Watch Dogs 2 is a game with a completely different approach to gameplay variety and, in general, is strikingly different from its predecessor. Here the player is immersed in the world of hacking, theft of personal information, and global informatization modern society. In the first part, this theme was also implemented to the best of our ability, but only superficially and to rationally explain the capabilities of the main character. Right there, this is the main topic. Most of the shortcomings of the first part have been corrected. Ubisoft tried to take into account the recommendations of critics and ordinary gamers. Now this is not a gloomy, sad story about revenge for dead family members, but a bright, full of jokes picture of the confrontation between a group of individuals who are not weak in programming and a corporation that controls everything.
Watch Dogs 2 plot
Before us is colorful San Francisco. The protagonist of the game is a young African-American Marcus Holloway, originally from Oakland. He is a hacker, but there are no black spots in his past. He grew up in an ordinary, far from rich family. The goal of his life was simply to get out into the world and become a worthy member of society. But at some point, the global ctOS system, which controls all public (and personal) processes of the city, due to a system error, described it as dangerous criminal repeat offender With this personal matter the guy has no future, and he decides to get rid of this system. For one, this is too big a deal and he joins the DedSec hacker group. It consists of very talented people in various types of hacking and extraordinary personalities. It includes several young people, boys and girls.
Gang member Wrench is one of the most colorful. He wears a Hi Tech mask that reacts to his emotions, and modifies his voice with a morpher built into it. He often makes fun of the protagonist's hipsterism and argues with him about TV series and comics. There is also a girl in the gang - Sitara. And Horace and Josh. All together, they do not look like vile criminals making sinister plans. It's more of a group of crazy guys who like to have fun in the most unusual ways. The basis for this fun is the ctOS 2.0 system they hacked. That is, they actually have access to all computerized processes in the city. And that’s actually all from mobile phone in every person’s pocket, to security systems at industrial facilities, traffic lights on roads and cars. It’s hard to even imagine what scope for imagination this opens up for them. And they will use this fantasy to the fullest!
The plot has hints of the famous American TV series “Mr. Robot” and “Silicon Valley”. From the first, the idea of an underground gang of hackers consisting of extraordinary geeks is taken, the hacking processes and the idea of permissiveness for hacking masters are realistically shown. From the second, humor, sarcasm on the topic of IT workers and leaking of personal data. And it's definitely a good combination.
Graphics and atmosphere
The graphics here are as good as they possibly can be in a large, open and dynamic world. Of course, super DirectX12 textures, every single multi-polygonal hair on the head and other miracles are not here. But everything looks colorful, lively, and just makes you happy. Often you just want to admire the views, for example, sailing on a boat off the coast of San Francisco and under the Golden Gate, climbing a tall construction site, etc. The city in the game is copied from the real San Francisco, instead of Chicago from the first part. Just think how many games this city is already present in one form or another. Eh, just the second one hometown, in which you recognize many places. Here it was implemented very well. All interesting locations of the city are transferred, and boring ones are ignored. This is not the grim, dark Chicago that is foreign to the overseas player. This is a bright and cheerful San Francisco for everyone.
Gameplay Watch Dogs 2
The gameplay here is very varied. This is perhaps the main feature of the game. There is no point in listing in detail everything that you can do and do in the game (this will take another 10 pages), it’s better to compare it with the first part.
So, in Watch Dogs 1, missions could be completed in two ways: start killing everyone to achieve the goal, or use the stealth method proposed by the developers. Moreover, the second often flowed into the first. Here, in literally every mission, the player is free to choose his own option for completing the task, and very often, these are options without unnecessary blood. Well, seriously, it looks kind of awkward when hipster Marcus shoots people with a shotgun (I don’t even want to play like that, and they kill quickly, especially the cops). Next is the world of hacking and computer networks. In the first part it was implemented only for contractual purposes. Right there, a whole information world awaits us with its own YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, streams from video bloggers, and so on. All services are parodied by very similar analogues in the game. Moreover, this all works not only within the framework of the plot, but also lives its own life.
Let's talk about side quests. In the first part, everything is simple with them - they are not there. And in Watch Dogs 2 they are a whole separate layer of the game. You won’t find anything in the vastness of San Francisco. Various works, quadcopter racing, yachtsman competitions, various tasks related to city residents (providing them with various assistance) and much more. You definitely won’t be bored away from the storyline. In this the game is very similar to GTA San Andreas and GTA V.
There is no need to say how much more realistic the world of hacking is shown in the second part. Everything is clearly visible already on the initial menu. It is a copy of the Dos shell of the computer with user authorization.
In general, the gameplay is interesting primarily for its approach to the player’s influence on the world around us. He can’t just walk up to any passerby and hit him, steal a car and the like, ordinary things today. He can get into any mobile phone, hack all accounts and view all personal information, if possible using this against him, or he can simply make sure that a person is electrocuted by his own mobile phone. Hack a traffic light and cause a massive accident, or take over the remote control. You can literally climb into the houses of city residents and watch them through their own web cameras. Often, entertaining cut scenes are observed.
Overall, it’s interesting, new and addictive in its own way. The description of the gameplay turned out to be long, but believe me, there are still many interesting things not mentioned.
Music
The game's musical accompaniment matches the overall atmosphere. This is what progressive youth listen to. Various examples hip-hop, rave, club music. Although there are many genres on the same radio. There is no one melody that is directly associated with the game (the main theme) that immediately comes to mind. Perhaps the same Saaaan Fraancisco (Scott McKenzie–San Francisco), but this is a classic, not the property of the game.
Conclusion
Watch Dogs 2 was much better than the first part. It is more beautiful, more varied, more pleasant. All the gameplay features that the first game had in its infancy are implemented here in full force and many new ones have been added. Charismatic main characters, the plot is without unnecessary drama, but it is addictive. The graphics are not super fancy, but fit perfectly and please the eye with stunning landscapes. will not let you get bored, presenting new and new interesting tasks and situations, both within the plot and as side branches. Bottom line: decent, multi-faceted action in the open world. Recommended.
Watch Dogs 2 has a rather strange setting - straight to the point, without unnecessary preamble. It will be much easier to start playing for those who have not dealt with the first part at all, despite numerous sales. Both parts are about the struggle against the system and the dangers of over-dependence on high technology, but the whole point is how they do it - with what mood and, one might even say, with what face. The result is two completely different games, albeit in the same genre (GTA-like). Ultimately, is the Watchdogs sequel worth playing? Let's figure it out now.
