The battle of the open world titles.


Role-playing survival game is willing to take risks

Saint’s row 2 has been receiving some major accolades since its release. Fans say that it manages to out GTA, GTA 4 which has spurred some arguments about the open world genre. Having spent the past weekend knee deep in Stilwater, I’m ready to look at both titles and hopefully render a verdict.

Both GTA 4 and SR 2 deal with revenge, for Niko it was an ex comrade, for the character SR 2 it seems to be the entire city. From there both titles split off into what they want to accomplish. SR 2 provides players with numerous off the wall activities in an unrealistic setting. GTA 4 however puts the player into a detailed world for the player to live in. While both titles have side quests to do in-between the main story, SR 2 utterly destroys GTA 4 in this regard.

The side quests in SR 2 may not make sense in real life, but for a game they work in providing the player with challenges and rewards. Every challenge in SR 2 will provide the player with 2 rewards ranging from infinite handgun ammo, to better defense from bullets. This gives the player a variety of activities to do while providing rewards for doing them. GTA 4 hangs onto its realistic setting for dear life and besides a few mini games, the only side quests you can do is take people out for a night. While this can provide you with some interaction between the characters it doesn’t do a thing for the player once you unlocked that person’s ability (free helicopters, health recovery, etc).

Moving onto the general game mechanics (driving, shooting, and fighting) is where GTA 4 excels over SR 2. The more realistic feel of GTA 4 beats out the unrealistic controls of SR 2. Driving a car in GTA 4 is harder at first but it does grow on you, while in SR 2 prepare to be flipped and sent flying a lot. The ability to use cover and a combination of free aim and lock on makes the gun play more satisfying in GTA 4 in my opinion, even though you have more weapons in SR 2. Hand to hand is used more in SR 2 then in GTA 4, however the fighting mechanics are more developed in GTA 4 for the limited time you do use them.

The story of both titles is where they both miss the mark. GTA 4’s story is the usual gangster tale filled with betrayal, stereotypes, and enough crude jokes at women to kill any chance that a female gamer will be able to enjoy the plot. SR 2’s story about the main character’s plan to retake the city for his gang, but from there things get disturbing. The game tries to make you create an on screen persona using the character editor; however the actions the character commits during the cut scenes are just disturbing. Many times I feel less like trying to take over the city and more like a sociopath on a rampage, which completely ruined the story for me. In other words, I wouldn’t be playing either for a well thought out plot.

So what’s the verdict? Even though SR 2 is less realistic then GTA 4, it makes up for it with sheer game play depth and rewards. As an experience however GTA 4 grinds it into dust, Stilwater is just soulless compared to the design of Liberty City. The first time I took a helicopter up in GTA 4 I was in awe at the view, not so much in SR 2. The winner is SR 2 by an inch; while GTA 4 is designed better Rockstar forgot that there has to be things to do in the city other then the story. Now if the long rumored downloadable content adds a good amount of depth to the world then things would be different. Even though SR 2 is the less technically impressive one, the sheer amount of things to do makes it the winner in my opinion.

Even though SR 2 is better in my opinion, it isn’t going to win the title of best open world game. I think a game that combines the detailed world of GTA 4 with the variety of activities of SR 2 would be the best open world game. In other words, I would love to explore every inch of Liberty City, but I want to have all the things to do in Stilwater. Also it would make my life easier if they don’t hire anymore writers who have watched “The Sopranos” or “The God Father “.

Josh