Thoughts: Saints Row 2
Just as a pretext, this is a future review. That means that it’ll be relevant to PC in approximately a month. Yes, I have a time machine. And no, you can’t use it. So there.
Inevitably Saints Row 2 is going to be compared to GTA IV. So just to get that out of the way first; yes, Saints Row 2 doesn’t live up to Rockstar’s looming behemoth of a title. However, the great thing is it doesn’t need to. It takes such a depature from the story driven gritty crime approach and instead comes at it sideways. It seems as though everything was constantly scrutinised with the question ‘is this fun?’ in mind, and if it wasn’t, it was dropped. Luckily, it definitely helped.
Saints Row 2 is nuts. It is not serious, it never even tries to be. A game that includes such activities as Car Surfing, Streaking, Septic Avenging and Insurance Fraud could never keep a straight face if it tried. This is a game that encourages you not to play the main story. There are enough diversions (rightly named) in the game to keep you entertained for hours, if not days. When you do get bored, the story missions provide you with some required linerarity.
There are issues. The driving is extremely arcadey. The animations and damage models could be much better, and the graphics are nothing to write home about. Once you’re an hour and a half in though, you forget about the wonders of the Euphoria engine, you turn on the wonderful cruise control and you start blowing stuff up in utterly ridiculous ways. This is a game made with fun in mind, and that is it’s one and only goal. It is fun at the beginning, it’s fun all the way through, and it finishes fun. The fact that you can do all this with a friend just makes it even more brilliant. Just get in a car, let your friend get on the top and ride the traffic.
Tags: car surfing, GTA IV, saints row 2 review