Saints Row 2

Saints Row 2

Features:

• Over 40 story missions with additional bonus missions take place in a transformed Stilwater that is over 50% larger than before.
• Limitless Customization ¿ Play as fully customizable characters that are male, female or something in between. Cribs, vehicles and even gangs all have customization options.
• Multiplayer ¿ Co-op full story campaign has seamless integration (for example one player drives while the other shoots).
• Competitive multiplayer pushes the boundaries of immersion in a living Stillwater environment fully populated with police, innocent bystanders and rival gangs.
• Planes, helicopters, motorcycles, boats and cars can be piloted and used as weapons. On the ground new combat options include melee, fine aim, and human shield

Amazon.com
A worthy successor to Saints Row, the first open-world title on next-generation consoles, Saints Row 2 features all new customization options, including player's: gender, age, voice, crib and gang. In addition, the sandbox just got larger with a totally transformed and expanded city of Stilwater, offering all new locations to explore with new vehicles, including motorcycles, boats, helicopters and planes. Saints Row 2 will be playable online in 2-player co-op through the entire singleplayer campaign or in the all new open-world competitive multiplayer mode never before seen in the genre.

Take back the streets of Stilwater

Welcome back to Stilwater View larger.

One of the new faces on the Row. View larger.

Customization down to the taunt. View larger.

Extreme posse creation. View larger.

Take the battle to the air. View larger.

Weapons that go bang. View larger.

Throw down some skin. View larger.

Backstory
Five years have passed since your former Saints crew betrayed you. As you awake from a coma for the first time since that fateful day, you find the Stilwater you once ruled is in disarray. Unfamiliar gangs have laid claim to your territory, rival factions have taken over your rackets, and cash-hungry corporations have laid waste to your once proud 3rd Street home. Abandoned and left scarred with an unrecognizable face, you seek out a plastic surgeon to begin your new life on the streets. Yet some things never change in Stilwater.

Respect can only be earned and that requires a lifestyle that reflects your unique personality. Your crib, your crew, and your character define who you are on the streets and how you are perceived. The image you portray is as important as the decisions you make in a city ruled by false bravado and impulsive behavior. The only constant is the need for an identity that reflects your individuality. But style and image can only take you so far in a world where actions speak louder than words. Sometimes sending a message to your enemies requires heavy lifting, like that of a rival gang member into oncoming traffic. Respect in Stilwater needs to be taken, and what better way than to grab it from the hands of a gang full of enemies by means of a satchel charge, a flame-thrower or those minigun rounds you've been saving for a special occasion.

Meet Your Homies
But remember that the fight to reclaim Stilwater does not have to be waged alone. The Saints once ruled these streets as a crew of brothers, and their return to the top can help be secured through co-operative alliances. The time has finally come to seek revenge against your rivals to reestablish your crew as the rightful kings of Stilwater, but the streets are crawling with bangers. Check out the crews you'll run into and remember their faces and their ways:

	3rd Street Saints Once the kings of the city, the Saints have been forced out of their titular home of Saints Row by the Ultor Corporation, a giant conglomerate that gentrified the once poor neighborhood. Now operating out of an abandoned underground hotel, the Saints are looking to reclaim the glory that they lost several years ago.
	Ronin One of the newest gangs instilling fear in Stilwater, the Ronin recruit from both the city's Asian population as well as among the immigrants. Their crimes involve peddling vice through gambling, prostitution, street-racing, and protection rackets, and their power has reached even into the boardroom of corporations like Ultor.
	Sons of Samedi Influenced by Voodoo and a history of military corruption in Haiti, the Sons of Samedi are known for their potent combination of spiritualism and fearlessness. Members are attracted to the gang out of respect for their methods, through coercion or a desire for easy income generated through trade in their designer drug called "Loa Dust."
	Brotherhood Formed from the cast-outs and dredges of Stilwater society, the Brotherhood is a solid force of strength and intimidation intent on revenging itself upon the police and city. Specializing in violent extortion, they forego subtlety and nuance and simply take what they want, all the while flashing their allegiance with piercings and tattoos, bright colors, and gas-guzzling trucks.
	Ultor Corporation A ruthless corporate contender, the Ultor Corporation's gentrification of Saints Row created a new skyline for the city and a headquarters for their corporate office at the expense of the poor and the 3rd Street Saints. Now they're targeting another neighborhood, the Shivington projects, fueling gang wars and waiting for the prime moment to move in and reap the profits.

