Post by The Chupster on Oct 16, 2008 22:02:25 GMT -5
Hey, welcome everyone to my lil review of Saint's Row 2. I'm gonna try to hit most of the major points that I imagine everyone (who doesn't already have the game) is wondering, and in the process take you on a little mental journey through one of the most enjoyable games I've played in literally years.
Right off the bat, I'm going to address the major sticking point in everyone's head: how does it stack up to Grand Theft Auto IV? All of this whilest I point out the awesomeness that is Saint's Row 2 in the process. Oooh yeah!
Saint's Row 2 vs. GTA IV: The Comparison
I'll break this down into sections and follow up with a summary at the end.
Graphics-wise, GTA IV wins hands down. It simply looks better, period. I'm not trying to make excuses, but GTA IV is also the 4th 3D entry into the exceptionally successful series (if you don't count Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories), so you have to realize that it SHOULD look better- it has a stronger, more experienced team and a larger budget behind it. That said, Saint's Row is no slouch- I know that there are a lot of people on a lot of forums knocking the graphics, but the game has a cleaner, semi-cartoony feel to it, and by no means is it an ugly game.
In the soundtrack department, Saint's Row wins hands down. There's actually some rock and metal in this puppy, while I personally thought that the GTA soundtrack was filled with crap that I wouldn't listen to on a dare. And while you can always pop open your 360's audio player and listen to whatever you want, SR2 also has a nifty lil ability to purchase tracks at the music store and make your own playlist in the game to listen to in vehicles, along with collectible CDs dotting the landscape that unlock new tracks for you to buy for your playlist. The music is wide and varied, and while the majority of it isn't exactly MTV material, it'll give you something decent to listen to while cruising through Stilwater- instead of waiting through crappy music to listen to the funny commercials in Liberty City. The only edge GTA has is the talk radio stations, but you won't miss 'em that much.
Sound is DEFINITELY one of Saint's Row 2's big improvements. Explosions sound like explosions (especially if you're caught in one), crashes blast through your speakers, and the weapons you get later in the game sound like you're firing the biggest damned hand cannons possible. Add in the squishy sounds of exploding heads (head shots are AWESOME) and the accompanying blood & gibs as their heads just POP and you just don't wanna hear anything else. GTA IV has some slightly better voice work in places, but SR2's cast puts forth a helluva performance themselves.
Technically, GTA IV is vastly superior. SR2 has more pop-in, a somewhat shakier framerate (usually streaming, but occasionally it drops frames, especially if a lot is going on), and if a car or person leaves your screen, about 60% of the time they simply vanish, never to be seen again, so if that car that you simply must have cruises by, KEEP IT IN YOUR SIGHTS. The game also has a tendency to freeze- since I got it Tuesday morning, it's frozen up 4 times. It's annoying, but the game makes it work suffering through.
Online multiplayer is a toss up. With GTA IV, you have the ability to roam the city with 15 friends (or strangers), but you're limited to 3 lame-ass co-op missions (well, okay, the boat one isn't too bad). However, vs. multiplayer in GTA IV is phenomenal, with the ability to roam the whole city (as long as it's set up that way) and play a variety of different objective-based games as well as single and group multiplayer. Saint's Row's ability to play co-op through the entire campaign blows the hell out of GTA's multiplayer in that respect, with every mission turning into what you wish GTA would've always been. However, the competitive multiplayer seems a little off. Even though the weapons are great and the levels are pretty good, it seems a little vanilla. So far I haven't explored the options too much, but I plan on putting it through its paces this weekend, so I'll update a little later.
Storywise, it all depends on what you're looking for. GTA IV is set up very much like a movie, with a couple of points determining how the ending plays out. Saint's Row lets you make your own character and blow through Stilwater, taking back the streets you took control of in the last game, playing along with a gang that's there to back you up pretty much all the time once you've done a few missions. You can recruit up to three people to help out (once you've unlocked that ability), but if one of the Saints sees you being chased or hassled by another gang's member(s), they'll come to your defense.
Side missions are Saint's Row all the way. GTA IV's missions feel flat-out mundane and boring as hell, even without playing both games for comparison. Saint's Row's missions are sometimes goofy, sometimes difficult, but there are a few (especially the higher-level drug distribution missions) that are white-knuckle ass-clenchers, with you doing everything you possibly can just to stay alive. Needless to say, once you get through these hardasses, you feel like you really did something, which is reinforced
by the fact that you unlock a lot of abilities, weapons, and just generally cool shit while playing through the side missions. And the variety... it ain't endless, but it feels that way!
