I'm really looking forward to SR2. It's just stupid fun, and the game embraces that.

Considering GTA has moved away from that and towards a more "realistic" story-based approach, I'm happy that SR2 is doing what it's doing. There was more than enough room for both series before, but there's even more room now that the two series are seemingly going in relatively different directions.

Bishmon

@kathartik:

I'm pretty sure the player wasn't the undercover cop. In the final cutscene, they showed Troy looking at his police badge, with the obvious implication being that he's actually a cop. I'm not sure where you saw such an implication regarding the player's character.

Bishmon

@kathartik: Not like I am playing through Saint's Row 1 for the story, but a spoiler alert on that tidbit would have been really nice.

panfriedcharlie

I never really got into the first Saints Row, but I'm thinking of picking this one up. From what I've seen it's done a lot of evolving, and if it's really shed the GTA clone feeling then I'll probably like it a lot more.

I mean, don't get me wrong, I liked GTA3 and 4 (I didn't like those that came in-between) but if I wanted to play GTA, I'd play GTA.

Interested in a game within the same style with a different feel.

Jayl3w

@DigitalHero:Pity, I'll have one less person to shoot up up for some big ass chains in Multiplayer.

@FP_slomo788:You mean by loading itself down with a shitload of fluff and even now raising huge yawns from folks on how DLC won't bring them back?

@wild homes abides!:IMHO, the first SR put most of the GTA up till that point to shame. Sure there were issues with bugs, but the damn game was so much fucking fun that I beat it, something I've never done with any GTA ever. I'm honestly more hyped for Saints Row 2 then I was GTA4.
If they can make getting a better PAD more worth it, fix the cops so they aren't a joke compared to the gangs on five stars and other tweeks, I know for a fact i'll be playing this far longer then I did GTA4.

@exkon:Were they on the level of the first Saint's Row?

Foxstar Sixtail

@HaydenTenno: Yeah, but then again you obviously liked Dark Sector, so I don't know how much weight your opinion carries.

The first one was a blast, as was GTA IV, and different as all these games may be, they're still an awesome genre. SR2 is a definite buy.

DaPress

The 1st one kinda sucked, but if this one has good co-op, I'm DEFINITELY getting it!

Lanhoj

This first line made me very happy to read. SR1 really had some things that made it distinct from GTA, but they were overshadowed by its similarities. The fact that GTA4 went the superrealistic route and that SR2 is emphasizing the ridiculous over-the-top qualities that made the first one great is going to really help distinguish the two.

Which is great, because I truly feel like SR1 was underappreciated.

Babylonian

@FP_slomo788: wow. did you really just say that? more like it downgraded it's GTA roots and put on a better skin.

Xtreme_Hindu_Cow

Driving physics were horrible at the PAX demo. I was in a god damn APC being PUSHED AROUND the road by a police cruiser!!

I hope they fix that.

But the character creation was really DEEP. Fighting system was cool.

exkon

I have to concur. They need that in all fighting games from now on- from Soul Calibur to Smash Bros.

JGab

@Komrade_Kayce: Insurance fraud was a good mingame in the original... the only good minigame in it. All the others were annoying chores that you had to do in order to continue the story. I thought it was an okay game, but that one feature killed the replay value of it for me. If they remove that from the new game then it may be worth a purchase from me.

GodBen

After the huge flood of bad open world games, it'd be nice to see people not harping over the same initial ideas and do something new.

Not sure this is what I'm looking for, but hey, it's a start. I like humor.

litrock

there's a couple of things I'm wary about because of the first one... there was a couple of unforgivable bugs that plagued the first one (I'm not too concerned though, I think this one has had a little more time in the oven)

and I really hope the story is a little more fleshed out. in the first one the only reason I had even an idea that you were working as an undercover cop was from the layout of the instruction manual, until of course the final cutscene when it was revealed. if you're playing a character, shouldn't you BE that character? shouldn't you know things about him before other characters in the game do?

either way, I'll probably check it out, I enjoyed Saints Row.

kathartik

I'm very keen on this game. I found the original to be a really pleasant surprise. The writing was sharp. The humor was broad, crass, and filthy. The characters were (nearly all) memorable and distinct. I still crack up thinking about Troy, Johnny, and the Freckle Bitch's commercials. Mechanically I enjoyed the game a lot-- the driving was a bit loose, but the shooting was spot-on, and the missions were varied and exciting, especially when they involved rocket launchers or hijacking semi trucks. The character customisation was deep-- if purely cosmetic-- and the car mod system was practically a game in itself. Overall, I loved Saint's Row, and the co-op in the sequel has me expecting another very good time. Bring it on, Volition!

wild homes abides!

