Thugs with guns suck, it's very frustrating trying to take out a group of them because the others will keep knocking you down and there's nothing you can do about it.
They are the most annoying indeed.
Despite removing the entry fees the game still feels padded the heck out because most of the playtime is mashing A against the same handful of enemies shouting the same handful of taunts ad nauseam. Sometimes they'll all shout the same taunt at once overlapping eachother. Who are all
Senseless padding and nothing more, but a shallow attempt to add the dollar value at the time. This game was $50 new on the Wii at the time.
Who are all these people anyway, and why are there hundreds of thugs always ready to stand in the way of one of the most dangerous "assassins" (not that Travis ever kills anybody other than other assassins) in the world wielding nothing but a metal pipe?
They all work for Jasper Batt Jr./UAA. There's your answer.
But the main focus of the game is the colorful boss fights which are... not very good. You wait until they attack and dodge roll then counter attack or you get knocked on your face and have to mash A for a while. It's pretty much the same every time. Sometimes the enemy gets invulnerability for a while and you get screwed for trying to hit them while they aren't ready to be hit.
As much as I like 2, the boss fights aren't as interesting compared to 1, and kinda fall flat compared to 3. The invulnerability problem existed in the first game, but was less of an issue. 3 gets rid of that problem by the way.
The story just ran off me. It probably didn't help that I didn't remember any characters from the first game, so when someone would come back looking for revenge or whatever, I just didn't remember them at all. But besides that I just don't understand the motives of anybody really. Ok Travis is looking for revenge, I understand that, but what was anybody else doing. Why do they even have these ranked Assassin battles? Who benefits? What did Sylvia want? Why was she talking on the phone to Travis? (I mean he was my first guess, but I still don't understand why) the whole game? The framing narrative made no sense here. Why does Travis call himself "The No More Hero" at several points? What does that even mean? Characters came in, exposited their life story and died without really affecting anything. I feel like the game could be summed up adequately by the phrase "stuff happened."
You're pretty much required to know what happened in the first game. It is a direct follow up. Remember those Pizza Butt Side Missions?
There were 3 of them. You killed Jasper's father and two brothers. That is why he wants revenge. The designers were pulling a "But for me, it was Tuesday on the player. The first boss, Skelter Helter wants revenge, because Travis killed the older brother, Helter Skelter in the first game's trailer. The cycle of revenge is a big theme for the series as a near whole, but especially 2.
As far as Sylvia goes,
she went broke after the killing Jasper. He owned the UAA. Once he died, her major source of income went with him. Sylvia was a known con-artists, so no one would work with her. Thus, she could only fine work at a dingy strip/sex club. Sylvia always wanted Travis, she was just afraid to admit it. She also wanted power to an extent, but the way she went about it was wrong. Her "survival the fittest" spiel being it, and Travis more or less telling her to fuck off.
The reason these assassin fights exists is because Jasper a revenge obsessed, power hungry dick-wad. These fights are televised to the masses on a semi-private network and Travis himself made the rankings popular. Even though
in the first game, the rankings were a scam. People want to challenge Travis because they revere him so much, want to meet the legend themselves, or are death seekers after being the rankings for so long. The reason why he's called "The No More Hero" is because he got out and chose to leave the rankings. Hence why he starts at the bottom again. I prefer calling him the "Crown-less King".
NMH2 was when Suda stepped out of the director's chair and it shows. Despite it flaws, I still love it for the story and turns it took. If you ever decide to play another game in the series. Play
Travis Strikes Again (or watch a playthrough on YouTube) first, then NMH3. Otherwise you will be even more lost when you get to 3. A lot of major plot points happen in
TSA and is a love letter and thesis to all the things Suda experienced over the past decade in the gaming industry. You also might need some minor knowledge on Suda's older games,
The Silver Case series. In TSA's case, I hope you have played a lot of Grasshopper/Suda's output to understand who the other characters from other games are, or understand the references.