Key Game Features:

• Freedom to Explore Through Open World Gameplay - Balancing story progression with all the time-wasting mayhem imaginable, Saints Row 2 contains more activities, diversions, races, cribs, city districts, and interiors than ever before.
• Extensive Mission Play - Over 40 story missions with additional bonus missions take place in a transformed Stilwater that is over 50% larger than before.
• Limitless Customization - Saints Row 2 allows you to customize everything connected to what you wear, drive and where you live as well as gives you access to countless character combinations from facial expression, body type, voice, taunts, gender to walking style. In addition, players can customize gangs various and extreme physical looks (some pretty crazy), fighting styles, gang taunts and tags and vehicle preferences.
• Improved Combat Functionality - In addition to the usual run, jump, punch, drive, stab, shoot model of combat, Saints Row 2 allows you to take human shields and exact finishing moves if you choose, but beware. How you commit crimes affects your notoriety, which determines the response of police.
• Expanded Multiplayer options - Along with a compelling singleplayer mode, enjoy a variety of multiplayer play options including:
• Strong Arm: A team-based multiplayer mode batching together prominent activities from the singleplayer campaign into one series of timed events, with the goal to earn the most cash as a team at the end of the events.
• Gangsta Brawl: A standard deathmatch mode with the single player with the most kills winning.
• Team Gangsta Brawl: A standard team deathmatch mode with the team with the most kills winning.
• Co-Op Mode: Full drop in/drop out coop support and ability to play through the full single player campaign with buddies and with the ability to set online co-op games to public, friends-only or invite-only status.
• Lots of Wieldable Weapons - Whether you talking chairs, parking meters, street signs, newspaper dispensers or your neighbor's garden gnome, use whatever is on hand to take out an enemy.
• An Explosive Weapon Arsenal - When a melee weapon just won't do, send a message to your enemies by dipping into an arsenal that includes: rocket launchers, shock-paddles, stun-guns, satchel-charges, mini-guns, uzis, automatic shotguns and flame-throwers; Some of which can be duel wielded.
• A Vehicle for Every Surface - Put the pedal to the metal in a large selection of cars, motorcycles, ATVs, planes, watercraft and helicopters.
• All New Music - Saints Row 2 will feature an entirely new soundtrack of songs and the ability to create a custom in-game radio station, accessible from any vehicle by building a playlist of songs purchased in-game, with in-game money.

The Silwater sprawled before you as you wake in Saints Row 2 is both familiar and strange, but you will find that the explosive conclusion to the original Saints Row not only has left you wounded and betrayed, but also thirsty for revenge. Now it's time to take back the city that has forgotten you and only you will decide how far you'll go to achieve that.

Customer Reviews

Entertaining game held back by some bugs (2008-11-08)
First and foremost, I won't even compare this game to GTA IV because it's not MEANT to; Volition has come out and said long before the game's release that it's not trying to replace GTA.

One of the biggest selling points for me was that I could play as both a man or a woman. And once I learned that I could visit a plastic surgeon at any time and change my gender back and forth, I was even happier. I also appreciate the fact that Volition supplied six different voice tracks for the protagonist, each with its own personality and nuance, giving the game a distinctly different feel for each playthrough. For example, the British actor would read one line as "hey mate" when it's supposed to be "hey man." Little touches like this give the voice tracks their own personalities. I was struck at how different a cutscene feels when the hero has a different voice and attitude.


Pros:
-Be male or female (or a freak; be a man with a high, female voice!)
-Great VO work, engaging supporting characters with personality
-Variety of missions and activities (especially Septic Avenger; spraying sh** on people is hilarious!)
-New features such as human shield, cruise control, fine aiming, dual wielding
-More customization options (clothing, tatoos, hairstyles)
-Excellent GPS is back, plus now you can place "bookmarks" on the map as reminders (i.e. during a mission you find a tag spot, and want to remember its location for later)
-Stores are now open 24/7, meaning you no longer have to wait around endlessly to buy that one specific shirt you want
-Fresh soundtrack with songs you haven't heard in other games
-Instantly warp between a store and your wardrobe, making it easier to mix and match your clothes
-Some cool easter eggs to be found


