Watch_Dogs

So, I finally finished the game. I have to say, the writing seemingly got better or just simply picked up around Acts 4 and 5. Default wasn't used as much as he really should have, but the writing and mission fun generally got better and more challenging.

I certainly love the concept of the final mission and how it turns its tables on you where YOU'RE the victim to the very hacks you've been using all game. Issue is, you simply have no easy way to combat things. You can get away from the cops for maybe five seconds of safety, but Damien will just start a thousand ctOS scans again. You can't use any of the very hacks you've been using all game either.

I feel like, in order for this to work, you need to give the player some way of combating this besides 'Just keep going for your goal and ignore the 10,000 enemies mindlessly gunning for you' AND I feel like the final mission of a game should encompass nearly every skill used across the entire game, rather than removing all the skills you've been learning.

Anyway, time to do sidemissions. I like the Digital Trips. I finally jumped into one after the game's end and I sort of like them. I don't like the bouncy flower one though because it doesn't seem to work properly on a keyboard. Not sure about on a controller, but one press of the directional keys will either barely move me an inch or send me flying all off course.

EDIT: Will starting the T-Bone DLC kill my save file for Aiden?

edited 28th Sep '14 11:41:32 AM by lancesolous13

<.< I really liked the last mission.

Just finished Watch Dogs, and I have to say, it was mostly pretty good with one glaring exception, and that exception's name is Aiden Pearce. He had a lot of flaws that basically boil down to the game being uncertain whether they want him to be a cyberterrorist or a cheap imitation of the Punisher.

The missions where the player can go the entire thing without ever setting foot inside the danger zone - or, at least, taking down one or two guys and using the Hacking mechanism to accomplish everything else - as well as the car chases that let you turn the city against your enemies are Pearce at his best and really give him an opportunity to stand out on his own, but then the game throws you back into gunfights and forced action sequences.

Pearce himself is a very confused character; spending half of his time killing fixers and the other half running fixer jobs leaves Pearce as a walking contradiction, and the confusing hypocrisy becomes visible when you run a side quest consisting of, "Go murder this random person because we told you so," and then your immediate next side quest is, "That guy is going to murder a random person. Kill him!"

His lack of a personality doesn't help matters, either. He uses the strained, monotonous voice of the dead for everything he does, and it's not clear why he's so devoid of life. The actual Punisher is a hollow, emotionless carcass of a human being because he effectively IS a dead man walking, with no cares or concerns in the world but for fighting his war. Pearce is clearly meant to still care about living; he does everything for Damien in order to save his sister, and his dialogue indicates he gives many, many f*cks about both her and Jacks, but it's all spoken with that same dead tone as though their awful, gruesome deaths would merit only a resounding "Hmm. Sucks."

He also lacks justification for why he's able to hold his own on a warzone. Using the Punisher as an example again, the Punisher was given a backstory containing a substantial list of why he is the worst person to have ever been f*cked with: a Marine who served multiple tours in Vietnam and thus learned guerilla warfare by surviving and even thriving in one of the most brutal crucibles of violence in American history.

Pearce, by contrast, is pretty much a no-name. He's a hacker but he's not exactly Ded Sec, Defalt, or any of the characters who actually designed the C Tos system. He grew up as a fighter but he's not exactly military-trained or mob-hardened like the Viceroys or the Club. But he outperforms everyone despite being completely outclassed in resources, experience, and training because...?

There is a point during the siege on Rossi-Fremont that Iraq taunts, "Don't bring war to a soldier, boy." This is actually tremendously good advice. It's never justified why Pearce's actions end in anything but a shallow grave, and Iraq himself winds up being a spectacular pushover who walks right into bullets, displaying less intelligence than his own mooks. The game wants us to swallow that Aiden can outfight, outhack, and outsmart everyone else in the plot, but never gives us any explanation for why he is capable of such feats.

In the end, Aiden Pearce is a hollow character. He has plenty in the way of motivation and connection to the plot, but lacks the ability to properly emote, to respond to anything and everything that people around him are doing with anything but grizzled apathy, even in scenes where he is clearly meant to care. On top of that, his backstory and rationale for his role in the plot are, themselves, shallow and inadequate. Aiden himself is the game's weak spot.

edited 2nd Oct '14 2:24:26 PM by TobiasDrake

You know I've been wondering why I was having such a hard time liking the game and I could never put my finger on it but you've hit it right on the head

IGN's byline when the DLC came out a couple weeks ago was actually "Watch_Dogs is a lot of fun when you take out Aiden Pearce." Playing as T-Bone instead is apparently a blast.

I actually preferred Pearce in the first gameplay demo where he killed Demarco. He was just ruthless, snarky, and really projected that cool hacker vibe.

