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| Watch Dogs 2 |
It seems that in our favorite play area, the second opus of a franchise is often more successful than the first. Past the freshness of the concept, the formula then takes time to refine, gain in depth and offer a strong identity to what is now appropriate to call a license. This is obviously what we are entitled to expect from Watch Dogs 2, the controversial welcome, but the consistent sales that convinced Ubisoft to offer us a sequel to the adventures of Aiden Pearce. A suite ? Not quite, since this time it is a new hacker we are going to skim the streets of an unprecedented destination: the bay of San Francisco.
Not surprisingly, it is two weeks after the release of the versions PlayStation 4 and Xbox One that the PC version landed, with obviously a host of technical specifics. We note, first good point, the presence of a pack of textures high definitions weighing the trifle of 7 GB and a list of options rather copious. If some of them produce their small effect like the "Fog of San Francisco" echoing that of the Californian city, the more modest configurations will obviously have to ignore it or the kinetic blur (gourmand and very useful Relative) to run a title that nevertheless has the good taste to be fluid whatever your configuration.
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| Watch Dogs 2 |
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| Watch Dogs 2 |
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| Watch Dogs 2 |
Achieving 60 frames per second is far from being unthinkable, especially since past weak and medium configurations, the level of detail of the title is more difficult to perceive. We will therefore choose - unless we have a war PC - to give up some additional details, occlusion ambient at the head, to offer an adventure in 60 fps that loses here nothing of its qualities of origins. Without being bluffing visually, the result is thus much more convincing than for the PC version of the first episode.
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| Watch Dogs 2 |
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| Watch Dogs 2 |
Non-serious business
As if, to compare it to two series with similar themes, Watch Dogs had moved away from the very serious and very cold Person of Interest to more eye to the side of Mr Robot, adding in passing a good dose of color and Humor in order to give a lighter tone to the ensemble. Ubisoft has also let loose, testify the gritty valves, swears flowery and other marijanesque sequences that scour our adventure and give a more authentic style to characters in color. Some extra cinematic and more inspired shots would not have been too much to better dress a pleasant scenario to follow, but not always skilled in its staging more "classical" sequences. Despite the presence of several original ideas such as the dissemination of videos mounted by Dedsec after each main mission or the appearance, pop-up, of newscasts reporting your actions after several key missions.Pleasant Writing
In terms of writing, the result is convincing, thanks to a casting of characters certainly caricatural, but endearing and dialogues contributing to a light atmosphere conducive to disconnection. More amusing, Ubisoft is even self-deprecating in some scenes, by the voice of a Wrench (a very successful character) who mock Marcus' hipster style, or that of the veteran T-Bone, astounded by the gamineries of The DedSec team. Pell-mell, we also find Google, Scientology, Martin Shkreli or even Ubisoft himself, all parodied in a rather tasty way. The whole is however more of the joke potache than the acerbic criticism of our society: do not hope to see there anything but an adventure to the tone light and offbeat. Too bad, because there was a lot to dig in that direction, but it would probably be unwise to blame Ubisoft for not wanting to venture on land that he might not have mastered as well as, A studio such as Rockstar.High-Tech Tonic
One of the points on which Watch Dogs 2 is particularly interesting is the consistency of its universe: the map of the game is modeled in Google Map, the apps of our phone all have a direct interest in game - Improved skills, Uber-style taxi service - and even details such as the creation of weapons, via the 3D printer, or how to progress, which is measured by the number of followers on the group's app, were Put forward with high-tech gimmicks. Let's take advantage of it to emphasize the rediscovered clarity of the map, which conceals the points with the more limited interest during a dezoom to allow us to see only the essential. Unlocking missions is done more naturally in a world here freed from any synchronization point or release zones that are typical of Ubisoft productions, since it is often the chance of a meeting or scan of a Inhabitant that one discovers a new secondary.Successful Secondary Missions
Moreover, Watch Dogs 2 does not miss: races of boats, quads and drones on one side, services of taxis way Uber on the other, without forgetting a nice skeleton of very varied secondary missions and equally Likely to make you anticipate a crime like Minority Report, or simply climb on the San Francisco buildings to print the DedSec brand. The result is exciting, especially since many winks are hidden in the latter, which benefit from an effort of staging and narration that makes them all the more interesting. In addition, our band of hackers aiming to increase the number of users of its application to access higher computing power, to stop its main quest to devote itself to one of the ancillary missions is not here Lacking common sense since they are other types of operations likely to serve the main purpose of DedSec. The multiplayer already very successful of the first episode also returns and fits perfectly to the big picture: in addition to the hide-and-seek missions or the tracking help of players run by the police, you can even accomplish certain Sequences in cooperation with friends or via a classic matchmaking system. It will be noted however that following some bugs, this one is temporarily unavailable at the time or we write these lines and should soon make its return.Open Hacker
To accomplish his mission, Marcus also has a wide range of tools. Where the first episode offered only one hack option on each item, the second offers you several. For example, on a lambda electric counter that can be short-circuited to kill a close person, it is now possible to create a force field so that it triggers only when a guard passes, or even To generate a noise to attract those in the surroundings or to accumulate both for maximum efficiency. Hacking cars can also be used to create a diversion or crush a peon that has had the misfortune to place itself right in front. Other options include the possibility of placing a research notice on a person who may be affected by a local gang or the police. Obviously, these actions must first be unlocked via a tree of talent and their use will be restricted by a battery system, to be recharged by hacking external energy sources. End-to-end bets, all these new options allow the player to show more inventiveness than in the first episode, especially since this opus offers us levels usually offering several entry and exit points.More vertical, larger or simply denser, these are not inaccessible for a Marcus who can even afford the luxury of successfully completing certain missions without setting foot in the area concerned. For this, he can count on his jumper - a remote-controlled car - and a drone, two very useful tools, but within range and limited resistance. The first city allows to interact physically with the environment and can slip in the pipes while the second one will serve only for the locating. Useful and perfectly integrated thanks to an inspired level design, they allow to vary the approaches and confer the title an even more pronounced technophile style. It is also by sowing chaos on the area of intervention while remaining out of sight that the title proves to be the most amusing, so certain situations incite improvisation and nawak the most total.
