By John Walker on January 12th, 2009 at 11:00 am.
Saints Row 2 is out now on PC in the US, both at retail and on Steam. It doesn’t reach Europe until the 30th January. The delay is apparently due to localisation, which seems odd for a months old console game. I’ve had a copy for a while now, and below is Wot I Think of the single player game. We’ll take a look at the multiplayer once the game arrives in Europe.
It had me with the shit-spraying. Of the very many non-story tasks available in the sandbox world, the one that made me realise I love this revolting game was the septic tank challenge. I was tasked to reduce the property prices of an area for a corrupt real estate agent by coating the buildings, the cars and the people in gallons of faeces. The police keep coming, and I kept splattering them in the brown stuff until their cars careered of the road, and the officers lay drowned in the crap. Enough damage racked up, the challenge was complete, and offered me level 2. Then 3, 4, 5 and 6.
Saints Row 2 is, beyond any shadow of a doubt, a GTA clone. There’s no escaping it, there’s no point pretending otherwise. From the driving to the narrative structure, from the animation as you pull someone from their car to glowing mission markers on the streets, the most generous, non-litigious word you could use would be “tribute”. However, there’s two reasons why this doesn’t matter. First, it’s really good. Second, while it lacks the conviction and emotional complexity of Rockstar’s GTA IV, in many ways it’s a hell of a lot more fun.
It’s also a sequel, of course, but to a game that never saw an appearance on PC. It’s surprising how much the story tries to pick up where the previous game left off, especially when there’s absolutely no need for this to be the case. The first Saints Row distinguished itself (and barely) from GTA with the gangs. Rather than playing your way through a single narrative, instead you played through a series of narratives as you take territory for the Saints Row gang from the other rivals in the city of Stillwater. At the end of that story, your character finds him or herself in a coma. Years have since passed, and now your character wakes again.
Which is problematic, since SR2 begins with one of the most fantastic character creators I’ve seen. Finally City of Heroes has been bested. The freedom you have to create your character is extraordinary, but more impressive is that no matter how hard you try your result is going to look like a sketchy character. Mine is a slightly overweight, almost-pretty Latino girl, with a dodgy hair dye. She’s believable. Of course, she has nothing in common with the character I played that time I previewed Saints Row.
You begin, after waking from your coma, by busting out of jail. Once free the next task is to rescue your former boss from the courthouse where he’s about to be sentenced to death for hundreds of murders. The solution? Kill everyone in the court building (including the judge if you choose to go back and get her). Once he’s recovered, together you take over a new base – an underground, run-down hotel. From this base of operations you once again begin the process of taking back the city’s territory for the Saints.
However, there’s a just extraordinary amount of freedom. Not only are there three separate stories to work through, in any order you wish, but there’s dozens of mindless side-games that will earn you money and respect, the latter used to open up more gang missions. These are multi-stage tasks that invariably involve doing something extremely childish: setting yourself on fire and trying to burn as many people as you can, in a checkpointed race; helping doctors commit insurance fraud by throwing yourself in front of as many cars as you can in a time limit; and of course spraying districts in shit.
Of course, much of the game is about driving, and oddly it’s here that SR2 is at its weakest. The controls themselves for the game are a mess, with more options required than I could comfortably fit onto my 360 controller. Going to mouse and keyboard, I was then infuriated to find it doesn’t recognise the fourth and fifth mouse buttons, and while you can program something to the middle button, the game will then refer to it as, “Press to open door.” This scrappy porting feels at its worst when driving, the cars steering in peculiar increments with the keyboard controls, rather than smoothly turning as you’d obviously hope. It takes some getting used to, and while it’s serviceable, it’s never enormously satisfying. Different cars handle extremely differently, which is in many ways a good thing – it gives you that correct desire to get the fastest, sleekest vehicles – but with the twitchy steering getting too fast can just be uncontrollable. Then there are problems with lag. Despite having a fairly decent machine, I was having to ration the graphics settings to get something in which I could steer before corners were memories, without playing in a washed out world. Not really good enough.
On foot you’ve got a decent amount of sprint, and with the mouse you’ve obviously got a big advantage when aiming. Strangely, I found myself more comfortable out of the cars a lot of the time, and the game seems to know this. Most of the story missions put their emphasis on indoor sequences, or using cars for minimal transport between bouts of murder. And this really is about murder. There’s none of GTA IV’s sentimentality or imaginative justification for your actions. This is no-holds, all-out butchering. It’s the game the Daily Mail thinks GTA is. In fact, I’ve a feeling it’s the game that’s trying incredibly hard to make sure to be that.
It’s astonishingly immature. This occasionally bubbles over into the unpleasant, especially with some of the jokes referring to race and sexuality. However, it’s oddly toned down since the first game’s rather desperate attempts to be controversial. You’re no longer bombarded by shrieked jokes about their burger joints being called “Freckled Bitches”. Instead they’re just shouted a bit. Cars mechanics work at Rim Jobs, there’s a women’s clothing store called On The Rag. You shouldn’t be expecting anything smart.
