Why Saints Row 2 is the antidote to GTA IV

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Was Liberty City too realistic? Maybe Stilwater is more your speed

Instead of trying to compete with GTA IV’s sophisticated take on the car-crime genre, Saints Row 2 concentrates on packing in as much moronic fun as possible, and on some level we have to respect that. It’s like a magnified throwback to the “old” GTA – the silly, over-the-top orgies of violence that defined the PS2 generation – and every time GTA IV takes something in a “mature” direction, Saints Row 2 takes it the opposite way. Here, then, are a few interesting differences you might notice when the game hits.


Above: See, even her/his friends agree

The upshot of the protagonist not having much of an identifiablepersonality is that you’ll have free rein to customize your sociopath however you see fit, adjusting everything from gender and voice to nostril size and underbite. True, he/she will still act like the same nihilistic asshole no matter what you do, but if you really miss having Niko around, you can just make him – or any other GTA character, for that matter.


Above: The original Niko, and our rough Saints Row 2 replica - all in all, it’s not a terrible likeness

That goes double if you liked Niko, but had a problem with that whole “dignity” thing. See, Saints Row 2 lets you customize a lot more than just the shape of your character’s face:


Above: Yeah just slather it on with a trowel why don’t you


Above: Ha ha, who represents a revolution in character-driven storytelling now, smart guy?

Of course, if copying the likenesses of characters from those ooooooother games doesn’t appeal, you can create all sorts of horrifically unappealing characters. Like this guy, for example:


Above: Probably we should have warned you that you can walk around wearing nothing but a mosaic blur

Did we mention that you can play as a woman? That’s pretty rare for car-crime games, and it hasn’t been done in a GTA since the first game 10 years ago.

Oh, and before anyone starts mumbling about the horrible game that only enables you to create conventionally attractive women, please bear in mind that you also have the option of playing as an obese grandmother with acromegaly and a thick mustache.


Above: Yes, that’s a woman

The interesting thing about your character’s near-total lack of personality is that – while it never felt “right” to go on bloody, mass-murdering rampages as Niko – opening fire on a crowd of civilians feels perfectly in character. We miss having a strong personality to identify with, but having an avatar who’s nothing more or less than a nihilistic asshole is oddly freeing. Especially when going around shooting people in the face carries few, if any consequences. Which leads us neatly to our next point.

Mikel Reparaz
Mikel Reparaz
After graduating from college in 2000 with a BA in journalism, I worked for five years as a copy editor, page designer and videogame-review columnist at a couple of mid-sized newspapers you've never heard of. My column eventually got me a freelancing gig with GMR magazine, which folded a few months later. I was hired on full-time by GamesRadar in late 2005, and have since been paid actual money to write silly articles about lovable blobs.