfits,hangouts etc. The shooting can feel a little off at times but still works and is a lot of fun,the driving also feels great, if not realistic. Now lets get down to the core gameplay. The game has you do story missions to progress the story, but to do the story missions you need enough "respect" to get respect you do side missions and activities and there are a lot of them (sparing buildings with crap,fight club,drug trafficing,"Hot Fuzz,"Chop shop,hitman and many more). The side missions are good fun but I feel the story missions are better because the progress a great story. Now you must be thinking "what could be wrong with it"? Well that is one simple word: GLITCHES!!! There are a lot of gliches in this game such as clipping and screen tearing which are minor but there were a few game breaking ones;the game froze on me twice, the first time my disc got a laser burn. The game tends to lag when a lot is going on. Then there was this glitch during one of the missions;The Brotherhood mission where you have to blow up there cars was a deal breaker for me.However the core gameplay is still a lot of fun and should not be missed.

Multiplayer: To be honest I couldn't get many matches and to be honest it is not really worth it and is mostly passable.

The verdict/Final score:

Story: 8.5 Has a great tone and delivers with some awesome cut scenes and funny lines,but it isn't an amazing story.

Graphics: 7.5 Not a bad looking game but a lot of technical problems get in the way.

Gameplay: 8 When it is not glitching out it is an absolute blast!!

Multiplayer:N/A

Enjoyment: 8 Although it is not prefect it is still fun, and I am the guy that is all about the fun at the end of the day.

Final score:8

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