Watch Dogs......isnt terrible

[DrGonzo]

So I bought Watch Dogs on the PS4 on a whim while it was on sale for $30, fully knowing the hatred and vitriol that surrounded this game during its launch, and I have to say, its not bad.

I started the game with no expectations, knowing that the general gaming population seems to have written it off as a downgraded and totally meh worthy title. I just figured it would be a decent time sink for not a lot of money, and for the most part, it is. Its very Ubisoft, from the sleep educing dialogue, to the "radio tower" mechanic, and of course the completely cluttered map filled with samey side missions. Driving is atrocious and the protagonist Aiden, is a total douche.

But there is a lot of good in this game too. The combat is actually quite excellent and is one of the best for an open world game. There is a lot of strategy involved in taking down gang hideouts and approaching different combat scenarios. It handles stealth and action quite well and feels like either option is a viable way to go (most of the time).

Escaping the police feels more realistic than GTAs way of doing things and feels much more tactical when you are trying to hide from the cops while they search down alleys with floodlights (at least until you figure out the boat trick).

I also like the environmental puzzles. Since your character is not a parkour master, you have to figure out ways to scale buildings to reach radio towers and vantage points which adds a bit more depth to the experience since there are usually a couple ways to do this.

The hacking mechanic also puts a nice spin on the usual open-world missions, like tracing power lines back to control boxes to hack or using security cameras to spy on targets.

If anybody out there is looking for a decent, cheap open world romp to keep them busy for a while, I think Watch Dogs is a pretty good fit now that the dust has settled from the hype train derailment.

 

[veloper]

That's not much of a recommendation.

The general consensus wasn't hate anyway, but a big resounding meh. Anyway, once a game falls in the bargain bin mediocrity doesn't disappoint so much anymore.

 

[DrGonzo]

That's not much of a recommendation.

The general consensus wasn't hate anyway, but a big resounding meh. Anyway, once a game falls in the bargain bin mediocrity doesn't disappoint so much anymore.

Wasnt really meant to be a glowing endorsement per se. It just seems that a lot of the time with these AAA games, the fallout from the hype tends to create a pendulum effect and cloud the popular opinion about what a game actually is. In this case, a highly serviceable open world game with flashes of genuine brilliance.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Most people bawled because they were expecting something other than the thing they got. I don't think the game's bad.

 

[Longing]

I beg to differ, but I'm glad you enjoyed it. I can see why the game could be appealing to certain people, but I hated the shit out of it. Everything felt so gimmicky and soulless and I have never had a main character suck the fun out of me so fast.

 

[Sassafrass]

Eh, it's OK. It's not amazing but it's not fantastic either. It's just...sorta there. I haven't finished it to be honest, I lost interest in it. Glad I only played £25 for it.

I will say thought it's fucking poorly optimised however for PC.

 

[srm79]

Most people bawled because they were expecting something other than the thing they got. I don't think the game's bad.

I thought it was pretty good, but then I hadn't followed its development much and hadn't paid any attention to the hype. I bought it more or less on a whim because there were hardly any games for the PS4 and I wanted a new game to play. (NB: This approach works every time and has never let me down. Apart from when I bought Thief on a whim. That was shit.)

It was only later I actually became aware of the negativity aimed at it. It's a shame, because if they hadn't overhyped it and then not fully delivered, they'd have produced a decent -albeit slightly bland- game that might still have done pretty well in a less-than-crowded-market.

 

[asdfen]

- story and characters are some of the worst ever
- the gameplay is nothing special and a notch behind gta / sleeping dogs / Saints.Row
- side missions are meh

 

[stroopwafel]

I really, really enjoyed Watch Dogs. I enjoyed it more than GTA5 to be honest. It reminded me a lot of an open world Splinter Cell Blacklist, which is another game I really liked. The density and level of detail in this game was quite impressive, maybe not up to 'hype trailer' standards but definitely a step up(played it on PS4). The gunplay was tight and satisfying and the driving(while not as good as GTA5) wasn't bad for the hacking/evasion focus of this game when you know how to use the handbrake properly for cutting corners and don't oversteer. Even the stuff you could accidentally discover like the abandoned shack of a serial killer was surprisingly cool. They really put thought into almost every tiny detail.

The story didn't bother me much and neither did the protagonist. It was just window dressing to get from mission A to B and provide a bit of unobtrusive context. Which is how I like it to be honest. One of the biggest gripes I have with GTA5 is that the characters often rubbed me the wrong way to the extent of having diminished enjoyment of the game(it also had a lot less SP content compared to WD).

