Saints Row 2 (PS3)

Saints Row 2 is enough to make a guy use the F-word.
10/15/2008 8:23 PM | 0 Comments | Page 1 of 4

I've been reviewing games for 16 years. The entire time, I've tried to avoid using the word "fun" because it's so subjective. It's a fine concept when you're just shooting the breeze with friends. But as a critical observation, it's simply not helpful. Since it means different things to different people, it says more about the person using the word than the thing he's describing. I consider it a crutch for lazy writers.

Today, I'm going to make an exception: Saints Row 2 is fun. It's so fun that I'm not sore about all the times it did something glitchy or just locked up. It's so fun that I don't mind the so-so graphics. It's so fun that I can easily look past the crass and occasionally tasteless writing. It's so fun that it doesn't need good driving physics. It's so fun that I didn't care if certain parts were poorly unbalanced or maybe even broken. It's so fun that if Crispy Gamer put numbers on its reviews, I'd be tempted to give it the highest number plus one. This is currently the paragon of open-world, city-havoc sandboxes, and it's a pitch-perfect example of a game that accomplishes exactly what it intends to accomplish. Like the first Saints Row, it out-Grand Theft Autos the best of them: Mercenaries, "The Godfather," "Scarface," Bully, Grand Theft Auto itself and even Crackdown.

Still only in Stillwater

The setting is Stillwater, which you might notice is mostly the same Stillwater from the original game, aka Generictown, USA. Fans will recognize certain neighborhoods ("Hey, that used to be my house!"), updated with better graphics. But the engine still struggles mightily. You can almost see the smoke coming out of its ears. There are bad frame rates; pop-up in the distance and that same old ghost car problem no one can seem to solve, where cars appear out of thin air and vanish again. The abrupt texture changes are particularly bad on the PlayStation 3 version, which has a soft blurry look that makes it harder to discern detail in the distance (this is definitely the inferior version in terms of graphics, and the only thing to make up for it is that you can use the PlayStation 3 controller's tilt function to fly aircraft).

Although Stillwater isn't that attractive, it's entirely serviceable. It's Stillwater, with plenty of traffic, pedestrians, explosions and even aircraft gameplay. There are even some nice views: you can watch a gathering thunderstorm, cruise between buildings in a helicopter while providing low-altitude air support, walk through a fancy downtown mall, or look out over a nighttime skyline. But Stillwater is no Liberty City, or even Venezuela. Instead, it's better because its priority clearly isn't aesthetics. Its priority is keeping you busy with fun -- yes, I said it again, fun! -- activities.

This is a game about running prostitutes, customizing a cool car and keeping it in your garage, going up to a high building to see if you can base jump, watching fights that have nothing to do with you break out on the street, trying to fly a plane under a bridge, or plugging away at a difficult challenge because you know something good is going to be unlocked when you finally complete it. This is a city built as a bustling amusement park or a lively arcade. This is your virtual playground.