However, despite all this the writing is often superb, and the performances are almost all fantastic. Cutscenes are invariably a pleasure to watch, even if they are seemingly based on a fourteen year-old’s understanding of how gang culture might work. This same childishness extends to many details. When decorating your private crib, in one corner you have a pile of boxes. The upgrade options read in order:
Boxes
Nice desk
Stripper pole
Idiotic. But this is a game that celebrates everything you do. Have a crash and fly through your windscreen, and the game will boast how far you travelled, and whether it’s a personal record. It self-references throughout, most impressively during the Fuzz minigame. In a spoof of Cops, you are dressed as a police officer and accompanied by a camera man, asked to deal with various crimes in a way that will gain enough ratings. So you gun down litterers, slaughter old ladies driving too slowly in their cars, launch rocket attacks at skateboarders, or baseball bat your way through a queue for an ice cream van. But some of the arrests you’ll have to make feel very familiar. Someone’s spraying sewerage over the town, someone else is setting people on fire, another is committing insurance fraud.
This unrelenting stupidity is the game’s success. While I’ve struggled to stomach the brutality of other games in this genre, somehow the crazed, sociopathic dispassionate nature of SR2 runs straight through the wall of taste and out the other side. That twinge of guilt you get when you run someone down by mistake in GTA is never present here. Here you aim for each and every one of them, knowing that the lackadaisical police will likely not care at all. This is SR2′s other masterstroke – while you can get yourself stars for illegal actions, they’re pretty hard to come by despite some of the abhorrent acts you might aim to do, and they’re easily cleared. Where GTA has the mechanics who’ll respray your car to get the cops off your back, you have to reach them without accompanying blue lights. Here they could follow you through the drive-thru forgiveness buildings and it wouldn’t matter. In fact, if you’ve got heat on your tail, just start a side quest and, ping!, they disappear. It’s ridiculous, but it sums up the game entirely: SR2 puts having fun far ahead of realism or conviction.
The cartoonish design is possibly the factor that keeps this outside of grotesque. Well, that’s not true – it IS grotesque, but the cartoon stops you from having to find a priest for absolution each time you play.
Stillwater is a huge, elaborate city, amazingly detailed and extremely destructible. Carving your own route through backyards and trailer parks is fun. It would have been better if it weren’t designed to run at full spec on super-computers from the future, as it seems the PC should be able to emulate the 360 without having to strain. And if the steering were smoothed out, there’d be less frustration as you explored it.
However, it’s still a ludicrously good time, with a motherload of things to do. Be fully aware that this is about as stupid and immature as a game can get, and blimey, you’ll enjoy yourself.
12/01/2009 at 11:12 Schmung says:
Spot on, it’s GTA mixed with loony toons and targetted at 13 years olds and it’s bloody great. Still, a shame about the shoddy port. Hopefully it retains all the multiplayer fun as well. I spent ages playing this on the 360 – far more so than GTA IV, simply because the end of the story in GTA is really the end of the fun. With Saints it’s not really a problem because there’s just so much stuff to get through.
12/01/2009 at 11:21 Jp1138 says:
Another horrible conversion then? After the GTA IV fiasco I was hoping I would be able to play this decently on a medium/low spec pc, but it seems this wont be the case :(
12/01/2009 at 11:33 John Walker says:
The other thing I forgot to mention above is that it only supports widescreen resolutions at 1280×720, and 1900×1200, rather weirdly omitting the standard 1650×1080.
But I want to stress, it’s not a bad or disastrous port. It’s a scrappy port – things like the above, where it works fine, but not quite as you might hope. It’s nothing like GTA’s explosive series of problems at all.
12/01/2009 at 11:35 Alec Meer says:
It’s worth pointing out I didn’t experience the performance problems John did, but that may be down to my running it on a GeForce 280.
12/01/2009 at 11:47 Ginger Yellow says:
I picked it up for PS3 (sorry, but it was dirt cheap) in the January sales. I haven’t played much yet, but I’ve liked it a lot so far. As you say, the obnoxious “humour” which really annoyed me in the first game is toned down, and Stillwater seems to have more personality than it did before. And given GTA’s change of direction, there’s certainly room for a well executed clone which amps up the silliness.
12/01/2009 at 11:49 macc says:
Damn, you’re a lot more positive then IGN, they kept going on and on about the crappy performance and the crappy port. I might try this.
12/01/2009 at 12:05 Optimaximal says:
Those cutscenes (are they cutscenes) look really weird because they seem to completely lack in depth or substance – nobody has any chins!
12/01/2009 at 12:05 phuzz says:
PC ports really ought to be able to manage as-pretty-as 360 level graphics, given that most gaming PCs less than a year old seem to be able to manage better than that (compare HL2:Ep2 on a newish PC to Halo 3).
