Saints Row 2 Comments by David Jenkins

My problem with Saints Row was with the "feel" of the game. It felt lightweight and unpolished, both on-foot and behind the wheel. And the hook of "open world gameplay" is absolutely not cutting it anymore. Those activities were torturous (even Insurance Fraud after awhile).

it managed to get a decent feel for shooting though, felt a 1000 times better than the gta games (except for gta 4)

no lock on and the weapons feel like they are doing something? yes please!

edit:

"The presence of mid-mission checkpoints will also be welcomed by those who fretted at their absence in Rockstar's games."

This REALLY annoyed me in GTA4, made me stop playing the game at times, mostly because you had to do an incredibly boring driving sequence for 10 minutes in a predetermined vehicle (ie: no taxis) and play through easier bits of the mission before getting to the bit which was actually difficult, THEN getting killed and having to start again. Then they oddly give you a checkpoint for the final mission of the game, as it the rest of the game was fine without them.

You forgot to add "PC" at the last line. Its coming on on Xbox360, PS3 AND PC.

I enjoyed the first Saints Row despite the godawful screen tearing pre-patch, mainly because it was my first glimpse at what a next-gen GTA would be like. However, the game did lack personality - your avatar never spoke for example - and the swearing and O.T.T. violence did feel rather forced and unnatural, like the game was trying too hard to appear shocking and adult. I'm looking forward to the sequel to see if the developers have addressed these issues but I cannot see this game topping GTA IV personally which had a terrific story, great missions and memorable, well-fleshed out believable characters, all things the first Saints Row lacked to varying degrees. Saints Row was a solid effort though and the closest anyone has come to capturing what makes the GTA games so great.

@Sinotek OH NOES whatever shall we do

Saints row was good fun. But of course people are going to whine and say gta is better. Same will happen with this.

Sure GTA 4 probably will be better in the end, but does that matter when you can have a lot of fun playing saints row 2? Its not like there are 10000 games like GTA. Only 2 or 3 (excluding gta itself of course ;) )

I rather liked the fact the protagonist said extremely little in the original game, the fact he said something at all came as a funny surprise, in the sequel he never appears to shut up if the trailers are any indication.

@Whizzo

agreed, liked the silent protagonist approach in the first game, now its all 'fux you man time 4 revenge' and other bullshit

Actually...it had the fun shoot a rocket at a car crackdown factor...as much as people 'iz gonna hate on it' - the game is about fun, GTA at this point has the nice car physics still, but when you get out to shoot someone, it's pretty much a case of sludgy walk and horrible lock on, so i'll be glad to have a knockabout with this....and the characters had no dodgy lean when you walk animations too, just a good ol basic bounce around character model and some stupid soundbites, throwaway but enjoiable

I thought GTAIV was brilliant, but preferred Saints Row to GTAIV and I've no doubt I'll enjoy this more as well

The direlogue in Saints Row was just embarrassing. The cynical feeling of "Dad dancing at a wedding" THQ execs trying to get down wiv da kidz and horrendously misjudging it was pretty tangible. I've rarely played anything that felt so adolescent, which is a shame because in some ways (ie. gunplay) the game got things right.

I only just realised that the Tera Patrick thing is supposed to be a spoof on Jade Raymond. Boy do I feel dumb :)

Seriously though, the first Saints Row was okay, but nothing special, it was more of interest as a look at what GTA next gen might be like. The multiplayer was awful, and the dialogue was, as has been noted, really juvenile with absolutely no sense of ironic humour to temper the 'playah' nonsense.

I don't imagine I will be rushing to play this one.

This game makes my soul cringe.

@AJUK
"I only just realised that the Tera Patrick thing is supposed to be a spoof on Jade Raymond. Boy do I feel dumb :) "

lol never thought of it that way

No lockon in combat? No sale for me. Just another silly Xbox TPS.

"which will please those that found Grand Theft Auto's stance an awkward compromise"

And awkward compromise between what? Shite and awful? I hated the driving system in GTAIV, and I took taxis absolutely everywhere. Even the helicopter was less fun to fly in GTA:IV than in GTA:SA. I would dispute heavily whether it was any closer to being realistic than any previous GTA driving model (flipping a 4x4 10 feet in the air because you scraped a kurb at 20mph doesn't read like realism in my book).

On the subject at hand, Saints Row had bloody awful dialogue, its true. But its basic gameplay was in some areas a much needed improvement over GTA. GTA's refusal to implement a proper mission management system after all this time is just beyond me. There are many things that GTA does which SR will never touch, but there is plenty of room for both on this market.

On my to get list. As the man says in some trailer or other "we's gonna take back the row"....now I'm not sure if he means cod roe or saints row but, any excuse for rocket launcher and human shields has me signing up :)

"Saints Row 2 has better combat than Grand Theft Auto IV, which for many was a bit of a fudge (although we got used to it pretty quickly). It's not even as if Saints Row 2's solution is clever or original. You point the gunsight where you want to shoot with the right analogue stick"

You are aware that pressing the left trigger half way instead of all the way gave you the exact same free aim with the right stick as Saints Row and every other 3rd preson shooter in recent memory has? Squeezing it all the way gave you the lock, so you had the best of both worlds. And if you just wanted to have aim on the right stick and no lock, you can turn off auto-lock completely in the game options, and even in online modes. Where's the fudge?

/ does drive by on the saints fans screaming "U 'ain't s**t to GTA you 3rd Street suckas!!!!! "

@bad09

Ah hell naw!

Dont make me show you what time it is!

