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Watch_Dogs reviews

M

Moze

Banned
Cheesecakebobby said:
What does CoL have to do an open-world game?

They also gave a 9 to AC IV, which I actually enjoyed more than any other game in the series apart from II. I think Far Cry 3 also got a decent score. Plus they loved the Rayman titles which are at least technically similar to CoL.
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Did you read the review? It was basically just a rant about how shit Uplay and Ubisoft are.
 
Lycanthrope

Lycanthrope

Member
8bit said:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-05-27-watch-dogs-review

(7)
Click to expand...

Probably the most honest review I've read so far.

Crucially, you never actually feel like you're hacking anything. A lot of the time you're just pressing a button to make something happen, which at a functional level is no different to any action game. When you do get to actually hack into things at a system level, it's via a tired old PipeMania-style puzzle where you rotate pieces to guide a blue power line to a goal. If anything underscores how little interest the game has in using "hacking" as anything other than a marketable context for "making cool s*** happen", it's this.

...

As much as the game tries to position him as a high-tech combination of Robin Hood and The Punisher, his actions never reflect this. Take your smartphone out of your pocket and the world is overlaid with hacking opportunities. Details of every person on the street are at your fingertips - this woman has cancer, that man likes porn - and you can also hack deeper to eavesdrop on phone conversations or text messages. It's empowering, but also creepy.

This is a game where you can empty the bank accounts of strangers on the street simply by holding down a button, yet cannot interact with the numerous homeless people begging for change. Aiden tuts at the invasions of privacy he discovers while digging inside the city's systems, yet is privy to far more personal data every time he scans the pedestrians around him looking for useful info to swipe.

This peculiar lack of empathy for the avatars around you extends into the physical world. You can chase down a petty thief and beat him to a pulp, but can only pocket the money he stole for yourself. Even GTA 5 - that high watermark of amoral sociopathy - gave you the option of returning stolen purses to their owners for a small measure of redemption. You can only ever take, never give back, and Aiden's world is a stiflingly unpleasant and selfish place as a result.

It also leads to a fundamentally broken economy where there's no limit to how much money you can take and no downside to stealing from everyone you see. You can easily amass a small fortune, but there's nothing to spend it on beyond guns and vehicles - almost all of which are freely available in the game world already.

I kept waiting for the game to offer some shift in perspective, some commentary, that made Aiden's insufferable nature more palatable or interesting, but it never came. By the end, he is all but positioned as a superhero. Nor does Watch Dogs have anything to say about the surveillance state, or about questions of privacy and identity in a data-driven world, despite using these topics to drive so much of its gameplay and story.
Click to expand...

Not sure if I want it any more :(
 
B

BurnsyDelight

Neo Member
Here's my review for SlashGear - was a few minutes late in posting (had some video issues or whatever) http://www.slashgear.com/watch-dogs-review-27330610/

SlashGear doesn't rate games on a scale, but if I was forced to do so, I'd give the game an 8/10

6WM3R0Q.jpg
 
N

Nyx

Member
Eurogamer review makes the game sound good enough to buy.

Will think some more about it through the day and perhaps pick it up after work.
 
E

Exploratory

Banned
Sunny Karam said:
Between his Skyrim 10/10, Arkham Origins 3.5/10, and Saints Row 9.5/10 reviews, and now his 9/10 for this POS, Jim Sterling continues to prove himself as one of the absolute worst game reviewers this industry has ever had to offer.
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What?! Maybe it was super glitchy at release? But AO was superior to AA and AC.

DAT language tho. He's a gaffer my mans.
 
C

Cheesecakebobby

Banned
Moze said:
Did you read the review? It was basically just a rant about how shit Uplay and Ubisoft are.
Click to expand...
You mean this one mention in the first, short paragraph in a 7 paragraph review?

Child Of Light may have been pitched as an indie experiment – a project made with an almost rebellious small-team attitude within the walls of a big publisher – but this is a Ubisoft game through and through. And we don’t just mean the obligatory main menu nag to log into Uplay, Ubisoft’s social-network-cum-game-store, which the publisher’s persistence in pushing is now almost perversely endearing. There’s a crafting system, with collectible gems combined to make more powerful ones to slot into weapons for little stat or elemental buffs. There’s a levelling curve that doles out skill points to be spent in a colossal tech tree. And there are Confessions – scraps of paper that flutter on the breeze and, when collected, fill out the story.
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According to Eurogamer, Watch Dogs seems too much like a 'best of' Ubisoft open worl games, and some other influences. I wouldn't be surprised if Edge say the same. But come on, don't pretend that the above is the sole reason CoL got a bad score from those guys.
 
