Should I play Saints Row 2?

Yes play it. It's the best in the series. Third and beyond have a very different playstyles. SR2 is the closest to being an actual GTA Arcade experience. Great tp co-op too.

It has issues on PC, to the point that I'd recommend playing on PS3 / 360 if you can (which also got DLC unreleased on PC), but even if you are stuck with PC only, it is well worth a run.

It's good but you really need to install the Gentlemen of the Row mod for it.

Try your luck and see if you can run it. I'll tell you, though, I never played a worst pc port in my life. It was actually unplayable, and I had to uninstall it (something I had never done before). And I played some pretty ludicrous ports and had plenty of fun with the games. But this one is so ridiculous it was literally unplayable.

It looks horrible. But it's fun, played it and completed the game... It have... a bike... that climb walls...

Saint's Row 2 was really good, aside from the crashes. Not even Gentlemen of the Row can stop every crash.

SR2 is better in story and probably missions. Better game overall, aside from suffering from low effort console porting and being a bit dated. The patches help with almost everything.
Worst thing you will have to adjust to after SR3 is the driving physics.

While 3 is ridiculous , 2 was more of a GTA like game ... its still silly but not as ridiculous as 3 was .

So yeah give it a shot ... the game didnt age very good tho , so graphics are not the greatest :P

YES, it's a good GTA clone'ish game. Definitely has a lot of silly moments, and a helluva cast. Make sure you play the GoG version, because apparently they put a lot of work into fixing it on there. Not sure if that update has come out on Steam yet.

Saints Row 3 > 4 > 2 and given that you can pick up SR 4 starting at 2$, I wouldn't bother with the second game (unless you are already done with 4).

YES
And after that, play Scarface: The World is Yours, The Godfather and Mafia:City of Lost Heaven.

Play with gentlement mod. It's a good game, but unplayable without it

I literally started and finished SR2 last week. The game is great as a story and i had a lot of fun. It is totally playable with keyboard and mouse, it is only frustrating when you get a helicopter or plane. It may be a bad port but it is still the best game in the series and of cource you cant expect top graphics in a 2008 game. As for crashes i played without any mod installed, i had no idea there is one, and only got 2 shut downs in 42 hours so my experience was not that bad.

I have finished the second one in about 44,45 hours. A great game worth every minute spent in it! It reminds me most of GTA San Andreas with the gang turfs you capture n all. I didn't do ALL the activities, but I enjoyed them all nonetheless. I am currently playing through the third one and I like that one too for it is a definitive improvement.

The sound track is one of the best. I enjoyed it as much as SR3.

SR2 is not bad, i finished it, but have some PC issues....controling, graphics, camera, physics.....but i very enjoyed SR4, which was really funny, not so serious as SR2.

Yes.

Definitely play SR2. It's the best in the series. Not as goofy as SR3&4, not as serious as GTA.

Yes, it's the best Saints Row game. The others are just parodies that shouldn't even exist. This one has a quality storyline, interesting characters, memorable missions, just everything you need.

I think SR2 is the best in the series and wish they would not have strayed so far away from that gaming model... I like the whole gang warfare type version of GTA - which is why I love Sleeping Dogs, TrueCrime series, etc. I wish SR3 and 4 didn't go off into the stupid deep end with alien invasions and computer simulation nonsense. Bleh. SR2 > ALL.