Although the first one wasn't the most popular among the gaming communities, i enjoyed it. I didn't like the games protagonist, Aiden Pierce, i thought he was very boring and his story was just a typical run of the mill revenge based story. But i did like the gameplay and the fact that Ubisoft were trying something a little different, in terms of the hacking elements of the game. So when Ubisoft announced Watch Dogs 2 i was always going to pre-order.
The game is fantastic, it is a huge upgrade on the first game. The protagonist in this one, Marcus Holloway is far more likeable and interesting, the story is also much more compelling and ties in a lot more to the idea of hacking, as he joins a hacker group and therefore it makes much more sense that he has access to hacking technology than Aiden Pierce did in the first game. The setting is also cool and makes sense, the fictionalised version of San Francisco and it's Bay Area feel like the perfect home for the game, Especially as it is home to Silicon Valley. The game has good comedy in the cut-scenes and the world is the best i have seen in a video game in terms of the NPCs living inside of it. They all appear to be living their own lives within the world as opposed to a lot of games which fill the world with characters who just appear to be standing around doing very little. A great is example is the other i day i was in the middle of a story mission, and while outside of a building, i was looking for a potential way in, and at random a NPC came walking down the street with a baseball bat in hand, approached a parked car and started to smash the car with the bat, while screaming about someone having cheated on him. I stayed to watch in amusement while other NPCs did the same. One of them phoned the police, who subsequently arrived, to which the man then ran to another parked car, broke the window, opened the door and sped away while the police gave chase. All of this just happened at random in the world created by Ubisoft and it really makes the game feel more alive.
One element of the game i am not a big fan of is the driving. I don't feel as though it matches up to some other open world games, such as my personal favourite for car handling, Mafia 3. The car handling is something which you will adjust to, but does feel a little weak and arcade-like.
The game offers some familiar hacking elements as the first, but also adds a host more hacking options. The introduction of better hand to hand combat and a stun-gun, mixed with stealth, an RC Car and a quadcopter means you can complete the entire game without killing anyone, which i always try to do on the story missions, although playing on the toughest difficulty level, i can not always achieve.
Overall, i am very much enjoying the game, and only the fact that Planet Coaster was released two days later has seen me stop playing.
I have seen a lot on Social Media complaining about Watch Dogs 2, but a lot of the criticisms seem to be from people who are just anti-Ubisoft and haven't even given Watch Dogs 2 a chance. Should they do so, they might find that Ubisoft have really changed as of late. They did say in an honest interview earlier in the year, that they wish to change their ways a little with regards to misleading trailers and announcements. They said that they wanted to steer away from overhyping games and showing actual builds in trailers. You can really sense this has started to happen with Ubisoft now with Watch Dogs 2, which has definitely not had a graphical downgrade.
It's definitely, in my opinion, the best open world game of the year, and one of (if the) best titles in the genre and i would absolutely recommend the game.
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