To make matters worse, this following video shows off the gltiches and bugs found in Watch Dogs:
-snip-
Let's not forget how this game
shoves memes down our throats rather than creating their own meme-material moments. Well I was right about keeping low expectations on this game because of the negative backlash it'll receive from user reviews.
I wouldn't say that in itself is indicative of anything. The signs are...well, just signs, I've barely even taken a look at them (though really, I think it makes more sense that they used established, real-world memes than original ones). I haven't found too many glitches or bugs in my playthrough, either.
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From how I understand it: The concept was amazing, execution was not.
As for the game itself, it's not too gripping with its mechanics. Watch_Dogs honestly feels like the game that I was expecting it to be after E3, an Open-World game with a sprawling concept. A lot of the game feels like Assassin's Creed mixed with GTA with hacking and some light Splinter...Actually, scratch that, It's like Assassin's Creed mixed with Splinter Cell crossed with GTA (Ubi Montreal is really getting off on turning all of their franchises and games into Assassin's Creed. Farcry 3, SC Blacklist, etc.), with there being CTOS stations that aren't too dissimilar from the lookout points in Assassin's Creed. The movement isn't Assassin's Creed level, climbing and things like that are pretty basic, but it falls prey to the same problems that the first and last games do: it's only as fun as the game itself, not its story will provide.
Few will argue that GTAV had a good story and great characters, but that doesn't stop people from dropping the game after several hours, leaving the story unfinished. Watch_Dogs is probably similar in this manner. While its story isn't the most unique, it has some fun characters and the story missions use hacking to its advantage the most, and that's kind of the problem. The player is given this sprawling world, a beautiful (and I mean BEAUTIFUL) representation of Chicago that looks nice to just ride around in a train with or take a stroll in a car, but the problem is that the world isn't completely designed for unique hacking situations. You'll often be resorting to older tactics to catch criminals or avoid cops, but when you get down to it, the hacking is pretty vanilla. You can unlock things but hacking and hacking interaction feels almost as if it could have been modded into a GTA title and reached the same effect in the Open World.
Now, back to Chicago, it looks just fantastic, both in the day and at night. The normal NPCs populating the city in the game feel more real than any other Open World game I've ever played. They have their own conversations, do their own activities, and react to their environments so fluidly and dynamically that it's almost breathtaking. And despite what I said about the "vanilla hacking", it can still be a lot of fun. Enduring a long police chase only to be saved by an oncoming train that you hack to a stop, board, and ride to safety is both incredibly exciting and satisfying, and chasing a criminal on foot only to stop him by blowing up a not-so-conveniently placed transformer also breeds a sense of accomplishment. The hacking may be lite and vanilla, but coupled with the many dynamic events that happen in the game (which are also some of the best I've seen in an Open-World game), it's still a lot of fun, especially on story missions designed around them.
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So...that's my mini-review, of sorts. It's not a bad game at all, I'd even say that it's a good one, and one worth buying. Does it live up to the hype? No, but that should be expected. I'd say it's worth around $30 at most, though, not $60 (though I'd probably buy it for less, but that's just me). Not great, but far from bad and I'd even say better than okay. But if you are interested in the game, you can find it now on PC at cheapest for $48 or around that.
EDIT: And yeah, that's supposed to be a cannon. From the revolutionary war, I think.