Hello there, fellow Escapists. You might (highly unlikely) know me as that Russian guy who is an annoying MW fanbrat. What you probably don't know is that I love video game journalism, more specifically, reviewing.
I've written a couple of reviews here and there, most of them shamefully bad, however, some were actually pretty decent. I see people who review stuff here (Pimppeter2, HUBILUB and others). I am not trying to copy them nor compete with them since they're great reviewers... and I'm not.
This is one of my older reviews which I was really proud of. Looking back at it now, it's pretty bad. So, why put it up here? I dunno.
Without further bull... ado, Saints Row 2.
Although the first Saints Row was a pretty good game, it didn't get a lot of recognition - people considered it to be a straightforward GTA-ripoff like Scarface: The World Is Yours or Godfather: The Game. Of course, it added something new to the formula but this was not enough. After the release of GTA IV, Saints Row 2 had little chance to win on its field. However, the developers were not trying to do so.The main word that describes Saints Row 2 is "immature". The game is over-the-top, cheesy and brutal. Where GTA IV was serious and realistic, SR2 is downright crazy.
SR2 starts out with creating your character. The variety of options is pretty good and the outcome can be a pretty nice man (or a women, first time I've created one in a game). Our protege wakes up from a year-long coma and finds himself on a prison island. After breaking out you find out that the city doesn't belong to you anymore and your gang is destroyed, boo-hoo, how fucking original. So it's your job to return the city in the hands of its rightful owner. The story is clicheed but it is surprisingly amusing. The cutscenes are a work of art, the characters are great and the gangs are stereotypical to a point of hilarity. Strangely enough, some of the missions are really sad and dramatic.
Most of the missions are enjoyable and pretty original although they suffer from some common glitches. The boss fights are intense but they might be spoiled by a glitch or two. However, the glitches are not game killing and sometimes pretty amusing (or downright laughable). To play through the main storyline you have to earn levels of respect. This is mostly done by playing through the side activities. This is the point when SR2 goes completely insane. The activities are varied and rewarding. There is a fight club activity, a hitman contract, a total massive destruction of everything mission, a spraying-buildings-with-shit activity etc. Everything is cheesy and very, very violent. It is not very pleasant to be interrupted from the main storyline and forced to gain respect, however. After gaining respect from your newly-founded gang, you can take gang members with you to complete missions. However, your squadmates are idiots. They will get stuck, they will shoot you with a rocket launcher, they wil miss enemies completely and you will have to revive them constantly. Still, they can hijack a car and follow yours and protect you in some cases.
Many people like to compare SR2 to the juggernaut known as GTA IV. Although I think that those comparisons are idiotic, there are a couple of things both games could learn from each other. First of all, Rockstar Games, I don't know why do you hate checkpoints so much. GTA needs them. Imagine - you drive for 10 minutes to get to the action, get killed shortly afterwards and you have to drive again. Why? Why does it have to be that way? Driving is not a challenge. GTA IV brought the system of mission restarts but SR2 has checkpoints and that's much smarter. As for SR2, it could use the cover system.
Let's talk graphics. Well, this one could've been improved. The game doesn't look too good, but that doesn't really matter because it is not trying to surprise us with ground-shattering graphics. The design is okay, although some parts of the city seem repetitive.
The voice acting was good for me. The voice I have chosen was great and the voices of other characters were convincing enough. Although they could've made the dialogue for masculine and feminine main characters different. Some of it doesn't sound right because of this. As for the music, it is mostly rap. The rap tunes are surprisingly catchy. The other songs include some famous rock and disco tracks ("Take On Me" by A-Ha, for example) and there are some other genres represented such as electronics (or whatever it is called, I don't remember). The radio programmes are good but nowhere near the level of, yes, GTA IV talk shows.
In conclusion, SR2 is a great game. Its immature style and awesome side missions are very likeable and the story is pretty good. However, It could use some additional glitch-solving patches.
