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datasets.iitb.crawledDocs.13Oct08_ENT_file_26.txt Maven / Gradle / Ivy

Video gamers get a sweet taste of gangster life with 'Saints Row 2'

By MICHAEL SHERIDAN
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Tuesday, October 14th 2008, 4:00 AM

No. 1 With a Bullet: Art from THQ and Volition's 'Saints Row 2'

Imagine a world so off-kilter that you could walk up to anyone and give them a smackdown with a metal bat, or yank a driver from her car and steal her Hummer.

That's life in "Saints Row 2."

And boy, is it twisted.

These hard-core, ultraviolent games are a bit alien to me, but I would be lying if I said I didn't find something fun about it.

"Saints Row 2" takes place in the fictional city of Stilwater. It picks up after the events of the original with a prison escape. You find that Stilwater is not what it used to be. Your old territory has been turned into a sleek, modern development of skyscrapers with a private police force.

The game's first few missions are dedicated to reforming the 3rd Street Saints gang, with you in control. Meanwhile, to build street cred and pimp out your crib, you can troll the city for activities and diversions.

Typical pursuits include wreaking mayhem and causing as much damage as possible,  by destroying cars and buildings and killing cops and others. Milder diversions include things like driving a taxi.

"Saints Row 2" is, of course, most comparable to "Grant Theft Auto" and its sequels, and while "GTA" keeps its reality close to our own, "Saints Row" takes things to an extreme.

The violence is pretty much over the top, like a 1980s action flick on steroids. There's plenty of blood and foul language, and if you're so inclined you can walk up to any stranger and pop a cap into them.

It's a bizarre mixture of extreme violence and comedy. In one mission, for instance, you drive a septic truck and spew sewage over buildings, police cars and businesspeople.

 I found the missions the most entertaining aspect of the game. Battling rival gangs for supremacy over the city's underworld was challenging. The activities and diversions were fun, but spending too much time on these gets a little tedious.

My two favorite aspects of the game were its character customization options and its music.

At the start, you get to design your character, and I was fairly impressed with the variety of options, from skin tone to body type to hair color. I chose to terrorize Stilwater as a tough-talking woman with Egyptian-style eye shadow.

Music choices made some of the action sequences more enjoyable. I liked to speed through Stilwater in a stolen convertible as I unloaded my automatic into rival Ronin (renegade warriors) while listening to Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker Suite."

On the graphic side, the animation for the PlayStation 3 is pretty standard. Not everything is especially lifelike, but neither is the game, so I'm not sure that really matters.

Games like "Saints Row 2" often conjure up some controversy, and groups touting themselves as defenders of the family thump their chests about banning shoot-'em-ups like these.

As a parent, I'll concede that I wouldn't let my kids anywhere near this one. Of course, my son's only 5 and my daughter's not quite 2, so that's kind of a given.

But I'm not a proponent of the idea that games incite violence, either, so I don't believe teens are going to go out and jack a car because of "Saints Row 2." But the only impact - in the real world, at least - will be a bit of fun or a laugh or two.