WATCH_DOGS 2: THIS TIME IT'S PRICE-PROHIBITIVE HOUSING

[chronovore]

I don't dare pick this up until my current project is finished. I'm already having enough time avoiding videogames while working. It sounds like everything that needed attention from W_D1 has been addressed and improved. Plus, I miss San Francisco, and this looks like it really captures the vibe.

One other thing: in the original's version of Chicago, EVERYONE was a douche. Everyone. Maybe the three guys in any given poker game were okay, but on the street, any dialog I overheard and any phone I hacked, EVERYONE was up to no good or being judgy as fuck. I'm hoping the street voices are toned down and made more friendly this time around.

[Bebpo]

One other thing: in the original's version of Chicago, EVERYONE was a douche. Everyone. Maybe the three guys in any given poker game were okay, but on the street, any dialog I overheard and any phone I hacked, EVERYONE was up to no good or being judgy as fuck. I'm hoping the street voices are toned down and made more friendly this time around.

The majority of NPC dialogue is like the main story dialogue, it's all positive and uplifting stuff.  It's people being nice and friendly to each other and laughing about things together.  The tone of the game is refreshing because I can't think of another sandbox game that's had such a positive progressive tone.  Like one of the driver missions you pick up a guy whose having a baby with his husband and it's their first baby and he's panicking on the drive and there are no jokes making fun of two guys having a baby like GTA would do, it's played straight like "hey, this is totally normal" and the main guy is like "congrats man, that's awesome!!"

It's a shame we're never going to get another game with this kind of tone again since WD2 is totally bombing thanks to WD1 selling huge and being kinda...not good, which burned everyone off of buying WD2.  But hey, WD2 is huge and long (I'm at 20% completion after 15 hours), so we gotta enjoy what we got.

[chronovore]

Started playing this last week.

First, the negative: I'm playing on PS4; there is screen-tearing visible frequently, and framerate drops that are occasionally distracting. I don't normally care about this, but I was so excited about the visual improvements I saw in pre-launch video that I assumed this was going to be a visual feast. The worst I can say is that it's not as perfect as I had hoped.

On to the positive: EVERYTHING ELSE.

As Bebsy noted, the writing is a heap of fun. The writers clearly reveled in being turned loose on geek culture, and tackle it with the kind of affection it deserves. Having the first safehouse in a tabletop board game shop is wonderful, and the NPCs in it talk about the kind of goofy details that fascinate us as gamers. The giggling but worshipful mockery of CYBERJUSTICE and the Knight-Rider analog was pitch perfect.

The NPCs out and about in the world are improved from the first game. They don't all appear to be cheating on their lovers, selling drugs, or working scams.

Moving the Pipedreams-style hacking activity out of a separate cyberspace visual and into an overlay on the physical world's objects opens up a number of interesting gameplay possibilities. I've only done the simple one in the opening mission, but it's easy to see where it will become challenging!

I'll post more impressions as I progress.

[Bebpo]

Definitely interested in hearing after you've put more time in, how you feel about SF/Oakland in-game since you know the area well.

[chronovore]

Definitely interested in hearing after you've put more time in, how you feel about SF/Oakland in-game since you know the area well.

At one point, I was speeding through SF and realized, "OH, the Financial District!" It was surprising.

[chronovore]

The control differences between GTA and this keep butt-stabbing me at the worst times. I also have apparently played another game where the in-game menu is UP on the d-pad, but in WD2 that's "draw weapon" which keeps making pedestrians FTFO when I just wanted to check which missions are available. TROUBLESOME.

Played until 1AM last night; lately I go to bed a couple hours earlier than that, but the game kept me hooked with how many small activities there are, and the cleverness of its puzzles. Having the RC car, the drone, and varying remote-or-physical hacks has opened it up a bunch for me. New ways of distracting and disrupting the various forces is pretty neat, too:


tl;dw - Needed to approach a restricted spot, so I falsified records to get the police to arrest the guard. It seemed to distract the non-guards in the area from even noticing me.

