How Watch Dogs 2 Doomed The Series
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- Опубліковано 30 тра 2024
- Edited by Playstayshaun
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Other Essays: • Video Essays
- Chapters -
Intro: 0:00
A New Tone: 2:14
Shifting Focus: 10:25
Upping The Ante: 19:25
An Idea & Nothing More: 24:42
P.S.: 41:45
Legacy: 45:24
To say the first Watch Dogs game was received poorly would be an understatement. Its finished product was nothing like what was shown in previews, and the game, to many, was disappointing. Aidan Pearce was a well written character, but Ubisoft were too afraid to put the spotlight on him. Instead, only allowing his most unlikable qualities to shine through. One such quality was his hacking ability, which for a game all about hacking was barebones, leaving Watch Dogs to function better as a John Wick simulator rather than a hacking game. Despite this, the general public came back around to Aidan, with even myself making a video talking about how great the game is in spite of its release. What further aided Watch Dogs was that it released in 2014, just months before Assassin’s Creed Unity, causing many to look back at Watch_Dogs and consider that it may have been treated too harshly, but it was too little too late. No amount of retrospective praise could save Ubisoft from looking at the state of their heavy hitters in 2014, and deciding to make a drastic change.
One such change was in Watch Dogs 2. When we first got a look at this game you’d be right to think it was a reboot of the series. The tone had entirely changed, its world much brighter, its characters had character, and its hacking took centre stage. But this shift, and the success that came from it, caused irreparable damage to the franchise. We now had two entries in a series that were worlds apart, and two fanbases sitting on either extreme. We can talk theoretically about how this would affect the series moving forward, but there's no need, look at Watch_Dogs Legion. A game that feels like the worst of both the first and second game. Now, there is plenty to enjoy about Legion still, and eventually I will dive into that, but for now I want to look at Watch Dogs 2 and see how it is in many ways the antithesis of the first game, and how it, to the series own detriment, redefined what a Watch_Dogs game is and could be. This is Watch_Dogs 2, and the irreparable damage it did to the series.
Watch Dogs was released to a lot of disappointment, but Watch Dogs 2 released to general praise. So, how Watch Dogs 2 ruined the series, especially when Watch Dogs Legion exists, seems hard to explain. This Watch Dogs 2 eeview will answer that question, and through this Watch Dogs 2 analysis and general Watch Dogs 2 critique we will analyse how this game changed what a Watch Dogs game could be. This Watch Dogs 2 retrospective is part of a larger Watch Dogs retrospective that will end in a Watch Dogs Legion critique, but let's focus on Watch Dogs 2 for now, and the issues surrounding it. Said issues are obvious when searching UA-cam for any Watch Dogs 2 cringe compilation, and any new Watch Dogs game, be that another spin off or Watch Dogs 3 will be compared to the lows of this games writing. Watch Dogs Wrench is the posterboy for said cringe writing, but I argue that Watch Dogs 2 Wrench is, while cringe, fun enough to justify the cringe. This is not a Watch Dogs 2 explained video, nor will it explain the Watch Dogs 2 DLC. Also I don't want to hear anyone saying I am not spelling "Watch_Dogs" right, the underscore is a pain. - Ігри
If you have any feedback or suggestions, then feel free to leave them below! Expect a gap in videos after this, and then likely a Spider-Man 2 video.
Interesting take! Most folks I talk to say other than gameplay watchdogs 2 is inferior to the first game and that it was Legion which smashed the series to the ground
Can't really ruin a series that was no good to begin with
Thanks for a great video! Good job!
This video is very well edited and put together, very good job mate! Ontop of that ive just arrived today, so imma sub! Keep up the good work bro!🔥🔥
Glory to Jesus Christ. Repent and be forgiven. Pray for others to find Jesus Christ God.🔥❤️
I returned to Watch Dogs 1 for the mood.
I returned to Watch Dogs 2 for the gameplay.
I returned Watch Dogs Legion to Gamestop.
Legion is actually revolutionary in concept. The execution is arguably the best entry in the series.
@@CodenamePrinceit’s not
@@CodenamePrinceblud is so delusional 💀
@@Bruno-fw6nw bro bro is bro is bro bro💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀bro
@@CodenamePrincea revolutionary concept but in the hands of Ubisoft was executed very poorly
When I saw the title, for a split second my brain decided to remove the word 'Watch' and read it as just 'Hot Dogs 2 ruined the series'
Hot dogs 1 was amazing but they ruined the whole series with hot dogs 2
The addition of relish really made me wanna never buy one ever again
Honestly, Hot Dog 2 didn't just ruin the Sausage franchise. It also rebooted the whole Mustard Cinematic Universe's timeline. Hopefully Hot Dog 3: The Bratwurst Brigade is a step in the right direction.