Oh boy here comes the flood of GTA IV suxxors comments!

Leobebes

"(I'll avoid the obvious Britney jokes)"

LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE!!!!

Poisonous Taoist

With games like Dead Space, Far Cry 2, and Fable 2 coming out a few days after Saints Row I won't be picking this one up.

Alucrid

I just hope I can take more than 3 cars out of my garage at once. In the last game I collected a bunch of sweet rides, and I wanted to put on a car show for the neihboors to see, but alas my hopes were dashed when I realized that my cars would disapear if I tried to take out more than 3 cars:( At any rate I will buy buying this day one.

dubz

From what I played, I left unimpressed.

HaydenTenno

@Aye Mak Sicur:

What?

Insurance Fraud?

Annoying?

Nay, good sir. I think not.

Komrade_Kayce

If they can maintain the anarchic pace of fun that made the first one a whole bunch of happy hours, I will get it.

MOP88

Wasn't keen on the First Saints Row from what I played of it, but from what Ive seen so far of Saints Row 2 i feel it has the potential to seriously compete with GTA4, unfortunately i dont think its entered the general consumers conscience to compete on sales. Depends how much money is thrown at it.

Sparkyuk

A good game is a good game, and I had tons of fun with the first.

Onegai

I for one didn't like the first one, but I'm excited about this one for some reason, o ya the full campaign COOP.

Biomonkey

I really liked Saints Row, and I never got my panties in a bunch over how similar it was or wasn't to GTA. As long as they don't fill this with annoying minigames to flesh out the story, I'll be all over this like metaphors on my Kotaku posts.

Aye Mak Sicur

I think I'll pass.

DigitalHero

GTA4 shook its GTA roots so...

FP_slomo788

And THIS is exactly what the internets doesn't understand. GTA is all growns up now. IV was the step it NEEDED to take, and for me, I'm incredibly thankful for it. GTA IV was brilliant. I don't want jet packs. Or crazy hair do's. Or an outrageous story.

Saints' Row is NOT GTA. They took the mechanic and drove it into a new direction, which is fine. I, for one, do not favor the goofiness of it, which is why I will not be purchasing Saints' Row II. But I respect the fact that Volition is doing something different. It seems like it'll do fine for everyone who didn't like, or get what they wanted out of GTA IV.

Hopefully, this very article will end the ridiculous "SAINTS ROW IS BETER THAN GTA4 WICH WAS BORING" argument.

BlackdogGT

this is how im guessing they are different
gta4= alot realistic and in depth
saints row= rubbish, shallow
there solved :)

mbeck

@kathartik:Troy was the one who wrote the manual. It's strongly implied that the Saints becoming one gang was the intent of the powers that be, as the police was unable to control or even keep up when there were so many factions.

The Storyline of the second one even has to do with the fact that the Saints have pretty much gone bad, taken over by those powers that be.

Foxstar Sixtail

I really enjoyed the first and left it more satisfied than gta4 so I am actually looking forward to the second because this year is the year of over hyping

holybarbie

@FP_slomo788:It's easy to do on here. What I wrote wasn't a jab to you but more a reflection on how I see people's views on GT4. Too much fluff for it's own good.

Foxstar Sixtail

@Foxstar Sixtail: @Xtreme_Hindu_Cow: Don't really know how you guys could misunderstand what I wrote so bad but yeah, I agree with both of you and that's what I wanted to say precisely.

FP_slomo788

I think it's pretty ridiculous to compare Saints Row and GTA4. It'd be tons more equal to compare Saints Row to San Andreas, honestly. Rockstar took GTA4 in a direction that they felt was the correct one and the end result was a 40-hour, story-driven masterpiece. That being said, I've stopped playing GTA4 which is something that didn't happen with past GTA titles. The story barely even sticks with me. The characters were well-developed, but there was no Woozie, no OG Loc. It lacked personality. It made up for it advancing the free-roaming genre's story development, but at a cost I think is pretty big.

Saints Row, I think, is full of personality. The humor can be pretty immature but it's there and the characters you encountered where diverse enough to keep things interesting. The city was well designed and the gameplay was loose enough to allow for some really fun mayhem.

Besides, one thing Saints Row will have over GTA is Insurance Fraud and that, folks, is more important than you think it could be. Especially when you and 5 of your friends are still awake at 2 in the morning with nothing better to do than to hurt someone.

AuraHACK

BlackdogGT: I don't want jet packs. Or crazy hair do

Speak for yourself, I want a jetpack.

Unlike you, I will play and enjoy both GTA4 and Saints Row 2.

