I think this time around I'll swerve away from spouting the usual gubbins about how a title such as Saints Row can stir up a storm of press related mediocrities that decree the game as yet another violence-fest that will ruin the next jilted generation. We're all happy here as at one point blood would be removed from the likes of Carmegeddon for fears that BMW drivers would become bigger twits than they already are. Yet now, we're all fine and dandy with chainsaw massacring a group of anti-violence protesters. A small poke back at the press I'm sure. Once upon a time bad press was bad press, but now the games industry use this coverage to fuel their advertising campaign that bit further. Get a game banned, and you're in there mate.

Yes, Saints Row 2 is bound to give you that GTA derivative vibe, as would the next incarnation of a Formula One game give you an F1 vibe, or yet another RPG give you the role-playing inkling. It doesn't make the game any less playable for filling the arcade-esque void that the last GTA instalment left by turning a little more serious in gameplay. SR2 will have you shooting your way around a free-roaming environment, completing storyline missions and a swath of side ones too should you fancy. The one aim – to take back your city.

Saints Row 2 picks up where the last left off, after blowing up the yacht at the end of the game, flinging yourself from the boat as part of the explosion, you end up in prison – in a coma. The game starts with the cops surprised you're awake, and it's at that stage you can begin the customisation process to gen up how you want to look throughout the game. This is one of the major parts to SR2, in that the every element of your features can be customised how you want, from beautiful babes, macho hunks and every tranny in between. Don't worry if there's something you don't like about yourself, it can always be altered at a plastic surgeon later in the game. Wayhay for modern science!

Aside from doing activities and missions on the side, the main story will see you facing off against 5 other gangs / organisations, earning respect and claiming back your territory as you complete tasks. You can only advance down the storyline if you have enough respect. Respect can be earned on missions, as well as completing additional objectives scattered through the map. These additional activities can range from annihilating an enemy stronghold in order to take over that part of the territory in a risk-esque fashion, to taking part in a destruction derby or holding up a liquor store. There's a huge variety to choose from so you don't have to feel the need to do them all... unless you want to, that is.

The customisation is certainly something that adds a nice dimension to the game. It isn't just limited to how you look, but what you wear, how your homies look or how you make your crib look overall. All of these additions add point to your style level which, when levelled up, can provide addition respect bonuses while on missions. Bearing in mind that all these additions can soon sum up to a fair wad of cash, it's always a bonus that for each part of the city you own you'll receive and income you can pick up from your local crib. It is in your interests to protect these areas as rival gangs can attack them to try and claim them back. After all, this cash is your staple income for spending on all of these toys and the ever needed ammunition for all those unfortunate to cross your path.

As you'd expect, the main way to keep yourself on said path is to drive there. Either hijacking a car or using one from your crib that your gang owns (in a fashionable dayglo purple). Straight away you might find it odd that rather than the triggers, the X and A buttons are used to accelerate and decelerate as default, although thankfully this can be changed to what you'd probably expect – to use the triggers. The actual car handling itself is perhaps most noticeable for just how well the car grips to the road. That does make it easier to make your way around, but ramming cars off the road just got that much harder. But hey, just because we're talking cars, that's not to say that we're not also talking helicopters and planes which are available from time-to-time which is always a bonus. Although, as needs must, running has been at least tolerable over small distances as your stamina and run speed are quite high. I'd say that was great when it came to running away from cops, but seeing as they somehow manage to drive everywhere you go, it's probably worth running to... a car. They've also brought in cruise control, for setting your speed and allowing you to really focus on blowing the crap out of someone with an AK. The camera angle seems to get a little odd at times, with a lack of snapping to front, so frequent crashes are to be expected.

Talking of AK's, the usual arsenal of weapons available is as you'd probably expect. Modern day gangster acquisitions that can be bought from shops or plucked from the lifeless grasp of yet another downed gang member. I found that while the ammo might be slightly harder to come across for some of the more interesting weapons, you could still complete a mission without really being prepared for it as a few slugs of this and that would take down just about anyone. Failing that you could always throw a garbage can at your foe using the super-human strength you seem to posses to knock them and any others close by into a ragdoll frenzy. The opportunity to experiment increases greatly with the ability to run off to recover your health in a tight squeeze, and so dying becomes less of a worry. Even without a cover system you run like Lynford Christie after a night out on the beers and vindaloo waking up to realise something's very very wrong – escape is always an option.

Which leads onto one of the major points about the game. The fear factor. If you start getting your gun off in the middle of the street; if you blow up some locals with a grenade; if you take a cop hostage and shoot her in the face – the one overriding factor would usually be “crap, how do I get out of this mess”. However, in Saints Row 2, you can last for aaaagggeessss. Your health regenerates, and everyone drops ammo, so you can literally stand there until the cows come home shooting the living daylights out of anything that moves. Or throw them, that never gets old. You've got the strength of the million dollar man on PCP and can throw a pedestrian a good few meters. Into other pedestrians, cars, off buildings etc. Never. Gets. Old.

This doesn't just start with running riots either, even in missions they can throw an obscene amount of enemies and you'll generally brush them aside without cause for concern. However, because the game's been done in that tongue-in-cheek way, it's almost a necessity that you have that many bods to play around with. Large explosions and heavy handed fire-fights wouldn't be the same without a good body count.

This perhaps amuses me further when the game offers you a network cooperative mode to spank the enemy from more than one front. Genning up a couple of fat cats to squeeze into a Mini for an overweight over-zealous drive-by's a laugh a minute. Saints Row 2 doesn't really offer multiple perspectives on one mission, nor does it really utilise cover, so the tactics used when there's two of you running and gunning are pretty much the same as when there's just one of you. You just expel more ammo. Even if you get bored of doing this you can always head into some online multiplayer mayhem.

Having a load of people running around blatting the hell out of each other, flinging cars and corpses alike all of the place is probably why I'd say the Volition lot had toned down the graphics somewhat. I don't know about you but I have a hard time concentrating between vomiting over the sudden jerk-o-vision framerate when the console suddenly realises it's got a lot of work to do and the staff are currently having sandwiches in the GPU canteen. So while the textures have been flattened a tad, the cityscapes are still one for the eyes.

There's nothing like taking a long road rampage through the busy night-life listening to the radio bang out some hippity-hop tunage about how some hoodlum shot someone's mum or whatnot. Of course, thanks to the variety on the radio you can listen to pretty much any genre you fancy, which is always a bonus. Many a time have I suffered a laughing fit while trying to escape the pigs, hijacking some poor unsuspecting dudes pick-up to crawl away from the ruckus while being assaulted by the eunuch infused tones of AHA's Morten Harket singing “Take on Me”.

So after a couple of crashes, a guy who needs to learn to barrel roll, a lack of a cover system and an otherworldly lack of fear – I bypassed what might be thought of negativity within the game to find myself face-to-face with something that offered a perhaps more arcadey perspective on a Grand Theft Auto like world. Where being a gangster offers a life of lucrative challenges set out by killing the competition and protecting your investments. Like watching an Arnie film, if I turned my brain off, I actually found the game pretty damn enjoyable and addictive... just not in the crazed up, smack induced way you understand.