NoNewTaleToTell: I know this is several hours afterwards but when you start a non-mission related fight in Saints Row you have to stop fighting and hide if you want the "heat" to go away. If you keep attacking gang members they'll keep coming in bigger waves as the heat increases. You can gain respect by buying clothes (yes, really), doing side missions, doing jumps and stuff like that.
timppu: Oh? So the skulls are merely like those stars with cops in GTA games? No price waiting if you are able to "collect" all(?) skulls?
Good to know then, I'll stop trying then. :) Since it was the enemy gang members who initiated the fight (because they saw me making a tag?), I presumed it was some side mission I was supposed to clear, with violence. Or a similar "protect/occupy an area from a rival gang" kind of thing like in GTA San Andreas.
I was actually doing quite well against the rival gang, I think I didn't have much problem handling them until the fifth (lats?) skull or so, even though I am playing hardest difficulty level. That's also why I presumed it is some kind of side-mission I am supposed to finish. In e.g. GTA games the policemen become quite unbearable earlier.
Not sure why I find SR2 more confusing than e.g. the GTA games (played and finished GTA3, VC and SA so far). Running it with the "Gentlemen's Row" mod by the way, to take care of those potential CPU timing issues which IIRC may break some timed missions on the PC version, if your CPU speed is "wrong".
Well you can farm them for money (and maybe small amounts of respect, I can't quite remember) but that's about it.
To complete the tagging mission(s) you have to complete the tag and yeah, enemy gang members will attack occasionally. However it's best to try and finish the tag as quickly as possible instead of engaging the enemies. If I remember right, the police will help you against gang members if they see them attacking you first, and you can definitely randomly stumble upon the police fighting gangs around the city too, which is neat.
Yeah the enemies in the Saints Row games are fairly easy to deal with, though in Saints Row The Third they start showing up with...bigger members and toys haha. In the GTA games you're always kinda vulnerable whereas in the Saints Row series you're pretty much the baddest thing on two feet from the very beginning of the game.
The best way to think of the Saints Row series is to think Ps2 era GTA games mixed with Scarface: The World Is Yours (if you've played it) mixed with over the top...well...everything, heck you've obviously played the first mission.
Saints Row 2 is definitely quite fun but I had to give up on due to it having a lot random problems that (fan) patches and fixes wouldn't fix, Saints Row The Third is a bit better to me anyway, it's a lot more polished and more "accessible (and I don't mean dumbed down). The speed issues do more than mess with timed missions though, it can make driving with any amount of precision over five miles per hour impossible.