This is San Francisco - a disco city
As you know, it is also a city of a thousand lights, full of risk, and - of course! - made in USA. It’s not in vain, after all, that the group “Kar-Man” sang about this, preparing us for what we will see in Watch Dogs 2. First, a little retrospective. The action of the first part took place in Chicago. This metropolis has almost the highest crime rate, second only to Detroit, and in terms of corruption in the regional government it is the “champion” of the United States. The world of Watch Dogs was inherently dark. He seemed to be showing us the beginnings of cyberpunk in reality.
“Look,” Watch Dogs told us, “in another 25 years, maximum 30, and mega-corporations in sprawling cities with total digital control will begin to step on everyone’s throats completely openly, and not from the quiet.” In general, Ubisoft apparently decided not to put pressure on the consumer’s consciousness and switch to a purely humorous tone. We'll talk about the hero later, but for now - the sandbox. That is, the city. San Francisco is West Coast, which means a mild oceanic climate and summer all year round. In general, it turns out to be a kind of fashionable Los Angeles 2.0. Los Angeles itself is somewhat outdated: it is, after all, film and television. And San Francisco is Silicon Valley, the Internet and hi-tech. Roughly speaking, the very topic.
We dare to assure you that the narration matches the location: it is sprinkled with humorous jokes and memes from the Internet. Of course, tragedies also happen, but they are presented in a light version - in general, they are no match for the gloomy vendetta of the “murderous uncle”. Separately worth noting color palette San Francisco, specially tailored to the light tone of the story. During the day there is a riot of colors here, bright colors you can find it even in heavy rain, but we’re not talking about the night at all - there are plenty of all sorts of neon signs. That is, there are those same thousands of lights about which S. Lemokh wrote poems.
This is San Francisco - a city full of risk
In order not to bore the reader with lyrical digressions, let’s talk directly about the gameplay. Veterans of Watch Dogs (1) may not need to get used to it, but rather realize that you can play it like the first part. Moreover, it does not come immediately. The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, the citizens are all friendly, Marcus is a purely positive hero. The security guards of the Umeni company are not to blame for taking such a job, but the brave police officers are simply obliged to carry out their service properly.
In general, they are forcing us in every possible way to have a weak single-shot taser and mandatory stealth: Marcus is a fighter for social justice, not a bloody executioner! But calm, just calm: we accumulate about 90 thousand dollars, take an assault rifle with a silencer and powerful optics, and the game literally transforms. No more huddling in corners and taking a long time to calculate patrol routes for security guards. Everyone gets their bullet in the jug, and now we are imposingly, openly walking through the central corridor to the server room - hacking in complete calm.
Perhaps you are that same maniac of kindness and generosity who went through Deus Ex and Dishonored without shooting or crushing a single scumbag. Well, Watch Dogs 2 has options for you too. Take a taser, just remember: an electrocuted adversary can not only be awakened by any of his allies, but also wakes up on his own after a fairly short period of time. And at the same time, bodies cannot be dragged in order to remove them from the route of other guards. In general, good luck to you, fellow philanthropists, and we will continue to clear the premises into a lifeless desert.
The only thing that irritates you when you are on the warpath is the sound of guns. But here Ubisoft had to maintain a certain amount of realism. The point is that classic types weapons, collected from guards and bandits, shoot as they should - deliciously and loudly. But they are not very effective, and Markus prints the coolest barrels on a hacker base, on a 3D printer. Well, plastic, accordingly, does not produce the same sound as weapons-grade steel.
Hacker's sandbox
But even an aggressive hacker does not always have to use guns: the city itself - or rather, the hacked ctOS - provides enormous opportunities. More than in the original Watch Dogs. Now you can hack the cars themselves: gas from a standstill, sharp reverse, turn in any direction. Distracting calls, remote detonation of grenades right in the enemy’s pocket, overloading of electrical panels or gas substations - all this also remains. Among the new techniques, I would especially like to mention the dropping of false tips to both the police and bandits.
Thanks to a combination of all these tricks, you can clear a small (or even medium-sized) object not only without getting your hands dirty, but without even entering the territory. We “jump” through the cells, pitting either the law enforcement forces or the criminal elements against the guards, and then we roll away the demoralized remnants of the enemy with his own enraged machines.
Lovers of a stealthy approach were given two powerful toys - a radio-controlled car and a quadcopter. The latter can be given the ability to drop shocking electric grenades, and then from a means of reconnaissance and hacking it will also turn into a tool for neutralizing the enemy. Well, the RC car - best friend competent stealth: unlike Adam Jensen or Solid Snake, Marcus physically does not know how to crawl through ventilation. For this purpose he needs a radio-controlled assistant.
It should be noted that other “sand” activities (besides hacker ones) have become more interesting. No more preventing boring back alley crimes. Instead, you can, for example, be something like an Uber driver, which will bring you both money and experience (which here is measured in the form of followers of the hacker group Dedsec on social networks), or put up Dedsec posters around the city, or, in the end, do selfies against the backdrop of beautiful locations, which will also provide invaluable experience.
The only thing that is terribly annoying is hacking systems with rotary hacking nodes. It was frankly infuriating before, but at least it was located on a separate abstract screen, and you could see what was what: what to open, what to turn, etc. Now Ubisoft has been honored with an “original innovation”: the nodes are now actually scattered throughout a building or large hall, and you have to constantly jump between cameras, without being able to get a complete picture. It would be better if they left the signature climbing on the towers, honestly! In general, damn logic sometimes leads to white heat and breaks the narrative. At that moment, when your hands are itching to shoot the next wave of mobs, the developers slip in a riddle. But, as one high-ranking colleague says, “I don’t want to think.”
If we continue to criticize, and objectively (after all, many people may like logical riddles), we must definitely mention the seamless multiplayer. Which doesn't exist. Ubisoft promoted this mode for a long time as something revolutionary and exciting, but they were never able to finish it. The servers were brought down almost by pre-release players, that is, they would not have been able to withstand a full-fledged flow of ordinary users at all.
This is the irony of fate: a game about hacks, bugs and glitches cannot cope with its mega-glitch. Every day we delayed the review, every day we went into the game and saw the same message in which the skeleton breaks the links of the chain (thus symbolizing the denial of the phrase “Not a single break”), and Ubisoft wildly apologizes and promises to fix everything quickly.
So far, only classic multiplayer is available, like in the first part of Watch Dogs: we enter the opponent’s world, mix with the crowd, and try to hack it. If you are a school (olololol!) flaxener, then it may be good. But, in the author’s opinion, the entertainment is dubious. You're driving one evening after work - I mean, after real work - on a story mission, and then a European unemployed man who has pumped up to the maximum catches you. There's zero fun, and in the first Watch Dogs online invasions were disabled almost immediately.
