Saints Row 2 is a third person sandbox crime game that takes the model coined by the GTA series and emphasises the more extreme free and silly end of the spectrum. It is a game that I knew had a very good reputation, I have had friends recommend it to me repeatedly and I definitely can see what they meant.
I really enjoyed the freedom you get in this game, it technically forces you to do sidequests or just respect generating activities before you can progress through the plotline, but I found doing them rewarding enough that I always had enough respect stacked up to progress at any pace I desired.
The freedom does result in some odd dissonance in some places. Part of it is a common issue with have several different storylines that can be tackled in parallel. Every gang story begins with the story treating you as if you had just begun the game, the problem being that I handled each gang separately, so the final gangs were treating me as a little dog when I owned two thirds of the city.
Similarly the character creator and clothing systems are fantastic, you can make a character that looks and wears pretty much whatever you want, you can be a crossdressing black guy, a classy crime king pin, a scrawny young woman or even a morbidly obese old person. You can in fact be all of these sequentially during the game, since it merely costs $500 and a visit to a plastic surgeon to re-enter the character creator.
The only problem is that this is purely for the player's amusement, none of this makes a jot of difference, your gang does not notice or comment on your sudden penchant for not wearing any pants, or turning up the next day as a tiny slip of a woman after being a large british guy. The Boss of the Saints is not really your character, they are a distinct character with slight flavourings based upon whichever voice you have used. In Saints Row 2 you don't make any choices, you don't have any dialog trees, the only customisation elements are irrelevant to the plot and behaviour of your gang.
The game itself was great, and I have since moved on to playing through the sequel. Personally I would probably grab the sequel over this, but only because Saints Row the Third has a better PC port.
I really enjoyed the freedom you get in this game, it technically forces you to do sidequests or just respect generating activities before you can progress through the plotline, but I found doing them rewarding enough that I always had enough respect stacked up to progress at any pace I desired.
The freedom does result in some odd dissonance in some places. Part of it is a common issue with have several different storylines that can be tackled in parallel. Every gang story begins with the story treating you as if you had just begun the game, the problem being that I handled each gang separately, so the final gangs were treating me as a little dog when I owned two thirds of the city.
Similarly the character creator and clothing systems are fantastic, you can make a character that looks and wears pretty much whatever you want, you can be a crossdressing black guy, a classy crime king pin, a scrawny young woman or even a morbidly obese old person. You can in fact be all of these sequentially during the game, since it merely costs $500 and a visit to a plastic surgeon to re-enter the character creator.
The only problem is that this is purely for the player's amusement, none of this makes a jot of difference, your gang does not notice or comment on your sudden penchant for not wearing any pants, or turning up the next day as a tiny slip of a woman after being a large british guy. The Boss of the Saints is not really your character, they are a distinct character with slight flavourings based upon whichever voice you have used. In Saints Row 2 you don't make any choices, you don't have any dialog trees, the only customisation elements are irrelevant to the plot and behaviour of your gang.
The game itself was great, and I have since moved on to playing through the sequel. Personally I would probably grab the sequel over this, but only because Saints Row the Third has a better PC port.
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