Soldato
I recently bought this game and I would like to share my thoughts on it and would love for you to share yours too.
This game has been out for a while on the PC and an even longer while on the consoles (for the record, I have not played saints row 1). I totally overlooked it at launch dismissing it as a GTA clone and went on to play GTA 4 instead. I even ignored my Ben "Zahtzee" Croshaw as he lavished praise on it in a particularly uncharacteristic fashion. The only reason I bought it was......It cost £5.
My friend bought it on the direct2drive promotion and couldn't stop talking about it for a week and recommenced I buy it, I ignored him. Then after a few days, I decided I would indeed buy it (heck, what is £5 anyway - 2 beers if you're lucky). But the darn promotion had finished, I eventually got it from game for a hefty £13.50 and was a bit annoyed.
This did not last long.
Let me first say, a GTA clone is exactly what it is. However, this is not a bad thing in the slightest. The fellas at rockstar have created a genre of games that are story driven, full of interesting gameplay features, generally non-lineral and generally a heck of a lot of fun to play. It is completely understandable that games companies want to emulate this formula, and the gents at Volition seem to have hit the nail square on the head. They have taken all the fun stuff that GTA has: sandbox gameplay, massive maps, great story/voice acting, vehicles of all shapes and sizes, good music and turned it into a game you enjoy and want to tell your friends about.
Let me just list some of the people from the voice cast, the male cockney player charcter (the one I chose) is voiced by Charles Shaughnessy (most famous for his role in "The Nanny" but has recently appeared in the fantastic "Mad Men") this PC is hilarious and would highly recommend trying the game playing with him as your ingame voice, next Daniel Dae Kim (Lost, Angel, Star Trek) plays your most trusted gang lieutenant, Eliza Dushku (Buffy, Angel, Dollhouse) plays another key gang lieutenant and Michael Dorn (He is Mr Worf, that is all you need to know) as an enemy leader with a lot of presence. Among many many other (go NPH!) these fine actors make the game believable and fantastically fun to play.
One thing I constantly though while playing through it was how much better it is than GTA4 to play. This is mainly because GTA4 removed so much good stuff that is included in Saints Row 2, things like: Planes, tanks, property, neighbourhood warfare as well as many of the over-the-top silly things that made previous GTA games so fun to play. I still reckon GTA:San Andreas is a touch better than saints row (come on, its got Samuel L Jackson and James Woods in it!), but its a close call - Saints Row 2 certainly looks nicer and comes with fun co-op and multiplay modes.
All in all, I found this game surprisingly fun to play and as you may have guessed, would recommend anyone to give it a try. I bought it on the PC (using the rig in my sig) but I'm sure it will play very well on the consoles too.
What does everyone else think?
This game has been out for a while on the PC and an even longer while on the consoles (for the record, I have not played saints row 1). I totally overlooked it at launch dismissing it as a GTA clone and went on to play GTA 4 instead. I even ignored my Ben "Zahtzee" Croshaw as he lavished praise on it in a particularly uncharacteristic fashion. The only reason I bought it was......It cost £5.
My friend bought it on the direct2drive promotion and couldn't stop talking about it for a week and recommenced I buy it, I ignored him. Then after a few days, I decided I would indeed buy it (heck, what is £5 anyway - 2 beers if you're lucky). But the darn promotion had finished, I eventually got it from game for a hefty £13.50 and was a bit annoyed.
This did not last long.
Let me first say, a GTA clone is exactly what it is. However, this is not a bad thing in the slightest. The fellas at rockstar have created a genre of games that are story driven, full of interesting gameplay features, generally non-lineral and generally a heck of a lot of fun to play. It is completely understandable that games companies want to emulate this formula, and the gents at Volition seem to have hit the nail square on the head. They have taken all the fun stuff that GTA has: sandbox gameplay, massive maps, great story/voice acting, vehicles of all shapes and sizes, good music and turned it into a game you enjoy and want to tell your friends about.
Let me just list some of the people from the voice cast, the male cockney player charcter (the one I chose) is voiced by Charles Shaughnessy (most famous for his role in "The Nanny" but has recently appeared in the fantastic "Mad Men") this PC is hilarious and would highly recommend trying the game playing with him as your ingame voice, next Daniel Dae Kim (Lost, Angel, Star Trek) plays your most trusted gang lieutenant, Eliza Dushku (Buffy, Angel, Dollhouse) plays another key gang lieutenant and Michael Dorn (He is Mr Worf, that is all you need to know) as an enemy leader with a lot of presence. Among many many other (go NPH!) these fine actors make the game believable and fantastically fun to play.
One thing I constantly though while playing through it was how much better it is than GTA4 to play. This is mainly because GTA4 removed so much good stuff that is included in Saints Row 2, things like: Planes, tanks, property, neighbourhood warfare as well as many of the over-the-top silly things that made previous GTA games so fun to play. I still reckon GTA:San Andreas is a touch better than saints row (come on, its got Samuel L Jackson and James Woods in it!), but its a close call - Saints Row 2 certainly looks nicer and comes with fun co-op and multiplay modes.
All in all, I found this game surprisingly fun to play and as you may have guessed, would recommend anyone to give it a try. I bought it on the PC (using the rig in my sig) but I'm sure it will play very well on the consoles too.
What does everyone else think?
. Lacks the easter eggs and fun things GTA SA does have. Small uninteresting world too.