Gentlemen of the Row
is a massive overhaul mod for the infamously bad PC port of Saints Row 2 made by a rather devoted fan named Mike Watson (AKA IdolNinja) in an attempt to improve the base game to a more playable state and help it reach a wider audience by adding in tons of awesome new fun and wacky content created by the man himself.
Though Mike tragically passed away after a long battle with terminal cancer in late August 2021 his legacy continues to live on through his Gentleman of the Row mod and the impact it has left on the Saints Row community. Fans to this day are still booting up Saints Row 2 on the PC well over a decade after its initial release, despite its poor unmodded optimization, thanks to him and all the amazing support and creativity he brought to the game. In fact, when it was announced in 2019 that Saints Row 2 would be getting an update patch to fix the PC port after its source code was rediscovered, IdolNinja was placed at the head of the project, with much hype given to the fact that the update would also incorporate many of the improvements Gentlemen of the Row made. Of course, reading about it is one thing... it really needs to be played firsthand to get the full picture of why it is such a beloved mod in the Saints fandom.
This Game Mod contains the following tropes:
- Amazing Technicolor Population: Players can now choose from a much wider assortment of bright and colorful skin tones, including ones that humans don't normally have such as blue or green.
- Bling-Bling-BANG!: While the base game already had the pimp cane shotgun this mod lets players use a Gold Plated GDHC handgun like in Saints Row.
- Flying Car: How about a flying train?!
- Healing Shiv: One of the new weapons added in the mod is a gun that can revive people by shooting them.
- Impossibly Cool Weapon: One of the big highlights of the mod is a large new assortment of crazy and cool weapons that wouldn't be out of place in Saints Row IV! This includes:
- A rapid fire RPG that can spray explosives like an SMG.
- A portable septic gun that can blast pedestrians with poop.
- A freaking chainsaw cannon.
- A pipe bomb that bursts into fireworks upon detonation.
- A gun that can send people into low orbit with a single blast.
- And much, much more!
- Irony: None of the band logos you can put on shirts are for bands with songs in the game. There would be a KMFDM song in Saints Row: The Third, however.
- Mix-and-Match Weapon: Several of the new weapons are a mix of two weapons that were already included in the base game. Chainsaw launcher, anyone?
- Naked People Are Funny: A fully naked Saints gang is now an option. God help the poor folks of Stilwater...
- Shout-Out: Many of the logos that can be applied to shirts with this mod are various pop-culture references.
- Virtual Paper Doll: The already fantastic character customizer from Saints Row 2 gets a huge boost with tons of additional body, tattoo and clothing options. Players can even customize their character's walking animation with new items and styles taken directly from NPCs.
