[h4ck3d] Watch the watchers in Watch_dogz (#1)

So.
This game.
WATCH_DOGS.
Or Watchdogs, Watch Dogs, Watch_Dogs, however you officially™ write it.


Everyone seems to know what it isn’t, and lots has been said about it, how it spectacularly failed to be this


and felt a bit more like this




… and instead of someone you care about, a dog



everyone felt like you are playing this

  • or so makes you the internet belive.






Since I have some kind of awkward taste(s) when it comes to video games, this game was one of the titles I’ve bought the PS4 for, and, till now, didn’t get around to actually play this longer than the first half hour or so. I finally had to get down to the core of this, to find out the truth. Also since the next installment, Watch_dog52 will have San Fran’ as its backdrop, is going to be out soon, and as a SF’-fanboy, I’ll have to play it anyway.

HellfuckingYES







So, to get this out of the way right from the get-go, let me address the elefant in the room then,


it’s not a GTA, and yes, it is all about HACKING. And the game makes sure you get the idea pretty quickly. Let’s just face it, as someone who’s in the IT industry, you kinda have to take a peek into games like this or Deus Ex:HR, watch TV-shows like Mr Robot or movies like Wargames, just to see how the test subject fares showing CS-stuff. You are watching this always expecting them to live hack notepad.exe with cool code-bits that reek of h4ck3r-pr0w355, e.g.
int main()
{
printf(“h4cked world\n”);
return -1;
}

  • all hell breaks loose, and mankinds last hope is our hero, who has to save the world from extinction, and bags a nice gal in the process (pid 1337 for all those *NIX-g33ks out there), credits roll, and we can dream again, living the h4rdcore h4ck3r l33t life we never will.






    I kinda wanna believe that the brainstorming session for this game was like this, tbh. Disney x GTA with Elefants in cars, hacking everything, all the time.



    checks were written, $$$s spent, and then, after a delay to put some more polish on our hacking game, we finally, finally got the real deal,






    … so, did we?

This is what I’ve set out to find out:
I kinda went into this game expecting to experience the dangerous life of a hacker,

moving on the fine line between right’n’wrong, being a dog god on earth, getting back at that super-criminal hyper-tech big brother-esque company that killed my family (or relatives or whatever), h4cking h4ckers left and right!

So!
Obviously since it’s an open world-game, I gotta check out all the nice places,


… especially since I’ve never been in Chicago in real life™, and - of course - check out the driving gear, i.e. bikes,

cars,

and - fast cars:

… however. The handling is … idk, a bit weird/needs time to get used to. It is not sleeping dogs-esque problems of handling,

mind you, but it just isn’t feeling as “good” as e.g. GTA-games do.




Still, no reason to give this game the cold shoulder,


there’s other stuff you can turn to in the game:




Hacking?


Not quite:


DRUGZ!

and the inevitable (quite) physical withdrawal;

‘gotta catch them all coins


with headbuttin’ action, and, after bein’ clean again, against all odds, found a means of transportation that just feels right:

<3 <3 <3

… and, after all, having a nice, romantic drive at the beach riverbanks the great lakes:

~fin~ … for now.






bonus-tl;dr-version:
[ x ] It isn’t a GTA, big surprise …… not.
[ x ] It has computers and hacking in it.
[ x ] It has fading brakelights (nice!)
[ x ] You can do weird stuff, right.
[ x ] Gonna play the second one as well when it comes out

3 Likes

The protagonist of the sequel seems like he will be much more likeable than this guy

1 Like

The last mission was so frustrating I quit and deleted the install.

1 Like

What? This is set in Chicago? Why the F is it not in Seattle?

The skill upgrade/pseudo achievement system in this game is mysterious. if you beat 10 people at chess you get a car. If you shoot 25 people in the face someone mails you another gun.

4 Likes

atm I’d say the interesting thing about this game is that after the first two-three hours, I am not sure what this game wants to be.

maybe because I go hunting for drug dealers in a dumpster truck, maybe because I wasn’t expecting this game to be anything besides that hacking embed @legalstep kindly provided. The game wanted to nudge me into doing some missions and/or side missions, but most importantly didn’t force me to do them.

I’m not sure whether i like the mashup of music so far, but then I was too busy exploring the city and trying to figure out what’s what.

