Watch_Dogs

I'm only five official missions into Act I and I've got most of the city unlocked. This game is just as addictive as the Assassin's Creed series: there's always a new event or new unlock nearby to attempt.

I really do like what Ubisoft is going for here. It's GTA-like (not that I ever played that series), but with its own little high-tech twist: Aiden isn't explicitly a criminal but is more of a vigilante anti-hero — or rather, was a vigilante anti-hero before it got his family killed.

Obviously, you can choose to be a badguy and murder people left and right, but the game gets me to cringe every time I accidentally injure a civilian during my fights and/or car chases and feel good about saving people from criminal attacks.

The PC (mouse and keyboard) controls — especially while driving — are just awkward enough that I feel like Ubisoft really, really wants me to get a gamepad for the damn thing, and the menu interface, with the mouse steering the pointer like the right joystick, is ... ugh.

edited 2nd Aug '15 10:31:35 PM by Fighteer

Of course they wan't you to use a gamepad. It's Ubisoft. They hate you for being a PC gamer.

I liked Watch_Dogs, but I'd have liked a bit more... it feels just... too GTA. Like GTA 5 without the million meaningless side task you can do, and instead a bunch of "Press X to make things happen". I like when they get creative, like using the cameras to hack from places to places, or to sneak around, or to take out people without entering the building. I hate whenever the game goes back to being GTA with the innumerable car chases (where the addition of hacking does little at all)

It doesn't help that the plot is really thin. The guy who ordered a hit on me after hacking a building is the guy who OWNED THE BUILDING I WAS HACKING?! Le GASP! You Don't say!. And Aiden is a boring protagonist that's been done to death (And better) in other games (The obsessed with revenge to the point of self-destruction). It does have an interesting world and interesting concept, but I feel the game doesn't quite ever I guess in that aspect the Assassins Creed resemblence shows, it's my same problem with the first AC game. Maybe a potential theoretical Watch_Dogs 2 will be interesting.

I liked Watch_Dogs until I ran out of things to do.

And I liked Aiden for a non-repentant vigilante. Whenever he went after a minor criminal he got a bonus for a "non-lethal takedown" instead of an outright kill, indicating he has SOME mercy.

Though the way he does it, and the way the criminal just lays out practically dead, there really isn't anything non-lethal about it.

But I liked the concept. Maybe by the sequel, once Technology Marches On a little further, there will be more to do.

Like smart cars...

And more D-trips. Lots more D-trips.

edited 3rd Aug '15 2:03:26 AM by Keybreak

Hacking into a building's security systems to murder guards with exploding machinery is intensely satisfying. Aiden is very fragile in a straight-up gunfight, which makes those occasions when you've killed three quarters of the guards only to get ambushed and slain by the rest and have to start over excruciatingly frustrating. I find the game's vast assortment of weaponry to be largely cosmetic, as the silenced spec-ops auto pistol is the only thing I ever need if I'm doing it right.

edited 3rd Aug '15 5:23:15 AM by Fighteer

This game is loads of fun. I've binged it for the whole weekend

The plot had me glued to the screen from the second act onward. Don't really care if "overprotective of his family" thing is done before, still had me hooked. I still got immersed enough to feel the pressure put on Aiden with all the separate factions trying to get at him.

>I find the game's vast assortment of weaponry to be largely cosmetic, as the silenced spec-ops auto pistol is the only thing I ever need if I'm doing it right.

Yeah, had that issue too. Silenced headshots are really the way to go most of the time. Only occasionally did I pull out my tommy-gun (mostly for reasons of fitting with the 1920 mafia suit) and grenade launcher (to blow up incoming cars. Or just blow up the whole convoy in one focus bar.)

Although in the later part, I got the antimateriel sniper rifle (from 10 criminal convoy missions) and it really shone with its impeccable trait of shooting straight through most cover

edited 3rd Aug '15 6:01:08 AM by Adannor

I find most stealth games are like that. I tend to assume that the weapons just aren't for me. There are probably players who like and appreciate them, but I tend to enjoy stealth titles more if I'm actually working really hard to be 100% stealthy.