[Bebpo]

Yeah, I was gonna mention to get the drone as soon as possible.  I don't even know why it's optional.  The boost on the RC car and jump help for certain situations as well.  The other upgrade I'd get right away is unlocking cars so you can enter any parked car you see after fast traveling to a spot without any alarm going on.  After that the gang/police calls are helpful for clearing a small group or creating chaos.  The BOMBS are really useful depending on if you want to be chill (zzz bomb) or chaotic (explosions everywhere).  Controlling cars is really good.  You can pull them near you for cover or use them to run over your enemies before you even get to the area.  The ultimate moves like Blackout and Radio disrupting are awesome later on, blackout you tap R1 and no one can see you, radio disrupt is perfect when you've been seen you tap r1 and everyone is jammed and you move and they lose you and it turns to yellow.  Also useful for jamming and then running past enemies as a group.

One other thing I'd recommend is playing on easy.  Unless you're a trophy person, the only difference on easy is you can take a little more damage which makes it more flexible and fun imo.  Sometimes in sandbox games I find easy the right difficulty like Red Faction Guerrilla because sometimes you just wanna have fun.

Also you never need to use guns so unless you're planning on doing so you don't need to put any points into the weapon tree.  I never did and I pretty much maxed everything else by the end and was happy with that.  Only weapon I'd use is occasional stun gun and when I wanted to be evil I'd use a sniper rifle and take out some guys and create chaos.  Oh and my main "attack" was the O button melee choke in an MGS/Hitman chokehold kinda way.  If someone had their back turned and no line of sight on them I'd run up and melee take down them so I didn't have to worry about them later.

Messing around with robots is fun too around mid-game, so that's an upgrade worth getting.

[chronovore]

NEAT.

I'm trying for a low-kill-count run. I like that I can use the ZZZ-gun and grenades/bombs without killing. A co-op rando the other day had a stun-rifle, so I'll be keeping an eye out for that.

[Bebpo]

Yeah there's a good amount of stun options.  A lot of people have issues with the game's plot being ACTIVIST HACKERS and then going around killing people in gameplay, but it's a videogame and I don't have an issue with that, so while I didn't use guns a ton, I was often in favor of using cars and bombs and killing everyone in an area ahead sometimes to clear it out before I go in melee anyone left.  Other times when stealth was fairly doable I'd use gadgets/police calls/jammers and sneak on through without being seen.  The perfect stealth, never seen stuff is really satisfying to pull off.  But the kill everyone without being seen is pretty fun too

[chronovore]

Yeah there's a good amount of stun options.  A lot of people have issues with the game's plot being ACTIVIST HACKERS and then going around killing people in gameplay, but it's a videogame and I don't have an issue with that, so while I didn't use guns a ton, I was often in favor of using cars and bombs and killing everyone in an area ahead sometimes to clear it out before I go in melee anyone left.  Other times when stealth was fairly doable I'd use gadgets/police calls/jammers and sneak on through without being seen.  The perfect stealth, never seen stuff is really satisfying to pull off.  But the kill everyone without being seen is pretty fun too

I was surprised and disappointed to find that egress from a Restricted Area can be managed by Fast Travel. I had infiltrated from above via a construction crane, and gained the target item without being detected, and I knew I'd have to fight my way out. On a whim, I tried the map and Fast Traveled back to HQ. I imagine the choice disappears if enemies are searching for me, but I think I'll try to resist the temptation and just stick to my own lumbering quasi-stealth next time.

[Bebpo]

Yeah, you can't fast travel if enemies are looking for you.  Also for any story missions major infiltration stuff you can't fast travel out, you have to actually escape.  I had more than one amazing screw up where I got stealth in, got what I needed, every alarm went off everyone firing at me and I ran ran ran ran ran trying to escape while getting shot, jump in a car and disappear somewhere.  Those were fun moments

[chronovore]

I tried that yesterday, but my other not-quite-stealth moment was starting a co-op activity, trying to remote drive an automobile for the first time, killing a couple of bad hombres, and then stun-gunning my way in. Unfortunately their compadres decided throwing a grenade would be smart, so my stunned hombres became ex-hombres, while I remained safely in cover.

The game mechanics feel more forgiving than in the original. Losing your tailing cars seems generally easier. Helicopters are harder to lose though, as there aren't any underground parking garages with doors to shut. 

[Bebpo]

Yeah, I had issues early on losing cops because of helicopters.  I found it much tougher than GTAV.  Once I got boost on my car that seemed to help because I'd just go so fast I'd lose everyone and then go hide in a ditch or something for a bit.  Not sure exactly what it was but I stopped having issues getting away from cops around 30% in.  Think it probably was car speed boost upgrade.

[chronovore]

https://www.truetrophies.com/n11235/watchdogs-2-free-update-and-no-compromise-dlc-details

New, free DLC. It includes additional story missions, which is fucking great. I wish GTA V would release some more story missions, but I'll happily take these.

[chronovore]

FWIW, my Jumper and Quadcopter RCs are killing it. I've got the speed boost on both, and the extra jumping height on the car, so I frequently buzz around, finishing missions without Marcus even entering the TRESPASSING region.

Bebs is right about this being some of the best, most engaging, playful, and fun-loving writing I've seen in a videogame. It makes fun of itself but also enjoys the virtues of the culture it's showing.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

I finished the mission last night where I get to help Aiden from WD1 escape, and also the SURPRISINGLY LONG not-Burning-Man sequence where they straight up make fun of Raymond Kinney for looking like Rob Zombie.

[close]

I'm happy I haven't finished the game yet, while the new DLC is still dropping. I may even go and get the additional DLC from before.

[chronovore]

Game is still super awesome, but I had a REAL hard time with a couple of mid-to-late game missions: OPD in Alcatraz, and the follow-up party in Sausalito.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

I tried the Alcatraz one several times; it was clear they're setting the player up for a roof exit, even giving a waiting, convenient window washing elevator on a wall with no windows. Even so, I had trouble with getting in and out, trying to be a Trickster and get them fighting each other. On my fifth attempt, instead of trying to be clever and stealthy, I sac'd up and just dashed in. I was seriously overthinking it.

The FBI surveillance mission, I tried 3 or 4 times, failed repeatedly. Finally watched a guide; dude did almost exactly what I did. Gonna give this another try tomorrow.

[close]

[chronovore]

Sausalito Party: FWIW, I cleared it on the 2nd try. I set up some traps, knowing where I should hide and which paths enemies would likely approach through. It was nearly easy, but it is not a good mission. All kinds of meta-knowledge about what's going to happen and when are needed to clear it, or Marcus is turned into prosciutto.

I can't remember the order, if it was before or after that, but the spiritual opposite of those missions are the ones where Marcus gets AR supplemental information about where the enemies will be and from which direction the cars will arrive. In that sense, the immersion is great – ludonarratively it makes sense. It's less fun to repeatedly die, unsurprisingly.

Fantastic game; it's missing… something to put it on the same tier as Red Dead Redemption or GTA V, but I'm not sure what is missing. Honestly I like the writing better than GTA V; the game knows what it is, and isn't trying to prove something. It's heaps better than the first game, keeping everything that worked, and getting rid of tons that did not.

[Bebpo]

The weird "know your enemy positions before they arrive missions" were pretty odd.  I didn't set traps at all because my style was to power through everything in the fastest ways.  So I'd activate it, and throw a bomb or something to distract/take out enemies and then rush for the vehicle and drive off and try to get away.

When you were talking about the FBI one, I'm assuming you mean the one where you have to break into a heavily secured warehouse with laser tripwires and stuff and activate something and then get out?  That took me a couple tries but I ended up just finding the straight path from the outside to the door, sprinted in deactiving one or two lasers, took out the one person inside, activated the object and then ran back out the same way.