Anyway, might get this for the 360, I know my flatmate would enjoy it more, he got so bored by GTAIV he had busted the cheats out with in half an hour.
12/01/2009 at 12:12 stavrosthewonderchicken says:
You’ve got to be kidding.
12/01/2009 at 12:29 John Walker says:
About what, stavros? Meaningless comments tend to get snipped, so let us know what you’re so astonished by.
12/01/2009 at 12:35 Muzman says:
GTA IV taking itself a little serious made me really hesitant about it. Still haven’t tried it yet myself. From what I’ve seen it doesn’t seem quite expoitation movie ‘serious’ enough and almost…earnest in places, in amongst all the gonzo nonsense and violence. Most games have tonal lumps and bumps, particularly those taking themselves seriously. But the GTA series managed to dodge all that rather spectacularly up until now, with its stupidity meets mythic period settings.
Saints Row 2 does consistently sound like a ‘more of everything those other guys did!’ style wannabe in the exploitation-hype arms race. Like if Postal 2 was actually good.
Did GTA IV’s seriousness become a problem (for anyone who’s played it)? Or does kinematic ragdolling motorcycle crashes make up for it all?
12/01/2009 at 12:41 hydra9 says:
Waaaaa, it sounds so good and I know it won’t run properly on my slightly geriatric system :(
12/01/2009 at 12:46 Simon Jones says:
This makes me feel old. I’m pretty sure I’d have lapped this up when I was a student, but it no longer seems to appeal. I imagine I’d have great fun playing it with a few mates in a ‘party’ style atmosphere, but as a single player game the apparent immaturity really puts me off.
What I’m really surprised about is how reviewers seem to be getting so excited about pouring shit over pedestrians. It’s not that I object on moral grounds, Daily Mail style, it’s just that it seems like a bit of a waste of time. Is there any real purpose to the Saints Row determination to be ‘controversial’, or is it just-for-the-sake-of-it? Seems to be a pretty cynical, headline-grabbing way of making games – as if they’re realised that they can’t possibly compete against GTA on a level playing field, so instead they’ll be as filthy as possible so that people can’t ignore them.
I suppose what surprises me the most, though, is that it’s apparently a genuinely good game despite all that. Ultra cynical, lowest common denominator game design, yet also a good game? Madness!
12/01/2009 at 12:52 Colthor says:
Hehehe, it seems funny to see cute, cuddly John Walker enjoying one of these “hyper-violent murder simulators” when you’re more used to him getting brilliantly overexcited about cute puzzle games. And Tomb Raider (but that’s probably the only reason I have TR:U, and it’s great, so that’s alright then).
12/01/2009 at 12:58 jamscones says:
I had a go of this yesterday, running the PC and 360 versions alternately through the same monitor (both at 1280*1024). I also had a 360 pad plugged in to the PC.
There is no comparison – SR2 PC is a pale shadow of its 360 incarnation. The performance is fucking horrific, even when the graphic options are turned down to “fugly”, and they’ve done *something* to make the driving completely unenjoyable on PC, even with a pad, whereas on the 360, it’s fine.
The performance for me was even worse that GTA4. Completely disagree with Walker that this is just “scrappy” – it’s an utterly dreadful port. I don’t believe for a second that this is just about mistargeting the specs. Visit the PC performance thread on the official SR2 forums to see tons of people listing high-end rigs and getting single-digit frame rates. Appalling.
Strongly, *genuinely* recommend that people save their money and avoid this pile of toss. I absolutely love SR2 on 360, it was my second favourite from 2008 after Fallout 3, and I was really looking forward to the PC version after the disappointment of GTA4PC
My PC Specs, for reference:
- Athlon X2 3800
- 2gb RAM
- 512mb 8800GT
12/01/2009 at 13:04 Schmung says:
@Muzzman : Yes, for me GTA IV relatively po-faced storyline malarky got really wearisome towards the end. It tries to suck you in and play with your emotions, but falls flat on it’s arse and comes across as melodramatic toss towards the end. Niko and his brother are both great characters, but some of the supporting cast are woeful. The problem for me was that once you’re done with the plot the relative seriousness of the world removes a lot of the the sandbox style fun you could have in the old games. It’s that factor that SR2 relaly amps up and is the main difference between the two IMO
12/01/2009 at 13:07 Deme says:
This game is, maybe just not all the time, amazingly fun. The way you treat your fellow humans and surroundings has me, for the first time ever, looking at the cutscenes several times each.
I could go on and on about the greatness of this game, but I do not like to compare it with GTA, because the gameplay, story, cars, everything is emphasized in a completely different way.
Oh, and don’t miss out on “male 1″ in voices.
I’m loving the freedom and character customization.
12/01/2009 at 13:08 Ginger Yellow says:
“Did GTA IV’s seriousness become a problem (for anyone who’s played it)? Or does kinematic ragdolling motorcycle crashes make up for it all?”
