Last night, THQ hosted a special multiplayer session with Saints Row 2 to show off the new Strong Arm versus mode. A melange of several different in-game Activities, Strong Arm basically puts you in a round-robin where two teams compete in a series of events. As we'd previously discovered, the underlying gameplay of Saints Row 2 is pretty entertaining and the over-the-top brutality makes for some hilariously violent moments, so this multiplayer mash-up of mini-games that already exist in the single-player game is unsurprisingly enjoyable. For those of you that yearn for straight up versus combat, Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch are still in, but Strong Arm seems to better incorporate the elements that set Saints Row 2 apart from rival sandbox games.

Friends in Fraud

Each Strong Arm game consists of a series of Saints Row 2's Activities, which are essentially mini-games played out in the expansive urban environment of the city of Stilwater. Each Activity typically has some bonus items thrown in to differentiate them from their single-player versions, but the idea behind each remains the same. Two teams compete to earn the most money, so in the Race Activity, you'll find stacks of bills set along the prescribed race path (typically just off to the side or in positions that could easily derail your racing line) that can bolster your team's score even if you end up losing the race overall.


There's always a way to contribute to each individual Activity, so if one event just isn't your thing there are other ways you can help your team. Tag spots are scattered across the map and if you hose one down with paint you'll earn a special buff for your team, like rendering them invisible on radar or adding a multiplier to the amount of money they earn. Tagging over the opposing team's graffiti is a perfectly acceptable way to help out your team, ensuring that there's always something you can do.

Certain Activities benefit greatly from the move to multiplayer. Insurance Fraud, where you hurl yourself against the pavement to defraud insurance companies, proved to be way easier with friends to help out by ramming you with cars (you get extra points the longer your ragdoll body flies through the air). At the same time, competing against other players provides a significant challenge because you get no points at all if they hit or kill you. Just watching a multiplayer Insurance Fraud match is patently humorous, because the carnage is simply absurd.

After about an hour's worth of Strong Arm, we can confirm that Saints Row 2 appears to be running fairly smoothly on both 360 and PS3, but it bears noting that the test consoles were directly linked instead of using either Xbox Live or PSN. Saints Row 2 looks great and runs with decidedly few graphical hitches or slowdown issues.

The combination of Activities in Strong Arm makes for gameplay that runs the gamut of what Saints Row 2 offers, which is pretty expansive considering the variety of different Activities. Sadly though, our favorite Septic Avenger Activity is not on the Strong Arm playlist, but maybe it can be rolled in post launch... that's just wishful thinking on our part, but few can deny the inherent hilarity of dueling waste disposal trucks.