Progress goes straight to Saint's Row 2. GTA IV actually managed to go BACKWARDS from San Andreas- smaller geography (which is fine, since SA's massive landscape was largely bereft of anything to really do), MASSIVELY fewer weapons, no 'gang' feel, very little humor compared to the past three entries into the series... Saint's Row 2 could've stayed still and made more progress. With the massive customization options (including the second best create-a-character tool that I've ever seen), awesome weaponry, planes, copters- hell, and all of the stuff that GTA has ever done except the vs. multiplayer stuff, to be honest- SR2 just lays the smack down all over GTA and teabags the corpse.
Gameplay is another toss up. Personally, I felt like the physics in GTA IV were a little too close to the real thing. It was difficult to catch any serious air, crashes were sort of mediocre, vehicles seemed to explode at the drop of a hat, I never really felt any sense of "speed" except in the Infernus. Saint's Row is a little more arcade-y in its physics system. Explosions sometimes fire car hoods a good 10 stories straight up. Bodies pinwheel through the air. But you'll be flying down the streets, catching air, blowing cops 12 feet backwards with massive shotgun blasts, throwing mailboxes down the street just to watch them bounce off of someone's skull- it's just more FUN. It allows you to do a lot of what you want without being too restrictive, but at the same time, start kicking ass and the cops will come in droves to kick your ass in.
Overall, I have to give it to Saint's Row. Once you've played through GTA IV, you're pretty much done. Sure, there's going to be downloadable story content coming- eventually- but once you've been through, there's just not a lot of fun left in the game, unless you just really like shooting people in the head in multiplayer, or playing with the physics in free mode (which would be great if the physics were just a little more lax). But Saint's Row 2 has characters that you like and genuinely get to care about, instead of a main character and a bunch of people that you might hate a little less than the others. Add in the ability to cut into someone with a chainsaw, bust out a flamethrower, take sections of town, purchase businesses, buy multiple cribs AND CUSTOMIZE THEM, pimp cars and save them in a "garage" that NEVER LOSES THEM OR THEIR OPTIONS, shoot around in planes and ufos, fight in a fight club, and generally actually have FUN, and Saint's Row is a game that's almost absolutely sure to delight.
I kid you not, Saint's Row is the best sandbox-style game I've ever played, and one of the most enjoyable games I've played in my 33 years on the planet. In my opinion, it shouldn't be missed by anyone with a sense of humor. Especially if you have someone you can play through it with. It isn't the most technically appealing game, it isn't the prettiest, but it's damn sure one of the most fun games ever.
Right off the bat, I'm going to address the major sticking point in everyone's head: how does it stack up to Grand Theft Auto IV? All of this whilest I point out the awesomeness that is Saint's Row 2 in the process. Oooh yeah!
Saint's Row 2 vs. GTA IV: The Comparison
I'll break this down into sections and follow up with a summary at the end.
Graphics-wise, GTA IV wins hands down. It simply looks better, period. I'm not trying to make excuses, but GTA IV is also the 4th 3D entry into the exceptionally successful series (if you don't count Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories), so you have to realize that it SHOULD look better- it has a stronger, more experienced team and a larger budget behind it. That said, Saint's Row is no slouch- I know that there are a lot of people on a lot of forums knocking the graphics, but the game has a cleaner, semi-cartoony feel to it, and by no means is it an ugly game.
In the soundtrack department, Saint's Row wins hands down. There's actually some rock and metal in this puppy, while I personally thought that the GTA soundtrack was filled with crap that I wouldn't listen to on a dare. And while you can always pop open your 360's audio player and listen to whatever you want, SR2 also has a nifty lil ability to purchase tracks at the music store and make your own playlist in the game to listen to in vehicles, along with collectible CDs dotting the landscape that unlock new tracks for you to buy for your playlist. The music is wide and varied, and while the majority of it isn't exactly MTV material, it'll give you something decent to listen to while cruising through Stilwater- instead of waiting through crappy music to listen to the funny commercials in Liberty City. The only edge GTA has is the talk radio stations, but you won't miss 'em that much.
Sound is DEFINITELY one of Saint's Row 2's big improvements. Explosions sound like explosions (especially if you're caught in one), crashes blast through your speakers, and the weapons you get later in the game sound like you're firing the biggest damned hand cannons possible. Add in the squishy sounds of exploding heads (head shots are AWESOME) and the accompanying blood & gibs as their heads just POP and you just don't wanna hear anything else. GTA IV has some slightly better voice work in places, but SR2's cast puts forth a helluva performance themselves.
