Saints Row 2/Recap
After the explosion of Alderman Richard Hughes' private yacht in Saints Row, Playa falls into a coma for five years, and is kept in intensive care at Stilwater Penitentiary, receiving extensive plastic surgery due to burns suffered in the explosion. During this time, the 3rd Street Saints disband, and their legacy is soon forgotten. With Julius missing and the Saints gone, a power vacuum in Stilwater allowed three new gangs to take over: The Brotherhood, Sons of Samedi, and The Ronin
Upon awakening, Playa breaks out of prison with fellow inmate Carlos Mendoza. After Playa learns of the Saints' dissolution, Carlos advises them to keep their head down and learn as much about Stilwater as they can. While visiting Tee'N'Ay, Playa learns of Johnny Gat's arrest and trial on the news, and rescues him from the courthouse. Deciding to resurrect the Saints, Gat helps find a new hideout, and he and Playa rid it of Samedi and homeless 'bums'. Playa and Gat then set out to recruit new members, including Carlos, Pierce, and Shaundi. The reborn Saints soon form a plan to reclaim the city of Stilwater from the new gangs that have taken over in their absence, and Playa becomes the Boss of the 3rd Street Saints.
The Boss, Gat and Pierce attack the Ronin, a Japanese Yakuza, by robbing a casino owned by the Ronin and the Ultor Corporation. The Saints then launder the money, and the Boss then has to stop a group of Ronin from attacking the Saints' hideout. Enraged by the casino heist, Kazuo Akuji, the father of the Ronin's leader Shogo Akuji, travels to Stilwater himself from Japan to take control of the situation. Shogo attempts to recover the stolen cash by having his second-in-command, Jyunichi, kidnap Gat's girlfriend Aisha; this ends with Aisha dead and Gat incapacitated after being stabbed by Jyunichi. The Boss and Pierce attempt to assassinate Kazuo as he touches down at the airport, but Kazuo was picked up by Jyunichi before the Saints could get to him. The Boss subsequently kills Jyunichi in revenge for Gat and Aisha after Shogo revealed Jyunichi's location to them, unbeknownst to the Boss that it was Shogo. By the time Gat recovers, Kazuo Akuji has broken the Ronin's connections with Ultor; Vogel reacts by giving the Saints the location of the Ronin's hotel headquarters, which the Boss and Gat destroy, though the Akujis are not there. Disgraced, Shogo attacks the Saints during Aisha's funeral, and Johnny avenges her death by killing all the Ronin present and burying Shogo alive. Kazuo continues to attack the Saints, including Mr. Wong, by invading the Saints' hideout, but Kazuo barely escapes with his life. The Ronin attack the Stilwater Chinese Heritage Festival, with Gat being Wong's bodyguard. Wong and Kazou have a swordfight, with Kazuo winning, though Wong escapes the burning junk boats. Kazuo beats the Boss in a sword duel, but the Boss cheats by shooting him in the chest, and leaves Kazuo to burn on the junk.
To eliminate the Sons of Samedi, a group of Haitian drugs dealers, the Boss works with Shaundi to take over the trade of their trademark designer drug Loa Dust, by killing the Samedi's dealers and destroying their drug-manufacturing infrastructure. The Boss initially eliminates some dealers at the university, but then needs to rescue Laura, a drug dealer and expert, from prison, so that she can help research the Loa Dust. Tobias, Laura's wife, flies the Boss over the Samedi's drug farm in a helicopter so that they can destroy it. Shaundi's ex-boyfriend and now Samedi enforcer DJ Veteran Child is ordered to kill Shaundi, who is initially kidnapped, but she is rescued by the Boss after they shoot their way through his nightclub and kills him. The Boss then destroys the Samedi's drug labs in the Projects, as well as killing their drug lab technicians, causing a massive fire in the district. Afterwards, a limousine belonging to Samedi leader The General pulls up and kidnaps the Boss. Drugged and forced into the vehicle, The General explains to them how much he is displeased with the Saints taking over his business and territory. The General almost kills the Boss but they manage to escape from the limo in time, and they make it back to the Saints' hideout, rescue Shaundi and defend it from waves of Samedi. After destroying an inbound shipment of Loa Dust that was arriving by helicopter, the Saints move some Loa Dust from a factory to the Saints' hideout. However, they had to fight off several homeless people who were directed by Mr. Sunshine, the Samedi's second-in-command, to go after the Saints to get their drug fix since the Samedi had none to give. The Boss sets out to kill the Samedi's leadership, and learns from a homeless bum that Mr. Sunshine hides out at an old meat packing plant. The Boss goes to the plant to kill Mr. Sunshine, who employs voodoo tactics when fighting, at his hideout. Then, after Shaundi hacks Stilwater's CCTV system at the police station while she and the Boss were posing as repairers, they set up traffic surveillance equipment at the hideout. When The General's limo was seen on CCTV, the Saints ambush the convoy that contains The General just outside the Rounds Square Shopping Center, and the Boss kills him in a car chase inside the shopping center.