Maybe the PC boyars, for whom the release is scheduled for November 29, will wait for the revolutionary seamless multiplayer for several players from day one - then we will sincerely be happy for them. But at the moment, critical problems with the entire mode (and what’s more, which was actively promoted by Ubisoft) are causing Watch Dogs 2 a big minus.
Just like that, a passerby is a black guy
Okay, enough criticism, let's talk a little more about the advantages. We have already quoted Sergei Lemokh many times, now the time has come for another honored Russian performer - Leonid Agutin, who anticipated the appearance of Marcus in one of his songs back in the 90s.
Be ashamed, 2K, and learn from Ubisoft: this is where commerce and a normal hero are in one bottle! As you know, Mafia 3, despite less than stellar reviews, became one of the best-selling 2K games. The secret to success couldn’t be simpler: the developers have created a character with whom millions of black buyers in the USA and Europe can easily identify. Only Lincoln Clay, sorry, just won’t shut up about slavery and oppression, and constantly takes revenge on whites for it. Ultimately, this behavior just gets boring.
Don't get me wrong, Marcus was also created with an eye toward additional success with certain ethnic groups, but the character at least turned out to be organic. Judge for yourself: San Francisco is a real “melting pot”, the quintessence of America itself. Here you can meet people of any skin color, religion and sexual orientation. Marcus himself is a real geek of the culture of TV series, comics and Internet memes, and he tries not to push issues of race. Yes, there are several episodes, but they are connected with objective reality: in Silicon Valley there are really a dime a dozen Asians, Indians and Pakistanis have proven themselves to be excellent programmers, there are even talented Iranians, but there are not enough blacks - you can’t argue against the truth.
By the way, it’s important to note the unprecedented richness of the Watch Dogs 2 wardrobe. Marcus doesn’t have to follow the “yo motherfucker niga” style - he can wear a studded leather jacket and black jeans covered in white paint, as a result of which he becomes a true punk no worse than Wrench himself. And vice versa: no one is stopping you from buying a brand new suit. It's your choice.
Made in USA, that is, in Canada, China and Britain
Ultimately, Watch Dogs 2 is a soulful tourist trip to San Francisco with a funny tour guide, not "murderous uncle" Aiden Pearce, burning with a thirst for revenge. Memorable bright locations, carefree friends, slightly arcade-like (but absolutely not annoying) driving and significantly expanded hacking capabilities - all this clearly outweighs the crookedly launched and crashed multiplayer, and already gives the coveted value for money, that is, fun for a pretty penny earned in blood and then. A light narrative and a warm Pacific breeze will distract you from the annoying frost outside the window, but you can always get a dose of gloom in some Heavy Rain, bought on sale.
The city of San Francisco is a city in the disco style, and further according to the timeless text by S. Lemokh
+ Unlike the first part, hacking has become a really powerful tool
+ One of the most interesting sandboxes in history modern history igrostroy - thanks to hacks and side activities!
The much-hyped seamless multiplayer has been stuck since the game's release.
- The new mechanics of logic riddles are immensely annoying
- Cheap plastic sound of 3D printed guns
PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
The game has been tested onPlayStation 4
Watch Dogs has often been compared to the first Assassin's Creed - an interesting idea, great ambitions, but at the same time mediocre gameplay and a whole swarm of shortcomings of varying sizes. The audience had high hopes for the hacker sequel, although the memories of how Ubisoft deceived everyone during the announcement of Watch Dogs are still fresh - another such example of a discrepancy between pre-release demonstrations and the actual picture still needs to be looked for.
The developers did not disappoint with Watch Dogs 2 - they made one of the best action games in the open world, literally rubbing the nose of all the haters.
⇡ City in disco style
From gloomy, rainy Chicago we are transported to sun-drenched San Francisco. No more stern men in raincoats and baseball caps, driven by a sense of revenge - the main character is a cheerful black guy named Marcus, who joins the DedSec hacker team at the very beginning of the game. Having completed a difficult test task, he becomes one of them, and together they begin the fight against corporations and the global control they have established.
Marcus's colleagues are pleasant-looking and just as crazy as he is, guys. The business girl Sitara, Ranch wearing a mask with emoticons, the smart and taciturn Josh, the faithful and honest Horace - their images at first seem forced, but you get used to them very quickly, and so much so that you don’t want to leave at all. The galaxy of characters significantly enlivens the passage - they constantly joke, get into trouble, rejoice at victories together and are not discouraged by defeats. Even the main villain is a success - he immediately gives the impression of an intelligent and calculating scoundrel.
Along with the tone of the story, the presentation of the plot has also changed - now there are no towers or closed regions in the game. If you wish, you can immediately go to the other end of the city and complete tasks there. There are a lot of main and side missions, and the order in which you complete them does not matter. Additional tasks become available after the number of DedSec “followers” increases - their number grows depending on what missions the player completes, what he does in the open world and what collectibles he collects.
Absolutely all tasks can be completed secretly, without gunfire and mountains of corpses. The author of the review, for example, completed the story and all the side missions without creating a single firearm on a 3D printer. In many respects, however, this is due to their inflated cost: money here can either be sought in the open world or received for joint missions; They don’t give anything for plot ones. But never once did a situation arise when the task became too difficult and I wanted to pick up a machine gun. A stun gun is enough to temporarily put all targets to sleep, and Marcus doesn’t look like a serial killer at all - we have enough ludonarrative dissonance in Uncharted.
Stealth in Watch Dogs 2 is not limited to the ability to wait for targets while hiding behind cover. In most cases, Marcus does not have to enter the building at all to steal data or hack the desired phone - for this he has a jumper and a quadcopter. The first device travels through ventilation and breaks the shields to open all the doors in the area, and also transfers information from laptops and external devices to a memory card. hard drives. The second gadget allows you to assess the situation from a bird's eye view, mark all enemies and - after acquiring the appropriate skill - drop a couple of sleeping (or killing) charges on them. Opponents quickly react to these toys and break them, so you have to be more sophisticated.
The passage is simplified by the presence of the NetHack function - by pressing the right stick on the gamepad, the player colors everything around in gray tones. At the same time, opponents are highlighted in red, and wires and hackable panels are marked in the same color. Objects that allow you to temporarily eliminate the target, such as pipes or switches, turn blue. First, the player lures the enemy to the desired point, and then increases the tension, after which the enemy is cut off for a couple of minutes. We repeat - Marcus does not need to be near such objects for this; everything can be done with the help of cameras hung everywhere and his own jumper.
