Saints Row 2

The Saints have been dismantled, Saints Row has been transformed from a slum into a high rise commercial zone, and your mission is to build the Saints up as the new Boss. Saints Row 2 is a game that very much conforms to the Open World mold of playing as a mass murdering psychotic out for revenge and to make the world a better place (for you). This game is also markedly better than the first because of the addition of Cooperative play with another friend. That plus the fun open world jank you're accustomed to seeing in these kinds of games that just makes the whole experience fun. Unfortunately, the only platform you can play Saints Row 2 co-op, or at least without doing some LAN-tunnelling wizardry, is the Xbox 360 version so the review is based on my experience with that version. The PS3 and PC version uses the, now defunct, Game Spy multiplayer so the 360 version of the game is the only one that has Co-op available out of the box.

The game starts with you waking up in a hospital bed locked up in a maximum security prison built on an island and you've been in a coma for a couple years after being double-crossed and blew up on a ship in the first game. This prompts the game to let you recreate The Boss in your own image. You're able to pick a gender, choose between any number of bad hair choices, and use a cockney male accent as a female character if you so desire. While in 2008 the choices were impressive, compared to even Saints Row 3 a couple years later, the options available in both the character creation and the clothing, later on, will feel limited as nothing really seemed to make me feel totally satisfied with how my character looked.

Once the initial set up of getting out of prison and saving Johnny Gat, your second in command, the world opens up to you and you're allowed to take on any of the various activities opened up to you. These can range from a simple Crazy Taxi style Taxi diversion to driving a Septic truck spewing poo all over the place or being a bodyguard protecting a client walking the red carpet. These activities are fun for the most part and can give you some pretty powerful upgrades that will be incredibly helpful without feeling totally overpowered like reduced damage taken, more cars in your garage, and reduced notoriety from the police and various gangs in the game. You can also get unlimited ammo for your pistols, SMGs, and Shotgun slots but, this will feel more like a convenience than feeling like you're overpowered.

For most of the game, you'll be taking on the three main gangs in the city: The Rastafarian Samedi, Japanese Ronin, and the Tattoo-covered Brotherhood. They have split the city up into Green, Yellow, and Red, respectively, and you can take them on in any order of your choosing. These missions are where the game's very good story is told. The characters are well acted and believable, for the most part, and in some cases, sympathetic. If you've played the first game, you'll also encounter lots of familiar faces but, knowing what happened in the first game is largely irrelevant and most of the characters are not story-critical and even then, are not that important in the grand scheme of the game.

Bugs, glitches, and general overall jank will be a big factor while playing this game. Most of the glitches and bugs in this game will be fun and will add to your enjoyment of the game, much as they did for me. But, with every nine really fun bugs that really enhance your fun, there will be at least one that is game-breaking. Maybe your character will be stuck in a pose like they're getting into the car but, will be two car lengths behind your car like they're being pulled forward on a surfboard, crashing through the geometry like they're crashing through waves in the ocean, or you or an NPC will inexplicably clip through or fall through the world or the NPC pathing or scripting will break and you'll have to restart the mission and in some cases, the whole game in order to fix it. The game breakers are a bummer but, the missions, for the most part, aren't very long or particularly difficult, especially in Co-op that they rarely serve as more than mere inconveniences.

I thoroughly enjoyed the 31 hours I spent in Stilwater playing Saints Row 2 Co-op, despite the few bugs that I came across and because of that, I give this game a 4 out of 5. The overall experience of the game was so fun that I was fine with the occasional broken mission, and the game autosaves frequently enough that you will rarely lose any real progress. Because of this, I highly recommend finding a friend and giving Saints Row 2 a try.