Over Christmas, I'd received a gift card to Best Buy and decided the money would best be spent on some Xbox 360 Platinum Hits; one of which was Saints Row 2. I've long been a fan of the Grand Theft Auto series and its clones long since the days of the top down over-pixeled shooter. Picking up Saints Row 2 was a no brainer because I enjoyed the first and just never got around to purchasing the second.
When the game was originally released, I was busy with Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Rock Band 2 and FIFA 09, missing the launch entirely. I'm glad I had the chance to go back and pick it up because I would have missed what the Grand Theft Auto series should be - GTA 4 may be more polished in look and realism, but RockStar forgot the game was supposed to be about fun. Saints Row 2 understand that gamers don't play these games for realism and micro-relationship management, at least as much as a game can understand its human counter-part.
Being that I bought it over Christmas break and didn't have to work, I had a friend in and we would play til 6 or 7 AM. We put a solid 15-20 hours into the game without even touching the story missions. The diversions we did paid dividends now that I'm going back through and playing the actual story as I now have special weapons that were unlocked through various task based mini-games; the best of which is hurling yourself at oncoming vehicles to cause as much damage to your body as humanly possible.
You can easily lose yourself for hours driving around trying to find that next car you need to pick up for your chop shop activities, trying to find targets for hitman diversions and repossessing cars. Simply put, Saints Row 2 is all about fun. The graphics may not be great by "next-gen" standards and you'll see some slowdown here and there, but don't let that deter you. At $20, you can't afford not to buy this game and as a gamer, you'd be doing a disservice to yourself if you never play Saints Row 2.
