Lotus666
07-08-09, 10:05 AM
LD wrote this one in late 2008...
When Saints Row 1 left off, you were aboard a private yacht owned by Alderman Richard Hughes and Hughes was about to sic his armed entourage on you as a way of saying thanks for wasting Stilwater Mayor Marshall Winslow (Hughes' opponent in the upcoming election) and Stilwater Police Chief Monroe (Hughes was able to drum up support for his plan to overhaul the Saints Row district because of that), when suddenly a bomb goes off, destroying Hughes' yacht, killing Hughes and allegedly killing you.
Fast forward 5-6 years later - you come out of a coma in a hospital within Stilwater Penitentiary. A fellow inmate, named Carlos, got himself shanked so he could talk to you personally and help you break out because a brother of his was in the Saints years ago. After you and Carlos break out of the slammer, you make plans to get the Saints up and running, only for you to face some major bad news - the Saints are no more, the Saints Row district now sports a bunch of skyscrapers and condos, and the clothing megacorporation, Ultor, now controls Saints Row - they occupy the tallest skyscraper in the Saints Row area, and the old Saints headquarters has been refurbished and turned into a tourist trap. Three other gangs have arisen as well - the Ronin (Japanese thugs, gambling and prostitution seem to be their specialties), the Brotherhood (tattoos, vehicle customization, and gun running), and the Sons of Samedi (drug trafficking, voodoo).
What happened to the other Saints, you wonder? Here goes:
Julius Little (former Saints leader) - MIA, but there is a secret mission where you deal with him (you listen in on some old recordings and find out Julius set you up that fateful night aboard Hughes' yacht).
Dex (Saints lieutenant) - He quit the Saints sometime after Monroe's demise and got a job with Ultor. He's been on the straight-and-narrow since then.
Troy (Saints lieutenant) - He was actually an undercover cop. Because of Monroe's death and his undercover work with the Saints, Troy eventually became Chief of Police.
Johnny Gat (Saints lieutenant) - He's in jail for attempting to kill Troy, and was convicted of over 300 counts of first-degree murder. In short, he has an appointment with the electric chair. You bust him out of the courthouse where his appeal hearing is going on and he becomes your second-in-command and enforcer.
What else has changed? Here goes:
The city of Stilwater - There's a lot more ground to cover than in SR1. The Suburbs district has expanded, there's a university, a graveyard, a trailer park, subterranean caverns, a nuclear power plant on one island, Stilwater Penitentiary on another island (kinda like Alcatraz), and the Saints Row district and the airport have been overhauled. Realistically, the changes that took place would take about 3 times as long as it's been since that night aboard Hughes' yacht.
Your character - You can customize a LOT more this time around. You can have your character as male or female (in SR1, your character was strictly male), you can choose the way they walk, their greeting, their taunt, and in time, their fighting style. LF identified one of the available fighting styles as Capoeira. Your character does a LOT more talking in SR2 - in SR1, there were four (count 'em, FOUR) times your character said something. You can grab a bystander and use 'em as a human shield.
Respect - Just what you need to do missions and strongholds. You earn it by doing activities, or wasting enemy gang members (how much depends on how you wasted 'em (i.e. head shot, nut shot, one-shot kill, multi-kill)). Driving like a maniac also helps - you get respect for things like near miss, driving on two wheels (with a car), wheelies (with a motorcycle), driving in the oncoming lane, so on and so forth.
Hideouts/Cribs - The Saints' new hideout is an abandoned mission in the Shivington area, southwest of the Saints Row district. It looks pretty crappy at first, but as the story progresses, it looks pretty spiffed-up. You can buy some cribs here and there and customize it the way you want with things like pool tables, stripper poles, sofas, the works.
Vehicles - There are quite a few vehicles that carried over from SR1, and a lot of new ones. There are also motorcycles, airplanes, helicopters, and motorboats at your disposal.
Stores - They're all back, but instead of being open during the day and closed at night, they're open 24/7. They're all back with some new ones on top of that. Hell, there's this one store where you can buy stuff that would make you look like you escaped from an S&M flick.
Activities - Believe me, a LOT has changed. Hijacking is gone, Racing is a diversion (not necessary for 100% completion), and some new activities have come to be. They are:
Septic Avenger - spray sewage onto cars and other things, bringing down their value
Trail Blazing - drive around on an ATV and set things on fire
Crowd Control - be a bodyguard for a celebrity, wasting anybody who messes with your client
Fuzz - dress up as a cop and thrash lawbreakers
Heli Assault - take control of a decommissioned attack chopper and help your fellow Saints in terms of keeping 'em alive or destroy other things
Fight Club - fight for your life in a no-holds-barred cage match.