That's because ThatBoyAqua forgot the _ in Watch_dogs that way you wouldn't have gotten confused lol
@@ThatBoyAquaThank you! Everybody I know loves Relish. Relish is fuckin Nasty.
Well 3 killed the series.
Fr watch dogs 2 save it
It's not 3 it's legion let's hope for a 3
@@roshanjoseph6094 it is a fully fledged sequel with a higher budget than 2. It’s the third game in the series and performed the worst, there won’t be another game and if there is it won’t happen for literal years.
i still see legion as a decent game in general, it's just a godawful watch dogs game
@@nyanarchy196 fair enough. Still sucks that such a franchise that was brimming with potential came to such an underwhelming and lackluster ending :(
3 is what killed the franchise, not 2. 2 was a step in a right direction. 3 needed a killer storyline and they fumbled that.
Exactly
Agreed
3 needed so much more than that ngl
Completly agree, watch dogs 2 was way better than the first one, how this killed all of the franchise
No. Watch Dogs 1 was the best. Aiden is a great anti hero and his story is very great
Watch dogs 2 had Netrunning before Cyberpunk 2077
Plus you have less chance for head to to burn since the tech ain't in your head as seen in Cyberpunk 2077.
I think it’s a dumb pedantic comment to make, but here to type the “uhhHhh, cyberpunk lore had netrunning way before Watch Dogs came out” comment before someone else does
@Evanz111 Cyberpunk lore of netrunning was completely different then in the game counterpoint. Watch dogs 2 came first before Cyberpunk 2077 and wouldn't be weird to see that's how it got its inspiration. In the the tabletop it was more wired hacking then the wireless hacking shown in the game. I guess why sneak up on someone and plug in the neck slot when a knife would work better and wireless hacking like watch dogs 2 does look cooler.
@@jakwinter7588 wait cyberpunk was already an established IP? I really never heard of it outside of the video game and the anime.
@@stimswwolf7867 tabletop game, decades old
Horatio was literally just the token black guy so Marcus could have a friend
LMFAO I can't with how true this is
But Wrench is his friend
And I still miss him
Marcus really crashed out after that death man.💀☠
I think wrench was the one he was closest too Horatio couldn’t have been a token black he was just an underdeveloped character but none of the characters were very well written
So the actor who plays T-Bone (John Tench) is a teacher at the Toronto Film School. I had him as a teacher a few years after the firsr Watchdogs came out (i even have a signed xbox one copy). He told me for thr most part they're petty strict on diverting from the script but sometimes if it works it works ❤️
Shame, they should’ve allowed the voice actors to truly live their roles. T-Bone feels like he’s improvising sometimes and it’s hilarious. But Watch_Dogs 2 really suffers from a stiff dialogue which wasn’t well written.
The cast did the best they could with what they were giving
if watch dogs 1 had watch dogs 2's hacking and overall features that would be perfect
We could've got the perfect watch dogs game if they mixed the two games, but instead, we got the boring half assed legion
I prefer Watch Dogs 2 map. Tho WD1 did a good job of showing off a pretty gritty Chicago. But if you are going to do a tech focused game, there's no better city in America outside of San Francisco.
Even tho WD:Legion was a disappointment, I think London is a great location for a WD game.
@@deepvoicedude4749yea WD2 has more memorable locations imo
@@mohamednail1707legion had so much potential 🥲
@@deepvoicedude4749Yes. WD1 should start at SF and expand from there. Such missed opportunity tho.
I love both for different reasons. I enjoy the dark, serious tone of the first and really enjoyed the characters and world.
I loved 2 for its cheerful layed back tone, especially by playing non lethaly. I found the cringy stuff enjoyable and loved the goofy dynamic of the group. The world was amazing and the story was very compelling to me.
I like that I can enjoy the polar opposite experiences with each game.
I don't get why a different groups of characters have to be the exact same and have the same tone as the ones in the first entry, there still doing what Aiden was doing except ya know not being all dad and mopy about it because they aren't Aiden Pierce, it's like trying to compare Connor and Ezio or Guts and Goku
Personally I greatly prefer 1’s tone, story, characters, and weapon gameplay but I greatly prefer 2’s gameplay and world in all other respects. I don’t remember if 2 still had the whole reported crime feature but I loved that and the digital trips from 1 as well.
Same here, I just started replaying both games and I love both of them for different reasons. But honestly Aqua was right in how WD2 made the fanbase split into two, just like Saints Row 3 did.
