Saints Row 2

Juuuust the right amount of serious before it's thrown out of the window when you pick that kinda black kinda australian voice and just go hog wild. It's the final entry before the series went off the rails and then went off another set of rails.

Like Grand Theft Auto, except crazier. I found it... meh. Enjoyable for a few days before I got bored and moved on, never to think of it until today, a decade later.

so much better than GTA 4. great missions, great sense of humor, great variety.

Probably my favorite "GTA-like" sandbox game. I think people overrate the plot really fucking hard (aside from Maero's plotline, that stuff was really good) but it delivers on offering one of the most detailed open worlds I've seen in any game. It's also one of the most challenging sandbox games, although game breaking bugs and dumb random shit that kills you can detract from that. The game is a bit clunkier and buggier than its sequels, but I still hold this in higher regard than those games.

Wish the PC port wasn't godawful.

Saints Row 2 served to iterate on most of what made SR1 special, including it's self-aware sense of humor that served to distance it from Grand Theft Auto, which it's obviously miming. Solid gunplay and driving mechanics served to deliver a surprisingly competent game. Also the last entry in the franchise that kept its wheels on the ground, so to speak.

My strongest memory of this game is the covering stuff with poop minigame.

Unplayable in PC

Took all the right lessons from GTA4 by going into the entirely different direction.

I've seen people compare this to GTA 4 a lot because they were released in the same year, but I think this is in the same league as San Andreas. The amount of things you can do in both games is insane and I think SR 2 stands as a worthy competitor against San Andreas and not a clone.