You are aware that pressing the left trigger half way instead of all the way gave you the exact same free aim with the right stick as Saints Row and every other 3rd preson shooter in recent memory has? Squeezing it all the way gave you the lock, so you had the best of both worlds. And if you just wanted to have aim on the right stick and no lock, you can turn off auto-lock completely in the game options, and even in online modes. Where's the fudge?

They were possibly playing it on the PS3 which has terrible analogue shoulder buttons making pressing the button halfway a challenge in itself.

Anyway I really enjoyed the first Saints Row because it completely overwhelmed my quite low expectations of it, and while playing GTA4 there were a number of occassions where I thought "Saints Row did this better". This one is a definite purchase for me, especially because the developers realise that Rampages (or Mayhems) are actually enjoyable to do, whereas Rockstar decided to scrap them in favour of FUCKING stunt jumps and pigeons!

Meh to this and meh to GTA IV, Crackdown is still the best sandbox game I've ever played.

@ the_dudefather

Bring it fool this is GTA turf, yo 'ain't got green colours I'll pop a nine, Grove Street style!

@kinky_mong

"whereas Rockstar decided to scrap them in favour of FUCKING stunt jumps and pigeons! "

That's some crazy mini games there:

1. F*cking Stunt Jumps - do you have to get a chick from lovemeet before attempting these?

2. F*cking Pigeons - that's just plain twisted, I'm surprised the Daily Mail hasn't been shouting about that one. First hot-coffee, now hot-pigeons.

@quint - I loved Crackdown - until it erased my gamesave after an update. That was shit. Oh, and two separate copies had intermittent boot problems and DVD tracking issues. I thought my 360 was on it's last legs, but no, it was just that game.

I think it's actually stupid to compare Saints Row or Saints Row 2 to GTAIV, because while they're sandbox crime simulators, they do totally different things. GTAIV was gritty, serious and down to earth, Saints Row is higher than a kite. Lets face it while GTAIV is not like the past GTA games, it's not as silly, destructive, over the top or comically violent. Saints Row on the other hand is, it's taken the mayhem and destruction element of the previous GTAs and multiplied it, Saints Row reminded more of the original GTA than anything else, when me and my friends used to spend more time using the weapons cheats to blow every thing up then we did actually playing the game.
Saints Row and GTA are taking two separate paths, while they share certain elements and while GTAIV is the better designed game, with less bugs, that has a better story, dialogue, acting, characters, just a more evolved experience. Saints Row will just be more fun. Not to say that GTAIV was a bad game, I loved it, best game of this year, but it's more of a game that's to be admired then enjoyed. It's not all about the crazy out there antics, starting a rumble which results in you driving round the city in a tank, it's about the story, the scope and the experience. And while that might make it a better game than Saints Row will be, Saints Row will have that element of pure, unadulterated, destructive over the top manic fun.

a gangster dressed up as a hot dog shooting a helicopter down is just the kind of post GTA irony that this industry needs...

I thought GTA IV sucked. If I'd wanted to play the Sims, I'd play the Sims. The fun factor was seriously missing in that game. doesn't appear to be a common view though. Vice City was the best of the series.

I was a little disapppointed by GTA IV too... good game don't get me wrong but I thought the imagination put into the missions was pretty much zero (with a few notable exceptions). What I wanted was GTA with Hitman levels of variety when making a kill. I understand this wouldnt be the case with every mission but it got a bit samey after a while. Plus the buddy system was awful.

I spent hours on Saints Row shooting trains with rocket launchers. But then I did have Reefer madness. Hope the trains are as much fun on the second iteration. Also I hope they bring Julius back so he can say "thoooooose muddafuggerz". The dialogue cracked me up tbh

Can you use a jetpack in GTA4 - no, no you can't

you can't base jump anymore either, but thanks to saints row 2 - you can!

Reading some of these comments, you do wonder where the people have gone that judge a game solely on its own merits. But then I remember that I am going to be spending my own money and my own time, so I'll disaccount every negative opinion. Personally, I had a lot of fun with Saints Row. I've long since given up trying to see the point of view that there was more salient humour in GTA IV. It was amusing up to a point, but there is only so many times you can hear promos for Americas next top hooker, see political broadcasts on your TV and see amusing websites on the in-game internet.

I thought Saints Row was great and can't wait for the sequel.

I think it is hard to NOT judge a game within the context of very very similar games. IE Pro evo and Fifa. Invariably similar games are compared with each other, as is the case with pretty much every other medium- like similar sounding music acts being compared. But I agree that it is important to take a step back and just appreciate a game for what it is or does- like fifa used to be a good arcade kickaround and pro ev more sim-like- so enjoy them for what they provide rather than what the other one does better.

Clever answer, Ben. I think that I fell into the typical fanboy trap of taking genuine criticism of a game I enjoyed, personal. (Don't ask me why. I don't work for Volition).

I'm really looking forward to this. GTA4 was a massive let down IMHO. The "no checkpoints" for missions finally put the nail in the coffin for me and I never finished it. It seems to me that Rock Star take themselves far too seriously now days and have forgotten what made the GTA games fun in the first place, and I'm just glad that Violation haven't forgotten. Bring it on!

@ vice.destroyer

We are all guilty of it! Completely agree with your comments about the radio progs etc in GTA- painful at times!

'gangsta rap cool' inspired bullshit, i'll be steering well clear. one for 14 and 15 year olds only.

Ok, can V make Freespace 3 after this..please? ;-(

Meh. I thought "Crackdown" was more fun than both of them. Put together.

But not 13 year olds? *idiot*