I really liked Watch Dogs. Like everyone else I was disappointed that it didn't live up to the graphical splendor of the early footage, but I thought the game itself delivered. The sandbox was fun, the story was engaging, the stealth and combat game play was excellent. I've been anxiously awaiting Watch Dogs 2 since it was announced, and it's certainly different from the first game in many ways.
Ubisoft has publicly said that they've learned from their past mistakes of showing off upcoming games too early and vowed to turn over a new leaf in that regard. WD2 falls under their new and improved policy. It was unveiled for the first time only about five months ago, so virtually all of the downgrading and compromising they had to do happened behind closed doors, where it belongs. What they showed us is what we got. Overall I think it looks better than WD1. The world of the Bay Area definitely has more character than WD1's version of Chicago, which I thought was good but did have a bit of boxy design going on, like it was modeled with Legos. WD2's world has more variety and is a lot more colorful. Ubisoft was pretty open and transparent that GTA was a major influence on Watch Dogs. I'm pretty sure they used GTA4 as a big chunk of inspiration for WD1, and that GTA5 was a big inspiration for WD2. I certainly see some similarities in the overall visual design and presentation. Much of WD2's San Francisco bears more of a resemblance to GTA's Los Santos than it does to WD1's Chicago, and I'm not just talking about architecture and climate.
Anyone who's familiar with WD1 and has seen WD2 previews should know that the tone of the game is completely different. WD1's story and atmosphere was very grim and stone faced, with only a few occasional bits of comic relief. It was about Aiden Pearce, a criminal out to avenge the death of his niece, a death which was ultimately his fault. Hard to blame him for going around with a permanent frown and not being a fountain of one-liners. Again it seems like Ubisoft used GTA4 as the model for WD1 and GTA5 for WD2. WD2 is goes completely in the other direction, virtually always upbeat and wacky. Everything is parody and satire. It walks a fine line between lionizing hipster hacker SJWs and mocking them. Very tongue in cheek and self aware. Story wise, it's very different from WD1 in that that game had a very linear sequence of events where every mission provided a new clue that lead to the next mission, until Aiden achieved the revenge he set out for in the beginning. WD2 does lay out the clear goal of taking down Blume at the beginning of the game, but from then on it's basically a hodge podge collection of disconnected missions that only share the commonality of hurting Blume in one way or another. They're often similar to GTA5 heists; When you receive a new mission it's actually a sequence of a few separate missions to complete a project. e.g. A) Steal a particular car. B) Sneak into a lab and steal an experimental computer chip. C) Hack into an office network and download some proprietary software. D) Upload the software onto the chip, install the chip in the car, and then use the car to ________. These all fall under one mission heading in your DedSec phone app, but you're able to free roam between each step if you want to. The story isn't exactly what you'd call a direct sequel to WD1's story, but it does reference and connect to it. They often refer to "what happened in Chicago in 2013" and there are some cameos. WD1's had lots and lots of miscellaneous side missions that had nothing to do with his revenge mission, and it often felt wrong to stop and deliver stolen cars or take down some random criminal convoy when you knew you were supposed to be in a race against time to save your nephew or sister or whatever. Ironically, WD2's flow would be much more suited to doing random sub-missions whenever you feel like it, but compared to WD1 liberally peppering them all over the map, they're few and far between.
The stealth component feels very much like WD1. I tend to lean towards stealth in these game whenever possible, but WD1 seemed to deliberately throw you into situations where combat was the way to go. WD2 seems to emphasize stealth more. The stun gun is probably a big part of why. The character you play as, Marcus aka Retr0, was wrongfully deemed a criminal threat by ctOS, and that's his primary motivation for wanting to bring down Blume at the beginning of the story. So it feels odd to have him then proceed to become a violent criminal to achieve his goal. However I think it's important that Ubisoft put the choice in the players' hands rather than force everyone to play as a harmless white hat. Allowing the player to choose makes the non-lethal choice more powerful. Going non-lethal definitely adds a layer of challenge, because the stun gun only knocks out enemies temporarily. Pretty sure Ubisoft was playing some MGS while they designed WD2. However, melee take downs seem to knock them out permanently. Sometimes they look so brutal I wonder if they're actually lethal. One of the few disappointments I have is that they got rid of WD1's Focus ability. Since the game is designed to be online at all times and not just during adversarial invasions, I guess it just wasn't an option. Too bad, I relied on it often in WD1. I miss it, but I'll cope.
Oddly enough, you can still pop into restaurants and bars for a coffee or a beer. Marcus has the exact same drinking animation that Aiden and T-Bone did. But without a Focus gauge to extend, it doesn't seem to serve any purpose. I like that they left it in anyway. I remember being pretty disappointed the first time I played GTA5 and realized you couldn't enter fast food joints anymore.
The driving is definitely an improvement over WD1. I remember really hating WD1's driving when it came out, and it took me a while to get comfortable with it. I've been replaying WD1 and its Bad Blood DLC over and over for the last few weeks because I was so excited about WD2, so these days WD1's driving has felt very natural and second nature to me. The other day I popped in GTA5 for a bit, and was surprised that its driving suddenly felt really weird to me, and I'd have to readjust my brain to get used to it again. Clearly WD1 has re-wired my brain. Recent WD2 previews were saying the driving in WD2 was different from WD1, so I was kinda nervous about that. When I first started playing, I did think it felt kinda twitchy. But I got used to it very quickly. I think it's similar to WD1, but definitely improved.
There was a rumor that the online MP was so broken that the day 1 patch required to fix it was going to be so huge that depending on your internet connection you might not be able to play WD2 until the day after you got it. The good news is that the day 1 patch is relatively small, less than 220 MB I think. I was able to play within about 15 minutes of inserting the disc. The bad news is that online MP is indeed broken, and has been disabled until they release a big patch. Luckily for me, I don't care about the online MP stuff.
Honestly, the biggest flaw I can think of here is that most of the the voice actors pronounce Silicon Valley as "Silicone" Valley. Idiots.
Bottom line, WD2 is in many ways an improvement over the original. Heartily recommended to those who liked WD1, those who didn't like WD1, and those who never played WD1. I really can't overstate how much FUN WD2 is, in every sense of the word.
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Customer Review: I Can Sum It Up In One Word; FUN.
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Reviewed in the United States on November 16, 2016
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Top reviews from other countries
Jeremy
Like game fun more best ps4
Reviewed in Canada on September 14, 2023Platform: PlayStation 4Edition: StandardVerified Purchase
Allen Zavala
Mi primer reseña Watch dogs 2
Reviewed in Mexico on February 2, 2017Platform: PlayStation 4Edition: StandardVerified Purchase
Adrian
Great Buy!!
Reviewed in Japan on July 29, 2018Platform: PlayStation 4Edition: StandardVerified Purchase
Moe
Fast delivery
Reviewed in Canada on April 3, 2023Platform: PlayStation 4Edition: StandardVerified Purchase
Salvador
¿MEJOR QUE EL PRIMERO?
Reviewed in Mexico on September 20, 2020Platform: PlayStation 4Edition: StandardVerified Purchase
Salvador
Reviewed in Mexico on September 20, 2020
El resultado es, cuanto menos, sorprendente, manteniendo la idea de los hackers en un mundo abierto pero recogiéndola desde una perspectiva mucho más desenfadada que le sienta de fábula a la mezcla. ‘Watch Dogs 2’ no se toma en serio casi nunca y eso es justo lo que necesitaba para ser un sandbox tan fresco como divertido.
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