Thanks to such innovations, Watch Dogs 2 sometimes resembles Deus Ex: Mankind Divided - only instead of Jensen, there are funny devices crawling through the vents that can be repainted on a 3D printer. You have to monitor the movements of the guards, if necessary, distract them with phone calls, turn off the alarm, in order to eventually get to the treasured laptop, download everything you need and not arouse any suspicion. Until the end, such gameplay does not get boring at all, since the locations are constantly changing, and such episodes are interspersed with chases and puzzles. Including the return of the beloved mini-game “Plumber” from the first part, where you need to restore broken connections between wires.
What kind of transport can you find here?
⇡ Jack of all trades
In the open world, Marcus's skills also prove useful. How often in GTA or Sleeping Dogs have you seen a car in traffic that you would like to ride, but it was not possible to catch up with it? There is no such problem here - with the press of one button, any car or motorcycle can be stopped. And by remotely controlling the lift, you can completely crush all the enemies in the area. There is also the usual switching of traffic lights, power outages in the entire area and other hooliganism that allows you to quickly escape from the police or other pursuers. Collecting collectibles is also tied to the use of gadgets, which turns the search for important data or experience points into entertaining puzzles.
A large number of unique features is what makes Watch Dogs 2 so exciting game. You can complete missions as you wish: you can even break into the office of a large corporation with a shotgun, or sit near the exit with a laptop and control a jumper. You can photograph attractions in different ways - you can take selfies and make faces (passers-by, by the way, sometimes also pose in such pictures). Or you can release the quadcopter while you are sitting in the car. On the way to the story mission, you can complete a couple of side missions, during which you will come across several references to Ubisoft games and to the company itself. You can also take part in races, find new coloring pages for gadgets and clothes for the hero.
Open world is rich in all kinds of entertainment, and the positive atmosphere constantly encourages its exploration. There was also room for random events that are very easy to miss if you rush headlong forward. For example, a respectable man comes up to someone’s jeep and starts hitting it with a bat, swearing out loud, but two girls meet on the street and start a little drama - one is trying to find out from the other where she was last night. In addition, as in the original, nothing prevents you from reading other people's correspondence and eavesdropping on telephone conversations.
A fly in the ointment has nevertheless slipped into this barrel of honey - the multiplayer component leaves much to be desired. In promotional materials and presentations, Ubisoft boasted about the presence of cooperative entertainment in Watch Dogs 2, but in reality they turned out to be the most banal tasks in which a second player is needed just like a car needs a fifth wheel. Save a person, destroy a couple of boxes - the missions are boring and fleeting. Of course, no one expected the level of heists from GTA Online, but after The Division it is somewhat strange to see such a scant co-op. The usual secondary and story missions do not allow you to complete them together - you can only look for collectibles with your partner and have fun in the open world.
But the single player component of Watch Dogs 2 turned out to be excellent. During the passage you will never get bored, and not a single mission will seem forced or ill-thought out. Yes, the stealth requires minor improvements (if someone notices Marcus and dies in a split second, everyone in the area will somehow instantly know about his presence), but even in its current form, you get a lot of fun from stealth. It’s a pity that the not entirely successful Watch Dogs scared many away from the second part, but we can safely say that it turned out to be better than its predecessor in all respects.
Advantages:
- excellent characters and a fascinating plot;
- a large number of different side tasks;
- the city is full of entertainment and really seems lively;
- the ability to complete all missions secretly, often without even approaching the desired objects.
Flaws:
- stealth requires some improvements;
- Co-op missions are more like mockery.
| Graphics | A beautiful and vibrant city, very similar to the real San Francisco. As residents of the city say, in the virtual version, “boring” places have been removed from it, leaving only all the most interesting things - and this is noticeable. | 9 |
| Sound | On Marcus’s phone, you can play tracks of many genres at any time, from rock to electronica. There are a lot of songs (some need to be searched in the city using the local Shazam), and you can create your own playlist from your favorite ones. | 9 |
| Single player | A large number of main and side quests in the city, completely open for exploration. There are no barriers - go wherever you want and do whatever your heart desires. And no matter what you choose, you won’t be bored. | 9 |
| Group game | With a partner you can visit sights, take part in races, and try to catch criminals. Unfortunately, the tasks designed for cooperative completion are nothing special or interesting. But intrusions are just as funny as in the original - looking for a hacker among passers-by doesn’t get boring for a long time. | 8 |
| General impression | One of the best modern open world action games. It gives only positive emotions and does not irritate with excessive seriousness, like the original. The heroes are still young rebel hackers, there’s no need to frown here. | 9 |
I expected it to be at the level of the first part (7-7.5), but the game surprised me. The plot, although simple at its core, in fact turns out to be well written, the main bastard is not universal evil, a murderer, rapist, pedophile, but a completely ordinary person, yes, not the most pleasant, tough, but shown perfectly (especially the moment with a blow to the throat , incredibly delivered, really emphasizes his character). The world turned out to be alive, ubisoft, as usual, built it on scripts, and not a simulation like Rockstar, but they crammed so many scripts that in the end the world turned out to be more alive than Rockstar’s, and I’m serious, people react more scrupulously to the behavior of gg (for example, if climb on the car, the driver will come out and say the phrases “get off the car”, “you’ll scratch the paint”, “who will pay for the dents” and away, in the same GTA, except “get out of the way” and you won’t hear anything if you climb on on the car, and if you leave the hood, the car will not move at all). In general, the game was an extremely pleasant surprise both in terms of gameplay and plot. And the topics raised are relevant, not as deep as we would like, but quite enough for the game itself.
Great game guys
+interesting quests - they often raise global topics, for example, if everyone has a Live score, will the AI-controlled car crash into you or the one who has a higher score?
+normal graphonium
+ living world, you can hear a lot of things
+Parkurchik
+ doesn’t bother me, it’s really interesting
+There are a lot of nerdy topics - who is stronger than one predator or 3 strangers?
+Interesting characters
Minor bugs with music, sometimes I got stuck
-Monotonous mechanics
-At first I walked quietly, then I took my guns because I got tired of it
-Unclear stutters
-Presence and absence of facial expressions, it seems to be there, but not
It’s a surprisingly beautiful city, people pretend to live there: they get together (sometimes with dogs), communicate (tell stories), take pictures, play musical instruments, react to the player’s emotions, radio hosts tell stories, listeners call and order music. The police are in conflict with the crooks, you can even set them on the territory of the crooks. The plot is good, there is nothing deeper in it than shown on the screen, but it is simple and understandable, the plot is not linear and there is no gameplay. You always understand what needs to be done and why. The arsenal is solid, there is no customization of weapons (except for skins), there are many cars - there are few differences other than speed. Motorcycles handle well, cars are still losing to both the mafia and GTA5 in all respects. In the city you can hang around with a friend, there are joint PVE and PVP missions. What I personally didn’t like about WD2: the game is trying to be a GTA clone rather than an independent game; instead of racing on dubious vehicles, they could have introduced more hacker themes, and the side effects are done competently, simply but according to the theme, taxiing is also fun, and the next races, graffiti, well such a thing. The shootings are also weak, the enemies here are dangerous (the game is generally more about stealth), there is a broken idiotic spawn of enemies, “armored” mobs eat 50 rounds per carcass. I recommend it.
