About the game
Saints Row 2 is a 2008 action-adventure game developed by Volition and published by THQ. It is the sequel to 2006's Saints Row and the second game in the Saints Row series. It came out in October 2008 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, in January 2009 for Windows and in April 2016 for Linux.
The story picks up right after the first game. The player's custom character wakes from a coma after five years to find that their gang, the 3rd Street Saints, has broken up and their old territory has been taken over by three new criminal gangs and a corrupt corporation. With old and new allies, the player rebuilds the Saints and takes Stilwater back.
Story missions unlock by trading in Respect points, which come from minigames and side missions. Between missions you can roam Stilwater freely, on foot or by vehicle, using over forty weapons. You build your own character, buy clothes and tattoos, customise safe houses called cribs, and send your gang members to help. Two players can explore the city together online, and there are more co-operative and competitive modes.
Volition began work in 2005 and went for a more comedic tone to set the game apart from Grand Theft Auto, which the first game had been compared to. The city of Stilwater is about one and a half times the size of the first game's. The game shares technology with Red Faction: Guerrilla, so parts of the environment can be destroyed. It was delayed from August 26 to October 14, 2008 in North America.
Reviews were largely favourable, praising the action and straightforward gameplay while criticising technical issues and a lack of new ideas. The Windows port was criticised heavily for problems the other versions did not have. The game sold around 365,000 copies in its first month, shipped over two million by the end of 2008, and had sold over 3.4 million by September 2010. Two expansion packs, Ultor Exposed and Corporate Warfare, followed in 2009.
The text above is adapted from Wikipedia and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
What critics said
Metacritic 81 out of 100 (Xbox 360). Individual reviews: Edge 5/10, Eurogamer 9/10, Game Informer 8.8/10, GameSpot 8/10, GameSpy 4.5/5, IGN 8.2/10, Official Xbox Magazine 9/10.
Extra content
Two expansion packs came out in 2009, each with 5 achievements (125 gamerscore), new multiplayer maps and a new co-op mode. The Xbox 360 Store closed on July 29, 2024, so they can no longer be bought there.
- Ultor Exposed: A mission arc with Tera, character and vehicle options (including Red Faction: Guerrilla items), four multiplayer maps and a co-op mission metagame, plus 5 achievements.
- Corporate Warfare: A mission arc about the Saints against Ultor, costume, facial hair and vehicle options, three multiplayer maps and a co-op stunt metagame, plus 5 achievements.
Good to know
- The Xbox 360 list has 60 achievements worth 1,250 gamerscore: 50 in the base game worth 1,000, and 5 each (125 gamerscore) in Ultor Exposed and Corporate Warfare.
- Entering a cheat on the in-game phone turns off Xbox 360 achievements.
- The release was pushed back from August 26 to October 14, 2008 in North America.
- Partners in Crime, for finishing every campaign mission in co-op, is worth 100 gamerscore, the most of any achievement in the list.
- Still Addicted to tha Row needs 50 hours played in single player or co-op combined.
- The game shares technology with Red Faction: Guerrilla, so some of the environment can be destroyed.
- The Initiation Pack, with a pizza box and bullet-shaped USB stick, was only sold in Australia and New Zealand.
Made by
Director Clint Ourso, Producer Greg Donovan, Designer Scott Philips, Designer James Tsai, Writer Steve Jaros, Writer Drew Holmes, Artist Frank Marquart, Programmer Nicholas Lee, Programmer Jeff Thompson.
