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Saints Row 2 is an open world, action video game developed by Volition and published by THQ.

Gameplay
As an open world action video game, the player is free to explore the city of Stilwater.

The game features "robust" player character customization. Options include "the usual huge array of physical traits", several male and female voices, and unlockable costumes, fighting styles, and taunts.

The entire city is available to explore at the outset of the game. Outside of the main story missions, players can engage in side activities such as "Trail Blazer", "Septic Avenger", a sex minigame, as well as the "more mundane" racing and helicopter-based assault. The player completes these side activities to the earn "Respect" necessary to access subsequent main story missions.

Several years after the original Saints Row ends, the previous game's player-character and protagonist wakes from their coma, escapes from jail, and begins to reclaim their ceded gang territories and recruit followers to maintain their allegiance. The three rival gangs—The Sons of Samedi, The Brotherhood, and The Ronin—have separate storylines that each involve a recruited deputy. Missions include shooting fireworks out of a truck, a "makeshift demolition derby", and the genre standard "go kill everyone" missions. The story culminates with a confrontation with Ultor Corporation. New to the series is a mission checkpoint system to preserve player mission progress, as well as cruise control when performing drive-by shootings and teleportation to the coast when stranded out at sea. The story, or campaign, can be played alone or cooperatively online or via system link (no split-screen). The game's artificial intelligence increases to compensate for the extra player's firepower.

Saints Row 2 also features a multiplayer mode where up to 12 players can compete in deathmatch and objective-based modes within a restricted version of the open world.

Development
The series was known as a "Grand Theft Auto clone" based on its first release's similarities to the open world sandbox game Grand Theft Auto III.

PlayStation 3 "trophies" were excluded from this release.

The game was developed by Volition. The game was published by THQ and released for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 platforms in North America on October 14, 2008, in Australia on October 16, and in the United Kingdom on October 17.

Reception
The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 releases of the game received "generally favorable" reviews, according to video game review score aggregator Metacritic, and the Windows release received "mixed or average" reviews.

Several reviewers compared Saints Row 2 to Grand Theft Auto IV for their similarities in gameplay and visual style. Despite this, Nate Ahearn of IGN wrote that Saints Row 2, the "imitator", is much wilder and with lesser production value than Grand Theft Auto—more of a "GTA alternative" than a "GTA killer".

Ahearn of IGN wrote that the game's opening was engaging and did not involve the usual open world tutorial of fetch quests.

Ahearn of IGN praised the campaign and its varied missions. He thought it was more fun than the side missions, and commended the "witty" and "mean" lead voice actor performances, which he felt were much improved over the first game. Ahearn thought the secondary character performances were less impressive and that the sound effects and soundtrack were altogether "solid", though critics also described the latter as haphazard. IGN's Ahearn also considered the multiplayer mode "one of Saints Row 2 best qualities".

Critics reported technical issues throughout the game, including subpar graphics, undetailed environments, "framerate drop", inconsistent "collision detection", and numerous crashes. IGN's Ahearn reported NPCs getting "stuck in the grill of his car" and "hit or miss" artificial intelligence. Particularly of the Windows release, critics wrote that a host of performance issues "basically kills the experience". IGN's Ahern called the Windows port "nauseating and almost unplayable".

IGN's Ahearn wrote that Saints Row 2 "really finds its niche" in its "ridiculous nature" with activities both more bizarre and diverse than in the original.