The game came out very cool! This is a game similar to GTA V, but it has nothing taken from it, so it cannot be said that it is similar to GTA. Open world, guns, cars (which I love to ride in). But weapons are not the main thing here! The main thing is to hack everyone and get information. The plot is carried out in stealth. I recommend this wonderful game to everyone!
The first part of Watch Dogs was promising, but it burst like a bubble, a wave of criticism forced Ubisoft Montreal to promise to improve, and in general they succeeded. I'll start with the main thing: Watch Dogs 2 is fun to play, the missions are varied, you can complete them in several ways, and you can never shoot a single shot during the entire game. The virtual San Francisco is shown very well; there is something to do in the city and it is easy to admire, which the application on the phone helps with. In general, the game has a lot of content, gadgets and elements of geek culture. And everything seems to be good, but there is a complaint about the heroes; it’s not clear to me why the developers think that young people want to identify themselves with freaks. But it’s much worse that the game does not reveal its characters at all, the paradox is that the situation becomes more serious, after the hacking of small offices against us, the media giants, the FBI, and hackers influence the elections, but remain the same costumed clowns without a clear motivation. And lastly, the game shows the correct reaction to the violation of personal freedoms and how serious technologies are already influencing our lives, which makes us think about fundamental rights and this is cool. As a result, 8.5 points.
After completing GTA 5 on PS 3, and then on PS 4, the PC version made me feel like vomiting and something else equally not very pleasant. The impression of any game can be ruined by bad hardware. I think those who write about the lame graphics and so on simply did not appreciate the version of the game on PS 4.
Personally, I liked the fact that the hero is a black man (even more likely a mulatto) does not spoil the game in any way, as it doesn’t matter (and I’m already used to niggas from GTA SA and GTA5). I didn’t notice the gay themes in the game until I read the comments. Driving a car is not ice, of course, but the game is still on a different topic, about hacking, hacks, etc., and not a car simulator. The city is beautiful, CLEAN and lively. Again, the voice acting in Russian is at a good level. My rating is 8.5
This is the first game where LGBT representatives are present throughout. Gays, lesbians, transgenders, traps and others simply permeate everything everywhere (in the credits at the end of the game, the developers thank transvestites for their help in development). There are many pedestrian paths in gay rainbow colors, on every corner there is a flag in the same gay rainbow coloring, the plot senator is a black transgender, one of the hackers’ opponents is a fat masculine lesbian and a bunch of other examples.
From the bottom of political correctness, direct references to the US elections and the interference of evil Russian hackers in them (in the world of the game, Serbian Dusan), Congressman Truss with the motto “Let's make the Gulf strong...” is somehow very similar to the hated LGBT and other liberal Trump. The number of pictures and inscriptions/pronunciations of the word FUCK is simply off the charts.
Did I feel empathy for the characters? No. Every single one of them is so naive and stupid that it just makes you laugh. Well, okay... you can only feel sorry for one geek from the group of kul-hackers in a cool mask with “emoji” instead of eyes, he had a clear reason for wearing it.
In general, the game went overboard with LGBT themes. I have never seen such obvious and direct blue-pink propaganda anywhere in other games. This is the one thing I will remember most about Watch Dogs 2.
The second dogs are definitely better than the first. Here the tasks are more interesting, and the characters are memorable, and San Francisco is much more pleasing to the eye than Chicago, and California offers much more activities. The development of the open world is approximately at the level of GTA 5, but not at all higher. An extremely interesting plot, which is based on hackers and their capabilities. There are no towers, which is a huge step forward for Ubisoft. Of the minuses, probably, the same poor physics of machine behavior, which, although improved compared to the first part, still leaves much to be desired.
The developers generally took into account the mistakes of the previous game. Now it’s playable, I liked the plot, visually it’s generally one of best games Ubesoft. I'm giving it a rating simply because there is one king in this genre, the rest are just imitators. I recommend buying the game during discounts
I advise you to play only those who have not played GTA 5 or have already forgotten it. While I was playing WD2, all I could do was involuntarily remember how this or that aspect of the game was better implemented in GTA 5. And I'm not just talking about the graphics. WD2 is just boring. Yes, at first you can watch the scenes on the streets, but it will quickly get boring. The city itself is recreated well, but for some reason it is somehow gray overall. Moreover, I played at maximum settings. But for some reason Los Santos from GTA 5 had a soul and felt alive, and San Francisco was just cardboard. The plot was disappointing. For some reason they decided to take half the plot from Mr. Robot, and another part from the tertiary mission in GTA 5 about Scientology. The head bastard disappointed. Although the main characters seem unusual at first, they are not revealed at all. They have a set of oddities and that’s it, take it for granted. While in GTA 5 the characters were written simply masterfully, here we have colorful cardboard boxes. The physics of cars is tears. Stealth is squalor. Almost all cut scenes are depressing. For 10 minutes at a time we are shown a character close to the screen, on whose face there is no particular emotion. I understand that they wanted to show off the textures, but this is just annoying.
The result: a colorful trinket about hipsters. A bright candy wrapper without candy. You'll get bored quickly and won't be hooked by anything. I don't recommend it.
Why did I hack the city and cause chaos? BECAUSE I CAN!
Serious work has been done on the mistakes of the first dogs. Corrected physics, etc. And they also added a lot of goodies! It was a breeze. The city is beautiful and vibrant. The plot is ordinary, the confrontation between good and evil, we have already seen this many times. I liked it! My rating: 9.5.
Apparently I expect too much from the plot in games; the same thing I expected from part 2. Ubisoft really knows how to create a colorful and vibrant world, but the strange thing is that in the sequels of their games the plot always degrades. For 1 time it’s quite a suitable game, but no more.
I don’t understand the haters, and in general everyone who spoke badly about the game. Driving? It's not perfect, but it's manageable, that is, it doesn't cause disgust, and the gameplay is quite fresh for our time. That is, this is a breakthrough for the series, but it is worse than GTA, although it did not try to be its alternative. And wearing headphones may not be new in games, but this is exactly what GTA lacks.
A good, solid game, a bunch of small tasks that slightly develop the gameplay, but are completely different, the plot is also present. The characters are cool, but you don't really empathize with them. SPOILER: “just as they forgot in five minutes the black man who died, that’s how you feel about them.” However, this is not a parody of Assassin 2, which is the Syndicate, but absolutely new game from Yubikov, simple, but not copy-paste and that’s good.
