Ever since the Playstation 2 open world sandbox titles have all been measured against Grand Theft Auto. While most of the time this comparison is valid in some specific cases companies actually took the time to evolve Grand Theft Auto to fit a new game play style. Saints Row 2 is one of those games. In traditional Grand Theft Auto games you travel through the game unlocking new parts of the city and gradually working yourself up the food chain. As a foil to this Saints Row 2 starts you out as a bad ass and wreaking havoc not only in a prison but then drops you directly into the city to wreak even more havoc. While it’s a subtle difference Saints Row 2 doesn’t take itself too seriously and as a results thrives on being outlandish and obscenely fun.

Let’s start where Saints Row 2 starts, in prison. Your character has just woken up from life support after being blown up on a luxury yacht. As the doctors go to peel back the bandages you are placed in a character customization screen. Here you can create a male or female character, controlling various aspects about their appearance and personality. Not only that but even after this initial character creation you can gain other taunts, clothes, etc. throughout the game to customize your character even more! After you escape from prison you find that a friend from your past is up for death row charges, because of 300+ murders, and you go to the courthouse to break him out. From there the game takes off allowing you to participate in diversions, activities, and main story missions. What makes Saints Row 2 different is the variety of these missions.

 

Activities and diversions make up the crucial non story mission areas of the game. Some examples of things you can do range from mundane things like car races to things like crowd control where you protect a celebrity or you can even get in car accidents trying to rack up the largest medical bill. Saints Row 2 thrives in the variety it offers players and because it doesn’t take itself too seriously these options tend to be incredibly tongue in cheek. When you’ve done your fair share of Activities and Diversions you can then move on to story missions. In these missions you move along the game’s story of your character bringing back the defunct third street saints and destroying other gangs in the area. The story is actually pretty good with lots of gun fighting and drama among the characters.

What’s most interesting about the way the story missions were done is that they work on a respect system. You can’t simply jump from one story mission to the next, in between you must earn respect. The respect meter fills up as you complete activities and diversions and once it fills up, sort of like an RPG experience bar, you can move onto the next story mission. This system works great because it forces the player to participate in Saints Row 2’s big city, constantly exploring and finding new things to do.

 

Saints Row 2 does introduce some much needed change to Grand Theft Auto’s control formula. The most important addition in my eyes is the cruise control added to cars. Rather than having you juggle the left thumbstick, right thumbstick, and gas; the developers wisely chose to allow you to set your cars speed and then shoot out of your car or simply drive without fear of losing your speed. This new addition is something that other sandbox games should be quick to copy, it sure does make drive bys easier.

Saints Row 2 succeeds because it’s all about being evil. You don’t have to weigh in on some good and evil bar. Instead you act like a maniacal gang leader who will do anything to get his gang back on it’s feet. While some graphical and AI issues trouble the game it’s not enough to stop the game from being a rollicking good time. You can even bring in a friend for System Link or Online coop. Saints Row 2 is not a Grand Theft Auto killer but it’s a lot of fun to play.

Overall: 8.7/10