@@michaelrandolph6373 Afaik there isn't a reported crime feature in WD2 sadly
@@deepflare1028 yeah WD2 completely abandoned the serious and realistic tone and went too far into goofy and lighthearted. It’s fine to have some of that like with Jordi but they really overdid it but not as badly as SR3.
I’d genuinely love to see the original Watch Dogs get the full blown remake treatment. I know it’s not exactly an old game, but it would be amazing for them to revisit the series at its roots, considering it went in a drastically different direction with 2 onwards.
Not everything needs a remake
well with the shaders mod and living city expansion. i think it would be enough for your description
I would love to explore the first game with new stuff and improvements
The second one atmosphere and protagonist did not click with me.
What ruined the series is that Legion failed to give us a single well written character
Went from calling Watch Dogs 2 the "perfect sequel" to claiming it ruined the franchise in just four short years. Now that's character development. I know WD2 being a great game and also being the catalyst for the franchise's shift in tone and thematic priorities are not mutually exclusive concepts, but it was still pretty funny to see the title of this video appear in my feed having rewatched your WD2 video only a few months ago. For what it's worth, I think both WD1 and WD2 are far more artistically and mechanically special and worth lauding than they seem to get credit for...
I'd argue watch dogs 1 was more realistic for a stealth approach you have to study your enemies patrol patterns etc amd execute which would lead people to believe you have to go guns blazing. Also the hacking not being extreme gives it a real feel to hacking phones, little fuse boxes etc
The first Watch_Dogs was lightning in a bottle for me. Grim dark, gritty, with a protagonist so broken that he's stuck in one moment as a consequence of his associations. Watch_Dogs 2 just didn't do it for me.
Same. But the driving was hard to get through lol
@@LAVEGAN83the driving fucking sucked in WD1 thankfully they tightened it up in 2
@@Stana999 man the driving in ubisoft games is just werid and I really enjoy their games
I like both. The second game gets better the more you play it. I was avoiding it because it looked cringe for years but once I played I loved it.
@@nestormelendez9005 well the Watchdogs franchise being a modern open world game like GTA is a new trend that Ubisoft was experimenting with so makes sense it is to be expected they would have little experience to know how to professionally simulate driving in games at a smooth pace but I will say one thing what Watchdogs 1 did a lot better than 2 is the shooting that it felt more realistic with every gun having recoil which is what Ubisoft are already experts at imitating.
I appreciate that WatchDogs 2 went for the risky route and changed tones. It makes it feel fresh and alive. WatchDogs 1 and 2 both hold up as close-to-masterpieces in their own ways
Chicago is basically Gotham and San Fran is Metropolis
WD1 for the story
WD 2 gameplay
Watch Dogs 2 was actually fantastic game. In the first game, the guy used real weapons. But in 2nd game you talking about, the guy use 3D printed guns and use Drones and many gizmos wilhich actually feel like a Hacker. That is what I needed in a Watch Dogs game.
I much preferred playing as more of a dark vigilante in the 1st game with real guns and stuff, the second game is too focused on just being just a hacker imo, and ideal game would be a better mix of both
@@SunFyyre a hacker is supposed to be a weak and introverted guy. Not some Terminator guy or GTA man. Marcus Holloway is amazing guy. Our Aiden bro is also amazing but why using real weapons. And defeating Iraq Wade was so dumb move. That Iraq guy was a war veteran and Aiden defeated him easily. Tffff
I think I would like to see Watch Dogs 4 feature a non hacker protagonist. Maybe he could be a gun for hire who recently was released from jail and is looking for work and is hired by Dedsec. Because of his career as a criminal, he’s tough, agile, good with guns, and the perfect person to execute missions for a group of people who are more suited behind a screen. You could even go so far as to say he’s never even owned a smart phone because he usually uses disposables. That way you can introduce levels of hacking naturally throughout the game without giving you too much at once and having no room to grow. The more you play, the more proficient he gets with his phone and making smaller hacks. It would be cool to play as someone who really doesn’t care about the Dedsec cause and is merely there for the money (at least at first.) and maybe even reveal that this guy doesn’t love what Dedsec does because he sees them as a terrorist group causing more harm than good. Give us a compelling narrative that actually takes a moment to look at things from a different perspective.
This isn’t a terrible idea actually! This could very easily do some explaining away of why progression is needed and may as you said make it significantly more natural. It would also help with understanding and explaining why getting lethal weapons is normal for this operative.
Keep cooking like this and you will be promoted to chef 💪
Like the idea
My only real criticism of wd2 is that Marcus doesn’t seem like the guy to gun down endless enemies, even though such an extensive hacking/stealth focus minimizes that. The rest is just details imo
Well he doesn’t none of his mains guns are leathal
@@thatdudeishitless293 oh yeah it’s been awhile since I played lol
I just felt the game had a massive tonal clash and I found the ending so underwhelming I legit didn't even know it was the end of the story.