Depends. Personally I loved GTA IV, but a lot of people didn’t and I do miss the OTT cartooniness of San Andreas. I’d be sad if future GTAs all stayed in that semi-serious vein.
12/01/2009 at 13:08 Songbearer says:
Horrible port, amazing game. I have this for my 360 and it’s one of the few games I’ve completed but still play even now.
This game does and will get a lot of flak for its lack of polish and blatant GTA-ripoffery, but if you stick with it, it’s a beautifully fun game with some amazing voiceacting and entertaining cutscenes.
It won’t be everyone’s cup of tea – it’s definetly a love-it-or-hate-it type of game, and it’s certainly on the rough side of the beauty scale, but it does so much to entertain you that you can’t help but love it.
Shame the PC port is so guff. I still intend to buy it, I just hope they can put some effort towards fixing it up. Between this and GTA4, it’s inexcusable.
12/01/2009 at 13:27 PHeMoX says:
“GTA IV taking itself a little serious made me really hesitant about it.”
Yes, it almost seemed like Rockstar got scared about going over the top yet further. I don’t really like GTAIV’s humor as much as I liked the older GTAs, but it looks better and you’ve got plenty of things to do. I found it difficult to control on my PS3, but it’s totally a very enjoyable game.
I might look into SR2 though, as over the top almost Postal-style games are really my thing. Total Overdose, Postal 2, Carmageddon… yes baby! We need more of those. :P
12/01/2009 at 13:28 Stenl says:
Thank god some people agree with me ! This game is probably the best I have played all year, and I am trying to convince people to stop that GTA 4 gritty, realistic nonsense and have some good, filthy fun. They all point to reviews whining on and on about the car control and go: “Everybody thinks that game is shit but you.” Finally I have some article to point them towards.
12/01/2009 at 13:38 Morph says:
5 mouse buttons? Are you some sort of millionarie?
12/01/2009 at 13:53 Larington says:
@Morph: There are in fact some stupidly over the top mice available for PC gaming, including some that allow you to chain a sequence of actions together as a macro. Ever fought anyone who seemed to left right strafe in an almost perfectly mechanical way? Its quite possible that person is using one of these mice. Of course, the big issue is that it creates a divide between the haves and the have-nots that I’m really not comfortable with in gaming, why should someone get such an advantage (Not having to put effort into pressing the strafe keys in whatever pattern) just because they can afford a ‘better’ mouse… Its bad enough having a divide between people with good computers and so so computers, yet alone something which has negative consequences for gameply.
12/01/2009 at 14:08 FunkyB says:
@John: You describe her as ‘slightly overweight’? She’s clearly no more than a size 10… :)
12/01/2009 at 14:10 CitizenParker says:
For widescreen players like myself, the fan-made Saints Row 2 resolution editor is a godsend. You can grab it here. It allows you to set it to 1440 x 900, 1650 x 1080, etc. etc.
A big second on your review. The game itself is great, but suffers some unexplained performance issues (minor though) and the controls are a little botched. Trying playing much of Fight Club on your plugged-in 360 gamepad to see what I mean – it’s impossible to do a takedown, for instance.
12/01/2009 at 14:41 John Walker says:
FunkyB – Actually that’s a result of my fantastic wardrobe skills! I deliberately made her podgy, because clearly that’s best, but then the jacket and t-shirt I dressed her in were really flattering. Um, I might regret writing this.
12/01/2009 at 14:48 Schmung says:
Are you PC gamings answer to Gok Wan?
Oh god, I’ve just realised that by having even contemplated the existence of style consultants for MMOs and the like that they must, as dictated by the laws of the interweb, exist somewhere. I’m afraid to google it, but I know it’s true.
12/01/2009 at 14:53 Bananaphone says:
Excellent game, one of my favourites of 2008. It’s so much better than GTA borefest.
Shame they’ve made such an absolute mess of the PC port, though.
12/01/2009 at 14:57 yhancik says:
Oh my god this is ugly. Not in a “omg not realistic enough, lol” way, but aesthetically, those colours/textures/dunnowhat.. Yuck!
That being said, I understand how enjoyable it can be, still I wish I could have that “mindless fun” without the immaturity and the whole urban/gangsta culture.
Something that has other references than MTV’s craps.
Not that it scares me away from those games, but it just keeps me uninterested in them, their stories and quests. In the end, I sandbox* until I’m bored and don’t touch the game for another year.
*as in the verb “to sandbox”, right? :p
12/01/2009 at 15:16 Rich_P says:
I’m against buying shitty console ports (which is what this sounds like from everything I’ve read). Your $40 could instead support devs who actually give a crap about PC gamers /guilt
12/01/2009 at 15:18 CitizenParker says:
To be fair, I don’t think the PC port is any absolute mess. The performance is a little worse than I’d expect since I comfortably ran Crysis and Far Cry 2 on high settings, but it’s no gamebreaker. And like Mr. Walker said, the controls you can adapt to without much hassle. It’s just at some points they become a pain to deal with.
