Game Review: Watch_Dogs

Made by Ubisoft, well known for Assassins Creed and Far Cry and a whole bunch of amazing games. Will Watch_Dogs be added to their hall of fame?

Before the actual review starts I would like to say I'm playing this on PS4 and this is the only game I actually have on PS4, so until I get another game I'll review games on other platforms. So now that that's over it's review time!

WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS MILD SPOILERS SO SUCK IT UP BUTTERCUP

So when I first saw this game, all I thought was "It's Assassin's Creed in the future and you play an assassin!" Well unless there is an Easter egg somewhere that I haven't found, the game is not that. At least not in a story sense. The main character, Aiden Pearce does know parkour, as well as how to sneak around and silently take people out, though not to the extent of the assassins of AC. The game play is similar though, with a dumbed down version of free running included. You can only climb objects just taller than you are, and falling off them causes fall damage. Still you can slide over low objects or jump off a wall to scale high ones. The game makes it fluid too, by making you hold a button whilst running to free run. The combat of this game is very fluid as well, now that I'm on the subject. Going from shooting someone in cover to vaulting over and performing a take down is very easy and smooth yet if your not careful you can be killed quite easily. The weapon's are all OK, with a one to five star rating on all of them telling you which ones are better than others, yet there are no real unique weapons or weapons that would cause much chaos as in GTA. The roaming around sandbox parts of Watch_Dogs is very entertaining as well... most of the time. The hacking is neat and allows you to hack your environment to make things explode or cause a car crash. And you can hack people to listen to their phone calls or steal their bank accounts. The most of the time bit before was the fact that blowing things up or killing cops is actually frowned upon, taking away your good rep and replacing it with bad rep, which in turn affects the way civilians react to you in the over world. This sucks, because I came into the game thinking if I got bored I could do what I did in GTA and just blow shit up, which I couldn't unless I wanted to ruin my in game rep. Speaking of GTA, the number of people comparing these two games is astounding. The only thing I can say is that GTA is meant to be fun when you are just messing around and crazy things happen. That's why there's rag doll and random events and such. Watch_Dogs is meant to be fun when you are doing something specific, like a mission or side objective. The game is built around constantly feeding you little morsels of enjoyment because the over world starves you. Whereas GTA's over world is very filling, and the morsels can be enjoyed more because they add to the experience. In Watch_Dogs, they are the experience. That is the difference and frankly is why the replay value is far lower than GTA's. 

On a graphics standpoint, Watch_Dogs looks better (at least on PS4) than most sandbox games I've seen. The glitch aesthetic gives it a very cool theme as well. The one glaring problem I had was the frame rate drops that happened. On a console that is not OK. Maybe on a low end PC but this is a PS4 I got literally one week before this review came out, so frame rate needs to be fixed. Admittedly it happened when a lot of explosions or details where on screen at once, and happened fairly infrequently, but guess what? IT'S CONSOLE THE FRAMERATE NEEDS TO BE CONSISTENT! I mean I'm fine with 30fps if I'm given 30fps, but dropping to 10fps is not acceptable to me at all. Other than that though the game looks good. I really thought the augmented reality theme was cool as well, with the profiler mode you can see civilians or enemies names, jobs, ages, and anything special about them. It was a really nice touch.

The multiplayer aspect of the game was weird to say the least. You can enter races and the such, but in multiplayer, other players appear as regular citizens and they can hack you or tail you to fulfil missions, and when they do, you have to figure out where and who they are and then take them out. Or someone can invade your single player world in their multiplayer and try to kill you. It provides a steady amount of tension to just roaming around (you can turn it off in the menu) There is a mode where you have to race around the city while some on their real world phone  hacks your world and sends police after you to stop you. It's a nice tie-in and playing on your phone males you feel like a true hacker. 

Finally, the story. I will spoil the plot of the back story, but that isn't really a spoiler when they cram it down your throat every five minutes. You play as Aiden Pearce, a hacker vigilante who had a hit ordered on him after someone hacked him while he was on a job. The hit failed and instead killed his six year old niece, driving him to get revenge on the people responsible. The game's plot is good for what it is. The characters are memorable but I never really cried or laughed at the story. There are some plot twists and such, but the story stays along a preset track and the main villain is presented right away, which gives you a feeling of progression when you complete a mission. The overall plot is nice and I liked the ending.

If you are looking for a grand on rails experience where you play a stealthy bad ass hacker, I suggest buying this game. If you want an off rails free roaming game about chaos and pure fun, go buy GTA V. Honestly in my unprofessional opinion GTA V is a better game. Just sayin'.

Game Review: Always Sometimes Monsters

Devolver Digital. They made Serious Sam, Hotline Miami, Luftrausers, all of which are good games (some of my favourites). But does that mean they can pull off yet another masterpiece, or have they finally fallen?When first looking at this game, all I can see is the RPG Maker looking graphics, but much better made. I know that a game's graphics don't define them, but for an indie game developer to help Vagabond Dog create their dream, the graphics are pretty good, with custom sprites and menus. The graphics are very nice especially with environments and sunsets but I honestly didn't care. The story could have come in a text based adventure and I would still love the game. That's how much the story and other factors dictate what kind of game this is, an art game. 

On a gameplay standpoint, ASM is a sweet and sour experience, mixing both fun, easy to control segments, and difficult to control, frustrating segments. The game is an RPG, yet there is no combat, but more of an elaborate version of Mass Effect's dialogue options that doesn't give you a clear "good" or a clear "bad" option, but several inbetween one's that would mirror actual responses. The game's preset choices make you really feel responsible for your actions, because they define you. Say enough pro-recycling options your character will start to recycle sort of thing. It makes your character feel like a digital you. Especially with the creative character/partner/name select screen. Everything you do opens new options and different people will talk to you or give you different reactions based on your moral standings, which greatly increases the replay value. The buying food and drink and sometimes drugs or smokes idea allows for different options of what your character would even eat, which can also change your point of view. The game drives the idea of choices affecting you out of the park. On a world navigating and puzzle solving standpoint, the controls, especially with a controller, feels loose and sometimes frustrating that you can't rebind the off-putting control scheme.

The story of ASM will change based on many different variables and I don't want to potentially spoil it, so I'll give you a spoiler-free summary. You start off an aspiring writer who fell in love and moved in with your partner. Your partner leaves you and you live in a crappy apartment until you are evicted with no money left, simply told to get 500$ by the end of the night or sleep on the curb. To add insult to injury, you then recieve an invitation to your ex's (who you still love very much) marriage ceremony and with nothing left to lose you decide to head several towns over to win your love back by the end of the month. The story from that point on is different for everyone and I love it. It deals with the harsh realities of drug abuse, racism and homophobia, even the idea of suicide. The story perfectly captivates you for every moment.

So at the end of the day Always Sometimes Monsters is a really solid game that I recommend for anyone looking for an amazing story that tells of love and loss. And hell, with a soundtrack by Laser Destroyer Team, go buy it on Steam now. And remember, aren't we all Always Sometimes Monsters?