Technically, GTA IV is vastly superior. SR2 has more pop-in, a somewhat shakier framerate (usually streaming, but occasionally it drops frames, especially if a lot is going on), and if a car or person leaves your screen, about 60% of the time they simply vanish, never to be seen again, so if that car that you simply must have cruises by, KEEP IT IN YOUR SIGHTS. The game also has a tendency to freeze- since I got it Tuesday morning, it's frozen up 4 times. It's annoying, but the game makes it work suffering through.
Online multiplayer is a toss up. With GTA IV, you have the ability to roam the city with 15 friends (or strangers), but you're limited to 3 lame-ass co-op missions (well, okay, the boat one isn't too bad). However, vs. multiplayer in GTA IV is phenomenal, with the ability to roam the whole city (as long as it's set up that way) and play a variety of different objective-based games as well as single and group multiplayer. Saint's Row's ability to play co-op through the entire campaign blows the hell out of GTA's multiplayer in that respect, with every mission turning into what you wish GTA would've always been. However, the competitive multiplayer seems a little off. Even though the weapons are great and the levels are pretty good, it seems a little vanilla. So far I haven't explored the options too much, but I plan on putting it through its paces this weekend, so I'll update a little later.
Storywise, it all depends on what you're looking for. GTA IV is set up very much like a movie, with a couple of points determining how the ending plays out. Saint's Row lets you make your own character and blow through Stilwater, taking back the streets you took control of in the last game, playing along with a gang that's there to back you up pretty much all the time once you've done a few missions. You can recruit up to three people to help out (once you've unlocked that ability), but if one of the Saints sees you being chased or hassled by another gang's member(s), they'll come to your defense.
Side missions are Saint's Row all the way. GTA IV's missions feel flat-out mundane and boring as hell, even without playing both games for comparison. Saint's Row's missions are sometimes goofy, sometimes difficult, but there are a few (especially the higher-level drug distribution missions) that are white-knuckle ass-clenchers, with you doing everything you possibly can just to stay alive. Needless to say, once you get through these hardasses, you feel like you really did something, which is reinforced
by the fact that you unlock a lot of abilities, weapons, and just generally cool shit while playing through the side missions. And the variety... it ain't endless, but it feels that way!
Progress goes straight to Saint's Row 2. GTA IV actually managed to go BACKWARDS from San Andreas- smaller geography (which is fine, since SA's massive landscape was largely bereft of anything to really do), MASSIVELY fewer weapons, no 'gang' feel, very little humor compared to the past three entries into the series... Saint's Row 2 could've stayed still and made more progress. With the massive customization options (including the second best create-a-character tool that I've ever seen), awesome weaponry, planes, copters- hell, and all of the stuff that GTA has ever done except the vs. multiplayer stuff, to be honest- SR2 just lays the smack down all over GTA and teabags the corpse.
Gameplay is another toss up. Personally, I felt like the physics in GTA IV were a little too close to the real thing. It was difficult to catch any serious air, crashes were sort of mediocre, vehicles seemed to explode at the drop of a hat, I never really felt any sense of "speed" except in the Infernus. Saint's Row is a little more arcade-y in its physics system. Explosions sometimes fire car hoods a good 10 stories straight up. Bodies pinwheel through the air. But you'll be flying down the streets, catching air, blowing cops 12 feet backwards with massive shotgun blasts, throwing mailboxes down the street just to watch them bounce off of someone's skull- it's just more FUN. It allows you to do a lot of what you want without being too restrictive, but at the same time, start kicking ass and the cops will come in droves to kick your ass in.
Overall, I have to give it to Saint's Row. Once you've played through GTA IV, you're pretty much done. Sure, there's going to be downloadable story content coming- eventually- but once you've been through, there's just not a lot of fun left in the game, unless you just really like shooting people in the head in multiplayer, or playing with the physics in free mode (which would be great if the physics were just a little more lax). But Saint's Row 2 has characters that you like and genuinely get to care about, instead of a main character and a bunch of people that you might hate a little less than the others. Add in the ability to cut into someone with a chainsaw, bust out a flamethrower, take sections of town, purchase businesses, buy multiple cribs AND CUSTOMIZE THEM, pimp cars and save them in a "garage" that NEVER LOSES THEM OR THEIR OPTIONS, shoot around in planes and ufos, fight in a fight club, and generally actually have FUN, and Saint's Row is a game that's almost absolutely sure to delight.
I kid you not, Saint's Row is the best sandbox-style game I've ever played, and one of the most enjoyable games I've played in my 33 years on the planet. In my opinion, it shouldn't be missed by anyone with a sense of humor. Especially if you have someone you can play through it with. It isn't the most technically appealing game, it isn't the prettiest, but it's damn sure one of the most fun games ever.