I did a lot of running in the game combined with the communications massive disruption.  Press that and everyone is knocked out for a few seconds so I use that to just sprint past everyone.

[chronovore]

 Actually, I'm just talking about the simple mission right after the crew is celebrating at a restaurant in Sausalito. They realize they're being watched, Marcus exits up front to check it out, and finds a nearby FBI van.  I don't remember to which mission set it belonged.  It think it was the set where Oakland sites had been unfairly targeted by ctOS, so the police were found to be corrupt.

I'll keep that path in mind for the mission you talked about. I haven't yet bought Massive Communication Disruption. I'll prioritize it.

[Bebpo]

Ah, yeah I remember that mission. Thought it was handled really well from a cutscene/writing perspective. I like that the characters on your team are decently intelligent.

The communications disruptor is a game changer imo. It's the most broken skill in the game and you pretty much shouldn't ever die again outside 1 or 2 missions once you have it. It causes every enemy on the entire map to be stunned for about 5-10 seconds at the same time. You can activate it and then rush past a bunch of guards and when they recover they'll never notice you went by. It's super OP, but I'm all for things that make gameplay easier in these kinda games.

[chronovore]

I'll buy it, and try to not abuse it.

Oddly, I've been unable to use Hacking when driving. I was a champ at it during the original game, but this time I'm hitting SQUARE when the QTE "timer" is flashing, and it has no effect. Really annoying. I'm also wanting to make cars steer into walls and stuff, but have only pulled it off one time.

Yeah, the crew is pretty great. I like the characters, though I feel like they're trying to get me attracted to Sitara, but she seems like most of the Women's Studies graduates who are angry at anyone who doesn't agree with them. It doesn't help that I'm still #teamClara from the original game.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

I was really sad about 'Ratio's death at the hands of the Tezcas.

[close]

That was a tight mission. I ended up getting lucky by a gang war started outside their complex, which pulled most of them away from their stations.

[chronovore]

Bebsy, sorry we didn't talk more about this fantastic game in person today.

I came home tonight and realized I've only got two Mission paths left, so I tried the Bounty Hunter online mode. I ended up going from Bronze III to Silver II in a single session. Got my ass handed to me a couple times, but largely HANDED OUT ROUGH STREET JUSTICE.

My only major complaint about the game is that the target locations don't display "Physical Hack" out of gate, so I'll have spent ˝ an hour approaching the target through quadcopter and jumperRC, only to find that Marcus has to be there in-person. Other than that, the game is an astonishing improvement over the original in every way possible. Better writing, better attitude, better controls (streamlined shortcuts), more depth… really impressive.

[Bebpo]

Yeah, the MP is a lot of fun. The seamless way it's handled makes it a non-hassle. I'm hoping more games take notice and incorporate this type of Soulsborne seamless background MP.

[chronovore]

Finished the final mission. That was fucking awesome.

Now I have to win a sailboat, then kill a Bounty Hunter who's chasing me, and I'll have my 2nd platinum trophy.

Probably going to go for the DLC at some point. That was a great game.

[Bebpo]

Did you ever get the communications disruption skill? 

[chronovore]

Did you ever get the communications disruption skill?

I did! I was super happy to have it during final mission's egress. I got killed a bunch of times trying to stealth and then head-on fight the armored baddies, and then I just jammed everyone and ran past them.

This morning I got the Platinum Trophy for it. The sailboat race was pretty easy. Not my thing, I guess. I'll approach it with a more open mind when it pops up in Assassins Creed Black Sails.

The "kill the bounty hunter who's targeting you" one was slightly less easy, because the AI cops step up their numbers quickly as the enemy Player(s) make their way to my location. I set up in an alley with only two points of entry. The players pulled up and parked right next to the six or seven police cars which had me pinned in the alley, so I drone-dropped an explosive on the front car, and the chain reaction was a treat all around.

The bounty hunter players were pretty unhappy with that move.