On top of that, all activities (except for Tagging, CD Collection, Chop Shop, Hitman, and Demolition Derby) have two locations, 6 levels per location (Demo Derby has one location, 6 levels, Chop Shop has 5 locations, 8 vehicles per location, and Hitman has 5 locations, 6 targets per location).
The other returning activities:
Tagging - Instead of going to a certain location and tapping out certain commands with the left thumb stick and buttons, you spray as much as you can within the borders, shaking the can every so often. You can customize the gang tag to your tastes. There are 50 gang tags to be done.
CD Collection - There's 50 of 'em to collect, and you unlock another tune for each 10 you collect, except for the 50th. That one gives you a major discount at Scratch It (a music store where you can buy whatever tracks you want).
Insurance Fraud - Throw yourself in harm's way and get hit in so many ways you'll get a big amount of money from insurance companies.
Mayhem - Blow shit up. 'Nuff said.
Demolition Derby - Smash up other cars, earn derby points to customize your derby car between levels.
Drug Trafficking - Protect a drug pusher from the cops and/or rival gangs as they make their rounds in pushing dope.
Snatch - Rescue prostitutes from pimps and bring 'em back to the brothel where they once worked.
Escort - Drive a famous person around so they can get some privacy with a call girl while avoiding media attention.
Chop Shop - Steal a certain car and bring it back to the Chop Shop for a sizable chunk of change. Instead of getting certain modifications to some of 'em, you just bring 'em as is to their appropriate Chop Shop. However, you're gonna have the cops breathing down your neck when you do that.
Hitman - Some targets require you dress a certain way or do something in particular to bring 'em out of hiding. That aside, you can waste 'em however the hell you want. Grab 'em as a human shield and fling 'em into oncoming traffic? Be my guest. Beat them to death? Knock yourself out. Some of the targets try throwing you off the scent by using a decoy because they know they're being hunted.
Some notables lend their voices to SR2 - Michael Rapaport returns as the voice of Troy and Keith David returns as the voice of Julius. Eliza Dushku is the voice of Shaundi (one of your lieutenants in the Saints), and Michael Dorn (Lt. Worf from Star Trek: The Next Generation) is the voice of Maero (leader of the Brotherhood).
Although I haven't played it, I've watched gameplay videos on YouTube and was blown away by what I saw. I thought I had a blast with the first Saints Row...Saints Row 2 looks even better!
I'd rate it a 9.5/10.
http://static.gamecrazy.com/images/games/boxart/12804.jpg
When Saints Row 1 left off, you were aboard a private yacht owned by Alderman Richard Hughes and Hughes was about to sic his armed entourage on you as a way of saying thanks for wasting Stilwater Mayor Marshall Winslow (Hughes' opponent in the upcoming election) and Stilwater Police Chief Monroe (Hughes was able to drum up support for his plan to overhaul the Saints Row district because of that), when suddenly a bomb goes off, destroying Hughes' yacht, killing Hughes and allegedly killing you.
Fast forward 5-6 years later - you come out of a coma in a hospital within Stilwater Penitentiary. A fellow inmate, named Carlos, got himself shanked so he could talk to you personally and help you break out because a brother of his was in the Saints years ago. After you and Carlos break out of the slammer, you make plans to get the Saints up and running, only for you to face some major bad news - the Saints are no more, the Saints Row district now sports a bunch of skyscrapers and condos, and the clothing megacorporation, Ultor, now controls Saints Row - they occupy the tallest skyscraper in the Saints Row area, and the old Saints headquarters has been refurbished and turned into a tourist trap. Three other gangs have arisen as well - the Ronin (Japanese thugs, gambling and prostitution seem to be their specialties), the Brotherhood (tattoos, vehicle customization, and gun running), and the Sons of Samedi (drug trafficking, voodoo).
What happened to the other Saints, you wonder? Here goes:
Julius Little (former Saints leader) - MIA, but there is a secret mission where you deal with him (you listen in on some old recordings and find out Julius set you up that fateful night aboard Hughes' yacht).
Dex (Saints lieutenant) - He quit the Saints sometime after Monroe's demise and got a job with Ultor. He's been on the straight-and-narrow since then.
Troy (Saints lieutenant) - He was actually an undercover cop. Because of Monroe's death and his undercover work with the Saints, Troy eventually became Chief of Police.
Johnny Gat (Saints lieutenant) - He's in jail for attempting to kill Troy, and was convicted of over 300 counts of first-degree murder. In short, he has an appointment with the electric chair. You bust him out of the courthouse where his appeal hearing is going on and he becomes your second-in-command and enforcer.
