Saints Row 2 Comments by Dave McCarthy

There was a kind of limited co-op play in San Andreas, and then crackdown did it heaps better. it seems loads of games are gunning for that co-op sweet spot these days. Wise to plan your strategy on Rockstar not improving a feature they already toyed with last time round much?

Well I liked Saint's Row. And will probably buy this one if it turns out any good. I think people should stop comparing these games with GTA. After all do we compare every shooter to Wolfenstein 3d??? No of course not, there is plenty of room for other sandbox games in the market. Sure GTA is the biggest right now, but that doesn't mean Saints Row can't get a cut out of the slice!

So, if you character is female, can you get male pole dancers?

...

Thought not. Mass Effect lezzo outrage, here we come again...

Well, i might say that imho the current benchmark on the 360 is not GTA, its Crackdown.

And i just hope its not as good as Crackdown or i'll lose days of my life to it ... again

Never was there more of an appropriate title for a game ...

Well (from the little I've played of it) I enjoyed Saints Row so I'll be keeping an eye on this one. I just wish co-op was split screen as none of my 360 owning friends are online.

Looking forward to this. SR was a fine game and extremely fun. Also it fixed many things which were getting real stale in GTA

"In any case, [...] you can [...] attract all sorts of hangers-on (such as the pole-dancing girls, who have no doubt been included in a bid to reach that elusive female market)."

Best laugh I had all day. And I'm in Japan - it's five PM which means most of the day. Thanks, Dave.

"a lot darker"

Than a mature-rated gang violence game with sweary-sweary cutscenes? Is that really what people want?

I hated the first game. It was nothing more than a cheap, plastic GTA clone and although everyone says that, it's true! It is what it is and to pretend that it is something else crazy.

This whole bling gansta theme has totally turned me off the original game. Looks the same here. No buy. At least the next GTA will have some nasty Russian maffia guys ;)

And WTF is somebody shooting the Acropolis with an attack helicopter? Seriously... who thinks up this stuff? 16 year old game designers?

I kind of started to like the gameplay of Saints Row, but couldn't stand the overly overt, mega in your face, gangsta theme that surrounded it entirely, so never got past playing the demo. Its a shame the second game doesn't seem to have changed the theme, as that means I'm not interested at all.

Loved the first game to bits. I'm looking forward to this as much, no maybe a bit more than GTA

but how did they manage to put in helicopters etc this time? I thought that was impossible ;)

And WTF is somebody shooting the Acropolis with an attack helicopter? Seriously... who thinks up this stuff? 16 year old game designers?

i just saw this scene the other day. it was an art-installtion, no kidding, and a toychopper was shooting plastic pellets at an papermache akropolis (my guess was it should symbolise how modern war is destroying democracy (in form of an greek temple)

And WTF is somebody shooting the Acropolis with an attack helicopter?

I wonder if the leader of Manchester's classical pagan community will kick up a fuss about misuse of their important religious sites?

Saints Row was great, did a lot of stuff better than any of the GTAs so far. Anyone who dismisses it because it's too gangsta is a fool.

The first SR was mostly very good. I'm not really into the gangsta stylings, but neither did I much mind them (preferable to the modern day "killing foreigners is fun" stylings of stuff like Army of Two).

GTA could have (and probably has) learned a thing or two from SR.

Plus co-op is always welcome.

>Anyone who dismisses it because it's too gangsta is a fool.

You should use mister T accent for that one.

Sorry... gameplay might be king but if the game has no style (or a style I hate) it is a NO BUY for me.

I dont care how it compares to GTA, its a good game in its own right, and Ill probably get both.

Enjoyed the first one a lot so looking forward to this. Not really into the whole "gangsta bling" thing but the game played really well.

lets get one thing straight, if gta doesn't have drop in/drop out co-op, saints row 2 is going to clinch it for me

i thought the first game was pretty good, a pure clone of gta, but it had many improvements as well

people that dont like it only played the demo, or just never got on with the theme

I wonder if the protagonist will speak more often in this one? The first time I heard him say anything was a big shock in the original.

Loved the first game and hopefully this will be just as good.

In IGN's preview of this, they mentioned that your character would be a lot more vocal in SR2.

"Also, unlike in the first Saints, your character will actually have plenty of dialogue (there are over 60,000 lines of dialogue throughout Saints 2) to push the plot along. Hooray for no longer being a mute!"

