Recent reviews by KaijuKatastrophe

10/10 would rip and tear for a 10th time

TL;DR first, in depth review after the TL;DR.

Watch_Dogs 2 is a fantastic example of how great something can become when developers listen to the fans.

In the first Watch_Dogs, we played as John Doe Aiden Pearce, a generic angry white dude with an even more generic backstory who goes through a kind of generic if not wacky series of events to "avenge" the death of his niece, Lena Pearce. While this game was overall a pretty neat concept for a new IP from Ubisoft, complete with fun gameplay and cool mechanics, the game's story and lack of personality from the main character made it a mediocre release at best. The fans of the game complained on subreddits, Ubisoft forums, anywhere they could go. "Aiden is too bland!" "The tone doesn't fit the gameplay!" "The story is generic and predictable!" And thus, Ubisoft created Watch_Dogs 2.

In Watch_Dogs 2, you play as Marcus Holloway, a man who came to DedSec after being accused of a crime he didn't commit. As cliché as his backstory is, he is actually a pretty cool character, along with the rest of the DedSec crew you'll work with in this game. Each character in the story has a unique personality and a very unique way of solving problems. Playing as Marcus, a happy-go-lucky type with an eagerness to shed light on the shady dealings of ctOS 2.0, I found myself unable to actually use lethal force in any missions, because I believe that Marcus doesn't seem like a murdering type. Wrench is the only character in the DedSec crew that I could see being a killer, with his fantastically cute mask, and fabulous (if not a little insane) way of thinking. Sitara is the artist and voice of the team, graced with the ability to use art, marketing, and speech to rally public support for DedSec. Her talents make her a valuble asset to the group, and her personality helps her make sure we do the right things for the right reasons. Hawtsauce Josh, the typical antisocial dreamer of any misfit team, sounds generic at first glance, but his personality goes a little deeper than being antisocial. He's a dreamer, and excellent at coming up with solutions that aren't really obivous at all, using his odd creations (which usually seem like they shouldn't work) to get out of bad situations. Due to his skillset, he's more valuble behind a screen than out in battle. Horatio is.. uh, a little bare when it comes to unique abilities, but he is (along with the rest of the team) loveable. T-Bone/Raymond Kenny is one of the characters from the first Watch_Dogs. His personality was established in the first game as someone who thinks outside the box, and has a personal beef with Blume. Ray was directly involved with the creation of ctOS, and, after being fired, tried to use it to send a message to Blume by causing a massive blackout, which accidentally killed 11 people. His vendetta against Blume is continued flawlessly in Watch_Dogs 2 when he teams up with DedSec to take out the corrupt corporation. Characters are 10/10.

The main story is, well, take down Blume. The real story is the side missions and other main missions that you go through on your way to Blume, exposing smaller corporations and making your way up to Blume by gaining enough support and followers who allow you to use the processing power of their devices to perform bigger and bigger hacks. There's a few spoilerific plot twists along the way which actually surprised me, which is neat in its own way. Overall I would say the game's story/stories are fantastic and worth checking out.

The combat of Watch_Dogs 2 is fantastically smooth and well thought out, the new UI is way sleeker and less gloomy than the UI of the first Watch_Dogs, and the improved toolset gives you many unique ways to complete your objectives. You can go full stealth, guns blazing, a mixture of both, or you can not even enter the area, using your drone to complete objectives so you won't risk getting spotted and shot up. The game rewards you for every playstyle, which is a great thing for an open world game like this. In the almost completely seamless multiplayer which is included while you're playing singleplayer, you can hack other players or be hacked, turning the game into hide and seek. Finding the hacker or completing the hack without getting spotted feels really intense and rewarding. Bounty hunter mode occurs when a player is at a level 5 wanted level during a police chase. If you achieve this level, other players will join your session and attempt to kill you, it becomes kill or be killed while you try to escape from both the other players and the police. Bounty hunter mode is intense and fast paced, making chases exhilarating. Finally, in co-op mode, you and a co-op partner (or up to three other players come June) can complete little missions together in any playstle you wish. While you complete small missions and free roam through the entire map with your friends, hacking invasions and bounty hunting can still occour, so don't think playing in co-op makes you immune. It's not really more than that, though, which makes me wish for a co-op story in the next game, or maybe in future content for this game. Overall, I would say the gameplay and multiplayer is a very great experience.

Buy it.

This game vacuums up all my free time, and that's okay. I enjoy every moment of this game. Whether I'm grinding for new gear, farming for resources, or just playing with friends and pushing my warframes to the limit, every second of this game is an absolute blast.

Edit: railjack seems hella cool

Shiv has 3 HP, servers go down for matinence.
Crate collection missions are way too difficult when the servers go down for matinence, and are still difficult when the servers are up.
Driving is fun until the servers go down.
Game is fun until servers go down.

All kidding aside, this is a great game with a pretty good storyline. The servers don't go down very often, but they do seem to do so at the worst times. The AI is totally bugged out, often rubberbanding or TELEPORTING TO FIRST PLACE whenever they crash.

8/10 Would attempt to play again/Love this game aside from its obvious flaws.