At one point, we sat and watched, laughing, as one of the troops attempted to attack the Bear with a stun gun. Yes, they'll shoot back at you, but they won't bother to pull you from the driver's seat so you're almost invulnerable. Laying waste to the entirety of incoming forces is no more difficult than getting into one of the many abandoned Bears and taking out the Masako with their own equipment. Of course, then they get out of their vehicles to attack.
They all come in on choppers, which are easily downed with a rocket launcher, or in heavily armored troop carriers known as Bears. Unfortunately, even this mission fails to impress due to the manner in which the supposedly elite Masako troops attack. The second has you chasing a truck across town, while the final mission has you defending a Saints hideout from attacking Ultor forces.
The first mission has you tasked with running around town, picking up six dead bodies. Instead, we were treated to three short missions that took around 45 minutes to complete.
SAINTS ROW 2 ULTOR EXPOSED FULL
While we weren't expecting a full gang campaign, we were looking forward to missions with a bit of depth and a final battle that rivaled the ending sequences against any of the gang bosses or the fight against Dane Vogel. In fact, there aren't even any epic battles to fight. There's no return to the labs in the underground Ultor Pyramid facility. With a premise like that, there is plenty of potential for combat as well as story development, but aside from a few allusions to the Red Faction series, which happens many years later in the same universe, the potential is completely untouched. With no one else who can help, she turns to you and the Saints to reveal the truth to the city. The meat of the DLC is the three-mission story arc, which stars Patrick as a disgruntled Ultor microbiologist who wants to expose the firm's dastardly experiments on unsuspecting citizens.
Instead, it feels like a quick cash-in that was pushed out the door by a junior team, while the core developers get to work on the inevitable sequel. Promising three new missions featuring porn-star and Saints Row 2 spokesperson Tera Patrick, new vehicles, new outfits and new multiplayer maps, the DLC could have been a welcome return to Stilwater. Sadly, this pack is more flash than substance. Given Volition's track record, we were looking forward to checking out Ultor Exposed, the first of three planned DLC packs for Saints Row 2. Whereas Rockstar was taking its games in a serious direction, Volition was going for pure, unadulterated, over-the-top fun. Sure, there were plenty of comparisons to Rockstar and the Grand Theft Auto series, but the Saints Row games were anything but clones. When Saints Row 2 rolled out last fall, it was an engaging sequel that not only built on its predecessor in nearly every way, but also proved that Volition's foray into open-world gaming with the original Saints Row wasn't a one-hit wonder.