Saint's Row 2

So saw the preview for this in the latest issue of Game Informer. Easily one of my most hyped games for next year. I’ll have to admit I marked out on the first one; that is, I didnt have any interest in it until reading the QT3 forums, and then I became it’s biggest fan. Thought one of the big highlights of the first was the soundtrack, especially the alternative/rock track selection. Anyone else sharing my optimism?

-Chris

After playing the first one, I’m more excited for SR2 than GTA4.

I loved SR’s gameplay, hated most of its writing and humor. I hope Rockstar played a lot of the first game and stole a lot of ideas. Pair up SR’s gameplay with GTA’s writing and you have something really special.

Saints Row was easily the best GTA clone made. Looking forward to the next one indeed, although I wonder how it’ll do if it’s released after GTA IV.

Saints Row was a good GTA clone released at the right time.

I don’t see the same success with SR 2 unless they do massive overhaul though with GTA IV probably being released before or right at the same time.

Anyone know how many (any) of the volition guys who worked on the Saint’s Row games were also involved in FreeSpace 2? Whatever happened to the main team from FreeSpace 2?

Were they the ones who did Red Faction? Because if so, that neatly cancels out any FS2 goodwill.

Yeah these are the Red Faction guys.

I didn’t think Saints’ Row was really all that great, although it did have a few really nice ideas that I hope get carried over into GTA or some clone of it. They really made it easy to do drive by shootings. Other than some neat concepts though, the game was kind of tedious. Somehow or another I managed to almost beat the game though.

I believe one of my first posts on qt3 was bad mouthing Saints Row and saying something to the effect of “it looks like a crappy clone and is nothing more than a pathetic attempt to cash in on the gta-craze” or something like that. My next few posts on qt3 were nothing short of fanb01-ism for the game.

I don’t remember much about Red Faction but I remember Red Faction 2 being tons of fun right up until the end boss who had a giant rocket launcher and an ungodly amount of health and a 2 minute unskippable cut-scene you had to watch every time you died and got ready to fight him again. I think it holds the record for game I’ve made it furthest in without finishing because after 5 tries I just couldn’t sit through the cutscene again.

Saints Row was the best game I’ve played in years, let alone the best game I’ve ever played on the 360.

I never played the full game, but the demo of Saints Row was not only buggy and locked up my 360 (the only game I’ve had do that to date), it was pretty crappy gameplay. I’ve never understood the love SR gets…

I thought the game was great. Much more sandbox than even GTA for me personally. The humor thrown in with things like the insurance fraud and similar really made the game a blast to play. It’s not like we can’t have GTA and SR both. I for one, am happy with our new gang sandbox game overlords.

To be honest, the story in these types of games isn’t what drives me to play. It’s the over-the-top chase scenes and ability to jump, play, blow shit up, etc. Which is also why if Crackdown 2 is a given, then I would buy it above these two first.

I still haven’t finished Saints Row, as I’ve not had it all that long, but I’ve played well over 30 hours.
I will be picking up the sequel on the release week. Dunno if I can muster up that much excitement for GTA4.

I just hope I can recreate my old posse.

They see me rollin’.

They hatin’…

There were several FS2 guys in senior/lead roles on SR. Looking back at the FS2 credits, I’d say over half of the that team is still at Volition, as far as I know.

Finally a decent shooting model in a 3rd person drive/shoot game, finally a way to to make tricking out your rides meaningful (store in a garage, retrieve whenever), tons of side missions to do, and a more or less coherent 3-part story.

The story and the city may have been generic, but the gameplay experience was clearly polished to a very high standard.

Saint’s Row had actual character creation, and that’s why I enjoyed it so much more than GTA.

I made a fat white guy with a mullet. I drove a pickup truck and used a shotgun, and my homies didn’t care that I didn’t fit in. I laughed my ass off driving around doing drivebys in my pickup. Just exploring the early part of the game, with my custom character, was tremendously entertaining.

I really liked Saint’s Row – it was a more focused version of GTA, and character creation was awesome. I essentially created myself and it was a decent representation – probably better than I’ve been able to create in any game other than Fight Night Round 3. Gimme more of the same and I’ll be happy.

More praise for Saint’s Row. I was humming that one song “Let’s Take Walk In The Hood” for weeks. Great gameplay, great gunfights, physics, explosions, challenges. Really, the mission structures were very similar. Lots of nice touches like the customizations of all aspects of your character, the respect system, robbing stores, etc. I liked Saint’s Row better, even, because there were fewer racing missions, and I hate racing missions (I know, it’s a driving game, sue me).

The things missing from Saint’s Row were the little minigames and touches that San Andreas introduced to flesh out the interactivity of the world. Things like the video arcades, dancing club minigame, gambling, etc.

One of my favorite missions in Saint’s Row was the one where you had to kill all the witnesses in the apartment complex. Something about the way the structures/floors were designed was pretty realistic and fun.

“Blue skies . . . sunshine . . . what a day it is, what a day it is. . .”