Has anyone else played this game?
It doesn't seem to generate much conversation on the internet whatsoever...
I just finished it recently and so I thought I'd share my thoughts:
Pros:
- One million light years ahead of the first game - just better in almost every concievable way
- Better protagonist - Marcus is very likeable, as is his team of young wannabe hackers
- Better character development and story - this one actually has a story, and characters aren't 1-dimensional cardboard cut-outs like in WD1
- City feels more vibrant - Bay area is lovely and bright. Feels very alive with pedestrians that do all kinds of funny stuff
- Side missions are great
- Hacking abilities are more varied and so much fun - really opens up a lot of opportunities for emergent gameplay.
- Online activities are AWESOME - Again this is where WD1 really shone, with hacking invasion activities. WD2 expands on this with bounty hunter tasks (which are endless fun) and lots of other activities.
- Drones add a lot to gameplay - Both online and offline. The drones really open up your options.
- Story almost feels like a GTA not made by the Housers - (almost).
Cons:
- Missing the QR environment puzzles from WD1 - loved these.
- Shooting lacks a lot of impact - making it feel a bit like a wasted opportunity.
Biggest Con:
Now this is my major issue with WD2... With a protagonist and main cast of characters that are so obviously happy-go-lucky and devoted to their cause (as hacktivists) they believe to be righteous, it feels entirely incongruous to the characters established in the cutscenes that during gameplay you can pull out a ballistic firearm and start blasting people away.
Like, given the way they developed the characters, together with all the activities they engage in, it's just so jarring that you're even given access to lethal weaponry during gameplay at all... like the Marcus that I understand from the cutscenes would never use guns to start indiscriminately killing people. It felt really really flipping jarring.
There is one point in the game, where it does feel justified. However, outside of that it makes no sense.
I'd even go so far as to say that they should have just said that all the guns in the game are loaded with rubber bullets and that would have fixed the problem. But as is, it's even worse than WD1 in this regard.
In WD1, at least you understood from fairly early on that Aiden Pierce was a bit of loner vigilante who was taking the law into his own hands on a revenge mission. DeadSec are setup in WD2 to be completely different.
Screw the complaints about Nathan Drake mowing down hordes of African mercenaries, if ever there was a more perfect example of ludonarrative dissonance in the history of videogames it would be Watchdogs 2...
... outside of that, it was great