Compared to the first part - disappointing. Although the map has increased in size, the number open doors and elevators to the roofs increased, but the graphics suffered greatly, which hamsters with weak hardware demanded to be removed, but at the same time the optimization deteriorated even more. The printed weapons are absolutely lame and uninteresting, and the new setting is uninteresting and formulaic. Boredom.
I didn't have high hopes for the game, but... Under the guise of a hippter weirdness lies a good game, quite close in spirit to the 1995 film "Hackers". Funny characters as well as a slight feeling of the detachment of what is happening. I think if Ubisof had added the ability to play as every character in the game, just like in GTAV, we would have gotten everything from extremely versatile characters and missions (as well as Wrench’s excitement). The gameplay itself has undergone interesting changes - unnecessary and inconvenient elements have been transformed or removed. There really aren't that many innovations as such.
In general, I liked the direction of development of the series, despite the fact that the noir Pierce was closer to me. But for now, Ubisoft is taking some small and very cautious steps.
7.5 points.
-1 point for the fact that the most serious element of gaming development has become radio-controlled cars, which take everything over themselves.
-1 point for the rather short campaign and annoying online missions.
-1 point for the fact that, 2 months after its release, the game is still full of bugs, which, thank God, are almost not fatal.
+0.5 is consoling, for all the crap that a shkolota, who did not play the game, threw towards Ubisoft, writing down elements in the game that, in fact, are not even in the game.
I didn't play the first part. After reading positive reviews that this game is better than GTA 5 and does not slow down, I decided to buy it. Disappointed with optimization, graphics and gameplay. Computer is better than recommended system requirements but the game manages to slow down. In other matters, moving the game to an SSD has improved the situation, and it’s also better to play on a gamepad. There can be no question that this game is better than GTA 5. I'd rather play GTA 5. But since I bought the game and the money cannot be returned, I’ll still try to play, maybe I’ll understand what the trick is and why this game is so overrated. I can’t give it higher than 3 out of 10. I would give it a 1, but this is not at all objective.
A large and incredibly beautiful city - a replica of San Francisco - in which you will not be bored at all. Interesting and lively characters with whom you quickly become close. A nonsensical plot, sometimes flavored with very high-quality humor and excellent self-irony.
The game sweetened the sad impressions of Final Fantasy XV, which disappointed me: having abandoned the hackwork of the Japanese, I plunged headlong into the world of evil and cheerful anarchist hackers who staged their rebellion in one of the most beautiful cities on the planet.
I'm very pleased.
I agree with the opinion of atoropkin. I also bought it on sale and also after the Mafia =)
I was included in the list of those people who liked the first part. Yes, it's not perfect, but I liked the idea of a game where you can hack almost everything. The second part made much progress in this regard.
Plot. In principle, I liked it, but it didn’t really hit me. But here everyone draws their own conclusions.
Graphics. Played on PS4 PRO. The graphics aren't exactly perfect, but they're not bad. The only negative that I found with the graphics on the firmware is terrible graffiti in some moments. It could have been better. | While driving a car, if you didn’t focus your vision, the picture could be mistaken for the real thing. This was the first time this happened to me.
Physics. The car physics have been improved, but it's still terrible. But mostly I use fast travel, so I don’t really care.
Details. The details in the open world were worked out to perfection. Well, for example. You have completed the mission, you pass between the NPCs, and they are talking to each other. And guess what they are discussing? About the events that took place in the last mission. And that's great!
AI. Well, the AI here is average. I have nothing more to add.
Bottom line. My rating is 8.5/10. Most likely you will not agree with her, and you have a completely different point of view, but for me personally the rating of the game is 8.5
No, it's not 10/10, actually 8/10. It’s all about inadequate ratings a la 0.5/10, such as “I didn’t play the first one, I didn’t like it, but I didn’t play this one - but I think it will be the same”, “vomit” and other “ololo”...
Essentially. The game has a lot of shortcomings, some of which will probably be fixed in patches. However, there are many more advantages. I completely ignored the first part, as well as slightly the announcement and release of the second, but still bought it. And I didn't regret it. Having had a lot of fun in the first 10 hours of the game, I intend to return to the game for several more weeks in a row. What impressed me most was the living city - passers-by constantly communicate, quarrel, fight, just walk, run away from the police or bandits, hit their ex’s car with a baton, etc. And interacting with them is as interesting as just watching. I liked the “cool” gameplay, like mini-games. The hipster atmosphere is tolerable, because the situation is saved by dialogues, a lot of references and Easter eggs, and quite normal humor - finally we are just an ambitious guy, and not a sad-jock-avenger-for-his-wife-daughter-dog. 8/10
Many different missions. Nice picture and good graphics. Open living world. Customization of character, weapons and equipment (coloring). The only thing I wasn't happy with was the soundtrack.
The plot as a whole is not bad with humor. (I can’t rate it, I’m still playing) But I’ll give the game a 9. Overall I’m happy with the game, I don’t regret my time or money.
I bought it during the Black Friday sale and didn't regret it. After Mafia 3, which was a complete disappointment, Watch Dogs 2 plays great. A living open world, many interesting side missions, collecting mini-puzzles, etc. The youth theme does not hurt the eyes too much. The only thing I don't really like is driving. Cars like tin cans on wheels, but, fortunately, almost anywhere on the screen can be reached by fast travel. So if it’s on sale, you can safely take it.
(doesn’t talk about the calculator - GTA and the Witcher work as they should)
One of the most interesting sections of our catalog about Watch Dogs 2 is reviews of the game, which are posted on the site by visitors themselves. Observations from other gamers are sometimes much more valuable, which is why we have prepared a whole section for reviews of Watch Dogs 2. Usually, people on this page are more likely to give impressions, without detailed specifications, but sometimes there are spoilers that describe some storylines.
Watch Dogs 2 Review
Michael, Good morning. We'll transfer the money today. A little information has been added to your text.
There are two hopeless things about this season. The first is to convince people that Titanfall 2 is worth watching. The second is that Watch_Dogs 2 is worthy of attention. Moreover, in the first case, the arguments may seem reasonable to at least someone. Well, bad luck for a good game with a release date. In the second, everything is completely hopeless - after all, we are talking about the godless “openworld from Ubisoft” (this is a common noun, and for many with a negative connotation). About the conveyor. About the sequel to the game, which at one time even three-legged, one-eyed dogs didn’t care about (despite the fact that overall sales turned out to be insanely high). About some grimacing “mom’s hackers.” What, excuse me? Do you recommend? How much did they give you?