Then the full story came out, and he became a (sorta) family man with a bunch of issues and a blatant "I am actually a good guy, really" sticker. >:/

I think it would've worked better with him being the instigator in everything - him taking down a corrupt organization of corporate and underworld figures for his own reasons, as opposed to being forced to do it. Cut out the family thing completely, along with Damien, who I found to be more annoying than anything else.

It also would've been cool to see more antagonism develop between Pearce and Iraq. The trailers showed them getting into awesome chases and fights, while the final game was mostly spying on him.

I disagree. I think the family side was what was attempting to humanize Aiden and would have made him more relateable and certainly cleaned up his character more. However, they just didn't know how to mesh that with the motivations that they wanted to give him.

BTW, did anyone else get a sort of 'Scorned Boyfriend' angle from Damien a few times? TBH, that might have been a more interesting angle...

I agree. Keep in mind that this is the first game, and they have an opportunity to build on his personality and reputation in future installments.

Oh, I hope we're not stuck with Aiden going forward. Nothing about the series requires Pearce to be the main character.

And Ubisoft seems to like rotating the protagonists of their big franchises anyway. I think Splinter Cell is pretty much the only one that's always the same guy. Assassin's Creed and Far Cry both change their protagonists all the time.

edited 2nd Oct '14 4:15:57 PM by BadWolf21

If they do, I want a female to be the new main character of the second game.

edited 2nd Oct '14 4:18:31 PM by Blueblur21

I wouldn't mind a lady hacker.

Anyone that isn't Pearce is good by me.

They should have built him more up because I have no desire to get anything more from him.

Like I said, the building blocks for a good character are there, but they're not developed. His family is shallow in terms of character despite having the potential and his relationship with Damien could have been more interesting (Like I said, scorned Boyfriend was a serious vibe from him and the way he treats Nikky is like she's some hypotenuse to Aiden), and Clara felt a bit under developed by the end.

Our last scene of her before she died is Aiden practically throwing her out for her 'betrayal' without a word, how cleche, and then the next time we see her is at Lena's grave and she dies. That... There needed to be another scene inbetween.

Seriously.

First he responds to her betrayal with, "Sucks. You should leave," and then he responds to her death with, "Sucks. You died." F*ck, man, would it kill you to EMOTE a little?!

I wish they fleshed out most of the major conflicts in the game - Lucky Quinn, Defalt, and Iraq. This is the biggest problem I have with Pearce's skill level as presented; he never comes off like he really has to try. Once he makes up his mind to go into Rossi-Fremont, the game transitions from Pearce reasonably trying to avoid drawing the ire of people who will murder him, to effortlessly gunning through their installations.

Rossi-Fremont is built up as though finally hitting it is going to be the a major climactic event. Pearce goes out of his way to avoid having to walk in the front door guns blazing because he knows damn well that's suicide. And then, at the very end...he walks in the front door guns blazing and effortlessly takes out everyone.

Then Defalt finally appears in the story, and Pearce just does the same to him; Defalt is never actually presented as being particularly dangerous, and ultimately winds up seeming like some asshole who got in over his head; his entire segment of the plot effectively being filler.

And when Pearce finally discovers what the player, courtesy of being Genre Savvy, knew from the very start - that Lucky Quinn is the Big Bad - he makes up his mind to take down Quinn and then just does. Just like that. Waltzes right in and kills the most powerful mob boss in the city like it's no big thing, like beating up a thug in an ally.

None of these villains seem threatening after the Rossi-Fremont assault, because none of them are. Pearce never seems challenged or particularly put out by having to engage them, and all of them are neutralized as simply as walking right through the doors of their fortress, slaughtering any and all forces they try to defend themselves with, and killing them in their own home.

That, in and of itself, is when the plot really took a nosedive - everyone suffers a massive hit to the competency they're supposed to have in order to make Pearce the star. Even allies aren't safe; Ray Kenney spent years preparing for a potential attack on his junkyard, set up traps and ambushes, and is reduced to a helpless Escort Mission in his own warzone so that Pearce can lead the way.

edited 3rd Oct '14 9:19:06 AM by TobiasDrake

Yeah. I wish they would have spent more time with that. But let's not drop Aiden completely. I want to see him developed in the second game.

I have mixed feelings about the prospect of a new protagonist.

On the one hand, Ded Sec's threat to Aiden in the final mission was a pretty clear Sequel Hook.

On the other hand, I'm not entirely convinced Aiden's character can be salvaged without a complete overhaul so thorough that you might as well make him a new character.

