Blah blah blah, lets hate on its graphics and all that fickle kiddie BS. Watch_Dogs is still a great game through and through, it is not some game that gives you the illusion of freedom, but rather compacts it into your smart phone.
Right when I was set loose in the city, the first thing I wanted to do was cause mayhem, and I did. I raised barriers on high speed cars, I changed traffic lights and caused accidents, I even set off an explosive on some guards body and blew up his buddies in the process.
Watch Dogs is, and isn't a disappointment, largely the later. Yes it is apparent that the games visuals are not as great as the initial showing, but it is NOT bad by any stretch of the imagination. The character models are (as always) beautifully detailed, the city at night is breathtaking when fog hangs above the city with the lights shining through it. Little things like that gives reason enough to not hate on the game for not being the next Metro LL or Crysis 3.
In the world where everything is monitored by ctOS, you can literally peak into the secret deviant lives of people. One person may have recently searched "-blam!-" and the other may be "Suffering from PTSD" it gets pretty interesting to find out who is wearing the guise of a good citizen, and possibly steal their money.
The same scenario goes towards the combat. I profiled a guard I mercilessly executed, and found out that he was a single father of 2, and another that was diagnosed with leukemia. Things like that strike a chord with me, and gives meaning to my actions. It actually paints a moral grey area and the only consequences are on my humanity.
It may not be the same for everybody, but for me--it was especially effective.
As for the main story, not much appears to be happening--but it seems pretty straight forward. I don't feel any emotional ups or downs like I did in The Last of Us, or Red Dead Redemption. It has interesting secondary characters, but Aiden himself feels like a plain dick.
Yes he is an Anti-Hero, but that is no excuse for lack of charisma. Hopefully it will all change later on in the story.
Spontaneous crimes can happen at a moments notice, and all pretty much involve waiting for the victim to be attacked, you chase the perp down and thats it. It can feel pretty repetitious after a while, but its the unique chases that manage to keep me coming back.
What is cool about these things is that it can tie into your karma system. If you do something reckless and get the cops called on you, your face can be plastered in TV. And if you're shopping during that time, the clerk will hit the silent alarm.
I unfortunately cannot check out the online portion, since my new house does not have internet... Yeah, it sucks.
But regardless, I am still digging this game on nearly all fronts. Except for the GOD AWFUL soundtrack!!! I cannot tell you how many times I have skipped songs to find a good one. Its littered with bands I have never heard of, and feels like the music library to add to youtube videos. It needs to be a compilation of top hits from past and present, not a random dime bag bundle of shit.
Thankfully I can turn that off!
UPDATE: Forgot about the digital trips. These things are awesome! Especially Spider Tank. If these things existed in real life, I would love to try this out. There is even one that sorta goes Virtual Reality and is a retro hoard mode. If you run out of things to do, these little games got you covered!
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It's an amazing game IMO. Far better than GTA V. And regarding the soundtrack, as someone who has been all over Europe and used to live in Switzerland, it isn't bad it's just very European, probably stemming from the fact that Ubisoft is a French developer.