I enjoyed the first game, and nice to read that there'll be Co-Op similar to that of Crackdown. Nice that you are able to upgrade the performance of the car more than just attaching Nitros or Hydraulics onto it. Also been able to take to the air without been stuck in an exploding car. Should be good in Co-op as your friend could give you some air support. Or it'd be nice if your friend had his own group of gang members in his car and you had some in yours. Think of the mayhem. :)
Wonder if they'll let you carry over the appearance of your character from the first game through its save game. Would be good if you got released with the same clothes and accessories that you were wearing as you ended the first game in. Just a thought.

Looks cack

"In IGN's preview of this, they mentioned that your character would be a lot more vocal in SR2.

"Also, unlike in the first Saints, your character will actually have plenty of dialogue (there are over 60,000 lines of dialogue throughout Saints 2) to push the plot along. Hooray for no longer being a mute!""

They did some great jokes poking fun at the mute character in GTA3. The protagonist was silent almost the entire game, except for one line at the last mission of each gang storyline. SR1 had a sharp sense of humour, that's why the gangsta theme didn't matter, it wasn't taken seriously.

Crackdown should of been called CrackDen, because thats what it turned my room into while playing it for 4 days straight

I really wanted to like the first game. It looked like a lot of effort had been put into the graphics, especially the water effects, character models and vehicles. However, it tore like a mother and had slowdown all over the place - even cut-scenes. Cheapened the game for me. Also, the story was a bit meh. Nowhere near as immersive as a GTA game (tall order though). If they address a few issues then it could be worth a punt.

I enjoyed the first one well enough. I agree that it did do many things better than GTA, although most of this was evolution not revolution.

But it just didn't have the same undefinable polished feel and atmosphere of the GTA's. And I think a lot of it came down to the audio. The music was pretty much B list and the spoof stuff, while mildly amusing, just seemed a bit forced. The GTA audio and talk radio is very well written, with lots of subtle (and not so!) innuendo. This just seemed a bit more Benny Hill.

Still, I agree with the poster who said that there is room for more than one of these kind of games. Worth keeping an eye on.

So it will be Saints Row 2 now with added bugs?

I actually picked up Saints Row on budget a while back and have to say it was amazingly shoddy tech wise.
The frame rate was appalling and it almost feels like you could count the individual frames. This killed the game for me as the driving just felt awful with such a low frame rate.

Anyway I guess the up shot of the above is I will not go near a sequel unless a demo gets released that shows this developer has learnt how to make a game with a decent frame rate.

And it's a game that is, apparently, "a lot darker, a little bit more sinister."

Once, just once, I want to see a game that is a little bit brighter, a little bit happier, because a whole raft of problems got sorted out in the first one and now the worlds a better place.

Human shields, like that bit in total recall? Awesome!!

Human shields FTW

(I'd still rather play GTA IV though)

Ugh hate this stuff. I can handle video games that are macho, but I can not handle video games trying to be all "street". Nothing makes me feel more retarded than sitting back in my comfy chair, looking at my flatscreen TV, and pretending to be a gangsta. Especially knowing the experience was crafted by 9-5 dudes sitting at PC's in cubicles somewhere. Did I say "ugh" earlier?

Found the first one great. Much more lively and fresh than the dull San Andreas gameplay.

Not interested. Gangsta's are yesterdays news. Not buying.

"It begins with your character waking up in prison, having been comatose since getting blown up in the last game, lending the game the perfect pretext for a darker, revenge-oriented story as you return to Stillwater to find out how and why you were betrayed. Your character is, according to the game's producer, Greg Donavan, "a very angry young man or woman who needs to rebuild the saints, find out why he was betrayed, and reclaim Stillwater for his own." "

So how are they going to explain this then considering there were no female customisation options in the last game? Did some rogue surgeon sneak in while you were in a coma and perform a discreet sex-change operation without anyone, or you, knowing? Stupid.

And as for the whole city changing in 10-15 years thing not being important as it'll "make the game better", I beg to differ. Are there going to be flying cars, hoverboards, and cyborgs? No of course not, so how is an unrealistic timeine going to make the gameplay better?

And for those who dismissed the last game because of all the 'street' stuff. You do realise they were taking the outright PISS out of the culture, don't you? Obviously not, as you would have well realised that if you lot actually played the damn game. The whole gangster thing was meant as a joke.

edit: Anyway, because of everything I've mentioned, I'm really unsure about this game. The last one worked because the 360 needed a GTA-esque game, and it did a few things better than Rockstar, who wil have undoubtedly taken them over to GTA4. But it seems they might be making a bit of a hash of this one judging by this preview.
Although that may be because Rockstar have me hankering for their more 'realistic' approach.

I hope I'm wrong and this game turns out to be brilliant.