WatchDogs - PC version

WatchDogs, It's ok.

Emphasis on OK.

The one thing i adore about open world games, is that you can do anything. Grand Theft auto, RedDead Redemption, Sleeping dogs, Skyrim (mother of all open world games, can't wait for their next real installment) and etc. WatchDogs is ok. it falls in this category, doesn't really add anything to the plate though. 

WatchDogs was claimed, numerous times, that this was a next gen game, that we were getting something we've never seen. The first footage shown at E3 astounded us, and we believed them. Then they showed us gameplay about half a year ago, and we hated it because it looked nothing like the demo, so it was delayed. Do the graphics look good now that they delayed it to fix it up? Well again, it's ok. It doesn't look bad, but modded skyrim looks better, and yes thats a cheap blow because those are mods.

Now to me, both these images suck. 

Without spoiling anything, after my first mission i got to wander out in the world. I didn't want to start the next mission because i felt that'd be boring, so i walked around. I found an Augmented Reality cell phone game in the game, played it. Did i enjoy it? Meh, i probably wont play it again, unless it becomes a mission later. And for my knowledge i did not actually get any rewards from that game, so to me it's pointless time killer in a game, which games are used to kill time. You know you're in a weird era where there are time killers in a game, like an obvious no gain scenario, zero.

Now enough about that, the thing i like about this game is the bar meter thingie-ma-dinger or whatever. Pretty much do good things you're a more loved person, same for the opposite end of the spectrum. I helped people a lot. But you have to wait until the criminal actually does something before you can stop them eg. Pull out a gun/almost beat someone up, so you have to wait. Oh and here's another thing, if you are spotted or are too close to this criminal, he'll bolt and you won't have evidence and therefore cannot Take him down. Now, the reason i say this is because a lot of these criminals pull out guns and are killing a victim and running at them from a far distance usually means the victims gonna die. 

Save the person get points. Cause that's what hackers do.

I haven't actually played much of WatchDogs, so i'm only reviewing what i have played, and let me tell you this, I was surprised. I stole a car with a person inside of it, and she called the police. Now i never played GTA5, so i don't know if that was in it, but a person called the cops on me for stealing their car. Astounding. Now logically you should be thinking, "well that's the sane thing to do, i'd do that" and good, you should! that's the smart thing to do, but here's the reason i was surprised. I had stolen at least 20 cars before that happened. If it happened more frequently maybe i'd be less willing to run into the street and pull a random person out of the car.

Now for the the selling point of the game. Hacking. This is an interesting concept. Many people have said it's a gimmick and it dies out later and gets boring. I haven't gotten that far so i still enjoy it, but i can see what they mean. Sometimes i want to steal money from everyone i walk by, but the hack icon doesn't show up. minor details but still.

Killing civilians = bad rep

Saving civilians = good rep

stealing money from clinically depressed people who have filed for bankruptcy = huh.

Now if you read that, that's what you also get from this game, when you steal money, you get a small bio of a person, this bio could range from drug-dealer to janitor. And since you have a Reputation meter, you'd think, well if i steal from a bad person nothing happens, and you'd be correct. But if you steal from a clinically depressed person, you'd also have no consequence.

This game is OK.

Is it triple A title material? No.

Did it deserve that many collectors editions and deluxes on a new IP? No

Is this Next gen material? No.

Should you buy this? If you expect the game to wow you at every corner: No

The many, MANY editions of WatchDogs, Which i may remind, is a new IP. (Intellectual Property)

If i knew nothing about it,

7.5 or 8/10

Because of the hype and expectations

6/10

Bonus Review:

Dark souls 2. 

11/10 

Assassins Creed 3. PS3 ver.

Quantity over quality, more games less everything else. Whoever thought of that marketing plan deserves to be shot in both knees.

Before i start i have to say, brotherhood is the best game in the series, then 2 followed by 1. I absolutely adored brotherhood, it kept the great cast of characters and continued on Ezio's story, like a good sequel. The controls were tight an i felt compelled to complete every little thing, side quests to trophies.

Altair on Left, Ezio in Center, and Connor on Right. 

Then revelations came, this game boasted the return of Altair and the final arc of Ezio. At first that sounds kinda cool. Two assassins?! But it was short lived. Revelations reuses all the things from brotherhood, except for these short segments when you get to be Altair, on his very linear story. After completing this game i realized, this game is not meant for having fun, they're just tying up all the loose ends for 3. I call it a bridge game. You play it so you can understand the next game in the series, and boy do i wish i could take it back.

Oh how mislead i was

Assassins creed 3 is by far the most boring of all the games. I'm not saying the game is bad, but when you place it side by side with its predecessors, it doesn't come up to par.

The fighting mechanics change drastically from the previous games, you used to be able to counter everything that came your way and walk away without too much damage. In 3, countering might as well had not been included. I only used a single weapon the whole game, a hand axe. I'm not even sure if there were upgrades or different things to use. The game gave me an all round tool which is used in all situations, why am i going to bother with anything else. 

Fuck your rifles, I have an axe!

The game is huge. I mean huge, I get they were trying (emphasize trying) to make an open world, for the player to explore, but god damn it felt boring to cross the map. If you didn't want to fast travel, which if i remember correctly isn't addressed until later in the game, you have to trek across this huge map with practically nothing in it; there's collectibles, synchronizing spots to climb and, oh god why, quick time event animal hunting.

Each of those yellow lines are full on roads...

Quick time events in an assassin game. Quick time events are best used in horror games, because you're moving slowly, taking everything in and so forth. In this, you're a assassin! You're trained in combat, this character especially is well trained in the forest, he climbs like a monkey and leaps like a kangaroo! But the second an animal tries to attack him, we have to watch a cutscene of him attempting to kill the animal. Not only does this take away from the game, but it's so unrealistic... The guy can slaughter hundreds and walk away, but the second you put a bear in front of him, he doesn't know how to pull out his axe.

The collectibles in this game, i found, were boring. I didn't want to climb trees to find these things, and to make it more annoying, even if i had wanted to take a break from quests an collect i wouldn't be able to! Each time you beat a chapter, more collectibles unlock. Someones trying to extend the game time value... 

SPOILERS

The game starts out and you're sitting in a opera house, watching a play. Pretty different start. You play as a smug yet noble character Haytham Kenway. When movement begins you start to crawl your way to the top of the theatre to assassinate your target, and i have to say, was pretty fun climbing the inside of a theatre, though i don't know how no one saw me, but non-the-less.

Time passes and this character gets on a boat to New York. He gathers friends for his cause and eventually have a whole team. He even gets a lady friend, for a whole 3 scenes. When you get to the end of his arc, you find out that he was actually apart of the group plotting against the assassin order. That right there, is good writing, I had no idea about that plot twist, it was amazing!

Right here, Total badass. Not giving 2 shits on what you're doing. If you don't do what he says, it ain't his problem.

And then it went downhill from here. The first 2 or some odd hours playing as this character, playing the tutorials and learning everything. GUESS WHAT! YOU'RE DOING THEM AGAIN! Yup, the game changes from the character Haytham to his son Connor, and my god i hate this guy. He is a half native half british and he never met his father. At the beginning you play him as a boy, you learn to climb trees and catch animals. But then something so evil and so heinous happens, one of Haythams followers burns down the boys villiage.

Connor as a kid. I don't understand why they did that. Ezio didn't even start as a child. 

I'll admit it was a interesting way to go, buuuut, we had already seen this kind of thing happen with ezio... Remember? Ezio's family gets hanged and Poof instant orphan. 

Connor vows revenge and grows up to be a self righteous prick. No seriously, its kind of annoying they way it goes. Yes i understand these things happened and yes i understand character development, but it's like all he has on his mind is vengeance. Ezio it least was like "Heeyy laddieees wats uppp" or even "Leonardo... what does this thing do? it looks pretty coool, yeeaaaaa". All i got from Connor was, "My family is dead". Hell I even think Altair had more character than this loser, AND YOU NEVER SAW ALTAIRS FACE!

Ah Ezio, this is the reason you got 3 games to yourself.

Eventually Connor kills everyone in his Fathers group and his father, and thats kinda it. No real surprises. 

Even the epilogue was underwhelming, considering Connor had just helped win the war for America, you'd think that maybe he'd get least a pat on the shoulder. NOPE! The last scene all i saw was Forest Gump sitting on a bench with a feather flying across the screen. 

END SPOILERS

The games multiplayer, for me it least, was short lived. Same thing from revalations which was the same thing from brotherhood. Rehashing the same thing only with different avatars. 

The only good thing in this game, good being in compared to the rest of the game, was the boating. It was well done, turning was tricky at first but handle-able. The combat was viciously fun and i got to crush small boats by sailing over it. But again, it was good in comparison to the rest of the game...

Even Ubisoft knows they fucked up, assassins creed 4 was announced only 5 months after the release of the 3rd, and this time, the characters a pirate, who sails on a boat... the boating was good in comparison ubisoft... 

Ubisoft, Take a break guys, pumping out more games will just make us bored...

Overall the game was a waste of my time, right now the only reason i'm playing them and will still be playing them, is because i want to know what's going to happen to the story. I don't want to relearn everything every time. If you're new to the series just wait till their done making them, and if you're like me who jumped on the train too soon, well, we ain't gonna be able to get off anytime soon. 

ASSASSINS CREED 4 HERE I COME. 

Least there seems to be whale hunting...Sounds like fun

...I'm not getting my hopes up.