2 Likes

If there is an in-universe explanation for this GOTY all years

2 Likes

It’s funny that The Bean in Watch Dogs’ world was replaced by some glossy, wobbly torus sculpture. Because reflections are hard.

The VR cyberdrugs minigames were the best part of this trainwreck

1 Like

Exactly!


didn't have much time to spend with it this week, but that spider-game is just _ace_. Luckily I had EDF4.1 installed already, because i had such a craving for shooting some spiders in the face, for whatever reason … I can see me switching between playing as a spider > EDF-Wingdiver > spider > EDF > spider > …

I didn’t play much of the spider one, but it’s fun.

I like Alone, the sneaking one, because it actually makes use of the space in an open world map that normally just getis ignored as you go to the next mission checkpoint. All of them are cool visually, too.

1 Like

@Iacus the other dogz game, sleeping dogs, also had the same problem/pitfall - dropping you in an open world/sanbox-setting that isn’t a GTA, complete map completely accessible from the get-go, and “only” missions for you to do, with a few distractions far and inbetween.

It really is up to the player to make the stop worthwhile (I feel like I managed to do so in sleepydogz,


), if you are just rushing through the game to beat mission X,Y,Z, then watch the credits roll - why not do that in (any) GTA and get the better game at the same time?


So, from what I've seen in watchdogz, it does a better job at having a carrot dangling around in front of your face, keeping you interested and busy, while getting to know a faux/condensed version of a city that hasn't been presented in such detail before.





… and what better way to get to know a city than crawling along the glass facades of skyscrapers, as a giant robot-spider, while trying to shoot down helicopters and/or mangling cars?

pixx will follow sooo~ooon

back in action in chicago, with more carnage,

more mind-bending architecture,

more train-spotting,

more spider-action,

and - of course - pro-h4xxing

it’s a nice trip so far, but then I - still - haven’t started mission 2, so … yeah.
Might be doing so later though!

#include <prohaxx0r.h>

int elligence(void* topSecret)
{
printf(“h4ck the we4ksp0t f0r m4ssive d4m4ge\n”);
int i = -1; // sub-zer0 1337-skill2 here
int* el = (int*)topSecret;
for (; i > 0; )
{
// 2cool4boundarychecks + h4xxing-action in 1 line 4liv3
*el++ = 0xdead5ec;
}
return i;
}

yup, it’s time for more of this game again:
after pro-h4xx0ring rockers last time, an update how this hakker’s life is comin along:

always being prepared for when a storm comes 'long hasn’t payed off - yet.

… so, to pass the time, I’m taking pictures of funny faces in all kinds of places,

stalking victims’ tastes for vidyagames,

hunting for traces of the real, shiny cloud gate in the loop

enjoying sunrise & sunset


… oh, and yeah, test driving totally-not-a-Ferrari-F40, of course.





Best bit of TheFuture™ so far:
Like in any good *dog-game, the highly advanced hovering tech that is a sign of the future, as in hoverboards and the likes:

piece of evidence 1, sleeping dogs:

piece of evidence 2, watch_dogs:

of course it’d be a hovering fruit Phone, duh~~~



tl;dr:
more to come from the h4xxing front when i hit the streets of chicago again!

3 Likes

last time on Watchdogz:

Ken Block’wannabe Aiden P. in Chicago …

… going back to what he does best, h4cking physiX

… and playing cat&mouse.





so, in one last swoop, Alter Ego Aiden Pearce decided to go all out, hacking everything&everyone en route to beating the bad guys™:

walls: h4cked

GAME: h4cked

cars: h4cked

hell: h4cked

myself: h4cked?! omg, uberpwned #theShame


that didn't sit well w/ Mr. Pearce, pro-hakker that he thinks he is. So, it __finally__ was time _to crash someone's party_: … blending in well there, sunshine. But I wasn't here for partying, I was here _for a mission_.
tl;dr: Party: H4CKED => that's what you get when you aren't inviting Mr. Emo-h4kker to your festivities ;__;
off I went to party w/ my real friendz,

… but that party-pooping didn’t sit well w/ those pesky cops, #theresNoPlaceToHideo




so, as any classy h4xx0r-kid would attest, I had to finish 1 last job:

hopping into my h4cker-mobile


the whole city was my target, #thisIsSeriousBusiness-style and all!