The pros far, far outweight the cons, however.
Oh, and the menus are a bit insane for a keyboard setup.
12/01/2009 at 15:25 feffrey says:
there is a program that will force SR2 to use 1680×1050 res or any other res for that matter
http://www.amaderforum.com/showthread.php?t=160244
12/01/2009 at 15:26 Frosty840 says:
I can picture the final screenshot in motion, with the polygons juddering around during a pan, like they used to do on the Playstation.
Pass on a bad port until I can find some video of the PC verison in action…
12/01/2009 at 15:46 Chaz says:
Shame to hear about the poor port, as it was one of my faves on the 360. Don’t get me wrong GTA4 has quite a few things to recommend it, such as the excellent driving, but SR2 beats it for sheer balls to the wall fun. Played it co-op with a friend of mine on XBL and it had us both shouting with glee and giggling like a couple of school boys at some of the outrageous pandemonium going on around us. And yes the cut scenes are rather juvenile but the dialogue is still great and has some genuine laugh out loud moments. Me personally I chose the English accent for my bloke, and it’s bloody excellent, know what I mean.
12/01/2009 at 16:17 Lilliput King says:
Larington, I’m not sure I agree with you. The difference between a £15 mouse and a £40 mouse are pretty much minimal, and really aren’t going to make the difference between a skilled and unskilled player, in the same way that having surround sound, low ping and a good computer will make fractional differences, unless taken to their extremes.
You can see a similar thing in almost every sport. If a runner has the very best spikes available, he’ll run fractionally faster, if he has a better training ground/trainer/gym/whatever, he’ll be slightly better than he would be otherwise.
Its not fair but its how it is, I suppose.
Also, This is one of the ugliest games I have ever seen.
Also also, I guess that those of us that enjoyed GTAIV’s fairly mature and understated stylings are in the minority.
12/01/2009 at 16:34 Radiant says:
That was my issue with GTA 4 too.
I just didn’t feel any connection to the characters so when the story dictated to me that I should care about them I really didn’t.
I mean I just spent 20 minutes running over my cousin to start a fist fight so why should I care if he’s in trouble?
He’s not even real; all I want to do is jump off buildings with a parachute not play darts for the 50 eleventh hundred time.
12/01/2009 at 16:35 Radiant says:
Spraying poo on cops is a perfect waste of my time I had no idea saints row 2 was a decent jape.
12/01/2009 at 16:43 Heliocentric says:
You are wrong. The difference between a £1 and a £20 is indeed nothing. But a small number of gaming mice offer greater precision and extra buttons. For example anyone scrolling through weapons or reaching for a number is slower than me tapping one of my thumb buttons on my mouse. Or tapping my mouse wheel sideways to activate my gas mark. When reloading becomes slower than switching weapons your sidearm becomes more useful. Indeed advantages can domino.
12/01/2009 at 16:55 Hoernchen says:
Runs like shit. GTA IV at least managed to look awesometastic while running like shit. But then again, there is no rockstar live crap nagscreen before playing, so it’s even.
12/01/2009 at 16:58 Radiant says:
Actually I find that, so long as the mouse has at least 4 buttons, if the mouse has a decent update rate then any mouse with a few strips of sticky backed teflon on a decent mouse mat will do.
Regardless of price.
Gaming mice or mouse shaped like a pair of boobs are a complete rouse.
12/01/2009 at 17:00 Radiant says:
I meant ruse. [bloody spell check]
12/01/2009 at 17:09 MetalCircus says:
Im playing this on 360 and it’s ace. I’ve been glued to it for days.
12/01/2009 at 17:11 yhancik says:
But at least, it has a character editor, so you can relate a bit more to your character.
It should be standard in most games, actually (when they have third person view & real-time cutscenes).
(most, but not all of them, of course, of course…)
12/01/2009 at 17:47 Duke Goosington IV says:
I was totally put off the game by the, not just immature (I understand immature is the point after all), but plain offensive advertisment of the game, in which, once again transgendered people get to be nothing but a laughing stock in order to shift more copies of a game. The thing is, I don’t even have a problem with comedic stereotyping an entire community, but I didn’t see ‘charlie the chink’ or ‘Narcella the nigger’ so I’m thinking it’s just ‘randy the tranny’ because jokes are all we are. Of course, if I’m wrong, and other minorities/majorities are mocked just for existing, I’ll consider giving it more of my time.
12/01/2009 at 17:59 pepper says:
Is it just me or do those screenshots, not all of em, but some of them lack any lightning? Or any shaders or something alike?q
12/01/2009 at 18:43 Andrew F says:
Eh? I haven’t played GTA IV, but this isn’t the case in any of the preceding three. You can be followed into the garage by a motorbike cop and be on fire and as long as he doesn’t arrest you and/or you don’t blow up before the doors go down you’ll be fine.
