THE secret to enjoying Saints Row II - if you're a peace-loving, violence-shirking individual - is simple: close your eyes (figuratively of course), suspend any aversion to willful killing and prepare for one hell of a ride.

Saints Row II, like any Grand Theft Auto-inspired game, is about three things: dangerous driving, killing people and kicking everyone else's arse on your way to becoming kingpin, or queenpin, in the world of drugs, gangs and violence.

Like Fable II, this offers the choice of being male or female.

It also offers you the chance to choose your character's body shape, size, race, features and clothes.

We pick up where the first title left off. Your character wakes from a coma to find themself in a Prison hospital where a fellow inmate reveals it's five years later, the Saints Row gang has fallen apart and three new gangs have risen in its place.

This is no Grand Theft Auto, but it's a worthy take on the style of gameplay made famous by the GTA series.

Saints Row II is devoid of GTA IV's compelling characters, realistic cityscapes and clever cultural parodies, but what it does do it does well.

It's jam-packed with quirky violent humour, serves up immorality by the truckload and plays on gangster stereotypes to the nth degree.