Did I Miss Out - Saints Row 2

“Did I Miss Out?” is a series where I dive into games I skipped when they first launched, exploring them with fresh eyes to decide—did I truly miss out, or was I better off waiting?”

Saints Row is an IP I honestly did not know even existed until maybe the Third one came out. Even when I did start to hear the name I did not know it was a GTAesque crime game. To be fair when the first and second titles came out I was not hyper focused on video games outside of like Call of Duty and NHL. Over the years I have consistently heard how Saints Row 2 is the gem in the series crown. So with all this praise why did I not try it earlier? Well that is because I played Saints Row the Third first. To be fair its been years since I tried 3 so I might need to try it again with more mature eyes. But my initial reaction was "what the fuck am I playing?!" There was a mission where I had to take out a guy in some sex club and I am hitting people with dildos. I just put the controller down and was like "this shit is just too wacky for me". Some of the stuff that turns me off about GTA is the over the top, weird, scenarios you get into. Probably why I think GTA IV is my favourite because its more gritty. It feels like a crime movie instead of a Wayans Brothers picture. Enough about SR3 though, this is about SR2.

Storyline

The story is the typical rise to power crime theme we see in this type of genre. You wake up in a prison hospital after a long coma to find out from a fellow inmate the gang you help form has all been eradicated. Homeboy is there however to bust you out of the clink and you aggressively escape this Alcatraz like fortress. Your next objective is to orchestrate your own great escape as your see your partner in crime on Court TV on trial. So naturally you go in guns a blazing, shoot up the court house, and free your colleague, a one Mr. Johnny Gat. Now that you have your trusty consigliere by your side its time to get the gang back together. After literally killing homeless people who are living in an abandon hotel you want to use as an HQ you recruit a few characters then its time to hit the streets. There are 3 rival gangs you need to wipe out to be top dog. The Ronin are basically the Japanese Yakuza. The Sons of Samedi have this Haitian creole vibe. Then the Brotherhood are like heavy metal, tattooed, fellows who I assume love their meth. Top them off with a billionaire corporation pulling the strings and you have a colourful cast of characters. The Story is mainly taking back the territory of the city you have lost to these new gang. Now is the story a bit over the top? Absolutely, though I did not mind it. It is definitely one of those games who knows what it is and is not afraid to poke fun at itself.

Gameplay

The gameplay is honestly what you would expect from this genre. Open world city you can explore full of citizens you can slap around and car jack. Your missions are broken up into the individual rival gangs then into strongholds and story. Strongholds are missions where you need to destroy the rival gangs infrastructure. Blow up a drug lab or shoot up a brothel, you know, wholesome activities. By completing each mission your gang takes over that neighborhood. The story missions progress the story of your take back of the underworld. There was one really annoying mechanic in the game and it was the reputation. You cannot keep progressing unless you have the appropriate street cred. You go to start a mission and you are stopped by a message saying you do not have enough reputation. How do you build said reputation you ask? Tedious side missions. Ugh they are annoying. Some are entertaining like pretending to be a cop for a COPS like reality show, while others are just frustrating. There is one where you need to take this septic truck and literally spray human excrement on people and property. Your goal is to get X amout of dollars in damages to be successful. No clue what I am doing wrong but I could not pass the first stage of any of those missions. This reputation system realy hurt the flow of the story in my opinion. You're engaged in the game and you want to get to the next part of the story and your forced to do a side quest.

The customization of Saints Row 2 really sets itself apart from its competitors. Whereas in GTA you are forced to play a character who already has a look and background in SR2 your free to be creative. You can totally customize your character to be anything you want. You want to create an exact version of yourself so it looks like your in the game? Done. Maybe you want to be a ridiculously ugly weirdo who has no place being the leading character in any movie or game? go nuts! The customization is there. Once your in the world too you can go get tatted up at the many tattoo parlors in town. I loved how if you wanted to change a feature later in the game you needed to visit the plastic surgeon. There is also some customization of the many properties you can by as a apartment and the main gang club house. I bought a luxury downtown apartment and renovated the place and all my homies showed up with exotic dancers, just like real life! And of course a game where the main action is driving you can custom your vehicles with body kits, fancy rims, and sweet paint jobs.

Graphics

When it comes to graphics SR 2 is definitely a product of its time. The graphics where acceptable for 2008, but far from stellar. The player models look good and the vehicles are pretty sharp. If we are comparing to it's direct competition, GTA IV is the winner. GTA is gritty while still being vibrant. I found the colours in SR2 to be really muted when I played this on my PC. I actually ended up using ReShade to change the colours, brightness, and saturation via filters. After doing that the game is gorgeous.  I may have gone a little overboard  with the filters and gave it kind of a cartoony or comic book feel, but to me it looked 1000x better. Other than that not much more to say on graphics, it gets the job done with a little help from some shaders.

Verdict

So did I miss out? meh. Like don't get me wrong I had fun playing it but I don't think it falls in my top games list. Glad I experienced it, but I do not think i missed out as GTA has always been there with that open world crime experience. I regularly see the game go on sale for cheap. Next time you see it on sale I recommend grabbing it. Only the GOG version as I heard the Steam version is somewhat for a lack of a better word busted.

Thank you, gracias, and merci beaucoup for stopping in and visiting. Stay safe out there gamers.

---

Saints Row 2 and the Saints Row series is the intellectual property of Deep Silver Volition, LLC

Steam is the intellectual property of the Valve Corporation

This article is subject to Fair Use (US Law) and Fair Dealing (Canadian Law) as it is informational in purpose and is a critique of the product. All rights and credits go directly to the owners. No copyright infringement is intended