Your opponents do not shine especially by their intelligence, but have the merit of compensating the whole by a propensity to be aggressive once you are spotted, assuring the game a correct challenge that incites to be cautious. And it is there that it is spoiled: if the game proposes modes of difficulties superiors that will be advised to the habitues of the kind, Marcus remains whatever happens superpowering to the body-to-body. In case of a bad situation, isolate the enemies, move closer to one of them and trigger the attack key to put KO in a few seconds. It is still difficult to understand why the system is so permissive on this point.
The Hack Design
We evoked it a few lines, Watch Dogs 2 proposes a level design of good invoice. The variety of missions and decorations is not unrelated, although the structure often remains the same: infiltrating a zone, hacking an entry key to access a locked part, retrieving an element on a support Computer and then exfilter. Some variants like a mini-puzzle of network gateways much more complete and interesting than in the first opus are certainly present, but diversity is mainly in the ways to achieve its purposes and the construction of the level itself. Only flat on the horizon, Marcus is able to indulge in the joys of the Parkour, but some attempts obviously not anticipated by the developers sometimes lead to climbing wolves. Like this moment when Marcus did not climb to a platform I had nevertheless approached the roof on which he was, but who was probably not prepared to the perfect height required by the game. Are here far from the fluidity of an Assassin's Creed, which remains frankly raging when a jump fails for about thirty centimeters and makes you spot in the middle of an infiltration mission.It is a blue house ...
Another part not yet fully convincing, driving, which however improved since the first episode. It will be best to note on the handling of conventional vehicles in spite of collisions always as unconvincing, while remaining astonished by the improbable physics of two-wheeled vehicles. True 4x4 on legs unable to disarm you unless a frontal shock of extreme violence and do not really contribute to the immersion in this universe. On the other hand, on all the rest, difficult to reproach anything in terms of immersion to the teams of Ubisoft. The reconstruction of San Francisco is very successful and an extra effort seems even to have been made on the density of population and the impression of life that emerges from the proposed universe. At the turn of a walk, it is not uncommon to surprise a banal conversation, a brawl interrupted by a police car, or even an armed robbery. If artistically, the whole is very successful, technically, the title is still perfectible. Note a few flaws like a suspicion of aliasing and obviously clipping. Nothing really disturbing however, Watch Dogs 2 being on the rest rather stable for an open world: during thirty hours of game, we had thus only two minor bugs and no slowdown at a critical moment.Positive Points
-Enhanced range of hacks-The atmosphere and the modeling of the San Francisco Bay
-Solid Design Level
-Multi integrated with intelligence
-The freedom of approach of the main missions
-Effort of staging and scripting of secondary missions
Negative Points
-But not helped by any real achievement-Marcus overpowering in body-to-body
-Physical motor too permissive on Parkour and driving on motorcycle
-A lot of clipping, a bit of aliasing
-Scenario with a lighter and more pleasant tone to follow
Watch Dogs 2 is lighter than its elder by its scenario, its atmosphere and its characters, but not in terms of its content or its mechanisms, which have been deepened since the first episode. The Bay of San Francisco is also a successful playground, conducive to the use of new tools and the implementation of a scenario based on the big names - parodied, of course - of Silicon Valley. One will mainly regret the overpower of Marcus in close combat and a physical engine making, from time to time, ridiculous motorcycle collisions and imprecise parkour. One could also regret that the story, pleasant and light, does not always enjoy a staging worthy of the name. But these few defects do not erase the very clean copy made by the teams of Ubisoft Montreal, which give us a solid title, endowed with a coherent universe and playgrounds varied and inspired that one will take pleasure in to explore. By drone, jumper, or foot? It's up to you to decide.
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