Zero Punctuation: WATCH_DOGS

[Yahtzee Croshaw]

WATCH_DOGS

This week, Zero Punctuation reviews WATCH_DOGS.

Watch Video

 

[Evonisia]

Well there was an utter sense of boredom throughout this review. It didn't even seem like disappointment because Let's Drown Out has revealed that you wanted to dislike Watch_Dogs anyway. I wasn't going to get it immediately but now I feel further pushed away from it.

With the Jimquisition, The Big Picture and now Zero Punctuation all scoring a wonderful "meh" this week, I've little hope for this week's Escape to the Movies...

 

[JoJo]

Heh, I can't be the only one who's the worst vigilante ever on Watch Dogs, easily committed many more crimes than I stopped. I gave up on the blue crime stopping missions when I shot some random innocent woman because I thought the game was telling me she was the criminal... apparently not.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

From your description Yahtzee it sounds like there is relatively little hacking going on in a game about a hacker.

 

[Gourav2122]

i ended up shooting those asshole in the face, after i had failed those bad crimes.
game gave me a homicide committed popup.

i ended up shooting more people in the face cuz' i would breathe on them as walking by and they would say "fuck you asshole" D:
so i had to shoot em...

faffing about about in this game was fun..
fixer missions
gang hideouts
and those damn end game chess puzzles.

i had fun with it.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Well there was an utter sense of boredom throughout this review.

Yeah, I got that too, was if the thing was so generically bad there's not even any interesting complaints to make about it.

 

[Aeshi]

So does ZP not do the "Escapist into" bit any more or is the video just bugged?

 

[Zhukov]

He's right about the main character.

I knew I was going to hate Aiden right from that first gameplay preview where he walks into a building and starts being really rude to someone who is cooperating with him.

 

[LoneWolf83]

Watchdogs isn't good. Well that's a surprise, it's not like companies over hype things when they're crap. Oh wait.

How can anyone expect a game, movie, book or TV show to be good when it's been hyped up when whenever anything has been hyped up it's because it's bad?

 

[Thanatos2k]

So buy it once it's $20. Got it.

 

[Worgen]

Yahtzee mentioned ponies.

Spoiler: Mod edit: Please use spoilers when posting large images

I've been waiting to post that, I'm sure it annoyed him. Anyway, this review hits on most of the things that I've heard other ones knock, that the main character is a combination of boring and horrible. That the hacking mechanics add fun gameplay but are silly and the shooting can fuckoff.

 

[KDR_11k]

Aren't you basically describing Republique at the end there?

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

I had a lot of fun in this game, especially when using cameras to check the area for enemies and thin the heard with explosions. It felt very strategic to me as you can then plan the best way to attack the enemy. Driving was great as was the x events for traffic lights and bollards.....which on 3 - 5 star coppers dont do all that much really. Though those moaning about the "press x" thing - what would you want instead? Though hacking other peoples phones should have given you a mini game before you got their money as there was fuck all to buy with the money and it was easy to steal.

I was thinking about this game compared to GTA5 (stick with me). I played WD more after i completed the game than i did when i completed GTA5. GTA5 is an awesome game for the characters, the interactions of the characters and dialogue - once you finished the game and was free roaming it all felt abit boring. With WD the hacking element added alot to the gameplay, and whilst it may not of lived up to the hype, i think its worth seeing what they can do with a sequel. Maybe i world were everything can be hacked in different ways, like driving cars remotely, stalling it or plain exploding the engine. Maybe hack enemies phones for info we can use against them or cause issues between them and other gang members. Maybe stuff like hack into the council and arrange for road works outside a gang place so it stops cars entering due to the road works. I dont know, there is so much they could do with the game.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Yahtzee seemed mostly focused on the hype of this game. And I really don't care about the hype. It's like when he dedicated a whole minute to describing how GTA V was marketed all over the streets when it came out. Dude, that's like in 3 or 4 countries in the world. Anywhere else you just have the game, and it's either good or bad.

 

[Baresark]

I am having fun with the game, but after 22 hours in the game, I find that I wish it would just end. I am a master hacker, I sneak with the best of them... though the game is not easy still, which is good. A lot of fun, the varied missions are a fun, the crime missions drive me up the wall, so I just stopped caring about them. Once you unlock the ability to blow steam pipes, it makes the convoys easier and a lot more fun. Driving around to escape pursuit using the environment as a weapon is a lot of fun in my book.

Not a perfect game by any stretch, but I mostly avoided the hype for the game so I feel like I have gotten my monies worth. The only thing that slows me down in that game is that every time I see something new about The Witcher 3, I feel compelled to play the Witcher 2. But that is always fun.

 

[DarkhoIlow]

Brilliant video Yahtzee and quite on point.

My sides are hurting from laughing.

 

[Something Amyss]

Utterly disagree about the hype thing. Hype is simply the best way to get money from those walking wallets out there. there's little else to it.

Yeah, I got that too, was if the thing was so generically bad there's not even any interesting complaints to make about it.

Maybe he was doing is impression of cardboa...Aiden.

Yahtzee seemed mostly focused on the hype of this game. And I really don't care about the hype. It's like when he dedicated a whole minute to describing how GTA V was marketed all over the streets when it came out. Dude, that's like in 3 or 4 countries in the world. Anywhere else you just have the game, and it's either good or bad.

He's a game critic for a game-related site that operates in and deals with said hype. What do you really expect?

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

You know, its funny. I totally expected him to not like this game; its kinda' his thing.
But I didn't expect to completely agree with him. Aiden is SO boring.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Yahtzee seemed mostly focused on the hype of this game. And I really don't care about the hype. It's like when he dedicated a whole minute to describing how GTA V was marketed all over the streets when it came out. Dude, that's like in 3 or 4 countries in the world. Anywhere else you just have the game, and it's either good or bad.

He's a game critic for a game-related site that operates in and deals with said hype. What do you really expect?

An honest and disinterested appraisal of the game itself. Which I got anyway, I just feel like all the extra commentary is a waste of space. He already has an entire column dedicated for it.

 

[freaper]

I wasn't a huge fan of the "guiding your pet" missions. By the time you had to guide a certain person in a certain hangar/warehouse I just jumped inside instead and shot all the baddies dead. I had most fun stealthily taking down every single guard in a mission area, but that got repetitive quite quickly in the end.

I'm not gonna say I didn't enjoy my time with the game (the spider tank was quite fun), but it was far from being a tenouttaten.