Watch Dogs 2

 Watch Dogs 2 is a game that was released by Ubisoft in 2016. As far as I remember it had an ok reception. People weren't big fans of the original Watch Dogs so maybe they weren't that interested in the second one either but seemingly since the next Watch Dogs games has gotten a lot more publicity it would make sense that people did enjoy Watch Dogs 2.

Gameplay

I don't know what I could say that I haven't said previously. I mean this is open world Ubisoft adventure so you know exactly what you will be getting mostly the same stuff in other Ubisoft games like Far Cry and Assassins Creed. Maybe someday Ubisoft will make different games actually different and try to brake away from their usual formula. It does work but it gets boring so quickly. 

The only thing that really is different in Watch Dogs is the ability to hack different things like cars, vents, phones, computers or even buildings. The regular hacking where you can freely hack whatever works quite well and is fun to do. When it comes to hacking buildings or networks, that puzzles part of some missions, they sometimes feel like they are broken. In reality tho they just stop giving hints at the most crucial points and it might feel like you are absolutely stuck with no way out. So in short, puzzles are fun and increasingly challenging as they should be but sometimes overly confusing to a point of where I wanted to alt+f4. 

The rest of the game is very much your usual Ubisoft game where you have different guns, that are quite basic but fun enough, tho the combat itself is a bit too punishing IMO. A stealth system that could be a lot of fun but rarely works as it should. And vehicles, that drive. 

The World

The map in this game is pretty much the silicon valley / San Francisco area, which I just figured out by checking that area on maps. The area is quite good replica of the place which I guess is a good thing but also something that I am a not huge fan of. Not because I hate the area or I hate replicas but because that area is mostly water. A lot of that area is water in game as well, or at least that's what it feels like since the water area is so central and big. This again wouldn't be a problem if there was more to do with that water, more boats or something. But you can probably figure out from this that the map and the world was pretty nice since the only bad thing I have to say about it is "waa waa too much water". 

It's hard to say, which came first, the story or the map since they seem to be so well tied together, and the map is very good, but those never are the weak points in Ubisoft games.

The Story

Another part that is never the weak part in Ubisoft games is the story. Now you might ask then what is the weak part? The weak part is the repetitiveness, the copy and paste of Ubisoft formula but this part is not for that, that was earlier. The surprising part about this story is that it had pretty much nothing to do with the first game. Or at least from what I remember, it has been a very long time since I played the first one. In the first game we played as a dude who was just trying to survive and stay hidden from big brother by using his hacking abilities. In this game you still mostly play as just on dude but this story follows a group of hackers who are trying to take down the corrupt big tech companies in the government who are trying to follow every single aspect of peoples lives. The story has many twists and turns. It almost reminded me of the older GTA stories. So yes, very good. 

While the story was a lot of fun I kinda wished it would have been a small bit longer but it's not the end of the world. Also as I've mentioned before, a good story is not enough to make a great game, it does go a long way tho. For that reason, with this game I can only go as high as 7/10