to cause so much chaos at close hand and yet not be held to account. When you climb into a car, the game’s roaming pointer changes priorities – eschewing pedestrians in favour of pointing out trucks that might make meaty obstructions for your pursuers, or unwitting police patrols you might send on white knuckle drives down the beach and out into the beautiful bay. It’s a mechanic that encapsulates the series’ spirit of anarchic play – so much so that, in writing this piece, I’ve had to check and double check that it definitely didn’t appear in Watch Dogs 1. It’s become impossible to imagine the series without it. Aiden Pearce was a mistake - what’s the point in being a trickster god if you can’t laugh while you hack? In retrospect, and I’m sure hindsight grants Ubisoft Montreal a clarity bordering on eagle vision, Aiden Pearce was an obvious mistake – a total mismatch for Watch Dogs’ premise. Here was a man who held a spellbook that allowed him to turn a whole city to his will. Yet he couldn’t find any joy in it. What’s the point in being a trickster god if you can’t laugh like Muttley while you hack? New protagonist Marcus is the antidote – the right virus in the right place, with an energy, empathy and sense of fun that sets the tone for the rest of Watch Dogs 2. He’s a character with the words “wrongfully convicted” in his background, but for whom the concepts of brooding and revenge are refreshingly alien. He laughs at bigots, frowns on trolls and Swatters, and picks up the (pretty decent) DedSec cast after every setback. He is, in short, a boundless bag of enthusiasm you could well imagine running around San Francisco for hundreds of hours without ever stopping to eat or sleep. When Pearce does make an appearance in Watch Dogs 2, it’s akin to that of GTA III Guy in San Andreas – a comically mute cameo from a throwback who no longer belongs. It matters that Marcus is a genuine underdog: an Oakland native racially profiled as teenager. It’s because of him that Watch Dogs 2 stands in sharp contrast to the recent single-player Tom Clancy games. The Division, for all its subtle environmental storytelling and anti-capitalist overtones, found soldiers shooting starving looters in the streets – before looting their bodies in turn. And I’m sure the narrative director of Ghost Recon Wildlands would tell you it’s an ambivalent look at US covert interventionism – perhaps somewhere in its design doc it is. In reality, you lead a handful of horribly crass “oorah” types in conquering a South American country. Read more: the best sandbox games on PC Where Ubisoft open-worlds are otherwise at risk of becoming tone-deaf, it’s Watch Dogs that feels in step with the world. Imagine saying that in 2014. Ubi Montreal made the right move by upping sticks to San Francisco. There, the studio’s commentary about the surveillance state could be interlaced with stories about personal privacy – and perhaps more pertinently, they could make a Big Bad of Silicon Valley. Watch Dogs 2 has analogues for all the real-world social media and App Store giants, and given the unpleasant real-world revelations that seem to pour out of the Valley at the moment, it feels deeply satisfying to poke a finger in the eye of figures like DuÅ¡an Nemec, Blume’s hyper-conservative sociopath and yoga enthusiast. As it develops, Watch Dogs 2’s plot becomes a cathartic takedown of the kind of people who often feel frustratingly out of reach in our world, even as they claim a stake in our private lives and personal data. It’s a righteous vibe only helped by Watch Dogs 2’s range of viable non-lethal options. In light of Marcus’ reckless-yet-benevolent attitude, they feel like the canon way to tackle the game. Open-world narrative designers often have a tough time ensuring their intended themes are followed through. Often a main quest will have a message that doesn’t match the far lengthier, moment-to-moment map-hoovering that falls in between. But Ubi Montreal lace their themes credibly through San Francisco – so that even a simple side mission can turn up a conflict between app drivers and disgruntled taxi veterans. In fact, an awful lot of the game’s structure speaks to the studio’s experience with the genre and mistakes they’ve learned from Assassin’s Creeds past. No areas are cut off from the start, and missions are split into discrete chunks that don’t place unreasonable demands on the player’s time. For once, the freedom inherent in the genre’s premise isn’t compromised by stricture in design. Related: Check out the best open-world games on PC Watch Dogs 2 has been thrown into weird context by the open-world successes of 2017; the ones already eating up everyone’s time. But perhaps that only makes it more vital – the last of a more traditional style of open-world worth celebrating, before the arrival of the new worlds Zelda and Horizon are destined to usher in. If that last word comes from Marcus, a troubled genre will be all the better for it.
The star of the original Watch Dogs visits London in an upcoming DLC for Watch Dogs: Legion. The third installment in Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs series is set to arrive when Watch Dogs: Legion launches this Fall for modern and next-gen consoles. During the Ubisoft Forward event on September 10, Ubisoft shared new details on all the hacking shenanigans players will partake in with the new RPG. During the event, it was also revealed that Aiden Pearce, the protagonist of the original Watch Dogs game, would be appearing in a Watch Dogs: Legion DLC. In a newly released trailer, which can be seen below, we get our first look at Aiden Pearce in Watch Dogs: Legion. Hailing from Chicago, Pearce is back in action with that polarizing grovely voice of his. It’s currently unknown how Aiden’s antics have led him across the pond to London, but we’ll likely find that out in the game’s DLC. Aiden Pearce is joining Watch Dogs: Legion via the Season Pass, which includes a full story arc centered around the original Watch Dog himself. The streets of London look absolutely chaotic in Watch Dogs: Legion, and it’s cool to see the character that started it all coming back to join the madness. However, fans of Watch Dogs 2 may have been hoping to see Marcus make some sort of appearance. Here’s hoping that Ubisoft plans to add the character, along with his own unique missions down the line. The September 10 Ubisoft Forward featured several big announcements from the developer/publisher. To keep track of it all, visit the Shacknews topic page dedicated to the Ubisoft Forward event. Donovan is a young journalist from Maryland, who likes to game. His oldest gaming memory is playing Pajama Sam on his mom's desktop during weekends. Pokémon Emerald, Halo 2, and the original Star Wars Battlefront 2 were some of the most influential titles in awakening his love for video games. After interning for Shacknews throughout college, Donovan graduated from Bowie State University in 2020 with a major in broadcast journalism and joined the team full-time. He is a huge Star Wars nerd and film fanatic that will talk with you about movies and games all day. You can follow him on twitter @Donimals_
Subscribe to:
Post Comments
(
Atom
)
No comments
Post a Comment