I'm playing the original Metal Gear Solid right now and the only time weapons come out is for boss fights and mandatory encounters.

I kind of ditch the "100% stealth component" in this games, both here and for example in Black Flag. It's just too goddamn annoying in "oh somebody spotted you, restart mission" fashion. So, the don't kill anybody but the target bonus condition in AC gets shafted completely, I just sneak in, killing everybody from stealth, once stealth eventually fails, swords out, let the bodies hit the floor.
So in here: stealth in with the silenced gun, headshots for as long as I can, once spotted shift to tommy gun and sniper from cover.
Gets silly with this game's morality rules: it's totally ok to kill every single grunt in the gang hideout, but the main guy gotta get knocked out. Totally ok to blow up three cars out of the convoy and headshot his driver, but THEN gotta leg it with the baton to catch the target.
All the while crime intervention events are mostly solved with a silenced bullet to the temple too. Although I tried to roleplay it a bit: if the guy pulls a gun, Boom, Headshot!. If it's just a mugger, baton or at most kneecap.

edited 3rd Aug '15 7:39:01 AM by Adannor

Assassin's Creed is stealth-action enough that I don't feel bad about kicking down the door if I need to. It's nearly impossible for anyone you don't want to get hurt.

I feel guilty about hurting civilians in Watch_Dogs. They didn't ask for me to be around, why should my antics result in casualties?

As for Metal Gear, I just have more fun ghosting through those, for some reason.

I generally was moderately good about civilian and cop casualties in here. Sure there have been some vehicular accidents when the only car on hand was something that handles like butter on a greased frying pan, but never actually got into shootouts with the cops, even in the final missions. (I abused the lack of cop boats in the game to reset the search during them a couple times.)

Pretty much the only significant rep loss I suffered was during the human trafficking side quests: I made a point of putting a round into every auction bidder found in the open world, and the final mission convoy was dealt with via grenade launcher.

edited 3rd Aug '15 7:51:21 AM by Adannor

I keep meaning to pick this one up but found my enthusiasm curtailed (and I am sorry to say, slightly influenced) by people's negative reactions. The squandered opportunity and it being more GTA but with magic hacking.

That said, I keep meaning to grab a copy as I'd like to give it a whirl as I do enjoy open world Ass Creeds.

I think partly it was because I'd also just finished GTA 5 and was feeling a bit drained by it, so the thought of another sprawling map of collectibles had me shivering.

What are the sidequests like on the whole? Plot aside (I can get through The Net without cringing too much) I'll probably enjoy some B Movie silliness.

And PC or PS 4?

Obviously, I advocate the PC Master Race for all things, but you may get higher satisfaction using the controls on a gamepad as they were clearly designed for. (I should get around to buying an X Box controller some day.)

A mission completed from stealth feels so much more satisfying, although crushing goons with explosives and automatic weapons fire is fun as well. The game really punishes overt violence, though, especially since civilians will call the police when they hear or witness gunfire. On one side mission, I failed because the cops showed up, got in a gunfight with the bad guys, and killed the target I was supposed to take down. The requirement for takedowns instead of kills is frankly baffling.

Driving missions became fun once I got the hang of the cars' handling, although I dread the occasional failed powerslide through a crowded intersection with mass civilian casualties. One of the fixer quests really made me angry — I had to do the "lead the cops" on a motorcycle. It has great maneuverability and all, but a single mistake means a spill and a good ten seconds lost trying to get back on the bike. Cars are a lot more forgiving.

edited 3rd Aug '15 8:12:07 AM by Fighteer

I played on PC, with mouse and keyboard. Reassigning hack button to a mouse sidebutton from the default Q helped a lot (don't have to take the finger off the driving controls to press it, you see)

I found the sidequests pretty fun. There is several types of them focusing on hacking and city navigation (and both) which were very fun - i.e. figure out how to get up to the router to get your hack in, then get to another, then sometimes there is also a straight up hacking puzzle at the end. Or (for most of privacy invasion quests) it's just the hacking puzzle up front. QR codes are interesting - you need to find a camera at the right angle to view the code plastered on the landscape - across several separate buildings if need be.