It also had the same villain as many ubisoft villains of the time. The big evil business man.
Then u dont get the ending
@@AMT_AllMyThoughts getting the ending is irrelevant to it being underwhelming
So fyi, I understood the ending
And was underwhelmed.
So well done?
@@schizomonika
The story of WD2 is about exposing these people while the group is growing as friends.
Some memeing nerds take down or expose the big bads of our sociaty.
Thats the story.
And when they finally exposed everybody and we get to the main bad guy, we dont kill him off, we simply tell him in his face what kind of a person he is, that he is f*cked and then leave him while he gets locked up.
After that we get a massage from Marcos himself and the game ends on a perfect note.
And I really like the fact that we arent just killikg him and thats it, it made it feel so much more satisfying, like justice has been done.
@@whodatninja439pretty hilarious that Ubisoft basically makes themselves the villains for all of their games
Watch dogs 2 was good but honestly the first game was unparalleled, a dark Noir futuristic movie that you could play with great characters and story, I wish Aiden's life as a character wasn't as short as it was.
If you ask me, wd2 and bloodline never happened for me in the storyline
Game has an arsenal of lethal weapons for the same reason the Metal Gear games have them: They are there if you want them.
Also there's a subtlety about how their morality is grey with what they're willing to do, what kind of organization is dedsec is entirely up to you, do you want them to be as heroic as possible with minimal moral compromise? Go non-lethal, you want them to be hypocritical terrorists, arm yourself to the teeth, after all nothing in the game forces you to use or buy the lethal guns.
Also also we can also take it as the natural thing: The guns are for self-defense, after all the guards you are messing with are the shoot on sight kind.
But without a consequence for using them or how you use them, it’s a self imposed challenge.
Watchdogs 1 had some small impacted by your reputation
Personally i feel it should have gone the route of infamous where people would hurl stones and abuse at you on top of there being groups you are discouraged from attacking or at least using lethal methods on.
Have it impact the kind of people you attract, where at a point some missions are revealed to be followers acting as you have been. What would normally be a bank robbery becomes one you directly caused because of how you act
The lethal weapons are obviously non canon because they don't mention them. And it's hard to believe Marcus who seemingly doesn't want to be seen as a cliche to Blume starts murdering its employees with AKs. That's why he has a yoyo rather than Aidan's baton. San Francisco Dedsec make it very clear they aren't as edgy as the ones in WD1 and don't hurt people without just cause.
@@Jordaxio his non lethal is just has violent, aswell as the non lethal multi car pile ups.
There is a point where gameplay and story seperate but with what the story is and no rep meter it feels like your meant to be fast and loose.
Marcus will sucker punch an old lady
Watch Dogs 1 is my favorite Watch Dogs game, but 2 is just so much fun in its own way I don't get why people hated on Watch Dogs 2.
I'm not a fan of the main characters in 2 but I live in a rainy Chicago like area already so sunny San Francisco appealed to me more. NPC and world in 2 is awesome, I mostly just run around it offing NPCs. The story is awful to me but I knew that going in. I respect the hell out of 2 in alot of ways though.
@@adilion2413 I agree.
The characters were way too hipster and layed back for me.
I feel it’s the opposite. WD 1 gets hated on more than WD 2
@@cosmicknight4665 Nowadays, it seems like both parts of the fanbase just love to hate each other
It went from a gritty vigilante future story to what felt like a g-rated "the teenagers rob a bank" movie where they escape on gocarts in the end.
I think the reason lethality doesn’t really work for Marcus is because he is a lovable good guy, while a character like Aiden might a vigilante who *does* want to help innocent people, he has no interest in being a hero, and his desire to take down the bad guys of Chicago by all means necessary makes sense for the kind of person Aiden is, but not so much Marcus
I was still lethal with Marcus because it doesn't effect anything. Maybe if Ubisoft made killing people lessen your follower count or whatever it'd give the player an incentive to play non lethal but they didn't so 🤷🏻♂️
@@NukaCola514I’m glad they didn’t cause I don’t wanna be punish for play more deadly
The fact that the mood is so light in this game made me aproach the whole game in a non-lethal way, the only time i had marcus kill someone was when he went to that dog fight place after they killed his friend, for i thought it would make sense for him to turn a little bit dark after horatios death. After that, i went back to non lethal combat, just becaus i cant see marcus as a vicious killer, he is too light hearted for that, and i also think that, for what dead sec wants, killing minimum wage guards in warehouses is kinda comtradictory with their oberall goal
I hate that after Desmond ubisoft is traumatized with mantaining main characters
I'd like to take this time in our day to mention that Watch_Dogs came out before John Wick did.
