Watch Dogs 2

So I’ve just finished Watch Dogs 2 and I have to say I had a lot of fun with it. Full disclosure I never played the original because quite frankly it looked boring, a drab looking protagonist out for revenge, in a dark and gritty sandbox game? Like we don’t have enough of those. No, what drew me to Watch Dogs 2 was that it was the exact opposite, centred on a fun loving protagonist (Marcus Holloway) and his eccentric hacker friends “DedSec” in a fun and colourful world, and the player gets a bunch of cool toys to play with, explore and of course destroy said colourful world. That is my jam!

Plot

The plot is a bit weird, Marcus was put on a watch list because he might be a hacker and is pissed off despite the fact that it’s 100% true. He decides to join DedSec in their quest to take down Big Brother because no-one should have access to everyone’s personal information, except of course DedSec themselves, who have access to everyone’s personal information. But of course unlike the bastard government Marcus and chums would never use this data to falsely accuse, blackmail or hurt anyone, except for when they do all of these things for every mission.

I get the feeling we’re not supposed to overthink the plot too much, we’re meant to revel in anarchy and just have fun, and it has to be said, there is a lot of fun to have and plenty of anarchy to revel in, I personally like to call in gang hits on hipsters and reverse drivers cars into each other and watch the two drivers fight.

(What the Fuck??)

What I liked

There is a lot to enjoy with Watch Dogs 2, like the many different ways you can complete an objective. Will you hack a camera and use it to detonate the grenades on an enemy’s belt? Hack a robot to fight by your side? Or simply call out a gang hit on some guy, who now that I think about it was a legitimate security guard doing his job probably with a wife, kids and a dog. Of course that was just me, you could also just as easily knock him out with (and I shit you not) a ball on a rope.  My proudest moment and method of taking down enemies came late in the game, I watched on camera as I locked a door and the guard couldn’t open it, he called over his mates, one of which was carrying grenades and I detonated the grenades, killing them all.

I also like how new abilities and upgrades could be unlocked by finding research documents around the city; I felt it helped to open the world up and gave me a reason to run around and scale buildings instead of fast traveling everywhere.

(Gonna blow you sons a bitches up!)

What I disliked

All in all there was very little to dislike about Watch dogs 2, it was just a fun game to play and any issues I do have are by no means deal breakers, so bear that in mind while I now go off on one.

Right Ubisoft you French pricks! What is the fucking point of saving in the middle of a mission that I have spent maybe 20 minutes planning and setting up, only to be killed by that one fucking guard who can see through walls, if you’re going to make me restart the mission anyway? Bastards!

Also, while I get that Marcus is technically a criminal, that doesn’t mean that the police should just shoot me because I happen to be near a gang shootout. I swear this is true, I was walking along and heard gunfire, and I stopped to see a street gang in a shootout with the police. Of course I stopped to watch, at which point I was gunned down by a policeman, now I know what you’re going to say readers, “Gerard clearly you just got caught in the crossfire” to which I would reply, “how did you get in my house?” No, I was on the opposite street in a crowd of onlookers and this policeman wasn’t involved in the shootout, he was just clearly a racist!

(He littered! Stop him!)

Opinion

Watch Dogs 2 is a fun mix of GTA meets Hackers (the 90’s movie), while it may not be ground-breaking it is always nice to see a video game with fun at its centre and Watch Dogs 2 is absolutely that, fun.