What else has changed? Here goes:
The city of Stilwater - There's a lot more ground to cover than in SR1. The Suburbs district has expanded, there's a university, a graveyard, a trailer park, subterranean caverns, a nuclear power plant on one island, Stilwater Penitentiary on another island (kinda like Alcatraz), and the Saints Row district and the airport have been overhauled. Realistically, the changes that took place would take about 3 times as long as it's been since that night aboard Hughes' yacht.
Your character - You can customize a LOT more this time around. You can have your character as male or female (in SR1, your character was strictly male), you can choose the way they walk, their greeting, their taunt, and in time, their fighting style. LF identified one of the available fighting styles as Capoeira. Your character does a LOT more talking in SR2 - in SR1, there were four (count 'em, FOUR) times your character said something. You can grab a bystander and use 'em as a human shield.
Respect - Just what you need to do missions and strongholds. You earn it by doing activities, or wasting enemy gang members (how much depends on how you wasted 'em (i.e. head shot, nut shot, one-shot kill, multi-kill)). Driving like a maniac also helps - you get respect for things like near miss, driving on two wheels (with a car), wheelies (with a motorcycle), driving in the oncoming lane, so on and so forth.
Hideouts/Cribs - The Saints' new hideout is an abandoned mission in the Shivington area, southwest of the Saints Row district. It looks pretty crappy at first, but as the story progresses, it looks pretty spiffed-up. You can buy some cribs here and there and customize it the way you want with things like pool tables, stripper poles, sofas, the works.
Vehicles - There are quite a few vehicles that carried over from SR1, and a lot of new ones. There are also motorcycles, airplanes, helicopters, and motorboats at your disposal.
Stores - They're all back, but instead of being open during the day and closed at night, they're open 24/7. They're all back with some new ones on top of that. Hell, there's this one store where you can buy stuff that would make you look like you escaped from an S&M flick.
Activities - Believe me, a LOT has changed. Hijacking is gone, Racing is a diversion (not necessary for 100% completion), and some new activities have come to be. They are:
Septic Avenger - spray sewage onto cars and other things, bringing down their value
Trail Blazing - drive around on an ATV and set things on fire
Crowd Control - be a bodyguard for a celebrity, wasting anybody who messes with your client
Fuzz - dress up as a cop and thrash lawbreakers
Heli Assault - take control of a decommissioned attack chopper and help your fellow Saints in terms of keeping 'em alive or destroy other things
Fight Club - fight for your life in a no-holds-barred cage match.
On top of that, all activities (except for Tagging, CD Collection, Chop Shop, Hitman, and Demolition Derby) have two locations, 6 levels per location (Demo Derby has one location, 6 levels, Chop Shop has 5 locations, 8 vehicles per location, and Hitman has 5 locations, 6 targets per location).
The other returning activities:
Tagging - Instead of going to a certain location and tapping out certain commands with the left thumb stick and buttons, you spray as much as you can within the borders, shaking the can every so often. You can customize the gang tag to your tastes. There are 50 gang tags to be done.
CD Collection - There's 50 of 'em to collect, and you unlock another tune for each 10 you collect, except for the 50th. That one gives you a major discount at Scratch It (a music store where you can buy whatever tracks you want).
Insurance Fraud - Throw yourself in harm's way and get hit in so many ways you'll get a big amount of money from insurance companies.
Mayhem - Blow shit up. 'Nuff said.
Demolition Derby - Smash up other cars, earn derby points to customize your derby car between levels.
Drug Trafficking - Protect a drug pusher from the cops and/or rival gangs as they make their rounds in pushing dope.
Snatch - Rescue prostitutes from pimps and bring 'em back to the brothel where they once worked.
Escort - Drive a famous person around so they can get some privacy with a call girl while avoiding media attention.
Chop Shop - Steal a certain car and bring it back to the Chop Shop for a sizable chunk of change. Instead of getting certain modifications to some of 'em, you just bring 'em as is to their appropriate Chop Shop. However, you're gonna have the cops breathing down your neck when you do that.
Hitman - Some targets require you dress a certain way or do something in particular to bring 'em out of hiding. That aside, you can waste 'em however the hell you want. Grab 'em as a human shield and fling 'em into oncoming traffic? Be my guest. Beat them to death? Knock yourself out. Some of the targets try throwing you off the scent by using a decoy because they know they're being hunted.
Some notables lend their voices to SR2 - Michael Rapaport returns as the voice of Troy and Keith David returns as the voice of Julius. Eliza Dushku is the voice of Shaundi (one of your lieutenants in the Saints), and Michael Dorn (Lt. Worf from Star Trek: The Next Generation) is the voice of Maero (leader of the Brotherhood).
Although I haven't played it, I've watched gameplay videos on YouTube and was blown away by what I saw. I thought I had a blast with the first Saints Row...Saints Row 2 looks even better!
I'd rate it a 9.5/10.
http://static.gamecrazy.com/images/games/boxart/12804.jpg