Watch Dogs 2 - Ubisoft's other open world IP returns

Yeah, it’s a shame because the seamless MP world stuff is really good. I’m glad I’m getting to experience it while it’s still busy.

A couple of tips for beginners:

  1. Get the quadcopter drone as soon as possible. It’s a little over $60k, but you should be able to get that together in a couple of hours by just free-roaming and snatching 3 or 4 bags of money lying around in SF. In many cases, they’re only guarded by one or two enemies and each bag has about $10k-$20k. Make the flying drone a priority because it’s useful in a million ways.

  2. One of the first upgrades available to players in the skill app is the ability to use your magic phone to quickly take over cars on the road and make them swerve. This is handy in car chases to force NPC cars out of your way or swerve them into enemies. But there’s a hidden cost! If you enable this ability, you can no longer zap the drivers of the other cars, because your phone will always default to zapping the car instead. This means it’s actually harder to replenish your phone charge as you cruise down the highway. You’ll eventually want to take this skill to open up the rest of the branch, but it’s something to consider at the early part of the game.

  3. An upgrade you may want to prioritize is the improvement to the RC car drone that allows it to jump higher. Some hackable objects can only be used physically by you or the RC car, so the quadcopter can’t actually interface with them. Many of the environmental puzzles require this ability, and it’s very useful in the infiltration missions.

  4. One of the quickest and lucrative sources of followers (XP) is the ScoutX app. Open the app, select a nearby landmark and track it on your map. Once you’re close to the spot, just make sure your view approximates the image in the ScoutX app. You should see an indicator in the upper left of the phone screen while you take the picture to tell you it will count for the spot. Take the photo, and boom! Easy leveling.

  5. Do the MP stuff while you can. Like I said, it’s really good. But there’s also another reason to do it. Taking part in the MP stuff is easy XP. Even if you fail, you get XP, so enjoy!

I agree, and it makes the inclusion of the “just another open world” aspects all the more strange. I get that they want to attract the dudebro audience, but it’s at such odds with the narrative tone they seem to want to convey, and the gameplay strengths of the series, that they’d really be better off without it at all. How does the presence of gunplay improve the game at all? It was bad enough in the first game (which I actually liked more than most), but at least you could justify it on the grounds that Aiden was a selfish arsehole out for revenge. These hackers are saving the world by, um, robbing innocent people and shooting civilians.

I don’t know why you would worry so much about the narrative in an open world sandbox…I really don’t care about it as much as its consistent to the gameplay and the world presented. Yeah, I get that the ‘hipster’ kids doesn’t gel with robbing innocent people shooting innocents… but then you can say that for almost EVERY open world game that includes guns. Whats the big deal?

Can you really name me one open world game that revolves around guns and driving that has consistently real characters and motivations that allows for all the mayhem and destruction this genre needs to deliver (considering the millions they spend to develop)?!? GTAV’s story was purposely made to agree with the character conventions, and it still got the same complaints.

Also I really don’t think they want the ‘dudebro’ audience as much as you think considering one of the main scenes in the game takes place in a mockup of an LGBT friendly Burning Man festival.

I’m early-in as well, but so far it all looks a bit bland, sterile, and under-detailed. Not quite the character of a GTA V for example, and The Division still looks markedly superior (while also running like a dream). Yes, I’m in love with that Snowdrop engine! :)

Well, my point is that everything about this game says it shouldn’t revolve around guns, and yet guns are a major part of it. Obviously ludonarrative dissonance is an issue in almost all open world games (though the Witcher does a pretty good job). It’s just particularly striking in this one. And it’s not just ludonarrative dissonance here, it’s ludo-ludo dissonance. This series has strengths that make it stand out from most others in the genre, and rather than play to those strengths, it chickens out and throws guns in as well despite the fact that they undermine almost every aspect of the game. That doesn’t make it a bad game, it’s just disappointing.

I’m enjoying it. I guess I don’t have the same hangups about consistent character motivations or whatever.

To me, it’s just a fun open world game where I can run around and do cool stuff. Looks real nice on the ps4, plays well. The addition of the hacking to more traditional GTA gameplay really opens up your options in a fun way.

So people have spent long enough with the game now that I can ask seriously about the driving.

The driving is done by Reflections, so you’d have to suspect that it’s pretty decent.

The driving is tight. Feels pretty much like GTA.

GTA IV or GTA V?

It feels very light, grippy and not remotely realistic. You can turn 90 degree corners even at very high speed with a just a tap of the brakes. I wouldn’t say it feels like either GTA IV or V, but it’s closer to the latter than it is to, say, Forza Horizon. I’m fine with it, but that’s because all I care about driving models in open world games is how hard it makes it to get to where I want to go. I guess it depends on what you’re looking for in the driving model.

Yeah, Ginger’s description is right. It’s not a realistic model, but it’s fun to tear around in.

That’s a good point. If I don’t like the driving model, but I can effectively ignore it, then I don’t care. But if the game forces me to drive a lot, and has a bad driving model, I just can’t stand it. In the first Watch Dogs, I thought I would be fine, but then I found missions where you start off being chased by the police, and I just couldn’t get where I wanted to go without running afoul of their weird ass driving physics, and getting caught by the police. After bashing my head against the game for a few more hours, I finally quit when it put me in the car again for another mission.

In Sleeping Dogs, I loved the initial on-foot sections of the game, but then they ask you to get on a motorcycle and travel a few feet. The motorcycle physics and animations looked so bad! I couldn’t stand it. But then I thought, I’ll just go everywhere on foot and ignore it. But then the next mission started clear on the other side of town, so I was being forced to drive. Ugh. So that was the end of Sleeping Dogs for me.

So that’s a good way to look at it. How hard does it make to get to where you want to go. I didn’t like the driving model in GTA V (I loved it in GTA IV), but like you said, GTA V still makes it easy to get where you want to go, so I can ignore the driving for the most part in V, or at least not be too bothered by it.

Sounds like the driving is more like Sleeping Dogs, at least as I remember it. That always felt pretty arcadey, more like playing Outrun or something.

Time for patch!

PC: http://watchdogs.ubisoft.com/watchdogs/en-US/news/152-277658-16/patch-notes-pc-title-update-1061353

Consoles: http://watchdogs.ubisoft.com/watchdogs/en-US/news/152-277354-16/patch-notes-title-update-106

I think I may be alone in my sentiment that I like the last one much more. Ah well.

Surely the game is trolling me?

Totally unprecedented and random. Happens at launch (Steam) and proceeds just fine after clicking Continue. And G is some random mapping I’ve never used for installing anything.

Otherwise loving the game so far. The story isn’t really engaging me but the sandbox stuff is great.

This patch seems to have introduced a ridiculous delay in opening the phone or map for me.

Also, RPS agrees with me about the guns, at least when it comes to PVP.

Most everyone seems to agree about the firearms in this game. They just seem like a weird inclusion in a game about hipster hackers in SF that are fighting the power with social media.

I think they are fine personally, but they probably are more for gameplay than story. I think some people are imagining Mr robot when they think of this game, but this game is more swordfish (hacking and physical activity). Consider that the main character is also a parkour specialist.

I haven’t played much but i already got in to a couple multiplayer actions. One was to help police chase someone down and the other was someone stealing my data. In both cases i was surprised, both because there was no warning and because i didn’t hate them (i generally turn off the world invasion stuff in single player games).

I worry about match making though. The data thief had an assault rifle and at the time i had just started the game so only had a pistol. I did manage to kill him though, so either his weapon actually sucked or i was just better/luckier.