So, i've been catching up on some of the games i have neglected for whatever reason, ok, it's Saints Row 2... now i know it got slated when it was released because it wasn't GTAIV! but it is more GTA than GTAIV i feel. I doubt any of us would say San Andreas was a total pile of arse, who can forget all the naughty monkey stuff we used to get up to, such as attacking innocent pedestrians with flame throwers or chainsaw attacking police cars, and the bizarre plot. these are what made that game great, and in that same vein Saints Row is full of win too. sorry. I'm not saying GTAIV was balls but it seemed to miss the point somehow, whereas SR2 hit the nail on the head and knew exactly what core demographic they were going for. Yeah i know the graphics are not as shiny as Liberty City but it more than makes up for it in gameplay. After dicking around exploring, attacking people/police for several hours i got down to the story, you escape from prison, and set up rebuilding the gang to take back the city, see that video i posted a couple of days back for the prologue. The character customisation is the best i have seen so far and you earn respect from missions, doing burnouts, kicking arse, the more respect you have the more missions you unlock. You also claim territories, remember the gang fights in GTA:SA, very similar set-up, and you can buy businesses to earn a bit of scratch everyday to put towards new safe houses and customising options. I'm into it for around 25hrs so far and have just finished a revenge fuelled killing spree after a key character was killed by a rival gang. all good fun.
in brief, if you liked GTA:SA and want basically more of the same you won't go far wrong with SR2. the odd thing is i hardly ever see it as a trade-in or ex-rental for sale.
[mobiletone]
@Tone
ReplyDeleteMore of your reviews old bean, I like the fact that you are revisiting older games which people may have missed out on.
Once the 'oh my fail it didn't get 90% on metacriticz' brigade have moved on, I think that games can be judged a little more fairly.
If I get chance soon I'll maybe knock something out myself. (**ahem**)
GTA IV made me feel like I'm been given the keys to a Ferrari and used it to discover I don't like driving. San Andreas was the best GTA for me, Vice City was close second, future GTA needs to revisit these classics. Saints Row sounds like it deserves some attention - I'll look out for it cheers Tone. Actually I saw you were playing this last night and assumed you would zone out with it, left u alone!
ReplyDelete@ pablo - i do at least try games that don't get great reviews, you never know what little gems you may miss out on if not. i have played some right horrible games too, but i can always palm them off as trade-ins. KOIE i'm looking at you, and some THQ driving stuff. *shudders*
ReplyDelete@ Mr Jimmy - yepp, San Andreas was the classic for me too. i mean, doing drive-bys on an old purple chopper bike!?!? what more do you need -haha- SR2 has captured that spirit and done a rather good job, not saying it hasn't got the odd flaw, like vehicles just vanishing when you turn around and the graphics are distinctly smelling of PS2, but after a while i started to enjoy it for what it is a solid well thought out fun game. GTAiv had it's distractions like pool and getting drunk and i admit the story was great, but it missed out on the Fun somewhere along the line.
definitely worth picking up a second hand copy.