Believe me: Ubisoft needs to make a LOT of money to be able to praise its open world games. They don’t miss it at all, but Watch_Dogs 2 is good nonetheless.
At the same time, a good part of the claims made against it by critics and the players themselves have every right to life. I myself am ready to vote with both hands for their viability. I don’t agree, perhaps, with the claim to being “childish” and aimed at a youthful audience. Whatever one may say, this is a game for adults. This is indicated by everything: from basic markers - obscenity, the use of booze and drugs by the characters, as well as the well-known scandal with the demonstration of genitals. Until markers that are not so obvious - references to pop culture phenomena that today even players “over 30” will have difficulty remembering. Translation, of course, makes its sad contribution: adaptation was carried out by people stuck in Lurka, or even in Udaffkom. Their attempts to make jokes, as well as their lack of understanding of the original jokes, hurt the player. However, the original is much better. Although even there it is worth talking, rather, about a powerful attack of nostalgia: as if the developers were indulging in memories of their own carefree youth. If you perceive what is happening here from this point of view, much becomes clearer. Otherwise, I repeat, the claims are justified.
The game is shocking in a bad way with its graphics - in general it is inferior even to the first part: miserable rain, scary water, ugly vegetation, crooked animation. And on Xbox (where I played the game) we are talking about “ladders” visible to the naked eye and slow loading of textures - and often not only on objects just appearing in the frame, but also on the main character. Perhaps things will be better on PS4 Pro, but outdated technologies will still remain in place - this must be admitted.
The game has an extremely difficult time with purely gameplay elements. The car driving is incomparably bad. Driving a car here can easily be compared to trying to catch a smooth piece of soap that has fallen into a bowl of vegetable oil. The car responds to the slightest movements of the stick with some monstrous somersaults. “Collateral damage” - dozens of pedestrians smeared on the asphalt, broken cars, demolished poles - are almost obligatory consequences of driving. After just an hour of playing, I almost completely abandoned cars in favor of motorcycles: this way there is at least some chance of getting to my destination without killing anyone along the way.
Okay, okay. Killing a little less citizens along the way.
Nothing - nothing at all - good can be said about the shooting. It would be better if it wasn’t here at all (personally, I refused it on principle). Firstly, during shootouts it’s difficult to get rid of the feeling that you’re shooting at a rhinoceros with a slingshot: the effect of your actions is about the same. The opponents are carrying bulletproof vests, trying to come running in crowds from all over the area, they don’t want to die, but they kill quickly. Secondly, the very fact of shootings destroys the fragile world of the game. Because we are, sort of, a group of peaceful young rebels - we fight for everything good against everything bad using hacker methods. We seem to be bringing justice where the official law is either powerless or corrupt. Our actions seem to be illegal, but... How should I say? Much less illegal than the actions of those we are trying to stop.
Therefore, when our black hero begins to kill everyone with a shotgun, the picture collapses. Arises the clearest example human-narrative dissonance (yes, I’m showing off again, trying to show myself as a professional critic; I love this business). And dissonance is almost always bad. Moreover, in such a flashy form. Unfortunately, there are missions in the game where you are literally forced to act head-on - even if there are not so many of them. More often it is possible to cope with the help of stealth.
And here is an old friend (and not the only one). You won’t be able to communicate, but they will give you a raincoat and a cap – they look ridiculous, though, in the middle of San Francisco.
He is, overall... playable. It is possible to quietly remove the security. There are a couple of drones that do not break the balance: the copter cannot perform key actions, but is ideal for reconnaissance; a “jumper” rolling on the ground can perform these actions, but is very vulnerable. Here it is quite possible to complete a mission with a complex filled to capacity with security, without entering the territory at all - but, for example, sitting on the roof of a nearby building.
But stealth cannot be over-praised. For example, there is no way to hide bodies. The mission design was done at a low level - I mean, the combination of shelters and security routes. It’s basically impossible to hone your skills and complete the task perfectly (as in the best, good, or at least good stealth games): there are always some compromises, something always goes wrong. Either the guard will get stuck in place, or he will change the route and get lost. And, of course, the exceptional stupidity of the AI leaves its mark. Let's say there is a box behind which the player is hiding. The body of a stunned guard lies nearby. Another sees him and runs up to look. Receives a blow to the head. The next guard already sees two bodies. “Oh my God, what happened? We have to watch it!” he thinks. With a logical outcome. “Hmm, three bodies near the box. I’ll go and have a look!”, thinks the fourth...
And yes, one more thing: I can’t say a single flattering word about the multiplayer. In the spirit of the first part, it is “seamless”, made in the image Dark Souls- they invade you, you invade, a duel occurs. Well, adjusted for hacking. But the multiplayer is done so carelessly that your palm sticks to your face. In DS, intrusion is indicated by closing entrances and exits. Somewhere there is a living and perhaps cunning enemy. Or just a schoolboy with the reflexes and speed of a stimulant-hungry cockroach. Basically, he wants to kill you, get ready. Yes, an invasion can take you by surprise - when you are standing knee-deep in brown sludge, without estus and with half your health. But you still have the opportunity to do something.
In Watch_Dogs 2, for example, you stand and try to choose a decent angle for a selfie against the backdrop of another landmark. And suddenly something rushes past, followed by several police cars squealing with sirens. Someone is shooting and yelling. A whirlwind of chaos sweeps over the horizon. A panicked message arrives: “The intruding hacker is leaving! Six seconds left to catch! Five! Four! Three! Gone!” “W-what? A? What was that?” you blink. All. Until the next attack, dear comrade. This is, in general, multiplayer. That's it. That's right. The claims are fair. So why can you ignore this? How can THIS, described above, be called a good game?
I love this soap city.
Can. Because Ubisoft has created, it seems, the best of their “open worlds”. He lives, he breathes, he is interesting. The towers are gone (the towers are gone!!! - and the Sun did not change its route, and the flowers did not bloom in the middle of winter - what a shock it must be for Ubisoft employees now), the sterility characteristic of their worlds is gone. Uniqueness and recklessness appeared. Like marketers with big scissors carefully cutting out projects large companies everything that lives and moves even a little - “Otherwise, no matter what happens, suddenly sales will fall, because our consumer is stupid and will not understand anything!” - as if these biomachines were distracted by some other project, and Watch_Dogs 2 slipped through uncut.
It’s sad, but, apparently, the biomachines are right: the consumer has not understood anything, and sales of the game will not be as high as those of stuffy, sterile projects. But this is a sad topic, we will not develop it.
