The action is, as you'd expect, fairly violent. The first thing you do in the tutorial mode is steal a car. The second thing is kill a policeman. The third thing is drive into a 'Forgive & Forget' unit to shake the pigs from your tail. The fourth thing is mug somebody. And so on.
The graphics are clear and detailed, but their bulk causes problems. Because the sprites are so large there's very little available screen in front of you, so your speed is necessarily restricted. Because of this, you never quite go fast enough to make all the drifting and power-sliding plausible.
It's a trade off between poor general visibility and poor forwards visibility whilst driving. Whether it pays off will be a matter of personal preference.
Outside the car, the controls are perfectly functional. '5' lets you smack people about or shoot them, and if your first strike isn't fatal they'll run away. Being on foot isn't the disadvantage that you might expect, either, since you can run faster than most cars drive. Saints_Row_2_240x320.rar