We do a special kind of review on gamelust called a ‘rolling review’ where we play the game and share our opinions on a daily basis as we progress through the game. This gives you an in depth look at whether or not we are enjoying the game, as well as a dynamic score through out the experience from beginning to [hopefully] end, updated daily.
2/19/17 – xsuicidesn0wmanx
I know, I know. Why do a rolling review on a game that came nearly 3 months ago? Well, like many of you I waited a while before jumping back into Watch Dogs. Although I did enjoy the first game, there wasn’t really much of a reason for me to get all excited like a fat kid in a cupcake factory. With so many great games coming out in the last 4 months of 2016 it was easy to watch this game fall down my backlog, and even easier for most of you to ignore the game altogether.
Funny thing is, like last years Ubisoft underdog Rainbow Six: Seige, this game has legs. Not that I mean to compare this game to a 6′ tall runway model in a 3″ skirt. Just that the game has continued to sell well after the initial launch window due to positive word of mouth. As people begin to finally play the game more of us are finding out Ubisoft has a tendency to create something special with their first sequel in a series.
Now, the first thing I have to clear up is that I am a former hacker with some moderate cred. Although I may have been well known at the time, I wouldn’t say that I was ever considered elite outside of my small corner of the internet. Needless to say a lot of what goes on in a Watch Dogs game hits a bit closer to home for me. I’ve been in this world in real life, so to play it in a game is both a trip down memory lane and a new experience all at once.
In many ways this feels like a Ubisoft game right from the start. It’s open world, has random side quests and fetch quests littering the map, but something feels different. The controls are a little sloppy but that’s not really it. There are no towers to climb/hack to survey the surroundings. It’s almost as if Ubisoft actually started listening to peoples complaints about the tired old Ubisoft formula that managed to find it’s way into every single damn game they made. From Assassin’s Creed to Splinter Cell and even to The Crew for who the fuck knows why. But is that enough to turn the gamers back into Ubisoft fans? Ehhh…. maaaaayyybe.
I spent a lot of the first night completing side quests rather than finishing off the main story. Although each of these missions felt natural I didn’t really find myself enjoying them very much. The main story is fairly loose and upbeat. I enjoy almost every cut scene and the mission itself never feels like a chore. What really resonates with me is how the characters interact with each other. These are all characters that I would have wanted to befriend in real life. Like minded individuals who enjoy the art of fuckery at a level bordering full blown troll. The more people try to go after them, the more hilarious their responses get.
The beauty of it all is that this type of story lends itself well to how many of us play a GTA clone. If you’re anything like me, you probably didn’t make it to the 3rd mission before you were driving on the sidewalk and crashed into every NPC riding on a motorcycle. Deny it all you want. GTA clones merely exist to prove that deep down we’re all absolute horrible human beings. But that’s where this game shines so far. You have the same freedoms to commit acts of unholy terror at will and the story kind of encourages that. Not directly, but when you’re trolling other hackers and security companies, you tend to do some really fucked up trollish shit to the enemy simply because you can. For example, I can’t tell you how many missions I have completed so far by hacking a car and running an enemy over with it. In one mission I even had a security bot spinning in circles and singing next to a flammable tank that ‘randomly’ exploded as security guards drew near. So was it any surprise when I had a momentary lapse in judgement and decided it would be fun to run a Taco Truck into a gas station just to watch things explode? Fuck no!
It’s been a fun trip down memory lane so far. While the game isn’t perfect, it’s pretty damn good. I’m going to start this rolling review with a 92 and see if the game can sustain this level of douchebaggery all the way to the end.
2/21/17 – xsuicidesn0wmanx
Didn’t have a session on 2/20/17 as I was working on the site until 9pm so I made sure to make some time tonight so I could play a bit more of this game. So far I got about 3 more hours into the game, but I don’t feel like I have much more to contribute. Pretty much all of my comments from Mondays session apply here. Each mission feels like it belongs. Most of the time I’m trolling people who deserve to be trolled. The only thing that has changed is our team now has a new member, an old school hacker named Ray Kenney. This guy is basically like a copy of me only in desperate need of a bottle of shampoo and a haircut. His way of thinking is rather anti-social, though still trollish. He never had much use for social media or followers.
Story wise everything seems to be falling into place. Not to say that the journey hasn’t had it’s speed bumps. But this world can tend to put a target on your back with your fellow peers, and so far that’s exactly what is happening. I’ve already had a big run-in with the main protagonist, and now I’ve got this crazy chick Lenni(spelling?) screwing with us. I must say though, the best part is that the last hour or so I literally had a pixelated cat walking around my screen leaving little piles of steaming/blue shit on the screen.
Although it would have pissed me off back in the day, this is the kind of shit we did to each other all the time. Some ‘lamer’, who we now refer to as ‘skript kiddies’ would piss one of us off. Next thing you know there’s a giant dick spinning around on their screen and the song “You Spin Me Round” by Dead or Alive blasting on the speakers. For those in the know this would be remembered as meatspin dot com(trust me, you don’t want to know if it even still works).
As you can see. This game is exactly what I had hoped for. A trip down memory lane and a new experience at the same time. Although your experience and mine might not be the same. I still think this game would be pretty fun for the average gamer. I’m enjoying this game a lot and I still feel this is right around a 92. I’ll probably play a little more tonight. I am eager to finish this campaign quickly since Horizon: Zero Dawn will be out in a few days. If you enjoy our Rolling Reviews be sure to keep an eye on the site. Killer1022 will be joining me for a Rolling Review of Horizon: Zero Dawn next week. That’s right, you get two reviews for the price of one.
2/25/17 – xsuicidesn0wmanx
I spent the night Friday and Saturday finishing the main story in this game and loved every second of it. I would say that the game never really posed much of a challenge outside of a few of the puzzles. But I actually enjoy a game that I can play without it becoming a chore. Don’t get me wrong, I think games like Dark Souls have their place, but a story driven game should not be held hostage by it’s game play.
At the end of the day I really enjoyed the hell out of the new direction for Watch Dogs 2 and can’t wait to see how they handle Watch Dogs 3. This game was filled to the brim with geek references and loads of humor that the original was lacking. This actually gives the game a touch of authenticity that the original didn’t have. My friends and I used to do shit like this ALL THE TIME, though not on this scale. We didn’t hack banks or huge corporations like Facebook, but there were rivalries between different hacking groups and we would troll each other constantly. The only real flaw I had with the story is that I would have liked to have seen a story that didn’t rely so much on gun play. I don’t think Watch Dogs needs to be a GTA clone, but I spent many missions killing everything in my way.
I’m glad I decided to finally play this game. I had owned it since launch and never tried it. What I got in return was one of the best games I had played this generation. 2016 was an excellent year for gamers, and this was one of several fantastic adventures to be had on Xbox One and PlayStation 4. I’m going to bump up my final score review score to 94 for this one. Ubisoft really knocked this one out of the park.