

Surviving an explosion of that calibre seems unbelievably unlikely, especially in a world where they don't have that critical sci-fi technology that, even then, requires you to suspend your disbelief something fierce. You're on a boat, and Julius - also played by Mass Effect's own Keith David - blows you up. Well, they wouldn't have if not for Cerberus somehow resurrecting them, harnessing their plot armour to keep them afloat so that BioWare can continue the story.Īs for Saints Row 2, it picks up where the first game ended. Shepard flails and struggles and is certainly dead - nobody could possibly survive such an event. In the doom and gloom of the Normandy's final hour, the explosive catalyst hurls you into space, your oxygen breached. Joker struggles to get out while you clamber up to him to play the good captain. In Mass Effect 2, the opening sees the Normandy - your ship - ripped apart in a bombardment of hellfire, the hull breaching, and a spacewalk that feels right out of Dead Space. But, not many talks about its similarities to Mass Effect. Replaying them shun a light on how well they hold up, and, to this day, Saints Row 2 is one of the all-time greatest, but it's often critiqued for being oh-too-similar to its distant cousin, GTA. It defined my love for open-world shoot-and-drive titles in a way that Grand Theft Auto never quite came close to, even with all the nostalgia that comes bundled with Vice City. RELATED: Mass Effect Legendary Edition Review - One Of Gaming's Best Trilogies In One Epic Package I remember the disheartening red circle of death cropping up and ruining my post-school rush to dive into the fun romp of wearing silly purple costumes while mowing down rival gangs with my dual-wielded submachine guns. Saints Row has always been a game dear to my heart after I played the first one alongside Crackdown on my old Xbox 360 as a kid. Now, with one released while the other rears its head, all I can think about is how similar the openings to each game's respective second entries are. Yet, in the thick of both runs, to my dismay, remasters were announced.

Last year, not only did I start Mass Effect for the first time, but I also dipped into a Saints Row replay marathon, intending to go right from the first game through to the last.
