Rampages are great since unlike GTA style Rampages they just send you somewhere then give you unlimited ammo for dozens of different weapons(Instead of just one) and challenge you to get to X thousands of dollars of property damage (Which would be a lot more fun if you could you know, damage the houses but it's still fun blowing up cars, cops and lawn furniture) I find it odd the easiest way to beat said ramages was to use your unlimited C4 was to set explosives along an entire fence line (Which would count each section of fence as one object) to get a giant rampage multiple then blow up something expensive at the end.
The helicopter assault was fun for the first two missions(Blow shit up) until it got into repetitive spawn issues and one section where you are forced to break off your glee inducing murder-fest to do some delicate piloting, which had I know I would have quit right then, I signed up for airborne destruction not an helicopter version of Operation. But that's balanced out by Fuzz(Drive around as a cop filming a knockoff of COPS with more ratings boosting ultra-violence) Then there is racing, trailblazing(Like racing but you on fire setting people on fire for extra time) tagging, and more.
The game itself is quite fun, as you go in you get more money to purchase "cribs" and cars and more guns and thank bob once you buy a car or truck or boat, or Apache attack helio you can go to any crib's garage and get it, if it's destroyed you have to pay a small fee first then you have it for use again. And you can do the same thing without buying said cars if you can find them, steal them and get them back to a garage. And your weapons locker(Finally) where any weapon types your not using get stored and you can switch between them. Prefer double barrel shotgun to semi-auto? Go swap them out, it will still be there if you want to switch back. Same thing goes for rocket launchers, sniper rifles, all five varieties of handgun and special weapons. Take the loadout you like, if you run out, feel free to drop it as you'll always have a copy in your crib to switch out with. (Ala-Farcry 2's weapons dealer)
I'll say little about the customization except to say there's a fuck-ton of it and gender reassignment surgery is available on demand
Want to go from seven foot tall flame haired Irishman to tiny five foot nothing Asian girl? No problem! Want to go from tiny Asian girl to fat ass Eric Cartmen knockoff? No problem. Not satisfied with that? Then how about about a dead ringer for Puff Daddy? No worries, there are so many customization features it's crazy (And all the hair colors of the rainbow such as black, blonde, hot pink and dark blue)And the game itself is decently fun, not woohoo awesome but at least fun consistently. But here in comes my question. So Saints Row 2, lots of violence, lots of sexual content and until you play the story missions the whole thing reminds me of GTA 2, you know, zany wacky violenty fun. But the story missions? Dark as fuck considering their content. Only one branch of missions(The Sons of Shamdi) is a nice happy romp of drugs, murder and voodoo. The boss fights were a joke, but the missions were fun. The other two branches feature fun likes like a recently beaten up idiot thug texas funeral and a woman getting her head cut in half(About eye level) even if it is implied instead of show. While the third plot line features a man being pulled to his death behind a truck, a woman getting crushed inside the trunk of her car, a guitar player having the skin burned off his hand and a mechanic having is face smashed in by a brick.
Which is what threw me, on the one hand the entire game comes across as zany if violent humor, then the story missions come down and their are dark as hell. Not played GTA4(Waiting on better monitor and Video card for that, oh and for it to hit 30$) but I'm wondering if the mega McGrimdark Theft Auto 4 game weighs in when compared to Saints Row 2? And of course your own thoughts on Saints Row 2.
