Watch Dogs 2 is an actually good game

[Fire&Blood]

I picked up a cheap nvidia promo code about a week ago and it's been fun. Think AC: Black Flag if you happened to like it better than it's prequel and sequel .

The game tries to be a jack of all 3rd person trades so by default it can't excel in any of the aspects but the overall experience is good. Decent satire too, up to par with GTA, who they have been after even with the first game.

The game looks stunning but is also the most demanding title in my library. I find myself delaying missions and just going for walks, when the weather/day-night cycles permit it.

Despite it's freshness, there is still enough of the cookie cutter feel that prevents it from being a great game in my book but it surprised me to be honest. It's definitely worth the $20 I paid.

It's impressive what Ubi's workforce can achieve if they consolidate on a a given project. Since GTA V, Ubi pumped out two titles to compete with it and this game holds up well so far.

 

[gorcorps]

https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/watch-dogs-2.2491495/

Anyway, I agree. Everything about it is improved on the original IMO, and my original thought in that thread about its parallel to Assassins Creed 1 & 2 holds true for me:

I have high hopes for this. I get a very similar vibe as I did with Assassin's Creed, where a new IP is hyped up tremendously and fails to meet expectations... but laid the groundwork for a very good sequel.

Nothing about Watch Dogs was that bad, it just got boring and repetitive by the end. Now that they've had time to focus on making the game more fleshed out and fun it should be an improvement.

I get the same feeling in WD2 that I did in AC2, where the core of the game that worked in the original remains intact but everything else has been polished and built up so it's not nearly as repetitive and boring as the first game. I've been bouncing between WD2 and Titanfall 2, but WD2 is quite fun. The remote car and quadcopter mechanics are a nice addition and add a little variety. The driving feels better, and all of the side missions have been pretty engaging so far.

 

[Aikouka]

If Ubisoft makes The Division 2, we might get to prove whether or not it's best to just avoid first titles in any Ubisoft IP. I drew the same parallels with Assassin's Creed when I started reading reviews, and it makes a lot of sense. Both games seemed to be pushed in the exact same way. I recall when Jade was talking about Assassin's Creed during the press events. The focus of the talk was always on the things you could do in the game that you could never do in other games... not how interesting the story would be or anything like that. Watch_Dogs had the exact same problem where all of the events highlighted all of the crazy things you could do with hacking, but very little about what would engross you.

Once Ubisoft is able to stop focusing on crazy new gameplay mechanics, it seems that they actually do a decent job at focusing on the story in the games. Albeit, later Assassin's Creed games show that they aren't always on point there either.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Nice try Ubisoft.

 

[CuriousMike]

If Ubisoft makes The Division 2, we might get to prove whether or not it's best to just avoid first titles in any Ubisoft IP.

I'm not entirely sure what this means - friends and I started The Division during the xmas break, and we've had major fun going thru it together.

 

[aigomorla]

I'm not entirely sure what this means - friends and I started The Division during the xmas break, and we've had major fun going thru it together.

I also had to admit it was lots of fun until the hackers and cheaters started drifting into the DZ.
Then we had the ungodly RNG grind for stupid stats which were pointless that resorted us to grind even more for better rolls.

However it doesnt end there, because the GFX maybe great, but they were no where close to what ubisoft promised us in the snowdrop demo at E3.

And its not just Division, they pulled a watchdog 1 bait and swap on us on Rainbow 6, and Division that left many people not able to trust them anymore.

This video is a great comparison at why i personally stopped preordering anything ubisoft now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNter0oEYxc&t=821s

 

[CuriousMike]

You linked somewhere for FC3 which I'm not familiar with; but I found The Division footage earlier in the video.
I felt like E3 represented what I see on PC with High/Ultra graphics fairly closely.
The footage labeled "Retail" looked like Low/Medium - maybe this video was more targeted at consoles?
Or maybe because I started The Division almost a year after it released, it improved?

This video is a great comparison at why i personally stopped preordering anything ubisoft now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNter0oEYxc&t=821s

 

[Fire&Blood]

I searched the forums but should have done a "titles only" search to find the other thread, it was lost in the results.

It's an 8/10 for me so far. I haven't finished the game yet but I'm confident a sequel is setup in the final cut scenes.

As for the Division, the game environments and lighting effects took a serious hit from what was shown before the release. Since the release, the game has made some gradual progress in increasing in game details but it still falls short of this:

 

[pcslookout]

I hate The Division.

 

[EXCellR8]

I liked the Division once I was an hour or so in... but it seemed like I leveled up fast and then there were way less people to play with??

Watch Dogs 2 was fun at first too, but the only real fun I had was starting huge conflicts between gangs and law enforcement. Oh and telling people to go **** themselves with the little RC bot haha