12/01/2009 at 18:52 Funky Badger says:
Favourite bit from the 360 was the cockernee wankah male voiced character starts singing along to The Final Countdown.
(GTAIV was great too, just different)
12/01/2009 at 18:56 Oddtwang says:
My housemate’s been playing this a lot the last few weeks on 360 (after finishing Fable 2) and it does look like fun in a stupid kind of a way – he played a bit of GTA but this slightly-more-casual style seems to have grabbed his attention more.
I was impressed by the voiceacting too, although the lack of lipsynch seems a bit odd these days.
12/01/2009 at 19:04 Leeks! says:
I think my favourite running gag in the game was designed specifically to address the inevitable incongruence between the hero of the first game and your new avatar. For the first couple missions in every gang plotline, a character will remark “You look different. You change your hair or something?” Maybe not a great gag on its own, but given the fact that the first game was helmed by a young black man (I think, never played it), and my new avatar was a cross-dressing Guy Ritchie reject, it got a solid chuckle out of me.
Also, isn’t the Saints’ hideout an abandoned mission?
12/01/2009 at 19:45 Garu says:
You’ve persuaded me to make an impulse purchase. Any disappointment will be on your head, Walker!
12/01/2009 at 20:25 FaceOmeter says:
So John (or anyone)-
I’ve played (and loved) this on a friend’s ps3, but I’m only running a PC (albeit a reasonable one). Is this going to frustrate me or will my heartstrings resonate as they did when i was bent over a dualshock pad?
12/01/2009 at 21:30 Angel Dust says:
Personally I loved GTA IV’s more serious approach and I definitely got caught up in the narrative. Maybe it was a bit melodramatic at times but a lot of good gangster stories are. Of course it’s not for everybody, my brother-in-law plays like a complete psychopath so the tonal shifts from his style of playing to the stories tone are quite jarring, and that’s why it’s great that there are games like Saints Row. Not my cup of tea but I certainly see the appeal but I hope Rockstar keep going in the direction they are headed.
12/01/2009 at 23:18 Dorian Cornelius Jasper says:
A buddy put it best:
“Saints Row 2 is great because it’s GTA, except GTAyer.“
12/01/2009 at 23:28 John Walker says:
Face, I’d say with a decent spec machine you’ll be fine. I was disappointed by how low I had to set things on my computer, but then Alec had no problems at all. However, it’s such a stupidly fun time I ended up not caring about the lighting effects so much.
Angel – I agree. I’ve appreciated but never loved a GTA game before IV. IV let me sympathy, if not empathy, with the character I was playing. In previous GTA games I’ve wanted to shoot the guy I’m controlling far more than his targets. Somehow SR2 goes so far beyond trying to let you care that I found myself enjoying it for it.
12/01/2009 at 23:55 Gorgeras says:
If Volition bring out a performance patch, I’ll buy it. If they bring out a performance patch before Rockstar does for GTA IV, I’ll buy Saints Row 3 no matter how it turns out.
At what point did developers decide that goodwill towards the playerbase counted for nothing?
12/01/2009 at 23:55 rocketman71 says:
I have to agree with the HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE PORT, DON’T BUY group. GTA4 is still worse, but that’s not saying much, sadly.
13/01/2009 at 00:23 unclelou says:
Angel – I agree. I’ve appreciated but never loved a GTA game before IV. IV let me sympathy, if not empathy, with the character I was playing.
Same here – it is the first GTA that has really grabbed me. I am still at a total loss what the “fun” is people claim to miss in GTA IV, but have found in the previous ones. It’s a better story with better characters, with the core mechanics driving and shooting significantly improved.
As for Saint’s Row – I’ve watched a few trailers, and I don’t think it’s for me, really.
13/01/2009 at 01:56 malkav11 says:
The first Saints Row stars an almost completely customizable character also, it’s just they didn’t have female options. Or a voice. (And the SR2 editor’s probably better, I’ve only played the first.) My character’s an obese Asian guy with blue dreadlocks. And a goatee, as I recall.
13/01/2009 at 03:19 Blaxploitation Man says:
I have the chief of police as my homie.
Together me and him fight the otaku street gang.
13/01/2009 at 06:01 KP says:
How is the multiplayer? What kind of game modes does it have?
13/01/2009 at 06:53 wyrmsine says:
Unclelou – I am still at a total loss what the “fun” is people claim to miss in GTA IV
While the story in GTAIV is top-notch, the missions leave a lot to be desired. Halfway through, and every one involves killing someone with minor variations (are they surrounded by four walls and a gang of thugs, or a car?), or driving somewhere. The preceding PC GTA featured burglarizing a military base with a forklift, burning down a weed field, stealing police bikes and storing them on a moving transport, and piloting remote-control aircraft through an RTS-alike. Those are the boring missions. Contrast with the homogenity of IV’s gameplay, and it seems a disappointing failure of imagination even with the ambitious storytelling and mechanics.
