Morality/Karma systems and Watch Dogs 2

[Captain Marvelous_v1legacy]

...So, Morality systems in games have typically been very shallow "Do this if you're a good guy!"/"Do this if you're a bad guy!" options. Obvious things, like killing in Infamous and Watch Dogs, nets the player more bad guy points, while non-lethal actions nets good guy points. In games like Infamous, the player should basically dedicate themselves to a side, as the morality system affects upgrade purchases. Instead of presenting players with options and allowing them to choose the one they think is best, the game railroads the player down a certain path in order to max out points in a particular direction. It increases replay-ability (Be the good guy then the bad guy), but it's very restrictive. Watch Dogs' system is much smaller. Good guys get discounts(?) and get called by the police less. Citizens are more likely to call the cops on the bad guy and stores are more likely to raise their alarms.

So, Watch Dogs 2 now. The game gets rid of the morality/karma system from the first, probably because people didn't like it and it's gameplay effects were negligible at best, but it seems a bit... worse for it. So, yeah, the Morality system in the first game was kinda shallow, but it still gave slight consequences for actions like killing civilians and cops. That, and Aiden was a vigilante kind of a pos, so he could get away with killing from a narrative stand point because "Revenge!" and what not.

Marcus, on the other hand, is supposed to be our hero. Working together with his team, he's supposed to help fight back against a huge, corrupt corporation and bring these hidden corruptions to the light. I didn't really have any problem with this until I gave my 8 year old nephew the controller so he could play for a bit. The first thing he did was go outside, pull out an assault rifle, and gun down everyone on the street. With absolutely no consequence for doing it! Sure, the cops eventually showed up, but he just killed them too, got in a car, and quickly lost wanted status. And even if he did die, the game would just restart as if the killings never happened. And then I remembered that throughout the game I'd been gunning down security guards and cops.

I'd defended Watch Dogs 2 having guns, but that was specifically because of the idea that a black protagonist shouldn't use them. Fuck that. But the way the game makes Marcus out to be this hero while having no consequences for his more evil actions bothered the hell out of me.

tl;dr: There are no consequences for mass shootings in Watch Dogs 2 and that bothers me.

Did the lack of consequences bother you too? (If you played Watch Dogs 2)
Do you like Morality/Karma systems?
Which game has your favorite?
What would be a better alternative?

 

[Prime_Hunter_H01]

I have a view similar to Super Bunnyhop in that I think the inclusion of the guns was Ubisoft being afraid to be too different for an open world city sand box. While a character does mention making guns at one point they are never in the story that much other than introducing the 3d printer in the beginning.

To simplify, Watch Dogs 2 has guns because Watch Dogs 1 had guns, because GTA has guns.

Personally giving you more botnet charges and maybe limiting you to a single hand gun with a couple of mags at most would have been better. As the idea of Fridge Brilliance was recently-ish brought up. Morality in Watch Dogs 2 should have been a Fridge Brilliance or Fridge Horror situation so that on the surface Marcus and Dead Sec used hacking genius to bring down the evil corporation, but it would be up to the player to determine what form that would take as that hacking genius can manifest as Gang Hits, Car Control, explosions, and other directly destructive acts activated indirectly due to the hacking.

I do not think the use of guns was ever figured in to the story, other than the leet speak computer term names for the custom Dead Sec weapons.

Edit: In my own play though I am personally going to use the tazer and maybe something with utility. After watching Nerd cubed play it I wanted to use of more hacking on a higher difficulty as it did get too easy when he used an auto shot gun for most of the game, as he tended to screw up the stealth and hacking more often later on.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

I have a view similar to Super Bunnyhop in that I think the inclusion of the guns was Ubisoft being afraid to be too different for an open world city sand box. While a character does mention making guns at one point they are never in the story that much other than introducing the 3d printer in the beginning.

To simplify, Watch Dogs 2 has guns because Watch Dogs 1 had guns, because GTA has guns.

Ninja'd. Anyway, here's the Super Bunnyhop review cued up to the relevant point: