Ubisoft How I Hate Thee
I'm sorry but this is bad news for the industry in general. If Ubisoft can push out crap like WatchDogs and hit record sales just because theres a drought on next gen games currently, others will follow suit.
Seriously, WatchDogs has got to be one of the worst games I have ever played.
The story was terrible, the protagonist was a dull bore that had ambiguous moral issues (he's a vigilante but doesnt have a problem robbing random people and murdering half the police force to get revenge on the people that killed his niece, when it was HIS FAULT she got killed) and the plot made no sense like him going back to save Clara after she double crossed him. It introduced characters like Poppy for no reason but gratuitous boob shots and the villains were a 90 year old man and a handicapped guy, both of which you feel no sense of accomplishment after besting.
The old guy already lived a full life of crime so snuffing him isnt really justice he already had committed 50+ years of crime and even basically called Aiden a douche even as he was dying. They introduced a bunch of characters that had no impact on the story like DedSec which the story should have actually centered around, and it had too much gun violence for a person thats supposedly a deep hacker.
I hated this game to the point where I quit playing it, but over the holiday weekend I forced myself to finish it just to get my money's worth out of it. There s a lot of stuff to hate I dont even feel like listing them all. But weird things like gangbangers wearing full battledress, a supposed clandestine game where guys are chunking hand grenades and shooting LMGs in the city. I supposed if you are a person that gets stoned and just likes to run around in sandboxes its a good game, but GTA does it much better.
The only thing this has going for it is the lame hacking bit and a couple of minigames that dont even really fit the theme of the game.
Yes, I believed the hype but that has nothing to do with my disappointment. The fact that game is just BAD overall is whats disappointing. The story was horrible, the characters forgettable, the hacking features were lame puzzles that had no amount of difficulty or challenge, the driving was bad, the campiagn missions repetitive (either sneak in headshot/subdue everyone, sneak in via cameras sometimes guiding an npc, have a massive shootout then escape) and the soundtrack was awful.
Did I mention the soundtrack was AWFUL? This was supposed to be set in Chicago the birthplace of House and Industrial. I know Chicago also has jazz and blues but the electronic music would be more the vibe of a hacking game. They could have actually done some homework and worked in some old school Chi-town originals. Its like they phoned the ambiance in, which was especially bad for me. I eventually turned off the music in the settings but initially I was turning off the radio everytime I got into a car. Have the people that made the soundtrack ever even been to Chicago? This game was supposed to be a major AAA title in development for years, they could have done some homework and got the soundtrack right. I know it couldnt be on the level of GTA's, but they could have at least tried.
The only thing I imagine they did decently was reproduce Chicago.
The truth it seems is the game got pushed back because Ubisoft knew it was bad IMHO.
I didnt really get into the online MP, I tried it a few times and was incredibly bored by it I either shot and killed the other guy or couldnt find him. Was pretty boring. The driving is bad so I didnt even try the racing.
But I wont be buying another Ubisoft title anytime soon. WatchDogs makes me think that The Division will be terrible as well.
If you dont have this game, dont buy it wait til its in the bargain bin. With 8 million copies sold it will soon be full of them you can probably pick it up for $10.