So I’m another what bought Saints Row 2 for PC (thanks, RPS… and Yahtzee). I’d agree with the crappy porting* – this game has a boatload of ridiculous problems stemming from outright drunken playtesting. Still, when you get it running (hint: gamepads bad), it’s chock full of ridiculous fun, and incorporates all the best elements of the GTAIII series inexplicably left out of GTAIV. I’ve just got to find a way to make the cars less sensitive – SR2 is ripped to the tits on PCP, and it’s gone straight to the driving controls.
*Still a better port than GTAIV, though it’s far, far lazier. The problems with the SR2 port really do seem to be laziness or drunkenness, while the other has problems that go far deeper.
13/01/2009 at 08:42 Putter says:
I’ll happily put the res and detail to zero so long as I can get a decent framerate and a good draw distance. My computer: Intel C2D e6400, 4gb RAM, 8800gts 640mb.
Good enough? It ran GTAIV with 3/4 draw distance, all bars minimum, but no slowdown to speak of.
Oh yea. And did not like GTAIV. San Andreas, on the other hand, is my favourite game.
13/01/2009 at 08:52 Evo says:
We have Saints Row 2 at home on the PS3. Its the most fun I have had in a game this year, even including WoW. (Except for that bit where I played some Deus Ex with that texture pack)
The thing about Saints Row 2 is that I could jump right in and start exploring the entire city. I could steal a car, a motorbike, a boat or a helicopter and start mini games of awesome fun straight away. GTA 4? The city is closed off, the fighting in cinematics is completely different to the game play.
In Saint Row 2 I had fun pulling up parking meters and chasing down pedestrians and enemy gang members. I got to run over pimps and surf on cars. GTA 4? The very first time you have to beat up those guys beating on your cousin, the melee mechanics were so dreadful I turned off the game and never went back to its dark and dingy world and entered the colourful and fun world of Stillwater.
Its even fun to watch some one else play. Especially my house mate. She has a pommy geezer in a pink dress, high heels and a tiara. And that makes the cut scenes cool.
And damn if the missions aren’t fun too. even of the PC port has problems, I’d go with it over GTA4 any time. The immature, gangsta silliness is part of the charm. If I wanted some serious story I’d watch a damn movie. I just want to play being a mean gangsta in the silliest way possible, in a city where airport security is left to the citizen : )
13/01/2009 at 12:58 CitizenLand says:
I ended up settling on using a gamepad for the driving sections and the mouse/key for everything else.
Stupid Fun FTW.
13/01/2009 at 13:13 Songbearer says:
If you’re still not convinced, one of the gang leaders is voice by Worf. Come on.
13/01/2009 at 13:13 UncleLou says:
While the story in GTAIV is top-notch, the missions leave a lot to be desired. Halfway through, and every one involves killing someone with minor variations (are they surrounded by four walls and a gang of thugs, or a car?), or driving somewhere.
That’s the first complaint I hear about the actual missions – most people seem to claim a lack of things to do in the “sandbox mode”. While I agree that the missions lack variety, this has always been the case. Original missions have been few and far between, and mostly sound more fun on paper than they actual were. Which is why I’ve never been a huge fan of the games, only this time the story is better, and driving and shooting is fun due to the improvements in that regard.
13/01/2009 at 13:19 Ginger Yellow says:
“While the story in GTAIV is top-notch, the missions leave a lot to be desired. Halfway through, and every one involves killing someone with minor variations (are they surrounded by four walls and a gang of thugs, or a car?), or driving somewhere. ”
Indeed. And even the killing missions were more fun in San Andreas. How can you not have fun assassinating a construction site foreman by waiting till he goes to to the toilet, then tipping the portaloo into a ditch and filling it with cement?
13/01/2009 at 15:05 Gorgeras says:
“If you’re still not convinced, one of the gang leaders is voice by Worf. Come on.”
Michael Dorn? SOLD!
13/01/2009 at 16:10 Chaz says:
Yeah San Andreas is still the king of the GTA games. It was just stuffed to the gills with activities and things to find and do. SR2 puts up a good show as well but GTA4 doesn’t even come anywhere close in terms of side activities away from the main missions. And of those that are there in GTA4, most of them are quite pedestrian and just aren’t very fun.
They’ve made probably the most beautifully detailed living city in a game yet in GTA4, and yet they’ve left it almost completely devoid of things to do. Towards the end of it I found myself rushing through the missions just so I could get the game done and dusted so I could start something else. The feeling I got when I finished the game was more one of a sense of relief like “Thank god I’ve finally finished that!” rather than any sense of achievement or elation. As for tying up the story at the end, well the story stopped meaning anything to me after about a third of the way through anyway, as the game just pushed you from one set of gangsters to the next. Half the time I had no idea who the people were or how I’d come to meet their acquaintance in the first place. The best thing about it was the driving which it has to be said is bloody good. Racing around the city in first person view is a real rush, and it looks superb. The combat whilst much improved, I felt lacked any kind of kick. It was workable but not particularly exciting, and the cover mechanic was quite clunky. I still think GTA4 is a good game, but it’s just a rather dull experience.
