Then it hit me like a whole truckload of bricks. Saints Row 2 is basically GTA Vice City, jacked up to the eyeballs on laughing gas and plain old crazy. I LOVED me some Vice City back in the day. Hell, I still pull it out and play it every now and again when I feel like being an uncontrollable lunatic for a bit.
This raises the question, which is better? Saint’s Row 2 or GTA: Vice City? Well clearly, we are going to have some kind of points based showdown. The game with the most points at the end is the victor. GO!
Character Customisation
Yeah, so you could always change Tommy Vercetti’s clothes, but you were still always Tommy Vercetti. Saint’s Row has this nailed. You start the game and before you can even commit your first felony, you need to pick a gender, hairstyle, weight, eye colour, voice, walk, personality... no, I’m not making this up. You can wander round the stores of Stillwater, buying new clothes right down to the underwear, and even having the odd bit of plastic surgery. The hairstyles are rubbish, but what are you going to do?
Saint’s Row 2: 1 point, GTA: Vice City: 0 points.
Radio stations
Saint’s Row 2 has a neat feature where you can buy or find CDs and create your own personal playlist, but let’s be honest, the music isn’t that great. There’s a few good tracks in there, but most of its tosh. There isn’t even any talk radio stations! I love the talk radio, and Vice City had two as well as a brilliant soundtrack, so it wins.
Saint’s Row 2: 1 point, GTA: Vice City: 1 point.
Side missions
I’m not going to beat around the bush. Saint’s Row has essentially copy/pasted a good crop of GTA’s side missions. There’s the taxi missions, the car collecting missions, even the mission where you go round blowing stuff up to prove how badass you are. It couldn’t be more blatant even if they pasted the words ‘WE WANT TO BE GTA’ on the box. However, the missions that are copied are improved somewhat. The car collecting mission, for example, is MUCH better. If you hop into a car, it’ll tell you if it’s wanted at the chop shop, and guide you to the nearest one to drop it off. Better than driving round and artea for hours on end yelling ‘WHERE IS THAT CAR?!’ Or is that just me?
Saints Row 2: 2 points, GTA: Vice City: 1 point.
Characters
Both games feature highly dangerous lunatics who think nothing of mowing down pedestrians on their way to do drug deals, but to be honest, Saint’s Row’s are just a bit... meh. I mean, they’re badass and everything, but they’re more caricatures than anything else. Saying that, I’m not implying that Vice City’s characters were deep and meaningful by comparison, they just had more about them. Both games’ characters are stereotypes, but Vice City’s were more interesting to spend time with.
Saint’s Row 2: 2 points, GTA: Vice City: 2 points.
Atmosphere/Setting
Sorry Saint’s Row, but Vice City wins hands down for this. Stillwater is a gritty but bland any-city, while Vice City evokes a sense of time and place effortlessly. It’s just more entertaining to spend time in, whether you’re running with biker gangs, stealing tanks or foiling all female money laundering rings. I think I’m going to have to go back and play the game again...
Saint’s Row 2: 2 points, GTA: Vice City: 3 points
Ok, by the numbers, GTA wins. But really, you should go play both. Both of them are really as crazy as hell and ridiculously fun to play. Just, you know, don’t like Jack Thompson catch you doing it.
1 comment:
One point for Saints Row 2, you can swim.
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