The stage was set for the biggest h4ck ever to happen, and in an unforgettable standoff,


I hacked -

#the city


=> THAT'S WHAT YOU GET FOR NOT INVITING ME TO YOUR SHITTY PARTY, DEFALT!!! ;___;

… so after all was said and done h4cked, Monsieur Aiden celebrated victory like only a tru hero would.

#~fin~













#orNot?

3 Likes





*disclaimer:
the events shown in this thread might not exactly portray events that took place in the game near-future chicago, but that’s what you’ve (hopefully) come to expect.

Spoilers ahead.





so, after all the bits have settled, the verdict nobody asked for:
Was it good, was it fun?

My answer is, after some consideration,
#hell yes.

Ignoring the fact that h4cking g1rl was a traitor and the REAL villain was some mafia boss that harks back to a long line of shady mafia bosses there are, and after getting a game full of hints at the troubled past that chicago has had with cops&bad guys, followed up by buddy-turned-traitor finale, it turned out to be a pretty meh’ish climax.


As you might not have realized due to my wonderful creative storytelling, that perceived lukewarm climax was preceded by the tru highlight of the game, defalts party you could crash (and lord knows i did), followed up by a fancy car chase, and subsequent, unfortunate & sudden departure of defalt from the realm what we call “life”.

Even though the game pulled out all the stops in a pretty cool (and chaotic) mission following defalts premature departure, where the city is (really) h4cked (not making this up!

you see? you see?!) and cops are on your tail all the time
(hmmm I somehow remember this mission being set at night, which added to the drama … but, for once, i didn’t have to redo this mission. Because you had to do drivin’, and that’s my hometurf #yoBuddy), it somehow did feel like catching defalt was the real deal, followed up by some “cleaning up” duties.

I guess this feeling has been fostered by my expectations of the game being all

instead of part-time-shootman-game.
But after more than a week passed, I still remember the defalt chase mission, and think that it was ending on a high note there, so I kinda think of the game ending that way and am pretty cool w/ it.





So. With the next, new hacking adventure around the corner (#dogs2, 17ish november), set in San Fran (SF-fanboy that I am, I wholeheartedly bloodpotion this decision), I am pretty stoked for it playing on a new map, and seeing how it changes the gameplay will be interesting.
e.g. I expect that the lack of numerous bridges that (faux) chicago provided will change how you are dealing with pesky cops. The topology of the whole place (famous san fran downhill Bullit-action & all) already “feels” different enough for me to be interested to seeing what ubi can bring to the table in terms of gameplay elements that feel new/aren’t already well established in part 1.

Cannot imagine there not being a few stabs at silicon valley et al, and with some rumoured support from Driver:SF dev team in terms of driving physics, I am quite excited for some changes as well there.

so tl;dr:

part 1==good;
assert (part2 == better);

return WHEN_WATCHDOGZ2_IS_OUT;

1 Like

Saw new previews for Watch More Dogs Too, yesterday and thought of this thread. I had a fun romp on the original game after I picked it up on the cheap (Xboner version). I kept online invasions on so I had some hilarious moments of roleplaying “Terrible pedestrian AI” including sneaking up on a guy blowing up an intersection “for the lulz” like an AI traffic car stuck in the traffic jam this madman created. Watching him slowly freak out and start blowing up the cars in front trying to find out who’s invading him before hightailing it out once I hit 100% and he was about to send a C4 pack my way was incredible stuff. The sort that induces giggling glee at your own cleverness and the salty message you get after you successfully pull off a hack (Paging @ScrubQuotes)

As for the new one. Previews are saying that the jump from W_D1 to Deux are like the leap from Assassin’s Creed 1 to 2. So froth is being maintained at a cautious but eager pace. Those cutscenes and “Fight the man” aspects might be a bit cringe but then apparently this game is willing to live and die by the online thunderdome sword since it actually does reference the “How do you do, Fellow Kids” meme amongst others. It’s certainly the most interesting product Ubi-Soft have put out for a long time. So I will probably be there day one (Probably Xbone again though. PC version is delayed and reeks of “Ubi-Soft port” despite the delay to fix it. I’ll take a dynamic rez or 900 peas as long as it runs)

1 Like

TheMemzie99 1 month ago
what’s up with his ass though? It looks like someone shaved half of it off

.#wheresthebuttubi? #halfassed