Watch Dogs 2 Xbox One Review
Posted on: 2016-12-05
Our rating:
The gameplay is an open world where you can do anything you want. You can carry on with the story to completion or if you’re like me you get bored and mess around in the city.
The original Watch Dogs that came out in 2014 was a bit of a disappointment for some players as it did not live up to the announcement trailer from 2012 with superior graphics and mechanics. When it finally came out a lot of players noticed the downgrade in the graphical department and the hacking was nothing more than a gimmick. Was it a bad game? No. However the story mode was boring and it was nothing more than another Grand Theft Auto clone. Watch Dogs 2 is what the first game should have been and this game does not take itself seriously and likes to poke fun at modern society how people rely on social media in their lives.
Watch Dogs 2 takes place in the sunny Californian city of San Francisco where you play as a young hacktivist named Marcus Holloway who is trying to get into the hacking group called Dedsec. He eventually does after completing an a trail run to show off his hacking capabilities, he goes on a crusade to stop governmentally corruption, police corruption, weird and creepy cults and just messing with higher ups because he is bored. The characters do come off as a bit annoying at first but they are making fun of the hipster lifestyle even down to their base of operations located in a café.
The gameplay is an open world where you can do anything you want. You can carry on with the story to completion or if you’re like me you get bored and mess around in the city. The hacking mechanics makes messing around a lot of fun where you can blow up underground steam pipes, causes cars to serve, mess with traffic lights and much more. The game really emphasises hacking and sometimes I would forget that I can cause havoc when I’m in gunfights and I could blow up the junction box behind my enemies, it makes the game feel organic with its approach and encourages experimentation.
The game does encourage you to take a subtle approach where you sneak in and use your gadgets such as your flying and ground drone it’s almost like Splinter Cell where you have to rely on stealth and gadgets. You can scope out an area by hacking cameras, using your drones or the traditional way of sneaking around on foot, but if you’re just sneaking in on foot you’re not playing the game correctly and plus it’s just boring to play it like that.
Graphically the game is huge step up from the first game they have done a fantastic job of recreating the city of San Francisco, it’s not a grid by grid recreation of the city it’s just the major parts of the city. The game is bright and colourful compared to the first game’s grey and brown hue which was not pleasant to look at as it was very drab. The character models look fantastic with decent facial animation although there are some that look like they come from an Xbox 360 game, but great facial animation for the most part.
The main problem I have with this game is that you die easily, you can only take a few shots in gunfights and this is generally the case when you’re overwhelmed by multiple enemies, but I expect this is encouraging you to take a sneaky approach.
Watch Dogs 2 is a step up from the original with its sense of humour where it pokes fun at modern society coupled with the bright and colourful visuals it’s great to play a game that knows how to laugh for once. This is a must have and I would strongly advise picking this game up.
4.5/5
Article by:
Sam has lived in Bristol all his life. A keen cyclist he speeds around the city but video games are his bread and butter. Whether the old Nes and Snes games or the XBox One and Playstation releases he loves them all. Sam runs his own gaming blog called Bristolian Gamer where he had been reviewing indie games, doing retro reviews and venting his anger at the industry when it does wrong since 2010. Sam joined the 365Bristol team in December 2014.