Maero, the leader of The Brotherhood, a gang specialising in extortion, robbery, protection rackets and arms trafficking, initially offers to make a truce with the Saints. He offers them a deal of 20–80, where the Saints only get a fifth of territory and income, but the Boss is offended by the offer, and starts a gang war. He first kidnaps Donnie and forces him to blow up several of the Brotherhood's trucks and replaces Maero's tattoo ink with nuclear waste, disfiguring him. In retaliation, Carlos is kidnapped and dragged through the streets, tied to the back of a truck. By the time the Boss rescues him, Carlos is gravely injured and they are unable to free him from his chains; instead, they mercy kill him. The Boss then kidnaps Maero's girlfriend, Jessica, and puts her in the trunk of a car in a monster truck arena. Maero, not knowing his girlfriend was in the car, crushes her in his truck. The Boss hands him the keys to the trunk and walks away after Maero exits his truck to confront him. The Boss interrupts a concert Matt, Maero's best friend and tattoo artist, was playing at, and demands information on their weapons shipment. However, Matt has nothing to tell him, so the Boss uses the stage pyrotechnics to sear his hand, effectively ending his music career. Much of the Brotherhood is then arrested in a police crackdown, and the Boss stops the Brotherhood from tearing up the Saints' territory. Maero threatens Dane Vogel, the Ultor executive handling the company's business in Stilwater, to release his imprisoned allies, only for the Boss to kill them before they reach Stilwater's streets. Vogel then attempts to seize the weapons shipment from the Brotherhood, only for the Saints to snatch it from both of them. Now heavily armed, the Saints destroy the Brotherhood's dockside headquarters, and the Boss attempts to kill Maero, but the latter escapes with the help of Donnie. The Boss is challenged by Maero to a showdown at the Ultor Arena, with Maero in his monster truck as well as multiple Brotherhood vehicles encircling them. However, the Boss blows up Maero's monster truck, and finally kills him.
The Boss mentions in Appointed Defender that they might catch up with former Saint/undercover cop and now Chief of Police Troy Bradshaw at the police station. There, the Boss listens to three wiretap conversation involving former Saints, and look at Troy's file to find Dex's phone number. Dex tells the Boss to meet him at the church, but he also told Julius the same thing, as a set up so that the Ultor Masako team can kill them both. The Boss and Julius defend the church before they flee to the amphitheatre at the north end of town, where Julius tries to convince the Boss not to kill him, and that the Saints did not help matters. The Boss kills him anyway, as revenge for planting the bomb that nearly killed them five years ago.
As the Saints take over Stilwater, they find themselves in an unexpected conflict with the Ultor Corporation, who seek to eradicate the gang in order to further their own goals for Stilwater. Formerly a company which produced clothes and household brand products, Ultor has used its immense funds to drastically reshape both itself and the Saints Row District within the last few years. In the process, Ultor became a powerful corporation with its own private army, the Masako, and they extended their power, reach, and influence into almost every aspect of Stilwater, including the Stilwater Police Department. Dane Vogel reveals his Stilwater masterplan to Ultor stakeholders, which begins with turning the Projects into a utopia by using the police to wipe out gang activity and buy property at reduced prices.
Ultor sends the Masako after the Boss, Shaundi, Pierce and Gat. While Gat is able to take care of himself, the Boss is forced to fight off a Masako team and rescue Pierce and Shaundi before they are killed. Angered, the Boss destroys The Pyramid, an underground research complex owned by Ultor, with help from Gat. Under pressure from Ultor's board of directors as the company is targeted by the Saints, Vogel leaks the location of the board to the Boss: a party on a boat not far offshore from the Saints Row district. Not caring where the information came from, The Boss eliminates the board. Looking on at the destruction caused by the Boss, Vogel congratulates himself by telling his assistant to move his things to his new office, knowing he is about to be promoted. Vogel's victory is short lived, however. During his speech outside of the Saints Row Church, Gat trains a sniper rifle on Vogel, with the Boss nearby. A security guard catches Gat, however, and Gat's rifle goes off, startling Vogel and forcing him to retreat to his limousine. The Boss is forced to chase after Vogel around Saints Row, who then escapes to the Phillips Building. Using a Tornado attack helicopter, the Boss brings down the building's security stations, and enters Vogel's office through a window near the top of the building. After defeating Vogel and hearing him plea for his life, the Boss kills him with a bullet to the head, which sends him falling from the top of the tower to the responding police below, leaving no one to challenge the Saints' control over Stilwater.
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