Graphics: Though it fails to clear the bar set by Rockstar earlier this year, Saint’s Row 2 is not an ugly game by any stretch. Astute players will recognize that it uses practically the same engine as the first game, with a little more spit and polish, better lighting and the addition of verticality to accommodate the various aircraft you can fly. Even the seasoned GTA player will manage to find a decent sized, adequately detailed city. It pales in comparison to the scope and detail of Liberty City, yet it manages to stand on its own as a Disney World of guilty pleasures.

Interface: The radial interface makes a welcome return, allowing the player to effortlessly select weapons and consumables. The controls are pretty much unchanged from the first game as well, offering three different schemes and sensitivity options that follow in line with the customization system Saint’s 2 has going for it. You can also edit playlists with purchased albums in the pause menu, access co-op play, check statistics and enter some rather entertaining cheat codes with your phone. It all looks good and runs smoothly, and while pedestrian as compared to other high-budget games, its basic functionality left me happy.

Gameplay: An incredible variety of features are available in Saint’s Row 2, including a lengthy storyline, diversions, activities, property ownership and hearty customization options. There’s even more beyond what’s visible on the map, and while I’m not at liberty to discuss what some of those things are, I will say that hanging outside a gas station bathroom produced some rather unexpected results. Suffice it to say that Stilwater is a great diversion in and of itself, containing mini-game madness under the hood of an above-average action offering. Be sure to check your political correctness at the door.

Multiplayer: My first foray into the multiplayer portion of Saint’s Row 2 left a bad taste in my mouth, caused by my Xbox freezing two minutes into the game. I fared better the next time, and was allowed to sample both the Strong Arm and Gangsta Brawl variations. Strong Arm is a round-based mode in which teams compete in activities to score cash, while Gangsta Brawl is a straight-up deathmatch affair in which kills are currency. Little to no latency issues presented themselves, but often there was simply too much going on at one time to concentrate, especially on the smaller maps. Moreover, some of the weapons are just too powerful; once someone got their mitts on a shotgun it was pretty much over for the other team. If competition isn’t your thing, full campaign co-op is available as well, and that’s a trend I’d like to see continue.

Sound FX: Voice acting is top notch, and the guns, apart from the tinny-sounding machine pistols, are a great representation of gangbanging armament. Environmental effects convey a cityscape rife with criminal activity, with snarky citizens, radio noise that bleeds out of cars, and appropriate screams of terror that can be heard once chaos ensues. Additionally, each random citizen you encounter has an attitude of their own, which plays well into the immersion factor. My only major gripes here concern repetitive car engine sounds and police sirens. There’s always the volume slider, though, so you can choose your audio mix should things get too monotonous.

Music: Saint’s Row 2 features 11 radio stations and a metric ton of tunes to tickle your eardrums until the last bullet is spent. Genres like reggae, 80’s, world beat, funk and classical are here, just to name a few, with a healthy dose of rap thrown in for authenticity. Mastodon is on here, as are Duran Duran, Eek-A-Mouse, The Deftones and Run DMC. The easy listening station was my favorite by far, with the classical station coming in at a close number two. There’s just something about running down Ronin gangsters in synchronicity to the “Hungarian Dance” by Tchaikovsky that stands as one of the most wildly entertaining gaming moments I’ve had all year.

Intelligence: A.I. quality depends upon which side of the gun you’re on at the time, and while your homies are smart enough to fire at the same target and even jump into a car and follow you if there’s not enough room in the one you presently have, your enemies are occasionally prone to posing for you while you aim at their faces.

Difficulty: Most of the actual difficulty doesn’t come from setting things harder or easier, but rather from what happens during unscripted moments in a mission. It’s dynamic to a fault almost; one try might be a cake walk, while another might contain extra variables such as cops and swarming gang cars out to squash you. One instance saw me a hair from finishing off the last of a Brotherhood stronghold, only to turn just in time to kiss the bumper of an enemy cruiser that had snuck up on me. Though frustrating on occasion, I was rarely turned away for more than an hour until I was back at it again with precautionary knowledge in tow. Some of the activities started out easy enough, but by the time I reached the fourth or fifth mission I was retrying more than a few times until I was successful.

Overall: GTA IV might be nailed to the throne of open-world games, but the king can’t entertain like the jester does. Saint’s Row 2 is raucous M-rated fun for anyone who’s ever wanted to race a flaming four-wheeler, spray sewage on civilians and mess around with included rewards. The conservative-minded will find little to love, but Saint’s hits all the right switches in my book and comes away with 30-inch rims plated in platinum. Word.