Saints Row 2 - who's got it

TinCool

I just picked up a copy during my lunch. Looking forward to getting home this evening and playing it through to the small hours. Anyone else got it yet ?

TC

whitetrash

I got it. it's pretty ropey compared to GTA4, but where GTA went back to a smaller stripped-down serious type style, Saints Row just kept getting crazier. It's fun, not sure what more you could ask of it really!

Dord

I got it during lunch yesterday. Lovin' it so far! :cool:

Coyote

hey tincool
any update on how good or bad it is ?
was thinking of buying it but wanted to see if it was any good.

Coyote

corblimey

Picked up my copy yesterday and played it for a few hours. Big difference to GTA which I'm sure Volition really played up. It just seems a lot 'lighter', the cars behave like cartoons, the weapon choices are crazy. Good mix of missions so far though, although I cannot workout how to fly the plane - keep crashing. Plus it's nice to be driving around Stillwater and go 'ooh I remember this bit from the first game' it's like going back to your home town after 10 years away.

Branoic

corblimey wrote: »

Plus it's nice to be driving around Stillwater and go 'ooh I remember this bit from the first game' it's like going back to your home town after 10 years away.

Yeah I really like that. As soon as I was able I went back to the old neighbourhood and found the church. Went upstairs and took

Julius' audio tour

, which was a nice little touch. Boy, that neighbourhood's changed a lot! :eek:

Really liking this game so far. GTA4 is graphically / technically far superior, but the effect of that wore off quickly and I actually got pretty bored with that game. Plus, the structure of the storyline was pants - you spent the vast majority of the game being an errand boy for a constantly changing cast of criminals, with no connection or real understanding of any of them. I lost track of who was who and who was fighting or backstabbing who - they all just blended into one giant androgenous mission-giver.

I'm actually much preferring SR2 to GTA4. The characters are all unique and colourful, and the gangs are memorable and distinct. The side-mission activities are varied and great fun, and the game is genuinely funny. One of the reviews said something along the lines of SR2 being like the game that Rockstar would have produced if they took the humour and crazyness of Vice City to its extreme conclusion, and this suits me perfectly as Vice City was my favourite GTA game.

Sea Devils

After several hours of play I have to say Saints Row 2 is a very entertaining experience. IGN gave it a 8.2 (good) but I'd give it a 8.5. The co-op is integrated very well and there is no noticeable slow down. The new moves added to the game, human shield, throw, etc, are awesome. Throwing people from roofs ala Styles P is very satisfying. The cars control very arcade like but once you get used to it, its cool. I'm having a lot of fun with this so far.

steviec

I'm fairly disappointed with it. The car handling is awful, for a game that's supposed to be about car chases I don't know how they managed to release it with car physics that don't allow for 180 degree handbrake turns, J-turns or PIT manoeuvres to be performed, the cars just stop way too quickly and the collision physics is generally dodgy all round. The cars have no weight to them at all.

The combat is better, but the new moves are pretty wasted to be honest. They seemed cool at first but then you get into the game and you just run and gun all the time and there's no need to ever use throws or any kind of tactics, just running around spraying bullets everywhere seems to be the way to go.

It's still fun mind you. The quality of the radio stations is very good, much much better than SR1, and the script in general seems much improved. There's been quite a few things that have made me laugh so I guess it's a success from that point of view.

It doesn't compare to GTA 4 though. It feels like they went through a massive checklist of everything GTA does and made sure they included every single feature they could possibly come up with, but never went to the bother of polishing any of them or making sure the core gameplay was truly up to scratch.

TinCool

Coyote wrote: »

hey tincool
any update on how good or bad it is ?
was thinking of buying it but wanted to see if it was any good.

Coyote

Hey Mike, long time no see. How's tricks ?

I played it for a few hours on Friday evening (haven't touched it since been busy) and I'm not entirely sure about it. I really loved GTA IV and played it to completion. As the two games are pretty much identical on paper, it's only natural that you'll compare the two. SR2 seems a lot more arcade like then GTA IV. You drive around searching for missions. There's a lot of daft ones like driving a camera crew around to crimes and killing the culprits, or driving around a hooker to pick up her clients. It just doesn't have that feeling of a polished game.

I'll give it another go to see if it grows on me but right now I'm pretty disappointed. No doubt it'll sit gathering dust come Friday when Dead Space, Far Cry 2 etc are being realised. In fact I'll probably just trade it in against Dead Space looks like a far better game.

TC

corblimey

steviec wrote: »

The combat is better, but the new moves are pretty wasted to be honest. They seemed cool at first but then you get into the game and you just run and gun all the time and there's no need to ever use throws or any kind of tactics, just running around spraying bullets everywhere seems to be the way to go.

ORLY? I've been using human shield on every mission so far (including the awful push backs; man, I wished they'd drop that, hate them in GTA SA, hate them in SR1, hate them in SR2), it's pretty good. Now if only the duck n cover was a bit better, I got used to the GTA IV way of doing it.

One thing that is annoying me is a lot of characters come in without any sort of introduction or anything, it's as if your character knows all these people already (like the first 3 members of your gang, and the pimp when you start driving ho's around, etc) I can't remember if they were in the first game, but even if they were, that's no excuse for even a little intro, a call or a cut scene or something, no it's just straight in with 'yo, whassup' thing.

Da GOAT

ive thought about getting but probably wont. had SR1 and thought it was awful. cars had no weight and did the character in crashes.

forgive me but i like abit of a story, game reminded me of gta3 where main character says nothing for a whole game.

steviec

Da GOAT wrote: »

forgive me but i like abit of a story, game reminded me of gta3 where main character says nothing for a whole game.

They've actually changed that completely. The main character is a proper character now, you can still customise him heavily and even choose from a bunch of voices, but he's a very strong character now and very well acted with the voice I chose at least (the one with an English accent)

On the whole the writing is pretty good, it certainly doesn't take itself seriously but it's quite funny in places and there's some good characters. It's probably the games strongest point. They haven't improved gameplay from SR1 at all, apart from adding new activities.

Branoic

I'm still loving this - think its great. One little niggle that's appeared is with the human shield mechanic. I use this feature all the time, I think it's great, but sometimes in the middle of a firefight I'll end up accidently grabbing one of my own gang members and using them as the shield! You shouldn't be able to do that.

That said, I accidently discovered the "execute" feature of the human shield last night, where if you tap the left bumper you'll drag your victim to one side and fire a shot into their head point blank. It's probably mentioned in the manual, but I never read it, and it was sweet when I did it accidently.