/remember all the crazy stuff that was going on in GTA San Andreas. People running around looking for a ghost car, or looking for yetis. Flying planes and parachuting out. Dirtbiking up mountains. Stealing combines, etc. It's what the GTA series had always been about. Rampant mayhem with a cliched story thrown on top.

lordargent

I'm probably in the minority here, but I liked Saints Row more than GTA4. I still crack up whenever my friends refer to Wendy's as "Freckle Bitch's"

Cwolf267

@AuraHACK: Why does everyone keep saying GTA IV is a masterpiece??? I bought it and have played through all of it and found out that there are many flaws in both gameplay and story.

pikachumariachi

At least I know this game will control better than GTA4. GTA4 was a disappointment to me.

OGHowie

Hooray! This is good news, I've been looking forward to this.

I don't mind if games take from other good games. How many Pac-Man clones have there been? And some of them-- like Ladybug-- were pretty damn fun. Remember, good artists copy, but great ones steal.

Now if they could cram in some Force powers from TFU, some flick-it controls from skate., and some Bushido-Blade style sword duels, it could become the greatest open world game evar.

tk.

Sounds like they've improved the writing, then. The "humour" in the original Saints Row fell totally flat, for me. I enjoyed the game, but only as a technically slick but soulless stopgap while I waited for GTA IV. If they've sorted out the "soul" side, I might get the sequel.

cdammers

@lordargent: Actually, I was speaking for myself.

Rockstar decided they wanted their baby to grow up. Which was fine with me. Personally, I loved GTA III, loved Vice City, and couldn't get through San Andreas. It lost my interest. So, if Rockstar decided to keep with the same ol' formula of, as you put it, "rampant mayhem with a cliched story thrown on top", it potentially would've been demonized for not doing anything different, since that's what everyone is so maniacal about with this generation of gaming.

Again, I PERSONALLY found GTA IV to elevate to where I wanted it to. Personally. Speaking for myself.

BlackdogGT

@Komrade_Kayce: You, sir, are a sage amongst men. I cannot wait for co-op insurance fraud, on top of what I think will be a fantastic game.

Capt_Billy

I'm really looking forward to this. GTA IV improved on a lot of things technically, but I preferred the shits-and-giggles gameplay and characters of San Andreas.

And I really didn't see what was so great about GTA IV's story. It took itself far too seriously for just being an obvious, cliched mob tale, and the Niko in the cutscenes had little relation to the Niko in the game itself. Shouldn't the gameplay support and reinforce the story and characters?

jeangrae

@FP_slomo788:

yep...I was just going to say that. GTA 4 became something different entirely. No knock on SR2...I loved it and can't wait to see who sold me out...but yeah...GTA pretty much became a tank/mage.

bigjayboogie

this game seems a little TOO silly, to be honest. i don't think i can really appreciate it the way some of you can.

joeloliol

"It sort of feels that GTA and Saints Row were both heading down the same road and at some point GTA veered off in one direction and Saints Row headed off in another."

"hey saints row, i'm gunna go down this road that says 'good gameplay and story'"
"OMG THIZ SIGN SAYZ BOOBZ LOL, CYA GTA!11!"

thats how it went i guess

pandafresh

Another 2P co-op Campaign game, i'm in!

I highly enjoyed SR1, so this one will be just fine!

Teamwork Takedown

This game has captured the vibe from GTA: Vice city and San Andreas, in the way of the zillion minigames, if I'm not mistaken they said they'd have many. I liked those, who knows, maybe Saints Row 2 will be played longer by proponents of random minigames.

In any case it'll be interesting to pick it up after a post GTAIV world.

artofwar420

I didn't really like GTA4 much. Saints Row 2 is starting to sound more appealing every time I see it.

EskimoDave

@Lightman: Okay, I swear to god I thought this was the xbox price slash article. Geh.

Lightman

I'll probably pick up the arcade version for Dead Rising and Tales of Vesperia (IIRC those games don't have hard drive installs...). Gears 2 if I feel like it.

Hell, its cheaper than the Wii now, so at least I won't feel too bad for getting a console to play 2 games.

Lightman

"GTA-ness?"

heh, you said Anus.

blackmanfu

@DigitalHero: I think I'll stay! This game is going to be amazing.

Ken Hikari

I'd just like to say that in the first Saint's Row: going to the record shop, buying the Can-Can track, making a music playlist that consisted only of the Can-Can, and then looping it nonstop while playing insurance fraud ranks pretty high on my list of best gaming moments ever.

I sort of thought Saint's Row was like a shinier, bug-fixed version of GTA3. I liked both, and I got both. I got GTA4 and I'll probably get SR2. Sometimes you want the fine dining experience, and sometimes you want a crappy-ass cheeseburger from McDonald's. It's all good.