EDIT: Awaiting "What a wall of text" and "TL;DR" comments. Oh well.
I've written a couple of reviews here and there, most of them shamefully bad, however, some were actually pretty decent. I see people who review stuff here (Pimppeter2, HUBILUB and others). I am not trying to copy them nor compete with them since they're great reviewers... and I'm not.
This is one of my older reviews which I was really proud of. Looking back at it now, it's pretty bad. So, why put it up here? I dunno.
Without further bull... ado, Saints Row 2.
Although the first Saints Row was a pretty good game, it didn't get a lot of recognition - people considered it to be a straightforward GTA-ripoff like Scarface: The World Is Yours or Godfather: The Game. Of course, it added something new to the formula but this was not enough. After the release of GTA IV, Saints Row 2 had little chance to win on its field. However, the developers were not trying to do so.The main word that describes Saints Row 2 is "immature". The game is over-the-top, cheesy and brutal. Where GTA IV was serious and realistic, SR2 is downright crazy.
SR2 starts out with creating your character. The variety of options is pretty good and the outcome can be a pretty nice man (or a women, first time I've created one in a game). Our protege wakes up from a year-long coma and finds himself on a prison island. After breaking out you find out that the city doesn't belong to you anymore and your gang is destroyed, boo-hoo, how fucking original. So it's your job to return the city in the hands of its rightful owner. The story is clicheed but it is surprisingly amusing. The cutscenes are a work of art, the characters are great and the gangs are stereotypical to a point of hilarity. Strangely enough, some of the missions are really sad and dramatic.
Most of the missions are enjoyable and pretty original although they suffer from some common glitches. The boss fights are intense but they might be spoiled by a glitch or two. However, the glitches are not game killing and sometimes pretty amusing (or downright laughable). To play through the main storyline you have to earn levels of respect. This is mostly done by playing through the side activities. This is the point when SR2 goes completely insane. The activities are varied and rewarding. There is a fight club activity, a hitman contract, a total massive destruction of everything mission, a spraying-buildings-with-shit activity etc. Everything is cheesy and very, very violent. It is not very pleasant to be interrupted from the main storyline and forced to gain respect, however. After gaining respect from your newly-founded gang, you can take gang members with you to complete missions. However, your squadmates are idiots. They will get stuck, they will shoot you with a rocket launcher, they wil miss enemies completely and you will have to revive them constantly. Still, they can hijack a car and follow yours and protect you in some cases.
Many people like to compare SR2 to the juggernaut known as GTA IV. Although I think that those comparisons are idiotic, there are a couple of things both games could learn from each other. First of all, Rockstar Games, I don't know why do you hate checkpoints so much. GTA needs them. Imagine - you drive for 10 minutes to get to the action, get killed shortly afterwards and you have to drive again. Why? Why does it have to be that way? Driving is not a challenge. GTA IV brought the system of mission restarts but SR2 has checkpoints and that's much smarter. As for SR2, it could use the cover system.
Let's talk graphics. Well, this one could've been improved. The game doesn't look too good, but that doesn't really matter because it is not trying to surprise us with ground-shattering graphics. The design is okay, although some parts of the city seem repetitive.
The voice acting was good for me. The voice I have chosen was great and the voices of other characters were convincing enough. Although they could've made the dialogue for masculine and feminine main characters different. Some of it doesn't sound right because of this. As for the music, it is mostly rap. The rap tunes are surprisingly catchy. The other songs include some famous rock and disco tracks ("Take On Me" by A-Ha, for example) and there are some other genres represented such as electronics (or whatever it is called, I don't remember). The radio programmes are good but nowhere near the level of, yes, GTA IV talk shows.
In conclusion, SR2 is a great game. Its immature style and awesome side missions are very likeable and the story is pretty good. However, It could use some additional glitch-solving patches.
EDIT: Awaiting "What a wall of text" and "TL;DR" comments. Oh well.
