This is officially a game made in heaven. (Saints Row 2 (PS3))

Member Name: FrankensteinsCat

Product:	Saints Row 2 (PS3)
Date:	12/09/09 (60 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: All the little touches put into the game, and the gameplay is so good.

Disadvantages: The glitches can get on your nerves quite a lot sometimes.

OVERVIEW:
It's Volition, Inc.'s second game in the Saints Row series after the successful "Saints Row" for Xbox 360. This time though, it's also on Playstation 3 and PC. Like the previous Saints Row, it's set in the fictional city of Stilwater, but things have changed. The city is bigger than last time and the Saints Row area is under new ownership and very different. The customization in Saints Row 2 is fantastic; the amount of clothes from Saints Row has been increased greatly, doing up cars has also improved greatly and you can now choose what your gang members wear and what cars they drive. Another thing is your appearance; not only is there loads more stuff you can change about yourself (including what you sound like), but you can now pick what gender you are (although some of the cut scenes do look weird if you are a woman).

GAMEPLAY:
This is where Saints Row 2 scores big points. The game is so much fun. Whether it's going through the story mode, doing activities or just plain shooting random people on the street and running from the cops you'll have a great time. I believe the main negative of GTA IV was the gameplay and fun of the game; it just was too boring. Rockstar wanted to make the most realistic GTA game ever, and they did, but that also lost nearly all of its fun. Saints Row 2 isn't trying to be serious or realistic (when there are activities like driving a quad while on fire and driving into cars, people etc. it kind of gives it away) and that is what makes it fun. I don't want go and play pool with someone every five minutes. I want to push them in front of trains, dress up as a cop and chainsaw people, join an illegal fight club, get into a sewage truck and spray raw sewage over people, hold people hostage in cars, car surfing and lots more. Also the weapons on Saints Row 2 are great. Having two of the same guns at the same time is brilliant, using a samurai sword on a motorbike is cool and the defibrillators are great fun. One bad point though is that it can be very glitchy at times - stuff like cars magically disappearing - but it isn't massively disappointing, and definately doesn't ruining your gaming experience.

GRAPHICS:
The first thing you'll notice when picking up Saints Row 2 is the graphics, and how much they disappoint compared to Rockstar's GTA IV. Saints Row 2's graphics are nowhere near as good as GTA's and has the old "popping up buildings" thing going on. Despite this, it is a big improvement to Saints Row; the character's look much better, as do the clothes, cars etc. Overall they aren't the worst graphics on the PS3 (far from it actually), but when compared to Saints Row 2's main rival, GTA IV, it's 1-0 Grand Theft Auto.

STORY:
Saints Row 2's story picks up right where the first Saints Row's cliff-hanger ended. You wake up from a coma five years after the happenings of Saints Row. Stilwater is a different place now, not only is it much larger than before but three new gangs are calling the shots; the Ronin, the Sons of Samedi, and the Brotherhood. When these three came in, the Saints didn't stand a chance. With no leader all they could do was drop their flags and hope they could get away alive. Your mission then is to bring back the 3rd Street Saints and regain your status as Stilwater rulers. After you defeat the three gangs, you then move on to fighting the Ultor company, a multi-million corporation who now own the Saints Row area, and are planning on destroying the Saints once and for all.

The story overall is good, I really liked the characters in it (good to see the trigger happy madman Johnny Gat make a return). There are some great cutscenes, and every gang has at least one very good mission (although nearly every mission is good fun). Also there is an extra secret mission in the Stilwater police station that answers all your questions about the boat incident from Saints Row - mainly who did it - and also opens up a potential storyline for the third Saints Row (which I have heard has been confirmed). The one bad point of the story however, is that the three gangs don't really come across each other. It would of been nice to see something like that happen.

SOUND:
The sound of Saints Row 2 is very good, whether it's dialogue, listening to the radio, or the sound of bullets. First the dialogue; at the start you can choose from a list of voices for your character (including a rather funny cockney one), also when you're out and about causing havoc your character will say various things after shooting a person (e.g. "The Saints are gonna own Stilwater" or "You should've known not to mess with the Saints!"), this can get a bit annoying at times, especially after the story mode when you say stuff that doesn't really make sense, but nothing worth really moaning about. Secondly the music; SR2 has eleven radio stations, all with a pretty decent list of songs (the least amount of songs I could find on one station was eleven) so there is pretty much something for everyone, but if you're one of them people who like anything, just head over to one of the music stores (can't remember the name of them) and select which songs you want on you're in game MP3. The sound effects are very good in my opinion. The gun sounds are very good, explosions are just as great and a nice little extra is that people walking down the street will talk to one another about various going ons in the story, this also happens in the radio, you will hear news updates of things that you have done in various missions. A great little touch I believe.

CONTROLS:
The controls are exactly the same as Saints Row, so people who are going from the first one will have no problems whatsoever, although if you are moving from GTA IV (like me) it could take a short while to get used to. The controls are different to GTA, although some things are the same (such as entering and exiting cars). I can't say there is anything wrong with the game's controls because they are just what you want, and if this is your first time playing a Saints Row game, you'll have learned them all in no time.

REPLAY VALUE:
Now this is one of Saints Row 2's strongest point. After the story mode there is so much to do. Side missions are purely made for fun (and to get money and respect). Also if you feel like doing your favourite mission again, or just watching your favourite cut scene. Just head over to your newspaper section in one of your houses for mission select or head over to your TV for the cut scenes. Also to be found in the TV is a zombie mini game where you fight zombies with whatever weapons you can find.

CONCLUSION:
Overall Saints Row 2 is a great, great game. Good story, good gameplay, very good lasting appeal and so much fun.

Summary: £15 for a game that is very nearly better than Grand Theft Auto? Go. And. Buy. It.