SANDBOX FUN! - Part III: "Saint's Row 2"

Yikes, I was hoping I could do a full review for this one here; but I already did one for my Greek blog and it was looooooong. Anyway.

I liked GTAIV, but like I said, the obsession with realism turned me off a bit. So, looking around the net, I ran into Escapist's "Zero Punctuation" and the reviewer "Yahtzee" (who currently stands as my favorite in this line of work), who shared my opinion on GTAIV (or rather I shared his) and through his reviews, he suggested "Saint's Row 2" as a properly entertaining alternative to the real-life-overdrive of Rockstar's title.

The original Saint's Row was published for the XBOX360 some two years ago and was viewed as a cheap (quality-wise) substitute, until GTAIV would hit the shelves. I've never played it myself, because I don't own a 360, but reading reviews, I was left with the same impression. The sequel was, fortunately, published for both consoles (and recently, the PC) and I managed to get my hands on it.

"Saint's Row 2" is a GTA clone. It's a shameless GTA clone. If GTAIV had never come out, Rockstar slapped their names on the package and renamed it into GTAIV, you could never tell that this is another title from another company. What's even more interesting is that SR2 makes a better GTA than GTAIV itself. The story takes place two years after the original, your character has been in a coma since then, result of an explosion in the showdown that destroyed your gang, the 3rd Street Saints, betrayed by your gang leader. So you wake up and go back to the fictional city of Stillwater to reclaim your territory and rebuild the gang, with yourself as leader this time.

There isn't much to the story and this is not a bad thing. This isn't Mafia; a sandbox game isn't story-driven. Nobody from this game is going to make the "Top-10 characters of 2008" list (though I'd argue if Bellic really deserves the nomination either). But the story, through well-shot cinematics that are every bit as professional and movie-like as you'd expect and strong voice acting fitting for the story's style, is more than adequate to get attached enough to the characters and follow them easily on the path to glory.

The game starts with an exhausting (in a good way) character creation screen. It's extensive and in detail. Better yet, it's completely free-form. You can create whatever character you want. You can have an old lady with beard and Michael Caine's voice, or you can have a scrawny dude with a bra, talking like a stripper. You'll most likely go with something more... conventional, but even in that case, you'll have plenty of options to make your character look, sound, walk and fight as you wish.

The first and most important thing about SR2, which makes it infinitely superior to GTAIV, is that it doesn't bullshit you. It knows who's playing who. Stillwater is fairly big- not as big as GTAIV's liberty, but still very big. Lots of ground to cover and lots of places to explore. And they're all handed to you straight from the beginning. The game doesn't lock 2/3 of the city to determine your gameplay style. And it doesn't ask you to replay the same segment a million times to beat it. The enemies die, before they become a nuisance. You can save the game at any time during gameplay. And there are CHECKPOINTS. No longer the hassle of dying, going to the hospital, losing all your weapons and then driving from a contact and back and then to the mission to lose all over again. You fail a mission? Instantly retry from the last checkpoint.

That alone is something that few games, of any genre, still maintain. It appears that, after a good time of the late PS1 and a good deal of PS2 era, when we'd finally gone past the point where the game had to cheat to create a challenge and last more, we've now gone back to that sad status quo. And SR2 gives that philosophy the finger and aims at being fun, instead of being an ass of 1s and 0s.

In all seriousness, who would expect that a game which STILL doesn't feature a lock-on function (a function much needed in the GTA series that IV finally brought) would not really need it? Shooting is a breeze. It's all done from the standard 3rd-person-perspective, but aiming is very accurate and it's fun. Your enemies will die fast. You can mash that button the moment you take aim and see the gallons of blood splash left and right as you make them your bitches. It's really THAT satisfying. When was the last time in a sandbox game that you started shooting at pedestrians randomly and didn't have to worry about getting killed in a minute? Sure, even in SR2 the cops are going to be hard to dodge if you gather some 4 stars, but until then, you're free to reign terror. Cops are still going to bug you, but you can make them part of the fun.

I'm not sure I can quite convey how insane SR2 can be. Again, let's take cops. In GTAIV, seeing a cop gives you the urge to be a careful driver, because if you bump into them, you're screwed. They'll start chasing you and they'll end up being quite an annoyance, especially if you're on your way to something else. In SR2, when you see a cop, you have the urge to pop their tires and see them crash on a pole. GTAIV makes you want to be a good citizen, SR2 makes you want to make prank-calls and be a sick son of a bitch. Which one do you think is better for a game?

So, the shooting's fun, the "human shield" move is hilarious (you grab someone and use them as shield; you can also execute them brutally and just throw them head-on to a wall- hilarious), the physics are wacky enough (people fly left and right), the cars are lighter than GTAIV (though still not light enough) and all in all, good fun. The game isn't as detailed as the competition, but it's rich. And not reach in restaurants and strip clubs (though strip clubs still do exist, you little pervs), but in "activities" and "diversions", which gather up the respect and cash essential to carry out story missions and, in all honesty, they're just really, really fun to play. Jack a car and take a hostage for money. Be a good cabby. Dress up like a cop and display the sickest form of police brutality for the camera. Drive around hookers and their customers, as the media tries to snatch a pic of them. Drive a truck and spread shit (literally, shit) all over the city. Ride an flaming ATV that will destroy in a bang (again, literally) whatever it touches. Race against NPCs and not just in cars. Be a bodyguard for celebrities and throw crazed fans in airplane turbines. Fun stuff.

So, that's the game. You do side missions, you gather up respect, you do the story missions. Every time you complete a story mission, you take territory from the rivaling gangs (three of them, in total). Then you can buy one of the many shops (restaurants, clothes stores, clubs, garages, etc) and have a daily cut from profits. There are also plenty of "cribs" to purchase and decorate them to increase your "style" (which in turn increases the respect you earn per mission). Sure, you only need one of them, practically, but who am I to say "no" to the American Dream and pass up the Penthouse Loft with the grand piano and the two strippers per room? In the cribs you change clothes, you withdraw the cash your territory and stores have generated through the day, you switch weapons and you can play the AWESOME zombie mini-game.

That's not to say that everything is perfect. The cars are lighter than they are in GTAIV, but still not light enough. Boats and helicopters handle awfully. There is only ONE camera angle; something very annoying during driving (personally I could never adjust to it; I always preferred the 1st person camera view). That is doubly problematic during shooting sequences. The graphics are sub par in comparison to other titles. The framerate drops somewhat, when the game gets too busy. There are numerous (though not *too* annoying) bugs. And the game freezes sometimes and requires a reboot (happened twice)- which is INEXCUSABLE for a console game. And the controls, though well-layed out, are sometimes unresponsive.

The sound is good, with strong voice acting and good music; though the radio could use at least a couple of talk-show stations. The commercials are every bit as sarcastic and effective as those of the GTA series, so there is no doubt the writers could pull those off, as well.

So, in the end, SR2 is outrageous and FUN. I don't care how many of you have jumped onto the GTA bandwagon, just because it dominates the genre. But I'll go on record here and bluntly say that "Saint's Row 2" is the BEST sandbox game I've played since "Grand Theft Auto 2". Yes, I've had much more fun with this than I did with ANY GTA (or, hell, ALL GTAs combined) from III and on. And I'd recommend it in a hearbeat.

PS: There was a PC version recently- STAY AWAY. I don't know what kind of strange fetish people get off of dumping on PC gaming, but the PC version of SR2 is EVEN WORSE than that of GTAIV.

PS2: The game also features a multiplayer and co-op mode, neither of which I tried. But no surprise there.