(EDIT: This comment sounds really rude but for clarification I just thought this fact was cool.)
Watch Dogs 2 was the peak of the series and regardless of the changes to tone it was objectively better. 1 was definitely more serious and Aiden was supposed to be a pseudo-John Wick but I still prefer Marcus. Every scene where he interacts with the cast is genuinely fun, the entire vibe of San Francisco was beautiful. The way Marcus moves in itself has so much nuance that just adds so much to the entire game. A lot of the differences between the two come down to preference, but watch dogs 2 was actually an amazing sequel that built off the first and made it even better. While 3 shat the bed by only decreasing the nuance of gameplay, limiting player freedom despite supposedly adding more varied ways to play through content and overall it lost its soul.
Aiden was a character before John wick lmfao. So no he wasn’t supposed to be a pseudo John wick.
WD2 did nothing to build off the first game. At all.
Aiden existed before John Wick.
John Wick took inspiration from a Korean movie The Man From Nowhere
@@BabyGirlTiny My bad off the John Wick thing then, but regardless of that gameplay wise and also story wise even if Watch Dogs 2 changed the tone and main character they built on the first still. The direction of having different people fight back from different locations is a strong one that could be done, fleshing out s different cell of Dedsec was a nice change of pace and honestly an underrated one at that.
@@NateT3 Didn't know that, but genuinely cool info
I remember when I first play WD2, for some reason I just don't like the outfit of the character, so the first thing I did is testing out the fast travel function and teleport to a shop selling suit. Dressing Marcus as a suit assassin with a suppressed pistol. (By the way, I really like the fast travel function of this game, every store can be fast traveled to, the game really respect my time when I'm in free roam)
The gun owner part isn’t that far fetched since it is set in America where anyone & everyone you know at least owns a simple colt 911 pistol..
This is true keep in mind I’m not American so I don’t understand it all that well myself, but wouldn’t it be strange or rather alarming that known people who are sometimes categorised as terrorists, can easily get a hold of weapons still
I live in America lol. I don't know anyone with guns.
im in America and I don’t know anyone with a gun either
@@watchmehope6560it depends on what state your from because in the south it’s pretty common
Yes and no, most gun owners aren't in cities or blue states which San Fran is both. Not to mention a huge majority simply own one for protection or hunting and aren't hobbiests. The Glock line is the highest selling handgun in the states for it's simplicity (and brand recognition). The Midwest and South are bigger on guns.
I would have loved watch dogs to go on a "world scale" event hacker story where the actions of the group have serious repercution, something to the level of what anonymous was feared for, stories like wiki leaks, Snowden even Mr Robot, serious stuff that would make you feel engaged with the story... but they made the same change with Far Cry 6 where they used a slave dictatorship story about revolution just to add comedy every 2 seconds in the main story.
There are many things that WD2 did better than the first one, or at least they were on the same level at:
So much freedom, new ideas, trustable physics of objects, great parkour, vivid atmosphere, cool details, vast world, improved hacking, interesting story and side quests, many real-life based places, diverse and intriguing side activities, realistic NPCs, funny dialogues, great anatagonists and protagonists, different missions in different areas, and incredible main character are not easily found in an open world game. I swear playing it is one of my best memories.
By the way, Legion ruined the series.
"Incredible protagonists&antagonists" bro be real with us 😭
Marcus is shallow as fuck, with barely any backstory and even motivation to be in a DedSec.The secondary cast are all duds too, maybe except for Wrench. They all throw quips and have an appearance of character by humor, but that's really it. Remember feeling anything when Horatio died out of nowhere with no build-up and then just got forgotten?
I can't even remember the name of the company man antagonist from the game, bro did nothing except from taking our resources once and then we see him one time and he goes to jail
I’ve returned to WD1 more than WD2, but WD2’s ost by Hudson Mohawke is forever laser engraved in my brain. I love the main theme for WD2.
However WD1 with living city mod is goated
Y'know for all the people that think 2 was good, there's a difference between good and worthy of being remembered, if it's worthy of being remembered it will get mods and resurgences just like wd1 did, unfortunately Its up to players to decide whether or not this game becomes futureproofed
Been waiting for this video for awhile now can't wait to watch it and I hope you will complete the trilogy by making a retrospective on Watch Dogs Legion and its DLC
Just played through WD1 for the first time with the living city mod, loved it. I didnt realise how different 2 was until this video. Like you say it's such a drastic tone shift. Not sure its for me but i do see the gameplay and graphics have improved.
