Saints row 2

March 3, 2008 - It's not easy for a company to make
an open-world game that stands totally separate form the titan that is
Grand Theft Auto. THQ went the opposite direction of other companies
and decided to make their first entry into the free-roaming gangster
genre what was essentially a re-skinned GTA. Luckily for the publisher
no one had seen GTA on next-gen systems so Saints Row was their only
option for a high-def world of free-roaming destruction. Now it's the
year 2008, gamers everywhere are gearing up for Grand Theft Auto IV and
yet the people at THQ don't seem worried. In fact, they seem downright
confident that Saints Row 2
will be able to woo gamers away from Rockstar's latest. Just last week
we got a look at a very early build and while we weren't allowed to
delve deep into what the city of Stillwater holds this time around, we
can say that the building blocks are once again in place for a rousing
open-world thugfest.

As those who played through the first Saints Row know by now, your
nameless character was taken out at the end of the storyline thanks to
a well-timed boat bomb (like a car bomb, but on a boat). Somehow your
kingpin survived the explosion, but not without serious cosmetic
damage. Thus the fact that you begin the new storyline by reshaping
your character's physique at a doctor's office in the big house is a
bit more fitting. You'll later find out that it was actually the higher
ups of your own gang who set you up to buy the farm, now it's up to you
to rebuild the gang, exact some sweet revenge, and rid Stillwater of
the new competing gangs.


Blowin' **** up is always fun.

Gone
are the days of Los Carnales, the Vice Kings, and the Westside Rollerz
and they've been replaced by three entirely new gangs. They have new
personalities, new lieutenants commanding the peons to and fro, and new
Hollywood voice talent to bring it all to life. Not only that, but the
city of Stillwater has gone through a sort of time warp and has
experienced 25-30 years worth of structural and cosmetic changes in the
short time since the first game so things should feel totally different
from the first go-round. Not only that, the Ultor Corporation
(mentioned lightly in Saints Row) has taken over the city in order to
"fix its problems." You can bet that it'll factor into the storyline in
one way or another, but THQ is mum for the moment. The single gang that
we were shown during our demo was known as Sons of Samedi. We weren't
given much background information beyond the mission objective which
was to blow up a certain number of trailers that were being used to run
drugs.

While the option of chucking explosives into the trailers and blowing
them up the old fashioned way was certainly readily available, the
developer from Volition who was manning the demo had other things in
mind. Since cars can be used to kill enemies in the game, why not go a
different route and give them the ability to be converted into
makeshift bombs? Well, thanks to the new satchel charge weapon, you
can. Simply hop out of your ride, set a charge (or five) on the hood,
get it going in the proper direction, ditch the whip and watch it
careen into the side of the trailer as you press the detonate button.
Fireworks abound! The more traditional gunplay is handled with a Gears
of War style over-the-shoulder camera angle (toggled by a click of the
right stick) which should please the many who despised the aiming in
the first Saints.


Want a piece?

The
rest of our time in the Sons of Samedi mission was spent perusing the
surrounding environment. It was a desert setting that didn't exactly
fit with the metropolitan motif of the first game. The Volition
representative used a debug (only accessible in early versions) cheat
to hop to the location without actually driving there, so we don't know
where it is in relation to the rest of the city. Still, the land was
populated with mobile homes, traffic routes that featured random events
like car crashes and people yelling at one another, and some
hilariously inappropriate dialogue from spectating pedestrians.

While the mission looked fun and had the potential for plenty of
mayhem, the real star of our demo was the aforementioned customization
options that begin Saints Row 2.
Everyone expects to be able to change your face, the length of your
brow and the contours of your character's mouth, but Volition is taking
things a few steps further. Now you'll be able to change their taunt,
compliment, walk and combat styles. Taunt options include things like
The Dumper, Dog Pissing, Ride the Donkey, The Wanker, and Tea Bag.
We'll let your imagination run wild at those possibilities. The
different walks range from Pimp Walk to Crazy Walk which makes your
character look like a meth head for lack of a better term. Compliments
can be as simple as a salute or as complicated as a full-blown
riverdance. Those, along with a combat style, come together to create
the personality of your gangster which will apparently change the way
that characters in the world react to your actions. Also, unlike in the
first Saints, your character will actually have plenty of dialogue
(there are over 60,000 lines of dialogue throughout Saints 2) to push
the plot along. Hooray for no longer being a mute!


Like MTV Cribs, only not.

Not
only can you change the outward appearance and demeanor of your
crusading hoodlum but you can also change the aesthetics of your home
base – known as a crib for those living the thug life. You can upgrade
your pad with things like a stripper pole, nicer electronics, and other
trinkets that will help to impress your low life friends.

The rest of what we saw from Saints Row 2 felt very familiar. You can
still load up your car with three other gang members to help you during
some of the missions, but this time you'll have the option of more than
a simple four-door auto. Jet skis, boats, planes, helicopters, and
motorcycles will all be available at one point or another. The GPS
system that was in the first returns again but this time it will
reprogram itself with a new route should you stumble across a shortcut.
Activities are also back with new additions to go along with the
classic Insurance Fraud and Helicopter Assault but we weren't given
examples. The respect system is also returning but has been tweaked a
bit to change the way points are divvied up.


Gunplay at every turn.

Saints
Row 2 is poised to be the quintessential sequel with bigger sights and
sounds and more things to do with your time. The multiplayer, which
includes a full fledged co-op mode, is said to be totally revamped from
the first Saints but no details were given beyond that. With more
Hollywood talent, new locations, a few returning characters, new
vehicles and a revamped customization system that allows for some truly
ridiculous persona options, it looks like Saints Row 2 will be one to
watch for when it releases later this year. Whether that means that
people will forget about GTA IV to travel to Stillwater, well, that's
another matter entirely.