Saints Row 2 Preview

The samurai sword lets you pull off a really nasty finishing move. Eat that, gitface!

While the diversions are lots of fun - who doesn't enjoy moonlighting as a perverted flasher? - we believe it is the selection of Activities that will really get people excited about this game. Initially all the mini-games will show up on your map as a "?", but once you've found out what something is you're freely entitled to take part at any time. There are now 12 in total, combining new missions with revamped versions of those seen in Saints Row 1 - this includes leaping in front of traffic to commit Insurance Fraud. Of the new ideas on offer, we particularly liked Fight Club - a brutal arena-based beat-em-up that sees you taking on multiple opponents at once with fists, bricks and bottles. Smacking a rival fighter to the floor allows you to enter a brief Quick Time Event; if you successfully pound the right buttons in time you'll break your enemy's neck with a sickening crunch.

Completing Activities earns you respect - the in-game currency which unlocks new story missions - but it also grants you new skills and abilities. Completing the Fight Club missions, for instance, will give you hand-to-hand combat styles like wrestling and capoeira. It's not like you really need an additional incentive to undertake these activities, however, as they're plenty of fun already - especially when you start fooling around in the two player co-op mode. Volition seems to have put in a huge amount of effort on this front: friends can join in your game at any time via system link, Xbox Live or PSN and can assist (or hinder) you in activities or on Story missions. In the latter case, a player will be able to join their mate on plot-centric levels even if they themselves have yet to reach that point in the game; when the session is ended their progress will be saved, and when they eventually reach that stage of the story they will be given the option to skip the missions they've already completed. The whole co-op experience has been designed to be as easy as possible, allowing players to drop in and out as they please without affecting their friend's progress; it's really quite impressive, so lets hope other developers are paying attention.

For our own test of SR2's co-op, I went on a prolonged rampage with our new video editor, Seb Ford. After gunning our way out of jail on the aforementioned intro mission, we decided to head to a clothes store so we could change out of our orange prison jumpsuits. While I was happily browsing the T-shirts, Seb managed to start an enormous fire-fight with some cops in the road outside. The shopkeeper fled in terror, so I attempted to join the battle - but found that a massive pile of blown-up cars was blocking my exit. Eventually Seb shunted the wrecks out of the way and I drove us both to the next story mission - which involved us racing to the local courthouse to rescue Johnny Gat, a returning character from the first game. After murdering a judge and three dozen security guards, we escaped and started an Activity that asked us to spray an entire neighbourhood with liquid shit from a septic truck. After this we ended co-op and went our separate ways: Seb headed off to evict some squatters from his new crib, while I helped out a TV crew by dressing up as a policeman and then beating up a couple having sex in public. All in a day's work for your local g-units!

There's still so much we haven't mentioned. We've not touched on the vibrant designs of the enemy gangs, including the Japanese Ronin who ride black-and-yellow motorbikes in true Kill Bill style. We've not mentioned the way you can customise the look and style of your own gang - if you want to lead a group of ninjas who ride around in rubbish trucks, you can. We've not discussed the excellent soundtrack, and we've not talked about the multiplayer deathmatches (more on that later in the month).

So yes, there are many things we've not mentioned - but that's inevitable. The important thing to hang on to is that there are LOADS of things to do in Saints Row 2, and that doing them is a right old bag of chuckles. Indeed it would be fair to say that what we've seen of the game so far has easily exceeded our initial expectations. We'll be serving up some multiplayer coverage later this month, so check back then for the shizzle, my nizzles... or whatever the kids are saying these days.

Saints Row 2 is due out on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC in October.