Great channel! I agree with your points ❤️❤️
I'm enjoying watchdogs way more than watchdogs 2. It makes sense for Aiden Pearce to be a gun toting psycho or vigilante depending how you play him. The character in watch dogs 2 (cant remember his name) and the story just seemed cringey and very hipster and hes got no reason to be shooting anything up and the yoyo weapon is so stupid. I enjoyed the hacking in 2 and the graphics however i missed the dark and gritty feeling of the first game.
Ummmmmm are you using "cringe" correctly? Followup question: what do you mean by cringe? If you can't explain and defend your position on the internet, you're not allowed to have it or voice it.
"My brain is in constant cruise control" My man you just won a subscriber.
What I really didn't like is in the first Watch_Dogs Dedsec was a serious hacking group and now in Watch_Dogs 2 they're just a bunch of kids.
thats how it is in real life tho so ig they just went with that
Which is explained in WD2. They're different branches of Dedsec, Chicago/WD1 were edgy and emo like Clara and had enemies with gangs and such, San Fran/California from WD2 are mostly real hackers who do things like hackers do in real life, they aren't threatening anyone or doing acts of terrorism outside of pranks or stealing.
Wrench is one of my favorite video game characters of all time
I like watch dogs 2 but the hipster tone of the game was insufferable
Watch_Dogs 2 was the Barbie for the Oppenheimer Watch_Dogs 1 was.
…I hate how true this is.
Great example. This comment just made my day!
I really try to play Watch Dogs 2, I really did, but it seems that all the executives watched a episode of The Big Bang Theory and trough that how nerds are, all the characters are bunch of clowns, you cant take them seriously, hell, even Aiden mock Dedsec.
True, but boom guns
I had a lot of fun with this game, and Wrench is my absolute favorite character!! His lines, his design and his overall personality is my absolute favorite!! It’s a shame we don’t get to play as him. If we do, then I need to go back and play it!!
The next thing he's probably say in his new video is watch dogs 3 (Legion) was actually a good game
Would love to see you give rankings/review games such as The Darkness, God of War Series, Sonic/Mario games, Prototype, and even get into horror games such as Resident Evil. Love your content and style so much
I thank you for explaining/defining what the word cringe means.
A lot people nowadays, really use the word, but never care to explain why.
Supposedly the reason they all know where you are when you get detected is because all enemies have chips that transmit this information (like in SOMA or Prey where vitals are logged).
I NEED to hear Whitelight say “poggers” now
It ruined it by being so good it can't be topped anymore.
Nope
True!
Yikes
How did you play as the different characters in free roam? is it a mod or something else?
Wow what a title.
I agree with the points about tone, plus the characterization in this game, it was very surface level and made it hard to fully care about the characters or it's narrative. With that said I strongly disagree with this title because as much as the game tonally shifted, it plays like an open world immersive sim, with tons of options outside just running in and gunning, and I absolutely love that about this game.
A title like this, in my opinion, applies more to legion which had the tonal whiplash of 2 but got rid of all the gameplay options that redeemed that game.
Everyone is entitled to their opinions, but I can't help but find this title to be a bit baity
God damn it! First a video on a mod that overhauls the first Watch Dogs, than a full blown review of Watch Dogs 2. Fine, fine! I get the message. I will play freaking Watch Dogs again.
While I do agree with the difference in the tone of the dedsec group in both the games, there is a canonical explanation with it being "the x collective of dedsec from the y location" meaning that the group just shows the vibrancy or the brood of the culture they are located in. Take this in for example, in the first game, BLUME was recruiting top secret mercenaries from the military and spec ops with criminal records on them for protecting the access centres...while here you never have this detailed explanation for the cops or the UMENI. This just goes on to indicate how dark the shit was in the first game as compared to the second game. Then you have human trafficking, suicide, serial killings, corrupt cops, prisoners being killed off record, and illegal weapons and blackmail. So indeed if we look at the tone shift between the two games, I think the tone of the dedsec collective of a particular region could be explained the same way! They are dark, brooding and threatening in the first game because the setting calls for them to be like that. They are just nerds with pool balls in the second game because the second game has a tone like that! Hell you get the final boss arrested and he wimps off like a pussy in that game while damien becomes an avenger level threat in the first game literally breaking down the entire city infrastructure to just "get to you". Now if we see Legion, that is where shit goes awry in my opinion. Dedsec is targeted as a hardened terrorist organization and no matter how you play the game, the game actively encourages you to be what you want to get away from...being a "terrorist organization" while the npcs or operatives are completely nonchalant about it as if all of it is "dumb fun"
I love the reference at 10:00 , it caught me so off guard
A monkey's fist (Marcus' Weapon) is a very much a lethal weapon
10:00 "exaggerated swagger of a hacking teen" i see what you did there
Say what you want about WD Legion, but at least London doesn't look like a ghost town.