The only missed opportunity I can think of is that they didn't solely focus the story on ctOS and Dedsec, which was way more interesting than this flimsy character drama. Espescially given the fact Watch Dogs is thematically relevant in todays society(what with people glued to smartphones 24/7 and the vulnerability of information sharing and privacy). They really should have done more with that. The game sometimes touches upon it in brilliant ways which makes me think this could have been one of the coolest modern cyberpunk stories. Hopefully in the sequel.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

But there is a lot of good in this game too. The combat is actually quite excellent and is one of the best for an open world game. There is a lot of strategy involved in taking down gang hideouts and approaching different combat scenarios. It handles stealth and action quite well and feels like either option is a viable way to go (most of the time).

This is exactly why I liked Watch Dogs far more than GTA (or most sandbox games) as you are free to complete missions in various ways, it's not an instruction following simulator as Yahtzee calls GTA. And the shooting alone is better than any other sandbox game I've played. Just the fact the enemy has AI and they can lose sight of you makes gunfights and missions for more entertaining than the standard whack-a-mole that occurs in most games as all the enemies know your position. The gameplay footage of Uncharted 4 actually surprised the shit out of me because of the open areas and on-the-fly stealth you can employ. After trying RDR and hating it, I'm completely done with Rockstar games, the shooting and missions are just horrible.

It's a shame, because if they hadn't overhyped it and then not fully delivered, they'd have produced a decent -albeit slightly bland- game that might still have done pretty well in a less-than-crowded-market.

I don't understand how it was overhyped, people overhype games themselves. Ubisoft showed full mission playthroughs from the game and I knew exactly what Watch Dogs was going to be: 3rd-person FarCry set in a city with hacking and that's what I got. The game didn't even interest me at the reveal, it was the gameplay walkthroughs that sold me on the game. One of the things that I loved that the devs did say was that the city was dense instead of huge as I hate sandbox games where the majority of the city is wilderness. Every nook and cranny of Chicago has great detail.

- the gameplay is nothing special and a notch behind gta / sleeping dogs / Saints.Row

Gameplay is far better than GTA, Sleeping Dogs, and Saints Row. The controls and shooting are far smoother in Watch Dogs than GTA, all Rockstar characters feel so mechanical from GTA5 to RDR to even MP3. Plus, WD's cover system is far better, cover swapping should be in every TPS. Sleeping Dogs had a less fun Batman combat system, I quit playing before I even got a gun.

 

[Elfgore]

I've never called it a bad game, just a meh game. Other games do what it does, only better with greater enjoyment for myself. After playing about six to ten hours, I was just bored. I didn't care for the story, the combat was fun at first, but got boring pretty quickly, and the driving was terrible.

 

[brtt150]

It's not terrible but it isn't very good either.

 

[Windcaler]

A lot of the vitriol was focused around how watch dogs didnt live up to the hype but lets be honest, nothing can live up to most of the AAA games backed by months, if not years, of hype. I dont understand why so many people still buy into hype when they could just wait and see what the actual game is like when it comes out. Hype only serves to get you all from buying the game sight unseen so the company behind it gets their money even though the game may be awful or even just not as good as the hype played it out to be

Taken on its own merits watch dogs is actually a decent game. I would even go so far as to say its good. Not great, not amazing, not genre defining, but good. At the end of the day I think thats what we all want right? Good games. Yeah I would like more of those

 

[TheBelgianGuy]

Like most of Ubisoft titles, it is a big meh, a big pile of mediocrity, while Ubisoft at E3 was hyping it as "the big next thing".

I bought it at launch, but just stopped playing after a few hours. The combat is nothing special, the drving is atrocious, the story and protagonist are laughably badly written. The game itself is OK, but that's not a great endorsement.

 

[OhNoYouDidnt]

It seems to me like gamers are very fond of using hyperbole when discussing the quality of games. In this thread alone, you can see people calling the story and characters in Watch Dogs "some of the worst ever". I mean, really? Watch Dogs' story might not be worthy of high literature, but would you seriously suggest that it is on par with the narrative of Ride to Hell: Retribution or Day One: Garry's Incident?

Of course Watch Dogs isn't terrible. It is a decent game, I would say. It simply does not live up to the ludicrous hype that lots of people had apparently bought into (never buy into any hype, you guys) but anything short of completely stellar will be described as "shit".