Picked up Saints Row 2 on sale after hearing much praise for this game that I decided to try it for myself. Wanted to start the series with the 1st Saints Row however, it seems that the 1st Saints Row was released exclusively on Xbox back in 2006 and was never released on other platforms which is a shame since this game makes a few references here and there to the 1st game.
Nevertheless, the story of the 1st Saints Row is pretty similar to the story of this game. The story is set a couple of years later after the events of the 1st game where our custom made character wakes up from coma in the city of Clearwater to discover that the his/her city has drastically changed and is under control of a new power and gangs. As a leader of the 3rd Street Saints gang you rebuild your gang from the grounds up to reclaim back control of the city that the gang held these years back.
One of the highlights of the game for me , and something that I honestly didn't expect is the superb storytelling and characters that the game has to offer. Clearwater is controlled by 4 different gangs with each gang having its own story arc, new Saints characters that help you fight the gangs, and sometimes the Saints characters from these various arcs also come together and interact with each other and the relations between them makes them feel alive and genuine.
The Ronin, and the Brotherhood story arcs are the best in my opinion. The Ronin arc is full of twists and excitement that'll keep you on the edge of your seat, while the Brotherhood story arc shows off how cold and ruthless the characters can be in their pursuit of vengeance (Ronin arc also shows that off to some degree). The game also has a great humor as I found myself laughing and smirking throughout my gameplay.
Speaking of gameplay, Saints Row 2 is very similar in that sense to old fashioned GTA games. The game world is made up of around 50 districts with 45 of them that can be liberated from rival gangs. These liberations can be done by playing the missions in the mentioned gang story arcs or by completing gang related Stronghold missions where we go to a rival gang owned business venture in the district, and razing the hell out of it.
Each liberated district produces $500 dollars every 1 in-game day, gives us the opportunity to purchase businesses in that given district so that even more money is flowing in from that district to our safehouse safe, and improves the general look of the main HQ of the 3rd Street Saints as at the very start of the game it pretty much looks like a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.
However, I do find that the money coming in from shops is very underwhelming as at the start, and middle of the game you're going to be struggling for cash and you're only going to be swimming in it at the end (even if you do complete some of the side activities). Each shop at max can bring in $500 dollars a day with most stores providing $200 at max which for some businesses feels ridiculous. I mean...... you seriously planning to tell me that the car dealership that I own that sells sports cars for tens of thousands of dollars can only bring me $200 a day, seriously XD ?
Besides the main missions, there are also various side activities that you can do that can earn you both money (at max $5,000) and respect with each activity having 6 rounds. Each round of a given activity is more difficult but also brings in more money and respect. Some side activities I found fun (like Septic Avenger, Fight Club, Attack Helicopter, VIP Protection and Drug Trafficking) while others I found dumb (Insurance Fraud, and Rampage), all the other ones I felt pretty neutral about.
Another currency of the game is Respect which you need to start main story missions. The main way of getting respect is by completing side activities but you can also earn that by driving recklessly, and by killing gang members in missions and in free roam. You can also increase your Style level by purchasing clothes, cars, jewelry, and upgrades for your cars and houses, the higher your style level, the more bonus you'll receive to your respect when completing activities.
At max I think you can have a Respect level of 75, and although Respect is meant to be used as a barrier to prevent you from playing certain missions too early as long as you complete side activities, you'll never hit that barrier of the respect being too low as that only happened to me during the tutorial section of the game when I just got into Clearwater.
The gunplay of the game also feels fun but basic as there's no sneaking, covering system or any of that fancy shmancy stuff. Just your barebones run and gun gameplay, the game also has a good selection of weapons both in melee and ranged.
The game runs really well on Steam Deck LED with small energy usage on the battery. During my 41 hour gameplay the game only crashed on me once although I did have several instances of an infuriating glitch associated with the rewards screen after completing a mission or an activity.
On some occasions after getting through that rewards screen the audio and the game would glitch, and the game would move on to a black screen and the game wouldn't load unless you quit it. The problem is that the autosave only triggers after getting past the said screen which means that I had to repeat a story mission or a rank of a given activity since the game faded into black for me and I was forced to close it through the Steam Deck interface.
In summary, Saints Row 2 for me is a perfect example of a phrase "I came here looking for copper, and I found gold". The game totally blew me away with its superb story and the characters that I came to love for the humor and personality. Although the gameplay and its mechanics are basic I never felt bored because of it as the missions are varied in the tasks that they have you do. Overall if you're a fan of open world old-fashioned GTA style games you can't go wrong with this pick.
