I REALLY love this game. Like im beginning this review at 2AM kinda love. There is so much i wanna say.Initial reviews for Watch dogs legion have seemingly been positive, although with many flaws mentioned, and to the flaws i can agree. However for the rough week i have been playing, the world of legion has had me enthralled from when i selected my first operative, to when the credits rolled. My favourite no bullshit reviewer stated that London as a map was ubisofts best, but repetitive gameplay and an uninteresting storyline marred the experience as a whole. This was where i disagreed. There is so much i want to talk about so ill roughly outline my main points.London:Absolutely beautiful! Stunning detail in every part and im still finding little things that just give it so much character. I felt fully immersed and would often get lost after a mission just walking around, taking dumb selfies, saving my fellow londoners and all of the in between. This for me, was the first world that felt TRULY lived in and alive, and its mainly thanks to....The Characters:Recruit anyone! Thats the freedom you're given and its the main gimmick of the game. Creating your legion could have been done in numerous ways but i honestly think they nailed it. Since hearing about it, i wanted to be able to find a character who looked vaguely like me. That was all really, no huge expectations i expected the characters to be fully interchangeable and then cast to the side when the story came round but BOY was i wrong. First evening of playing i found a perfect recruit. Ellery Goodbeer by name, Lawyer by profession, hobbyist falconer (by passtime?) im studying law at university so to have this extra attachment to the character, for many im sure would be meaningless but for me, my bond with good old Ellery was fashioned quickly, and never stopped growing.What took my by absolute surprise, was how much i enjoyed NOT being a jack of all trades. Here i was, taking on sneaking missions, car chases, hack minigames and (where i couldn't avoid it, shootouts and hand to hand combat), all while not having a character suited to... well any of it. Every character, by default is unique, has 'associates' ranging from family to business partners to rivals, and all of these NPC's are in the world In real time. Not only that but you can SEE your operatives moving about the world doing their own things. Its truly incredible to me. Ive always loved customisation in games, especially XCOM, i like to come up with storylines for my soldiers and it was no different here, except in legion, i didnt have to daydream, my unlikely band of hackers felt like a close knit group by the end of the game.Each character also has a specific weapon set (if any) and certain traits ranging from being able to be released from jail early, to spontaneous death, to having unlimited hacking range, to AYO CARRR. Ellery had a quick bail out of jail perk. Clearly Ted Bundy was an inspiration of his, not that he has needed it yet. Other than the inexplicable reason Ellery can utilise kicks better than UFC kickboxers and is now champion of the undergroud fighting rings, Ellery is not great in combat. Armed with what non lethal tech can buy AKA an electric pistol, compared to Aiden and Marcus, Ellery would have his recently purchased law textbooks (a fact from his bio) shoved so far up his ass just hearing the word Dedsec would leave him with PTSD.But again, this was what made the game so different! Being able to take this character and learn the game with him while no skills could really be improved on his end made everything feel so much more immersive. Well, that and PERMADEATH! Ellery could have died day one, he may die tomorrow as part of a routine trip to the london eye, or to that damn mask i cant get to in that heavily guarded building. When i began, i found out that for Ellery's sake i am, indeed, a pussy. Oh shit guns? Nah im out mate see you in court.. please? I quickly found out that the world of watch dogs is a dangerous one and if Ellery wasn't going to die from a glitch, a combat oriented story mission later on down the line could be his end. But as i continued playing, Ellery got more ballsy. Letting the drone do the handiwork while he waited in the car with the doors locked, turned into infiltration missions. At one point he thought fuck it, FIGHT TIME and blazed through a building with his SMG, all the while, this very real feeling that if Ellery was shot too many times, or i made a mistake? Gone. A similar, yet fantastically unique feeling ive had in DAYZ. I grew attachments to other characters as well, id say around five. My second favourite was basically a 1:1 look alike of 'Hitman' profession and all, all while using the hilariously fun 'gunkata' perk turning that guy into john wick on most missions.He was how i survived many combat oriented missions, but as i got closer to the end of the game, and due to me clearly having many self esteem issues, i- uhh Ellery was the main character, the big cheese of Dedsec london branch, and i took him all the way to the end, and he lived... but there was a chance he couldn't have!The Story:Its true the story is more generic than some, and i dont want to get into specific missions for spoilers sake, however in some, my jaw dropped at the set pieces, lies and deception revealed themselves too me before i had a chance to question it. All in all? Better than WD 1 and 2 in my opinion. This was mainly due to how Ellery interacted with the pre made story characters as though he was indeed, the main character, its just so insane to comprehend how it was programmed. Whats more is for Ellery, there were never any default yes, okay, no answers, he had emotions, and he never broke 'character' for someone who is at root, an NP fucking C! Its true that it cannot be said for some voices. The aforementioned hitman said 'copy that' to almost ANYthing in game, but it grew one me as his catchphrase for a very by the numbers man.When i recruited the hitman, he had said a car deal had gone south and he had lost his friend to it, and once i had the car, he said to destroy it as it reminded him of his friend. Fast-forward half a week and i turn the game on to him kneeling over a grave. "It should be me in that box, not you" he said, this attention to detail truly blew my mind, and just added to this lived in feeling of the world. A spot in the map where usually i wouldn't look at twice, suddenly had meaning to one of MY characters, but its for all characters and basically, your story is just waiting to unfold from the get go. And it was the plight of my characters and their city, that kept me engrossed in the story, all topped off when after finishing the game, at the top of the london eye, good old Ellery said 'Yeah this is my fucking city', its the little things for me fellas i wont lie.So here we are. I hope youve enjoyed my sleep deprived rant about how much i am enjoying Legion, and how great a guy Ellery is. What next for him? Find his wife of course! A city load of npc's and however long it takes, Lisa Goodbeer will be found and made a dedsec member, with a fantastic reference from their lead, Ellery Goodbeer, at least until the DLC, if he survives!There are some things that i hope would be improved over time:For at least postgame, it would be cool to be able to train your operatives, not necessarily give them perfect loadouts, but for example, steal a firearm to keep or actually buy a car, its stupid thats locked up. #Wheels4Ellery. Yeah lets get that going!While not necessarily expected given the core systems are in, a relationship gauge with how your characters interact would be awesome, i want my characters to act like they remember when Ellery saved them from certain death, or, say, and i do say GOD FORBID, i drive Lisa over and kill her, would Ellery act any different? Id hope so but wouldn't expect it.Id toy with a permadeath idea similar to that of direct contact in metal gear. Essentially have a system either by selecting one or two operatives, or spending ETO to essentially never have them "die" for dumb mistakes or glitches. I dont know, it defeats permadeath doesn't it? But guys i have written more for a videogame NPC than for my coursework due in a few weeks so.... yeah its bad i know.Bring back blackout and hack everything! Self explanatory. If Aidens kit doesn't have it, ill be sad.Id love to discuss opinions, experiences and everything in between in the comments, thanks for reading :) via /r/watch_dogs https://ift.tt/2GRsOdt
No comments:
Post a Comment