Watch_Dogs - my opinion

Watch_Dogs is finally released! I've preordered it back in August '13 and these are my thought.

Nutshell version:

atm I'll give WD a 4 out of 5. You should buy it.

Nutshell end.

This is kinda new to me, so let's try it this way : I'm going to spend a lot of time playing Watch_Dogs, so waiting till I'm finished for writing something about it won't do it. 

How's this gonna work then?

So I'm splitting it up into three parts :
Part 1 is a simple thumb up/down/even thing with a short explanation.
Part 2 will be a 5 point rating and I'll write more about the game and what my opinion is.
Part 3 is the final 10 point rating with a lot of text behind it no one will ever read :P

The thumb-rating: UP

What did I do?

Getting closer to finish Act 1 and a few hours of free roaming and hunting criminals, also a bit invasion. I guess 4 to 5 hours up till now.

So what are my thoughts?

It's not the big playground GTA is (elephant in the room), but it's not trying to be. It's a game about hacking and how the main character's life got fucked because of hacking (and maybe will get a lot worse through the main story).
Hacking is super important and trying to ignore this element will seriously limit the fun you can have, like really seriously :D Also you should do a few missions first before free roaming a lot, way more tools to play with that way :)
Invasion is a nice idea, but don't expect to win the first rounds. It's not easy. Sadly there was no one available for stalking yet, but it's the very first day, so MP is gonna fill up during the next days.

PS : Layout etc will be done in the next 18 hours or so. Android app is only useful for typing :(

The five star-rating: 4 out of 5

What have I been up to in Chicago?

I'm somewhere in the middle of Act 3 of 5, free roamed a lot, did side missions, got killed a lot online, stuff like that :D

Is it perfect?

You're kidding? Nothing's perfect.

It is a really good game, but there are flaws. Let's get them out of the way:

• Helicopters suck. Not because they've got snipers and big light beams, but the only time you can really point upwards and hack them is when you're walking. Now imagine a three to five star chase and you have to stop your car, get out of it, point at the heli to hack it, get into the car and drive away - with shooting cops and snipers and SWAT cars around you... Fun...
• The player's car sometimes glitches through other cars. It doesn't happen all the time, but it does happen. Maybe it's some physics thing, because your own car is getting away with a lot more crashes than npcs' cars.
• Fast hacking is a bit hit and miss. If you're in a chase, it is sometimes hard to hack the right things, though using the "focus" labeled slow motion ability helps a lot in those situations.
• Online can be really laggy. I mean it could be a problem with the people's connections, but we all know the servers are not up to the challenge atm, though fixes and scheduled downtimes for maintenance could get rid of that in no time.
• Matchmaking is kinda off. First match in online decryption and all my enemies were pros with a lot more points than I've got... But maybe I was just not lucky :D

That's what comes to mind. Nothing game breaking (well, maybe the lagging is borderlining), but it can be annoying.

Why is Watch_Dogs a true next gen game?

That's a valid question, because we tend to measure next gen-iness in graphics and effects, but nowadays that may not be the right way to do it anymore...

But let's look at the graphics: 

[PS4 screenshots captured by me will be here]

They are not as breathtaking as the E3 '12 trailer, but we knew that already. But there is way more at work here:

• There is a working wind simulation running all the time for the whole city and explosions etc are creating visible distortions.
• There is the NPC AI which is responsive and changing. You shoot a gun in a crowded place and some people will only turn around to you while other's totally freak out or do something in between those two extremes. According to your status in Chicago they might call the police or won't, because you're their hero. If you are not really likable they will call the cops you show your gun in public. Ouch.
• The sound is really good. I just love to listen to the car's engines roaring or the explosions, the gun sounds. Or if you're the more subtle guy listen to the sounds of the city, the NPCs' conversations, the angry honking etc etc.
• The windows in WD are not just textures, but using some magic to show real rooms, that are not really there. (I don't get it. I'm not trained in that stuff :D)

That sounds pretty next gen to me.

Should you play it?

You're a fan of open world games, shooting guns, driving through a living city etc etc? Then yes, you really really should.

If you're new to the whole genre, I'm not sure. WD does a lot of stuff really good, but GTA is sort of the game that comes to mind. Toss a coin or search a (fair!) comparison of GTA V and WD. There oughta be a lot of them out there in the wild :D

Oh, and you can finish the whole game without killing one civilian or cop!

That is fantastic and I wish every game (like GTA or WD) has something similar!