I think the best thing to do would be consign him to supporting character status. Don't drop him from the plot, but don't focus overmuch on him either. Let him be the new Jordi, since Jordi's Neutral status would make bringing him back as an ally feel like an overhash; he'd work better as a Wild Card figure in the sequel.

edited 3rd Oct '14 2:05:00 PM by TobiasDrake

And to think, when I first saw Aiden in the reveal gameplay, I thought he was a Badass. He ended up being, well, I'll let IGN explain:

And those are the exact things that the plot should have addressed but goes out of its way to ignore.

I'm not sure the plot should have addressed it, so much as the game itself shouldn't have gone so far out of its way to make Aiden such a hypocrite.

AIDEN: Criminals ruin lives and do terrible things. I will beat them all with my stick and—ooh, Rich Bank Account! Score!

Morally, he's a pretty consistent character from one cutscene to the next. It's the gameplay mechanics themselves that pretty much ruin any concept of a moral high ground for him. So, maybe there shouldn't be TONS of sidequests where you traffic stolen vehicles and murder random people because a contract said to do so. Maybe there shouldn't be a sidequest dedicated to hacking into people's homes and watching them in their private lives. Maybe Aiden's primary source of funding shouldn't be stealing from bank accounts.

The plot did plenty to justify why Aiden's killing people and also to call attention to the fact that his behavior is alienating him from the people he ostensibly loves - giving him Batman Voice was still a terrible decision - before it turned into nonsensical Die Hard With An iPhone. But the gameplay goes, "Crime is fun, WHEEEEEE!!!"

edited 5th Oct '14 6:24:02 AM by TobiasDrake

Ludonarrative Dissonance. Gotta love it.

Also, I felt that the game basically turned into Bad Boys 2 whenever you got into a car chase / shootout.

Too right son.

I've said this before and I know I'm not the only one but Alan Pierce was perhaps the most frustratingly disinteresting character i've ever seen in a video game.

People take some rather cheap shots at The protagonist's sex and race, but honestly if he was an Asian woman I think the story would have still have the same problems.

His character while superficially cool with his combat skills, computer hacking abilities, 'iconic' baseball cap was painfully unlikeable and morally indecipherable. He reminded irritatingly of (all people) Motoko Kusanagi the androgynous cyborg from Ghost In The Shell.

The writers clearly want you to have some sort of emotional connection or at least reaction to Aidan but they don't seen to have a clear vision as to what that is reaction is meant to be.

Is Aidan is meant to be a hero out for justice or an anti hero out for revenge? Or both? Or neither? Or all the above?... I don't know, and I don't think the writers did either.

Hey the Major kicks ass. Don't lump her in with Pierce.

It's not that people specifically dislike 30-something white guys, it's that those characteristics are so common in videogame protagonists that it just gets old after a while. People just want variety. It won't magically make the writing better, but it's at least something new to look at/listen to. Aiden is just so horribly generic and bland. He's just the same guy we've seen a hundred times already. Give us someone new.

The whole "some kid died so YOU FEEL BAD" attempt at emotional manipulation is getting old, as well.

edited 5th Oct '14 7:03:23 PM by Nysos

Agreed. There just so much missmatched mess everywhere in WATCH_DOGS that I can't believe the creator's could take it so seriously.

See, I think most people actually miss the point. The fumble isn't in writing Aiden's character; making him bland and inconsistent. It's in the morality system. Aiden is supposed to be more or less a blank slate. Someone with very basic motivations whose characterization the player can more or less build for themselves. The problem is that if you want to play Aiden as a hero, the criminal sidequests make zero sense, and if you want to play him more chaotic, the story keeps presenting him as a paragon of virtue.

If available sidequests were adaptive, it would go a long way toward fixing some of Aiden's character. Because you wouldn't have the "Killing random people is terrible. Now I'm going to go do a job where I'm supposed to kill a random person" stuff going on.

I very much disagree. If the intention was to make Aiden bland so the player can step into their shoes, then this was certainly not the way to go about it because it really just results in Aiden being bland and drastically lacking in characterization in a game that DESPERATELY needs him to have something. This isn't an RPG like Bioware or something.

Since much of the game relies on this vast contradiction of character as explained with the morality system, I think maybe it might have been a smart move to make that explicitly pointed out in the plot. Sometimes our greatest narrative faults can be solved if the characters point out the inconsistency and it moves forward from there. That can easily create a great moral dilemma for Aiden (being on the receiving end of what he's been constantly doing to others), promote use of the 'What you are in the dark' and 'Not so different' tropes, and prompt and opportunity for character growth.

If anyone would be interested, I think it would be fascinating to discuss how to restructure the game using the same basic mechanics, characters, and plot elements while solving the narrative issues presented and making a more cohesive experience. Could be interesting.