In my first attempt to review every single game on my 100-something top games list, I'm generally going to keep the early reviews short because I simply don't remember them extremely well.

Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet was one of my first forays into indie Metroidvanias, and it's definitely a "style over substance" example of the genre. The art style is gorgeous, the ambiance is incredible, and instead of platforming it's a flying elegantly through bleak caverns and mazes. The boss battles are beautifully animated. My big grievance with the game is that the actual combat feels weak, like you're firing a pea shooter at these large monstrosities; the feedback is lacking. And also generally said, the actual game does a lot and doesn't do much of it exceedingly well. It's sufficient, merely competent at what it does without excelling and any real exciting way outside of the art direction and uniqueness of the exploration and gameplay.

That being said, it's still good fun and a nice bite-sized adventure in the genre without overstaying its welcome. It's not fantastic by any means, but it holds a special place in my heart for being one of the first real indie games I latched onto.

The best Saints row game?

If you've ever played a Saints row game, there's a good chance you've heard the enormous praise Saints row 2 gets from the community. Most fans will tell you this is where the franchise peaked or at least say it’s their personal favorite. Now, there is absolutely a reason for this and going back and looking at it from the year 2023 most people would probably shrug it off as another GTA Clone much like the first one. Well, I'm here to tell you yes, in many ways it still is a clone and generic shooter but on the other hand this game, especially for its time does things that I don't really see in a lot of modern games and is definitely where this franchise started to find its own identity.

Gameplay: So just like Saints row one this is a 3rd person GTA style open world shooter where you play as a member (now the leader) of the 3rd street Saints, A gang in the city of Stillwater. You do side missions called activities for money and to fill your respect Meter which levels you up and allows you to continue the main story missions as well as take over the city increasing your revenue. Its A returning unique system from the first game that actually forces you to do side quests to progress. I personally do like this system but it's definitely a hit or miss with fans where some people hate it others don't mind it. I think it makes the game unique and helps separate it from GTA but yeah, I get it, it’s also annoying if you are a casual player that just wants to rush through the story first. So, at its core the game works very much the same as SR1 but with improved graphics, smoother gameplay and a better story. Once again you have to take down 3 gangs, the sons of Samedi, the brotherhood and the ronin who all have their unique thing going for them. You also have a 4th antagonist this time, a corporation called Altor. Now I'll be honest the core gameplay is fun and balanced, but I do think it of course could improve and it does, with Saints row 3 (sort of). The thing that really makes this game a one-of-a-kind experience is the attention to detail with almost every aspect of this game. Now, you can have a male or female character and the level of customization is much, much better here, allowing you to layer cloths and add more detail. Car customization is better plus now you can customize your gang and cribs. You will probably mention that saint’s row 3 can do these things but most of the customization in saints’ row 3 involves outside the cribs and not the interior like you can in saints row 2. Combat is much improved with more guns and melee weapons that feel badass to use (like being able to use katana swords while riding on motorcycles). The boss fights are all unique and fun and The activities in this game is probably where it shines the brightest with not only the improvement of returning actives but the level of fun, silly and entertaining activities this game brings to the table. From fight clubs to a zombie mini game, some activities like Fuzz (my personal favorite) is a spoof on the show cops where you are followed around by reality TV show camera crews while you are disguised as cops and sent on missions to do things like "stop the battle of the century" and when you get there you find pirates and ninjas fighting. Or you have this activity "septic avengers" where you are paid to poor literal sh*t on properties to lower their value. Stuff like this is just flat out hilarious and I have yet to see anything this creative and funny in these games since. To top it all off the best part of this game is the fact that you now have co-op so you can experience all of this with a friend. The biggest con in saints row 2s gameplay is probably the crashes and some minor glitching. I ran into a lot of crashes which seems to just be the norm for all Saints row games (not that this is okay, no game should have this problem) I can say out of all entries in this series saints row 2 seemed to crash the least so I guess that's a good thing?

Graphics, music & voice acting: SR2 has decent graphics for a 2008 game but the attention to detail in the environment is really what drives this atmosphere. Though you are once again placed in Stillwater, the city is much bigger and better with a lot more immersion. You have not only the very unique districts but there are so many interesting locations and hidden areas. Like the underground tunnel labs or the hidden giant pink bunny Easter egg in the ocean with a shipwreck. This game also has super unique pedestrians running around. You can find cheer leaders, people protesting, streakers and even goth pedestrians! Now I know someone's gonna be like "yeah well, battle duty overdrive 27 had all those things" but personally in 2008, I had never seen a game with unique pedestrians and cool places like old ships, ancient ruins, and goth pedestrians mixed in with basic GTA city scape before, For its time this was pretty unique you have to give it that. The music and Radio in this game was faaaarr better than saints row 1 and actually had memorable music and the voice acting is much better this time around. Now you can actually pick a voice for your character and all the supporting cast have strong voice acting and fun personalities.

Story (no spoilers): Saints row 2 has a great story with a lot of new and returning characters. When a game actually puts time into its story, I don't like spoiling it because I want you to experience it yourself, so I won't say much. What I can say is it has fun moments, silly moments and very serious moments that will probably make you feel for the characters or at least feel something as the story goes from moments of sadness, humor or moments of just feeling like a pure badass. SR2 does a great job of hitting all these keystrokes. The story works much like the first game where once you get enough respect to continue the story you can pick between 3-4 different plot lines to follow and finish at your own pace before getting the final set of missions and like I mentioned there are some really cool secret missions that finish unresolved plot points from the first game and help build up the story better. Overall saints row 2 is a great game, plain and simple. A game that's probably not for everyone but if you like any of the other saints row games or like GTA there is a high chance you will like this one. I know there is a huge debate between which saints row is the best and for most it’s a tie between 2 and 3 and I can't say saints row 3 doesn't do a lot of these things better because it absolutely does but I also think saints row 3 drops the ball in certain places and goes a bit too far in certain directions with its gameplay and story changes. It's hard to say which saints row is the absolute best because saints row 2 & 3 have a lot of strengths and weaknesses but personally for me I think 2 takes the cake and I'll be honest. I played saints row 1 & 2 much later after saints row 3 came out. I enjoyed 3 so much I wanted to see what all the hype was about, and they did not disappoint. Though Saints row 2 still has plenty of GTA Clone qualities it’s where the franchise starts to spread its wings and fly on its own.
9/10