14/01/2009 at 00:12 Alonzo says:
Whatever other games writing emerges from 2009, I think this will retain the award for best opening sentence.
14/01/2009 at 23:38 Somedude says:
What settings were you playing it on? Your cinemas shouldn’t look like that. If you had dynamic lighting on simple, then you’re experiencing the same bug I am.
It is pretty terrible port. None of the textures were retouched for the low setting so there’s all sorts of design issues that arise. Normally you should be able to see where one wall ends and another begins, but that becomes very difficult when the game uses the same almost white noise styled texture because it assumes you have lighting/texture effects on. If there graphical techniques aren’t going to properly support low-end systems, they should just exclude those options.
Do the Ronin mission where you rob a casino and put it on custom with everything turned to low or none. Then go in with dynamic lighting set to simple, and if you have that bug, you won’t see a difference between low and simple inside. If you set it to all, then suddenly it comes back.
14/01/2009 at 23:39 Somedude says:
there=their. Ugh. I’m sure there’s other mistakes. Sorry about my bad grammar.
16/01/2009 at 14:02 El Stevo says:
What I want to know is: can you use a female voice for a male character, and vice versa?
16/01/2009 at 14:05 Alec Meer says:
Yep.
17/01/2009 at 09:37 Evo says:
You can even start with a male character and make them look like a female. Or make a female character and push their body to look like a male’s. All the clothes are usable by both sexes, and all the hair, including face hair is usable by both sexes. Seriously its one of the most comprehensive character creations I have ever played with. It could be better with more faces already made to choose from, since it is pretty hard to use sliders to create your own, or at least have t so that its all on a number value so you can record the number values you like and share them.
Its the best character visuals creator I have seen in a game.
22/01/2009 at 03:14 Fred Cup says:
I think the disparity between people who loved/hated GTA 4 are do inpart by the fact that the GTA’s playstyle allows different people to be able to enjoy the games in their own manners. For me, GTA SA was a frustrating experience at times, and I much rather enjoyed GTA VC in comparison. I could care less about the side missions and open-ended options. I was in love with the storylines and the AAA actors thrown in the mix of GTA VC that kept me glued to the main plot all the way through. I never finished SA, being far too annoyed by being forced to play silly mini-games as means to support the storyline. I didn’t want to have to mash buttons on gym equipment to advance the strengths of my characters. I could care less about defeating arcade-style waves of enemies to control my territories or being forced into DDR-style dance-a-thons. Not only that, but the acting and the cast paled in comparison to Vice City. All that being said, I loved the breath of fresh air that was GTA 4 from the last game. Though I can understand how those that loved all the silly mini-games and over-the-top action of the past GTA games over plot and immersion factor would have been turned off by the last offering.
26/01/2009 at 22:11 CryingTheAnnualKingo says:
Its not that you called a perfectly normal sized girl “slightly overweight”, its that you called a girl a “latino”. In Spanish, we use the term “latinA” to refer to a woman. “LatinO” refers to a man.
04/04/2009 at 22:37 DigitalSignalX says:
This article merits a revisit to bitch and moan that even after 2 patches SR2 is still “undrivable” on keyboard/mouse controls.
For all the comparisons to GTA, here’s what Rockstar did right: Tapping a direction key turns the wheels direction slightly. Holding the key down longer turns more sharply. Keeping the key down turns the wheel as sharp as it goes.
Period. Fucking rocket science I know.
Here’s what Saints Row 2 did: Tapping.. long press, hold down.. whatever: all = a 45 degree turn of the wheels period. There is absolutely no smoothing out your aim. There is absolutely no controlling your vehicle at any sort of speed. This is worse then 15 year old arcade driving games. They should be fucking ashamed of themselves.
And yet, if you play on a game pad? You suddenly are treated to gentle turns, slight taps easily adjust your course. So apparently, they DO understand that on a console, a wheel that only turns 45 degrees on or off is a bad idea, but they just didn’t GIVE A SHIT even after 2 patches to share that brilliance with the PC user.
If a PC game is only playable on a console game pad, then it’s not a PC game. It’s a console game. There needs to be a new label to boxes indicating this. “Cross Platform” or “Made for PC only.”
I would rather go without (or even resort to 100% piracy) then deal with this frustration of being a PC only gamer and finding out (expensively) that developers simply can not rise to meet the most fundamental tenants of the platform they are releasing their title for.
/rant
27/05/2009 at 00:00 Nurdbot says:
A lovely game with a brillaint sense of humour, shame the fragging port from PC console was handled by the fricking morons that seem to be constantly handling X-box 360 to PC porting these days.
In runs decently on my PC BUT CRASHES IN THE CUT SCENES. Madness.