|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
 |
|
| |
SAINTS ROW 2 XBOX 360 REVIEW |
|
| |
THQ follows
up the original Saints Row with a raving
attitude exemplified by relentless action.
Entitled Saints Row 2, it is one of the better
fast-paced urban assault titles on the next
generation console. You might see it as a GTA
clone but you’ll soon notice that the gameplay
is anything but an imitation. While the game
portrays a much lighter biographical sketch of
gangster life when compared to GTA IV’s more
mature content, there is still plenty of
merciless drive-and-shoot schematics to the
story. Needless to say, what makes Saints Row 2
ultimately satisfying is its shameless mayhem
and free-roaming design.
The story picks up after the tragic explosion in
the original Saints Row. You have taken serious
injuries and you're spending most of your
recuperating moments in a dingy jail hospital.
An outside contact, who got himself in prison
deliberately, shows up to your resting quarter
to deliver the good news: a chance to escape the
penitentiary compound. After a few minutes of
conversation, you and your running inmate bail
out of the medical facility and sprint towards
the main gate entrance; but before the criminal
upheaval begins, the games takes you first to
the character creation screen to establish your
insidious personal profile.
Designing your own despicable persona in Saints
Row 2 is a jocular process, one that will
certainly inspire and amuse those malevolent
minds into developing very eccentric characters.
You're given a wealth of creative options,
including modification to weight, age, race, and
types of profanity you can use during your
terroristic rampage. The whole customization
aspect is quite extensive and subtle
enhancements can make a drastic change to your
appearance whether you choose a male or female
figure. Of course, you can always go back to
fine-tuning these physical aspects anytime by
visiting your local plastic surgeon at your
crib.
The majority of your missions is comprised of
stealing random cars, ambushing your targets,
and basically killing everything that moves in
the foreground. This act of violence may seem
repetitive but rest assured that each objective
carries an opportunity to do something
different, which keeps the action full of
suspense. For instance, one of the missions
calls for robbing a bank, but come to find out
it’s not the money in the vault that is of value
but taking a hostage for leverage. Other
missions contains dark episodes like poisoning
the leader of the Brotherhood by contaminating
their tattoo ink with nuclear waste. Sometimes,
it’s all about vengeance, and the way to resolve
the ongoing conflict is to get even. The best
part of each mission is that it comes with a
great cinematic cutscene that accentuates the
drama behind the story.
One of the aspects that makes Saints Row 2 such
a gripping performance is the tight controls.
The combat system, particularly its aiming
mechanism, is right on cue; so it’s easy to
target someone in the body part of your choosing
and take him down with little effort. The
shooting portion of Saints Row 2 is fun. Going
into a firefight is a rush and always on the
edge; you’ll be counting on your quick fingers
to nail down your opposition. If fights are
getting too hot to handle, there is at least one
handy move in your arsenal – and that is the
ability to grab enemies and use them as human
shield. Of course, you can always use cars as an
alternative weapon to mow down the hostility
that surrounds you.....and make your great
escape. |
|
| |
|
|
| |
 |
|
| |
PRODUCT
OVERALL RATING: 8.8 OUT OF 10 |
|
| |
It’s always
a laughter to see the physics work in this game,
which goes well with Saint Rows 2’s witty
content. Bodies react with extreme exaggeration
to every collision, and they are thrown 20 feet
in the air like you’re snapping a football for a
field goal. However, what’s going to make Saints
Row 2 boosts its replay value is not the humor
that goes into the game but the mini excursions
outside its main storyline. Saints Row 2 is
composed of various side quests that will
certainly give you plenty of successive
diversion. These activities provide a good
breather from the frantic core missions and just
let you have some great fun!
Among the side quest you’ll take part in, Trail
Blazer provides the most insane challenge! In
this mode, you’ll be riding like a typical
daredevil on a sporty ATV. The twist is that
you'll be wearing a fireproof suit that is on
fire. The objective is to inflict as much damage
as possible by lighting cars and people in
flames. You’ll be running against time as you
scorch the streets of Stilwater for anything
that is combustible. But if you want pure
frenzy, you’ll definitely want to check out the
"Zombie "Uprising". This is accessible on the TV
portion of your crib, and it’s the best
diversion we have played amongst the mini games
that are available.
What makes the Zombie mini game such a
fascinating diversion is the progressive
pressure to do every means necessary to survive.
Your main task is basically to decimate the
continuing onslaught of zombies in your wake;
but that effort is heightened by the limited
access to guns that run out of ammo as well as
close-combat weapons that break after a few
strikes; therefore, you’ll need to constantly
run around to salvage for additional weapons to
defeat these bloodsucking creatures.
Fortunately, you have a backup of courageous
folks that provide some countermeasures.
Obviously, there is no end to this Zombie
infestation; they just grow in numbers, and it
becomes more challenging to survive and to
resurrect your fallen comrades.
Saints Row 2 gives you the ability to play co-op
with a friend via system link. What’s nice about
it is that you’re not bounded together to
accomplish one objective. Your partner can
tackle half of the mission, while you go about
your own path of destruction. Just make sure
your friend understands that there's a domino
effect to every action. One person’s mishap will
trigger unwanted attention from cops or other
forms of opposition, and that could sabotage the
frivolity of your vandalizing. Because teamwork
is key to a successful heist, you can expect
some engaging action sequence here. It's nice to
see the game expands on the idea of having a
partner in crime, but it would be better if
Volition implements a split-screen option.
Graphically, the game looks a lot smoother than
its predecessor, everything from special effects
to the textures in the background. Volition did
a good job of creating a city torn by corruption
and overrunning it by ruthless mobsters fighting
for new territories. We like the fact that the
game loads relatively quickly, which keeps the
tone of the action pumped up! Thanks to the
steady frame rate, the translation of both
shooting and fighting sequences move at a
seamless pace, even when everything is happening
all at once. In the audio department, the game
maintains its respectable blast of noises for
the most part, but the one aspect you’ll
appreciate most about the sound system is the
variety of radio music you can listen to.
Saints Row 2 is an impressive action adventure
overall. The game does a good job of delivering
the role of being a gangster without the
consequence of doing some real jail time. Thanks
to the great storyline, you’ll never run out of
opportunities to do something different in your
menace to society. But what makes Saints Row 2
such an urban hit on the Xbox 360 is its
exceptional freedom to sculpt your own path of
destruction. Needless to say, the game
incorporates several other interesting
properties toward extending its replay value,
more notably the mini side quests and the
cooperative option that serve to keep things
fresh. If you’re looking for a marathon of
lawlessness, you’ll definitely find that
connection in Saints Row 2. |
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