Criminal convoy fixer missions were quite fun as well, allowing you to use the open-world hacking capabilities in a car chase and that's pretty unique compared to GTA. (Or you can just ambush them with explosives if you are inclined to take a simple hammer to the job.)

Digital trips let you have a taste of rampage gameplay without triggering the morality system. Including a friggin Spider Tank rampage.

Gang stronghold missions are pretty much "Ass Creed WITH GUNS"

I don't think it has too much collectibles on the whole. Each type of collectible has about 10 to 15 missions in them with exception of city hotspots (100, but they're extremely easy), privacy invasions (30, mostly a straightforward hacking puzzle rather than classic GTA gameplay) and car delivery fixer contracts (40 and are a flat standard timed driving challenge. I yawned and ignored them.)

edited 3rd Aug '15 8:14:19 AM by Adannor

Hmmm definitely have to give it a go then. So many games in my backlog though. Finish Witcher 3, the POE, then maybe get Wasteland, finish Unity (If I can bring myself to)

And then Fallout, Mad Max and Syndicate this year. Ugh. Still, got some holiday to take, maybe can blitz.

I saw the spider tank in a youtube video and wondered if it was a VR thing. Are the DL Cs worthwhile as well?

I got the deluxe edition with all DLCs for only a dollar more than the base game on Steam... or at least I think that's what I got. For that cheap, how can you go wrong?

edited 3rd Aug '15 8:24:32 AM by Fighteer

>I saw the spider tank in a youtube video and wondered if it was a VR thing

Basically, yes. It has both VR and AR sidequests. Digital Trips are basically VR+drugs with Aiden conked out while they're going on. Stuff like spidertank, or driving a car across the city turned into a hellscape and hitting pedestrians for points. AR quests are more innocent things like running around and hitting AR aliens with AR guns while the in-game-real city is still around you, or a parkouring challenge to gather coins on a timer.

edited 3rd Aug '15 8:49:40 AM by Adannor

There are also 8 burner phones, they give you a little backstory on the guy you capture at the beginning of the game.

Ah right. And also assorted audio logs from other people to be looted during the plot missions, in the safehouses and so on. No puzzles, just find and loot.

Also if you, like me, going to try get your collectibles on at the start, there is a radar tower that is locked behind plot section and a whole new type of collectible behind another, so you can't catch them all off the bat.

edited 3rd Aug '15 9:14:43 AM by Adannor

I loved the ability to hack cameras and manipulate the field, both for stealth and for combat. In stealth, I liked that there were some missions that could be completed without ever even setting foot inside the premises. That's fantastic and it's everything I signed up for when I decided to play this game.

For combat, Watch_Dogs is a rare example of a game that justifies your character's combat superiority by way of giving you an edge your opponents cannot be expected to compete with. Many games are content to just declare you as Rambo and tell you not to think about it when you're killing dozens of trained killers effortlessly, but Watch_Dogs actually justifies it with tactical supremacy and a fairly squishy protagonist. Being able to create or deny cover, explode sections of the battlefield, remotely-view the entire area from a variety of angles, etc. are huge advantages.

My only complaint with Watch_Dogs is the ludonarrative dissonance in its sandbox design. The game doesn't commit enough to the unrepentant vigilantism and it screws up the protagonist's character as a consequence. Half the things you can do in the game are doling out Punisher-style vengeance on GTA-esque "fixers," and the other half are GTA-esque "fixer" jobs. Between this and the primary source of funding being stealing from people's bank accounts, Aiden starts to feel like a massive hypocrite, which harshly undercuts his vigilantism.

Where one minute, he's killing a guy for stealing a car for the mob and the next, he's stealing cars for the mob, he comes across as a very inconsistent character. He stops being about dishing out vigilante justice, and just becomes a thug weeding out the competition for his criminal ventures. Given how hard they worked to create this atmosphere that is basically, "The Punisher with a cell phone," this is a pretty glaring misstep.