Compared to what?
wd1's chicago and wd2's san fran arent ghost towns either, whats your point lol
Totally forgot there was a game between the first one and legion.
You plan to do the bloodlines dlc for legion?
Legion killed the series
I will never forget the day I saw this game on sale at a Best Buy that my guardian took me to after school. My middle school brain couldn’t comprehend how cool this game looked in the trailers. I’ve made so many memories between multiplayer and single player on both my play throughs. To this day, it is probably the game I hesitated the least in buying. And one I still don’t regret getting.
Choking people out and using the 8-ball kills people. Unless there's 💤 over someone's head, they dead. I used the 8-ball on the girl that killed Horatio and that counted as neutralizing her so yeah, 8-ball is lethal.
36:11 This is one aspect I really liked about classic Splinter Cell for stealth, since it does address this aspect. Since you are a government spy, lethal force makes sense for your job, however you are still limited by rules of engagement like real soldiers would. So you can play lethally against certain enemies (and some missions require you to assassinate certain people) but other times, like when you’re infiltrating the CIA headquarters and dealing with other Americans, you have to do things non-lethally or else the mission ends. There’s both ethical but also political reasons (killing friendly soldiers in Chaos Theory potentially sparking WW3), and the games also acknowledge you fucked up if you kill a civilian even if it’s not an automatic mission end.
Sometimes, restrictions are as creative as options, since you may have to come up with new solutions to problems if your usual one isn’t available. Would’ve been nice to have a “rules of engagement” where you must be non-lethal against relatively innocent people like security guards or civilians while allowing the lethal option for gang members or evil mercenaries.
I think both games are great in their own ways but they never quite captured what the audience wanted from the series. It was Legion that was ultimately the death of the brand.
I played watch dogs 2 all the way through but when you said horatio died I was genuinely surprised, cuz I don’t even remember him.
WD2 was my favorite watch dogs by far :c
Holy shit it's the Assassin's Creed guy
Same.
So your bad takes are not limited to AC only.
Being from San Francisco this game was amazing. The way they made it is perfect the characters the city. I’ve walked down mission thinking I’m Aiden 💀.
I'd love to play both games, but dealing with the Ubisoft launcher is such a miserable experience
I could not get over how unbelievably cringey Watch Dogs 2 was. Just the characters were way too ridiculous for me and I’d take the first game any day.
My biggest issue with Watch Dogs 2 is the lack of proper set pieces. Watch Dogs 1 had you enter and explore restricted construction sites, an underground smuggler ring, a nightclub, sea-side camps, a trailor park and abandoned bunkers. Many memorable places with great vertical design that allowed multiple entries and approaches. Watch Dogs 2, for the most part, replaced those larger set pieces with many small dots on the map each consisting mostly of 3 - 5 guards. You barely ever feel like entering a bigger structure. And the few ones the game had fell very flat. Its why I quickly became bored of exploring the map of Watch Dogs 2 as I felt every set piece was the same 20 second encounter.
Many of the story missions had great set pieces like the Robot Spider, Space Station, Smuggling Yacht, Cult Headquarters, Alcatraz Prison, FBI Headquarters, etc.
i see where u coming from but i dont see marcus raiding an underground human trafficking ring as his world is just too bright (?) for that. the 2nd game is obviously targeted at a way younger audience, social media age, hipster attitude etc., so i guess it just wouldnt fit.
but again, i understand where u coming from, specially as i prefer the guns blazing approach and you´re absolutely right. u just go in, kill all enemies and are free to go wherever and that works for basically every mission.
I've been a part of the Legion development team. And man, whatever you're about to say - that thing might have been worse, but for some reason everyone pretended that it's alright. I'm glad that in the end it has at least a potential, but I'm so frustrated with the final result. What a shame
You were part of the dev team? Any interesting insights you could share? I’d love to know!
19:25 what music is that playing during this part?
13:15 thats how i find out horatio dies (look at the top right)
It's amazing because Watch Dogs 2 is undoubtably a better core game than the first, however at the same time, it threw out a LOT of what I loved about it. The more underworld focused narrative shifted to an (admittedly more realistic) anti-corporate privacy invasion focus. I miss the vigilante, crime focus.
Great analysis. I agree with everything besides your take on the first part of the game.
DedSec’s aim in the beginning is to increase followers so that when part 2 (quickly) rolls around, it is far more believable that they can take on corporations. By that point they have millions of followers. A criticism of the NPCs lack of show of support despite the apparent popularity of DedSec is a valid argument.
All-in-all, great analysis video!
P.S (Legion killed this series, such a shame)
They should've kept the tone, weapon wheel and focus mode from the first game. Those were three massive step backs for me but I did like the gameplay outside of the two things they removed from the combat system.