San Francisco is huge - but full of unique places. Some freaks are roaming the streets. Entire canvases by street artists are painted on the walls. These are the prosperous areas - there is no relief from the cowardly hipsters dressed to the nines with selfie sticks (of course, you can dress up yourself - and some kind of cosmic plethora of clothes has been created in different styles, from the natural hips of the Usishki and Vinishko brand to a colored Jamaican hat and a scarlet T-shirt with a hammer and sickle). Here are the disadvantaged areas - drug-addled scumbags are wandering around, bandits are on every corner, and drunks and trash are lying around the gateways in heaps of garbage (Chewi, we're home!). Here is the Golden Gate Bridge. And here is Silicon Valley with Google offices.
The abundance of details turns the city from a set of box houses familiar to other “open worlds” into something interesting. The city in Watch_Dogs 2 is a hundred steps ahead of the cities in other Ubisoft games. Ahead of Gotham from the Arkham series. And somewhere quite at the level of GTA V. The heresy, of course, is terrible (I’m ready to go to the stake), but I like the world here even more than in the “great and terrible”. If there, after completing side missions, you don’t know what else to do with yourself, then here you can just walk, turn on music in the player, look around and constantly find something new and interesting. Yes, before I forget: the soundtrack is also good, huge and varied - there is Beethoven, Megadeth, Dedmaus, and Duran Duran. You hear an interesting track on the radio, turn on an analogue of “Shazam” and then you can easily create your own playlists from the collected songs.
Plus, there are plenty of interesting characters. Basically they behave like ordinary people(read as complete scum), that’s why they are remembered. There is, for example, a monstrous episodic enemy - the head of the opposing hacker group Lenny. On the one hand, she fully corresponds to the images that “social justice warriors” demand from developers - an independent woman, clearly a feminist and, apparently, a lesbian (she likes to hang out in a gay club), absolutely... um... body positive. On the other hand, due to the same qualities, she literally causes disgust. How Ubisoft hasn't been called out for this yet, I can't understand for the life of me.
Meet Lenny. Matriarch. Big man. The cutest creature that from the very first meeting you want to launch into space without a spacesuit.
In general, almost everyone who had at least some say in the script turned out to be alive. There are not many of them, besides the team of hackers from DedSec and the charismatic main villain (hipster, non-smoker, jogger in the morning, supposedly vegan - in general, a moral monster). But those that exist are remembered. What more could you ask from fictional characters?
But that’s not even the main thing here: what’s most captivating about Watch_Dogs 2 is its deliberate frivolity. The game loves to misbehave. Perform some trick with your ears in the next routine mission. Either in taxi driver tasks, they constantly assign some freaks to you - either to look for a runaway robot, or to perform stunts for videos on local YouTube. Then they will offer to hack an ATM and choose: give the next visitor a pack of bills free of charge, erase data on savings for a lifetime, or simply send money “to help the children of the starving Volga region.”
Then we hack a space satellite and create a fake accident at a power plant in China. Then we meet an evil billionaire who bought a cure for leukemia and raised the price for it a thousand times: as punishment, we interfere in his next deal - the purchase of his tracks from a popular rapper for exclusive use (Watch_Dogs 2 is not at all shy about mocking real-life events) .
I’m ready to write about some things, literally choking with delight. Here, for example, there are unique cars scattered throughout the city. One of them, instead of a signal, emits an eerie, drawn-out, sepulchral scream - from which passersby run away in horror, and drivers jump out of the car as they move. She is here for no reason - someone just said: “Why not?” Something bordering on schizophrenia. But it's fun.
In one of the missions they give you control over an armored spider-tank. He shoots from a large-caliber machine gun, destroying everything around. And he walks along the walls and ceiling with the same ease as on the ground. For what? How does this fit into the plot? It doesn't really fit in with anything. But we have a video game here - why not have some fun?
Battle spider? Yeah, I got it. Can I have the same one, but in a separate game? And it is desirable (but not required) that the game be based on Ghost in the Shell.
Another mission is dedicated to stealing a video from Ubisoft itself from its secret game (you can even watch it) before the announcement. As it turned out - and this is the funniest thing - the game is really real, it is really being developed and indeed has not yet been announced. It is also known, however, that some problems arose with the project. But the very fact of the game announcement made in the game is, in fact, the level of P.T. and Kojima. One of those things you least expect from Ubisoft.
Do you know what you remember most? While walking around the city I saw an icon indicating additional mission. I approached, there was a terminal there, I hacked it. And then the view from the surveillance camera turns on. Closed in front of me private garage. The car is standing. The engine is running. The garage is in smoke. There is an unconscious person in the driver's seat. Next to him is a phone with a suicide note.
And here I am remotely trying to save a person. I turn on the ventilation. I'm trying to open the garage door, but it's jammed. I send a signal to the horn, a beep sounds. One, two, three. Swearing can be heard from the street: “Shut up! Idiot, stop honking! In the end, someone comes up, looks through the viewing window, and the scolding stops mid-sentence. They try to open the door, someone is sent for a jack. “Hold on, we’re here now!”, they run away. I keep honking. The man in the car groans. Comes to his senses. He turns his head with difficulty. He passes out again, falling onto the steering wheel. The signal now sounds continuously. The connection is interrupted.
Somewhere in Texas, a black guy could get shot in the knee for wearing such an outfit. But in Commifornia, morals are freer - and we didn’t see anything like that.
That's all. Nobody explains anything. What was that all about? Is he dead? Did they manage to save him? If they saved him, what happened to him afterwards? Not a single answer. The game just opened a tiny window for me and then slammed it shut. Let me look at one of the stories big city. And she caught me on a hook from which I just can’t get off.
I understand the plight of the situation experienced by the gameplay in Watch_Dogs 2. I understand and see all its shortcomings, of which - well, in fact - a lot. And yet, I come back here again and again. I look into the next half-open windows. I see the next city stories. It's already the fortieth hour.
And that's about the most I could want from an open world game.
Verdict
Regarding the enthusiasm for Watch_Dogs 2, I was literally told the following: “Low expectations work wonders.” They really were nowhere lower (and not only for me - it seems that in all of ru.ign there were no more people willing to take the game for review). I generally don't like open world games from Ubisoft. Reasonably considering them to be the standard of boredom, emptiness and copy-paste, where something interesting literally flares up with rare sparks and is immediately repeated many times, smeared in a thin layer until completely emasculated. Therefore, the result of getting acquainted with the next game cannot be called anything other than a miracle. For objective reasons, it, unfortunately, cannot receive (and will not receive) the highest rating. But subjectively, the second part of “Watchdogs” is perhaps the best that the French internationalists have ever managed to do in the genre. Of course, not “Game of the Year”, but “Open World of the Year” - most likely, and “Unexpectant of the Year” - one hundred percent.