I eagerly look forward to the next Watch Dogs but hope they can get both a more engaging protagonist and gameplay that's more consistent with its protagonist's central characterization in the sequel. This is a flawed, but still impressive and fairly unique game.

edited 3rd Aug '15 9:34:12 AM by TobiasDrake

>Half the things you can do in the game are doling out Punisher-style vengeance on GTA-esque "fixers," and the other half are GTA-esque "fixer" jobs.

Well I wouldn't put it this far. The missions for taking out fixers denote that they are en route to commit assassination or are coming back home from doing the same; while the fixer missions Aiden does are to deliver a car or lead the cops on a merry chase. Don't recall any "kill a guy for stealing a car" contracts.

The banks thing is valid, yes. Plus as I commented earlier the weird amount of mercy Aiden has: you can murder low ranking goons with impunity, but the ringleader is to be left alive "to teach him a lesson"/"to send a message".

The random vigilantism are more to the player to decide, but you can still play Punisher and kill a guy for random mugging and then go do a stronghold in which you are required to leave a drug trader alive.

>I eagerly look forward to the next Watch Dogs but hope they can get both a more engaging protagonist and gameplay that's more consistent with its protagonist's central characterization in the sequel. This is a flawed, but still impressive and fairly unique game.

Yeah, I'm going to sing under that overall conclusion too. It has flaws and failures, but is still loads of unique fun.

edited 3rd Aug '15 9:39:23 AM by Adannor

I do feel bad stealing from common citizens to fund my operations. It doesn't jive with Aiden's characterization; he'll protect people but leave them broke?

Also, the sheer amount of theft and property damage and other forms of intrusion that Aiden alone commits, never mind the other hackers that are presumably out there, ought to lead to a massive witch hunt against CTOS.

Ah another thing about the cash: it turned out to be mostly worthless really. I spent a pittance on ammo and gadget refills that is easily covered by missions. I got like three quarters of a million from bank hacks and spent none of it. So if I cared for roleplaying that aspect I could easily avoid those hacks.

I've never touched bank accounts. I hack people for items, missions, song/car unlocks, and information (the private conversations are fun).

The game's plot doesn't really stand to logic very well. You kinda just have to nod your head and not think about it while humming the MST3K Mantra.

I think Super Bunnyhop's review's closing statement echos my feeling for the game: "I really liked this game, but that 'like' comes with a lot of qualifying statements!"

I do have big hopes for a sequel. A better plot. More refined mechanics that emphasize the hacking part over the GTA-lite elements.

On top of the whole Aiden morality issues: Nevermind what Aiden does to mooks, the fact that that you can hack streetlights to take out pursuing car. Using other cars. Driven by civilians. Who crash head first into your enemies. Oh, Aiden is all about saving the common folks. Doesn't mean he wont use them as a weapon though. Sorry kids, Mom's never coming home coz Aiden had the cops on his tail.

Heck, how many people do you end up injuring during the game's innumerable car chases? I wouldn't be surprised Aiden kills and injures more innocent people than he saves in the average playthrough.

edited 3rd Aug '15 10:22:33 AM by Ghilz

I try to avoid injuring civilians during driving missions, but it's hard. I'm only a short way into the main story but it looks like Aiden stands to rack up billions in property damage alone during the course of the game.

You're supposed to laugh when you hack traffic lights to neutralize pursuers but... yeah. It isn't even really a case of Fridge Logic; the casualties are right there, obvious to any player.

Well obviously everyone TRIES to avoid it (If only coz hitting someone slows you down), but it's almost unavoidable, who hasn't swerved into a crowd accidently, or some other thing? Especially as the handling of the cars in the game is kind of meh.

Besides the morality thing, Aiden's still a boring character. Like, okay, he's got the revenge thing... but basically nothing else? What did Aiden do before the whole hacker thing? Where'd he pick up those skills he has as an expert marksman, expert driver, expert hacker expert hand to hand combatant? We know very little about him. Where'd he meet with a douche like Damien? Why's he single?

Compare him with Ezio from AC 2. Who also was on the whole revenge thing going on. Ezio has a TON more personality than Aiden.

I love the hacking. I want more of that, I want a better plot with a better protagonist. T-Bone's more interesting. Lets keep him as our protagonist.

edited 3rd Aug '15 10:36:05 AM by Ghilz