If there’s one word that defines the game’s overall experience—it’s “options.” You can choose to spend your time driving around Stilwater, taking over rival turf, building your power, and advancing the storyline, or simply do little side missions for fun and profit. New to the sequel are “badges”, little tokens that your character can sport to let your co-op buddies know how much of a badass you are. Badges are awarded when certain conditions are met, but almost everything you do in the game, from driving on the wrong side of the road, to shooting rivals in the groin, earns you points towards new badges. Although it may be a little silly and superficial, your characters badges will say a lot about your play style that you may have never considered.

Co-op wasn't the only fun to be had at the event; in fact, it was hardly even the main course. New for all was the game's online "Strong Arm" mode that allows for you and seven other people to engage in team-based madness throughout the entire town. Instead of the usual deathmatch and team deathmatch modes (which are also present), Strong Arm sees you and a team sequentially go through a series of missions and adventures taken from the single-player campaign such as "protect the ho" and "eliminate the VIP.” While this may seem like standard faire for a “GTA clone,” the sheer chaos that results from eight people killing and rushing from mission to mission was nothing short of a blast.

Thanks to THQ’s foresight (and a metric ton of PS3s), a bunch of us were able to give the game’s online component a quick preview as well. I began my online crusade on the blue team, ready to put an end to the age-old debate of red vs. blue. After a few minutes of mindless fun killing opponents in the lobby (a nice open area to melee in before the match starts), my team was thrust into a familiar urban landscape and was told to get to a designated area and “throw ourselves into traffic.” Unfortunately I was too busy running over red folk and innocent bystanders to get to the special spot, and after a few minutes my team had lost the first challenge. Luckily the next activity was a “Snatch” mission where I had to eliminate a pimp and take his ho, and I netted hundreds of dollars to help my team in no time. In just a few minutes the tides had turned, and I spent the last few minutes killing the competition and waiting for my team’s imminent victory to come.

The Wu-Tang Clan were spot on when they said “Cash Rules Everything Around Me,” as the Strong Arm mode is all about picking up money to pull your team ahead. Whether you rake it in by racing around picking up packages, engaging in a little extracurricular “ho-sale”, or cappin’ fools like normal, there are many ways to make cash (and make yourself useful) online. The aforementioned “activities,” can be random or picked out before starting your match, and terminate whenever a team nets enough cash or the timer runs out. I was impressed at how fluid the transitions were between each activity, and at how chaotic this game could truly get.

As a total package, Saints Row 2 looks to be a great choice for anyone looking for more GTA-style action with a heavy emphasis on old-school fun. It may be oftentimes kooky and over the top, but it packs more into its multiplayer than most single-player adventures. Be sure to keep an eye out for this one when it hits store shelves October 14th.

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