Cons:
-Bugs/glitches from first game are back (such as cars disappearing, NPCs getting stuck in your vehicle)
-Idiot homie A.I. (guys, did you know you can walk AROUND obstacles?)
-No way to give commands to homies
-No auto-lock on or aim assist of any kind, making shootouts harder than they need to be (the option to toggle it on or off would have been nice)
-Digital music player from SR 1 has been canned (you can't listen to music when on foot anymore)
-Melee fighting system (Brotherhood style, Ronin style, etc) largely feels gimmicky and wasted; outside the "fight club" activity, there is no reason whatsoever to use fisticuffs when you could simply shoot your enemies

Good Fun Round 2 (2008-11-07)
As someone who loved the original Saints Row, I was glad they made a part 2. I am glad the player gets to talk this time around, though the British accent for a white male is really weird in a game like this. The concept is basically the same as the first game except now you are more of a leader than a follower. I like how they tied together the first and second games with all the characters as I was worried they were going to make this game its own entity with the "same character". I love Johnny Gat and he looks even cooler this time around. The graphics are a disappointment - I know its a cartoonish game, but the first one looked a whole lot better in my opinion. There seems to be this haze that makes it even worse when looking at things, no matter the time of day. I think fighting and the weapons are much cooler in their effects and how they are represented.

That being said, the originality between this game and the previous really isn't there. It's basically the same story and goals - earning respect, doing missions against rival gangs, conquering rival strongholds, etc. There is more variety with the respect challenges which I like and its not as easy to succeed in the early level of the respect challenges either. This game is fun, but still seems to be lacking something. I wish I got to choose how to attack the rival gangs for once in a sandbox game. It would also be nice to have the AI of my gang be smarter and have more of an effect with their guns. I watched Johnny fire 8 shotgun blasts into someone and it didn't kill the guy. Forget it when he uses a regular pistol. It's like the computer controlled gang members really have no effect.

I like the game, but I honestly felt more of a connection and interest in the original rival gangs than this one. These gangs seem very far fetched and weird to see on the streets just walking around like everything is normal. I like that my character is the leader and not just a silent runner for the big guys. I like that the respect bar adds up faster this time around through various methods besides respect activites. It's better than GTA in fun and replay ability but still not a perfect "gang" sandbox simulation.

Such a release (2008-11-06)
I am going to keep this sweet and short. I work in retail and have a lot of built up stress. This game, you can grab people and throw them against walls or over ledges. I did that for 3 hours straight and feel so much better. This game is the best!

Beyond Cool (2008-11-04)
Everything that was cool in the first one is back in this one but with more!!! Helicopters, boats, jetskis, motorcycles, more cars, new weapons, alot of the roads have been fixed so you don't have to drive completely around a neighborhood to get to a spot you want to. You can customize just about everything in the game too like your clothes you can pick the pattern, the color of the pattern, the logo, your car's exterior no longer needs to be the same color all over the car. You can customize your crib, your gang, your gangs cars, your tag. Just awesome all over
small glitch I've found but when you're on the kenshin motorcycle (I haven't tried it with any others yet) if you pop a wheelie and stop and start doing a burnout (with the front wheel still in the air) and keep doing this until the camera tips back and is looking at the sky you then let go and it'll launch the bike and you like 17 feet up in the air like you just hit a jump, I dunno I thought it was cool. Still funnest game so far.

Better than the first one, and what GTA 4 should have been (2008-10-28)
I can't say enough good things about this game. If you played the first one, you know the basic set up. You still battle gangs for control of the city, earning respect and then playing missions when you fill your respect meter up, etc

But the number and type of side missions has been doubled, at least. The cut scenes are better and longer. The story is more involved and you care more about the characters. Way more variety in the amount of stuff you can see and do; you can fly helicopters and planes now, and pilot boats. You can use a sewage truck to hose down people as part of a mini-mission

More clothes, more weapons, more vehicle types than before. You can earn respect now by doing things like driving on the wrong side of the road for an extended time, or jumping your car off of things. Every part of the game just makes more sense and feels more natural than it did the first time around

Plus they made the city bigger! What more could you ask for, seriously? If you liked Crackdown or any of the GTA games, you really should give this a try