Ribs

@pandafresh:
I wouldn't say that, GTAIV despite "evolving" gave up a lot of the extra content and mission goals.
It's like San Fierro for the entire game.

HeartAino

@wild homes abides!: Ditto

Only thing SR2 needs to be is good in it's own right. That's all I really hope from most games. The first SR was, and the second looks to improve on that all the way around. If this video is any indicator, it would also appear the devteam at Volition has found their own humorous voice for their game, instead of just trying to copy Rockstar's humor, like they did in the first SR. Again, a good thing.

Matter of fact, the only thing that I did not like about the first SR, was how they forced you to do activities (whether you wanted to or not), in order to build up the street cred that you needed to be able to progress through the story missions. It is not so bad at first, as you need the money provided from those activities anyway. But there reaches a point in the game where you have so much money accrued, that being forced to continue doing activities, feels more like grinding from jRPGs. If they can fix that or at least balanced it out in the sequel, they will already have a much better game than the original.

The only other thing that I could really ask for in SR2, are more of the over-the-top, balls-to-the-walls, type missions that made the latter half of San Andreas so much damned fun. If there was anything that was missing from GTA IV, was those, "oh fuck, you ain't gonna believe wat I just did" moments that really set San Andreas heads and shoulders above the rest of the genre. Like the mission where you hijack a private jet at 20,000ft in the air, by skydiving (without a parachute) from another airplane unto the tail of the jet, and then sabotaging it, so that you can get in and kill everyone inside, before stealing it, landing it at the Las Venturas airport, and adding it to your permanent collection, to take out and use whenever you felt the urge to go flying again. Of course, trying to tell a more serious story, like Niko Bellic's, those kinds of missions do not really belong in GTA any longer. But with Saints Row taking a decidedly more fictional take on the sandbox gangsta life, anything is possible, which leaves the game wide open for missions of that sort.

The first SR had a few over the top missions towards the end. Like the one where you had to kidnap a campaigning politician on his own tour bus, escape the cops and the secret service in the bus, and then park it on the railroad tracks on the other side of town and watch the bus get obliterated by the 4:30 Stilwater Express as it came barreling down the tracks at top speed (on time, of course). Or a couple of missions later, at the same politician's funeral procession through the middle of downtown, attacking the police honor guard with RPGs in order to kill the chief of police and teach him a lesson, pretty much kicking off Armageddon in the process, and attempting to hightail it out of Dodge before you get whacked, having just become Stilwater's most wanted. But nothing like the stuff Rockstar was doing with San Andreas. Now that both franchises (GTA and SR) have gone decidedly different routes in their narrative, hopefully the devs at Volition will feel a lot more unrestrained this time out, and really cut loose with the water cooler moments in SR2. So far from what I have seen, all looks good, and SR2 looks set to completely bury SR come October.

InvaderPhlegm

I was kinda hoping it was more GTA than the last GTA was. I guess so long its good thats whats important but hmm..

Murrytmds

Saint's Row's humor is just that douchebaggy shit-head stuff that I find extremely tyical and therefore not funny. GTA is a lot more clever about their humor, they aren't simply making obvious pimp jokes.

RaepGoblin

hot. dog. suit.

subterfunk

The original, when it camne out, was great stuff; this is already on the "considering purchase" list...

sanctusmortis

Britnet...skinny...tha's funny.

Ira Lazerburg

Love me some saints row.

Dishwasher

The great thing about Saints Row was the fact that you were part of a gang. I loved the fact that if you were being chased by a cop or rival gang member and you pull into a territory that was controlled by the Saints, your fellow gang members would start blasting at the cops or rival gang members. Also, if there was a mission or turf war where you feel someone needs to get your back , you could whistle at up to 3 fellow gang members to cruise with you and help you out by shooting at the rivals while in the car or on foot. Saint's Row just made you feel like you were part of a community.

In any of the GTAs, you are basically a loner. Also, the way the game controls is totally different for both games. Saint's Row basically has controls like a firt person shooter in a third person view. GTA has the auto camera that automatically made you mad and also, GTA4 has that pesky auto aim and although GTA4 has a manual aim mode, pressing the left trigger button halfway on an XBOX 360 is a little hard in the heat of battle. Saint's Row lets me blast on a bunch of fools with ease by being able to run around and shoot at the same time.

One last thing. When you carjack someone in GTA4 and Nico punches the person in the face before he takes his car is an exact copy of Saint's Row. In fact, Saint's Row has 2 other things your character does before he pulls the person out of the car which is either shoot him/her or my personal fave which is where your character slams the victims face into the steering wheel causing a slight honk of the horn before he pulls the victim out and gets in the car to drive away. Classic.

Petrol42