Watch Dogs Series - forgot about this tbh

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

My dream Watch_Dogs sequel would have taken the profiling a lot further by having characters have some level of persistence. Perhaps randomly generated in, but remembered, can reappear. The player could have explored the linkages between people (like six degrees of separation). Instead of just giving information away, it could have had quests hidden away in the web, like maybe you have some kind of alert that there's a potential problem going on with a person, but you have to go digging, play Internet detective, to find out what. Then have to scope them out in real life, or with cameras. Investigate it, basically.

People say Shadows of Doubt turned out good, and it's got procedurally generated investigations. Or, you have it all be hand-sculpted, like an RPG. But then, Ubisoft's RPG Assassins Creed games all sucked. The only one I played was Origins and I can promise that it is some of the most forgettable, mediocre stuff I've ever seen.

Legion could have also been a decent idea. If "recruit everyone" had meant different people with different abilities that were actually tied to who they are. If being a little old granny meant you COULD NOT beat up enemies. But of course they were never going to limit player agency in any meaningful way... even if that would have expanded it in ways that mattered.

 

[Ventrue]

I liked how the Northeast blackout of 2003 was incorporated into the story in Watchdogs 1. Using real world events in a sensible way adds to the immersion, if they are done correctly.

 

[Mega Black]

Watch_Dogs sequel would have taken the profiling a lot further by having characters have some level of persistence

Imagine something like the nemesis system but with procedural NPCs in general. You could profile someone and cyberstalk them through their lives and help or hinder them for your own goals, hell, the first game's reputation system would be great for this honestly.

You could profile a high level gang member and help him rise through the ranks of his gang from the sidelines only to collect evidence and bust his ass and collapse the whole thing, or make him indebted to you, giving you the option to call in his gang for backup during firefights or to take someone out.

You could befriend some down on his luck salaryman and use your leet hackor skills to get him a promotion or take out his shitty boss. Then you could have someone in your back pocket at a tech giant to get you backdoors into CTOS or extort him for money.

Honestly the potential is limitless, combine this sort of procedural watch dogging with the first game's John Wick combat and you'd have one of the most innovative and best open world games ever made.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

Imagine something like the nemesis system but with procedural NPCs in general.

Honestly the potential is limitless, combine this sort of procedural watch dogging with the first game's John Wick combat and you'd have one of the most innovative and best open world games ever made.

Exactly.

I suppose a dedicated RPG would be the best format for that kind of thing. As was, the profiling stuff got even worse in WD2. They never took any care to have the profiles make sense, it was just a random grab bag of quirky traits.

 

[DeadwastePrime]

Imagine something like the nemesis system

gonna stop you right there. cant use the nemesis system till 2035 when the warner bros patent ends

 

[TVB]

gonna stop you right there. cant use the nemesis system till 2035 when the warner bros patent ends

Or sooner once WB uses it as one of the many tax write offs

 

[Mega Black]

gonna stop you right there. cant use the nemesis system till 2035 when the warner bros patent ends

Doesn't have to literally be the nemesis system, it would actually function very differently, but that's the closest sort of procedural system I can think of.

 

[The Last Stand]

You know those black Western Digital hard drives on retail?




I had thought they made a collaboration with Ubisoft to design them akin to Watch_Dogs' aesthetic. It actually reminds me of hardware that Aiden Pearce would use.

 

[King Vidiot]

Steam achievements have just been added to Watch_Dogs, Watch_Dogs 2 and Watch Dogs: Legion this month.

 

[Get the rope Macaulay!]

You could profile a high level gang member and help him rise through the ranks of his gang from the sidelines only to collect evidence and bust his ass and collapse the whole thing, or make him indebted to you, giving you the option to call in his gang for backup during firefights or to take someone out.

you sort of described a subplot of the first game but yeah the opportunities are endless. Even in Legion they fucked up hard. they wanted to make their game easy enough for anyone to play when the theme demanded a roguelike so it failed completely.

Its amazing how one modder has given us better games than ubisoft the past decade with this shit. Honestly ubisoft would be smart to just make their engine open source or whatever the fuck so other game companies could take a stab at making something on it. Living City is fucking amazing, it took me a long time before i get tired of how much shits going on everywhere.

 

[The Last Stand]

Steam achievements have just been added to Watch_Dogs, Watch_Dogs 2 and Watch Dogs: Legion this month.

Speaking of Watch_Dogs' achievements, I decided to finish up the Bad Blood DLC and see if I could mop up the collectibles for various achievements. I remember why I dislike open world Ubisoft games. The map gets cluttered with all these collectibles and procedural generated missions as a means to pad playtime. Not to mention having to level up to obtain skills from a branching tree is tedious to even think about.

I think Watch_Dogs 2 trimmed all that fat from the first time. You still have to find research points and do these "hacking" puzzles.

 

[BradeRunna]

I watched some videos about the mods and they seem pretty interesting. I know the game was pretty bad when it first released. The first bit of Ubislop. The mods seem to add a lot of content to the game and basically make it what it should have been on release.

 

[Kiwi Andy]

I have a soft spot for the original Watch Dogs. Ubisoft wasn't completely slopped out back then. A time where a white male protagonist was still acceptable.

 

[oh no its pipkun]

The mods dont make it look or play like the demo did.

 

[The tired cat]

Id say the living city mod is pretty nice

 

[Popper Whiting]

I have a soft spot for the original Watch Dogs. Ubisoft wasn't completely slopped out back then. A time where a white male protagonist was still acceptable.

My biggest problem with Watchdogs was you could see the potential for something awesome being there, but because it was Ubisoft they half-assed things and focussed on the wrong things, you end up disappointed at what could have and should have been even though the game is decent enough for AAA releases.

The first bit of Ubislop. The mods seem to add a lot of content to the game and basically make it what it should have been on release.

The only way is for people to try it and post what they think. I don't trust anything other than general word of mouth from places I either lurk or post when it comes to games because that is how I found the best games I've played in the last 10 years. General forum consensus (over multiple platforms) is probably the best measure of quality you can get currently.

 

[Rungle]

Watch dogs, even vanilla, is kino.

 

[Maniacal Foreigner]

I don't understand why they never bothered to release an "HD Update" to actually make the game look and play like what was advertised. I mean, clearly they had the assets, so why not actually implement them once hardware limitations were no longer a concern?
Does Ubisoft hate money or something?

 

[The tired cat]

I don't understand why they never bothered to release an "HD Update" to actually make the game look and play like what was advertised. I mean, clearly they had the assets, so why not actually implement them once hardware limitations were no longer a concern?
Does Ubisoft hate money or something?

I think the issue is that after Legion didnt do so hot and they burried the series, they just didnt see a reason making an HD update. Only reason the Etzio series and AC3 got that treatment is because its still a popular series, specially the Etzio adventures.

 

[Grand_Ole_Ostritch]

I remember being severely disappointed when I played it. It's the standard Ubisoft game. If you've played one, you've played them all. People say the second one is better, but to me it was just the same shit with more annoying characters.