Watch Dogs 2 (2016)

Fun

Watch_Dogs 2 is a really fun game in which you can mess with people in a variety of ways. Put a hit on them. Swat them. Lure them to a pipe and blow it up. Remotely control a forklift and crush them with it. Set the guard robot to "hug" mode. Take over a car's cruise control and ram it into people. Or simply fly over them with your drone and bomb them. Completing all the missions took me ~36 hours and hacking never got old.

Flaws

The game does have some flaws:

• There are too many pipe puzzles.
• Your character is too fragile and can't be upgraded to be tougher.
• There are a few too many times when you have to find your way to the top of a building for some reason.
• You can only carry two weapons and can't store weapons you don't use.
• The controls are a bit clumsy too, especially for remotely controlling a car.
• Mass hacking powers should have been activated by pressing their hotkey instead of it plus G.
• The final mission is disappointing.
• Police popping in right in front of you is just awful.

The Bad

The only bad thing about WD2 is the special vision mode. I'm getting really tired of special vision modes, which is ironic, because at least 4 of my top 25 games have it. It's especially bad here because finding hackable objects is a pain without "hackvision" (or whatever it's called). Instead of completely turning the world grey (or whatever) vision modes should just highlight stuff. What's the point of designing detailed levels if you're going to move around a completely grey world most of the time?

Conclusion

The Watch Dogs games along with Saints Row prove that GTA-likes can be fun without being dreadfully tedious. Just the simple fact that you can instantly fast travel without waiting for a cab or dropping from a plane makes a huge difference. Rockstar/Avalanche Studios - take note.

Played through this the whole way through in 2017 on XBOX One and really liked it. Purchased it again for the PS4 and while I still like the game, the narrative feels remarkably unengaging. Every time you, as Dedsec, commit to some huge statement, a news story often later explains how the problem became somewhat worse as a result of your actions. This could be a potentially interesting commentary on how the aggressive hacktivism you and your group enact in the game might do more harm than good, even when those involved had initially good intentions. However, this idea isn't really reflected in the main story in any meaningful way. The main cast (who are all characterised wonderfully through good writing, design and performances) never grow or are ever clearly bothered by this at any point. Watch Dogs 2 never commits to anything bold, and thus this "commentary" feels like an afterthought.

The gameplay is fun. Every scenario and pretty well designed, allowing for a lot of creativity and freedom in how the player can complete any given mission. However, despite giving the player a taser for the non-lethal option, there are never any consequences for killing people so it ends up functioning as a super weak role-playing mechanic and basically nothing else. Encounters lack a need to stop and think about your actions before proceeding which is a real shame because it feels like the game is designed for that very purpose. YouTuber SuperBunnyhop suggested that Ubisoft remove guns entirely from the next Watch Dogs game and while I can't ever see that happening, I couldn't agree more. It would be a very brave move, but definitely one the game would benefit from. Reports are that the next game is set in London, where gun control is massively stricter, so fingers crossed that means what I think it might mean.

Ultimately, the issue with Watch Dogs 2, and basically every Ubisoft game, is that it lacks the courage to commit to anything remotely interesting. The main issue is one which breaks it at the core, and that's the fact that Ubisoft lacks a spine. The developer is too scared to break the mould and that's tragic because they are clearly talented enough to deliver something truly special. Unfortunately, for now, their games are simply forgettable, and that's the gravest sin of all.

6/10

Watch_Dogs 2 is a tremendous improvement over its predecessor in every regard. It does everything that the first should have done and what you'd expect from a game centered around hacking, not the result which was a third-person shooter with a long-range interact key.

In the game, you start off performing hacking-based publicity stunts, like scamming not-Schkreli to buying private rights to a not-WuTang album. Or commandeering the not-NightRider car into performing stunts around the city. Oh, did I mention many of the missions and details parody real life? I would be fine with the whole game being silly diversions with light hacktivism, but there's an evil corporation to overthrow. The game doesn't deal with the shift in tone well from silly and mundane to preventing Orwell's 1984, as the side missions and main story progress independently.

You'll get through the whole game playing with your hacking toys. Highlights include clearing a gang-infested area by calling the police on them, and stealing a vehicle by driving it out remotely. You can stealth and hack your way through the game, which is what was expected of the first game. I wouldn't be surprised if they intentionally made the gunplay bad (because it is) to stop you from winning by shooting people. For many missions, you don't even need to physically enter the area, you can send your drone or r/c car in to do the work.

You can see Ubisoft going "we realize we messed up with Watch Dogs 1," like when your hacker buddies talk about Aiden (Watch Dogs 1's protagonist) in a one-off mission, they add that he had a "mixed" reception. In regards to the story progression of the first game, I was so ready for every accomplishment your hacker group did to go wrong, but... that never happened. Your hacker group gets their victories; you're not be slogged down by having a bullshit complication around every turn. So that's nice.

A minor issue, and it's mostly due to how I play games, but there's an augmented visor which turns everything grey except for hacking hotspots and . While this is nice, it's too easy to play most of the game like this, with most of the screen grey. A compromise would be nice- hotspots and enemies marked in the normal view.

Of course, it's also an open world game. The car hacking is really fun to mess around with, as you can run cars into walls and whatnot, as well as the ability to call gangs or the police to fight each other. Fire up your drone and watch as unlikely numbers of gang members and police fight it out.