Watch dogs 2 was the best game in the series. Legion killed it for me
I’m normally pretty sensitive to poorly written dialog or actions that are out of character. Since i heard that WD2 is full of that, i was a was not expecting to enjoy the story or dialog. Despite all that, i still found the characters to be really charming even if hard to believe sometimes. Add to that the completely unique and well designed hacking gameplay, and you have one of my favorite games.
Haha the Que ball weapon joke 😂. Tbi simulator lol “tonight at 10 news a man is walking around San Francisco giving residents brain injuries, back to you Tom”
My only complaint for watch dogs 2 is the lack of actual good clothing and the horrible gameplay with weapons everything else is perfect
I find it odd that you didn't take into account that Aiden was a fixer. Damian was his hacker. Not saying that justifies the subpar implementation of the hacking in the first game, but I always felt as though that was the big difference between 1 and 2. Marcus is a hacker first, so naturally, stealth would be emphasized more. Aiden was a fixer first, so hacking was moreso a tool to aid him in (as you so eloquently put it) living out his John Wick wet dream.
On your point of truly remote gameplay, they could just limit those to special missions. Think the Heists in GTA5 vs the more scaled back ones.
My new head canon is that Marcus’s son is Horatio. Lmao.
i actually finished my last playthrough of WD2 just yesterday and seeing this headline, u got me pretty interested.
imo part 2 is the best game out of the series by a long shot. for me the biggest thing missing in the first game was the ability to interact with NPCs.
Aiden is a extremely skilled badass and everybody loves a good one-man-army revenge story, the game was gray and dark.
Watch Dogs 2 is the complete opposite of that but still bigger, better and brighter. the fact that u can spend hours exploring the city before u even attend the first mission is just amazing. Marcus is also a very likeable character and basically responsible to get DedSec going as he´s doing all the heavy lifting. the only downside is that u have to be able to take some hipster cringe here and there but thats about it :D
i´d agree with 'WD2 dooming the franchise' as it set the bar so high that Ubi couldnt improve from that but im curious to where the video is heading.
WD Legion was a great concept and the logical way to get the franchise even bigger (after hacking satellites from space and DedSec popping up all over the world) but i would say that it was way too ambitious for Ubisoft and turned out to a luke-warm mess. i completed it once just for the sake of playing all games and enjoying the new and improved graphics but it was nowhere as much fun as the first 2 games.
I enjoyed both 1 and 2, 1 from the start and 2 eventually did grow on me the more I played it. Legion feels like a chore and I cannot connect to or follow the story.
35:45 The part where you play as Wrench was my most disliked part of the game. It is primarily a stealth game and you die so quickly from bullets, which makes sense as surviving from multiple gunshots is unlikely. But during that mission you have to go in all guns blazing
I think the reason Horatio isnt in any of lf the side missions is that they knew you could potentially not do any of it until after his death. So to plan for it they just dont put him in any of it. But then it makes zero fucking sense why he has no Dialog in any of the main missions where he will certainly be alive. It just feels like they had so much potential and just did nothing with him.
For this game i tried a no killing run and i worked! (kinda, i still shared my bullets with the people who killed Horatio xd) but it was a great and satisfactory way of playing, trying to stay as far as i could from the place, using hack or the tazer, as i feel this fits the tone of the game better, it would be weird to see marcus laughing and making jokes just after killing 10 police officers who are just doing their job haha
It may not be true, but I think that the Playstation Spider-Man games took massive inspiration from Watch Dogs
I will always remember how I bought those games at the same day. I played the whole evening watch dogs 2 and really liked it and played 30 min of the first before I went to bed. I just played the first one instead and skipped 2.
What’s the song at 18:00?
Saying poggers in real life is probably the most cringiest thing ever, oh my god.
"Every character EXCEPT HORATIO plays off of each other soo well" 😂😂 bro cant catch a break
Personally I thought Watch Dogs 2 was a great step in the right direction and saw it as an improvement from the first game, but 3 really did kill it. I thought the personality change for both main characters compared to the first and second game was a fun choice and gave them the potential for changing protaganists each game as an idea until they honestly shot it down in the third one that really just killed the series. I really do hope we get another Watch Dogs game at some point with the proper fixes
One thing I took away from Watch Dogs 2 is that the game tries to be a GTA for tech people. Not in the sense of being a open world with shooting, stealing cars, etc. In the sense that the game tries to satirize the world, make jokes about it and all of that.
Also, I loved the Persona music on the background, top notch 👌
Machine girl would of been killer for music on this vid
were not gonna talk about him using 3008 theme song without me noticing lol (6:52)