B

bigjig

Member
Think I'll wait out for a sale. My opinions tend to be more in line with Eurogamer's for most games and a 7/10 ain't good enough for me to dig out full price
 
K

King_Moc

Banned
Crucially, you never actually feel like you're hacking anything. A lot of the time you're just pressing a button to make something happen, which at a functional level is no different to any action game. When you do get to actually hack into things at a system level, it's via a tired old PipeMania-style puzzle where you rotate pieces to guide a blue power line to a goal. If anything underscores how little interest the game has in using "hacking" as anything other than a marketable context for "making cool s*** happen", it's this.

...

As much as the game tries to position him as a high-tech combination of Robin Hood and The Punisher, his actions never reflect this. Take your smartphone out of your pocket and the world is overlaid with hacking opportunities. Details of every person on the street are at your fingertips - this woman has cancer, that man likes porn - and you can also hack deeper to eavesdrop on phone conversations or text messages. It's empowering, but also creepy.

This is a game where you can empty the bank accounts of strangers on the street simply by holding down a button, yet cannot interact with the numerous homeless people begging for change. Aiden tuts at the invasions of privacy he discovers while digging inside the city's systems, yet is privy to far more personal data every time he scans the pedestrians around him looking for useful info to swipe.

This peculiar lack of empathy for the avatars around you extends into the physical world. You can chase down a petty thief and beat him to a pulp, but can only pocket the money he stole for yourself. Even GTA 5 - that high watermark of amoral sociopathy - gave you the option of returning stolen purses to their owners for a small measure of redemption. You can only ever take, never give back, and Aiden's world is a stiflingly unpleasant and selfish place as a result.

It also leads to a fundamentally broken economy where there's no limit to how much money you can take and no downside to stealing from everyone you see. You can easily amass a small fortune, but there's nothing to spend it on beyond guns and vehicles - almost all of which are freely available in the game world already.

I kept waiting for the game to offer some shift in perspective, some commentary, that made Aiden's insufferable nature more palatable or interesting, but it never came. By the end, he is all but positioned as a superhero. Nor does Watch Dogs have anything to say about the surveillance state, or about questions of privacy and identity in a data-driven world, despite using these topics to drive so much of its gameplay and story.
Click to expand...

Hmm...did they raise these points in their gta4 review? Seems the same to me.
 
T

TheCloser

Banned
Lycanthrope said:
Probably the most honest review I've read so far.



Not sure if I want it any more :(
Click to expand...
I agree. This review was very honest and it seemed to touch on the points that I was worried about. The stuff with the story & ai is sad to hear because those 2 are in my top 3 categories for ranking games. There are still other reviews to read though.
 
G

golem

Member
Fjordson said:
Steelport in Saints Row sucks so I can see that, but over Los Santos in GTA V? Or even Hong Kong in Sleeping Dogs? Not really in a position to disagree until I get my copy tomorrow, but I didn't see that at all from the streams I've seen. Seems like a well realized city, just nothing spectacular.
Click to expand...

Everyone in the city has an occupation and a random fact attached to them. You can spy on multitudes of phone conversations and text messages and even into people's apartments. That adds a layer of depth to the city that surpasses the standard for interactions with random street characters in open world games.
 
Huggers

Huggers

Member
Kensuke said:
The Eurogamer review is pretty much word for word what I expected.

Ubisoft: The Game.
Click to expand...

Same here. The bit about pushing a button to do stuff that never feels any different absolutely nails what was wrong with the terribly drab Assassins Creed 4.
 
P

PaulExcellent

Member
oti xero said:
You should definitely write reviews!
Click to expand...
I did, but for retro stuff on a shitty website i made. lol

Still, clothing and character customization is a huge part for me when it comes to open-world games. While the character/s I'm controlling might not always be a visual representation of the player, I feel like allowing the player to decide how the character acts and looks, even with just a few different clothing choices, can be an integral part in how well a player responds to the world.

BurnsyDelight said:
Yes to green, and you buy a full outfit combo, no mix-and-matching.
Click to expand...
HowZatOZ said:
Yeah green coat, though hats are tied to the coat design/colour.
Click to expand...
dammit ubisoft
now i gots my doubts
 
breakfuss

breakfuss

Member
Wow, Sterling currently holds the highest score on metacritic. Might be the first time I've seen that, lol. The graphics aren't what most expected based on earlier previews, but I guess it's to be expected when they spread it across so many platforms. Not really a fan of the action-parkour deal from AC so this was never for me. The emphasis on stealth is encouraging though. A swath of 8s isn't bad, so to those picking it up enjoy! I'll probably try it out when it hits ~$30.
 
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