Watch_Dogs First Impressions

Here's my quick first impressions:

Driving - Works the same as GTA (similar controls) and the cars handle about the same (possibly a little better physics in WD vs GTA).  It's easy to hack (lights, bridges, barricades, etc) while driving, it's just a single button press, but it does require good timing because you need to maintain LoS on what you're hacking and stay in a set range of the hacked item.  One of the things that makes it different from GTA is that if you're being chased by the cops you can break their LoS and find a alley to duck into.  Once in the alley, you can use the option where you hide in your car which allows Aiden to cut the engine and lay the seat back to hide.  Be careful, if you don't lose the cops, when they find you Aiden has to restart the car and that takes a couple seconds where the cops can get some shots in on you or surround your car.

Combat - Fairly easy to use controls, there's a weapon/tool wheel that's opened from one of the bumpers and you draw/holster from the other bumper.  You're able to take cover with a simple button press and you can run from one cover to another like in AC or Ghost Recon.  While most of the time you can either kill or incapacitate your opponent, incapacitation almost always gets you more XP.

Character Development - There's an RPG type skill tree that's broken down into Driving, Hacking, Combat and Crafting.  You start with the basics unlocked and as you progress in levels you unlock skill points that you can use to unlock skills.  Skills seem to range from 1-3 points to unlock (may require more for advanced skills) and I'm not sure if this will be like SKYRIM!!! where you won't get enough points to unlock all the skills.  I suggest playing around for 30-60 min to see how you play the game before using your skill points.  You should very easily learn if your more tank or more cerebral and that should help you on where to spend your points.



Missions/Story - So far the story has gotten me interested.  I'm not going to give away any spoilers, but the game hits the ground running, if you choose to plow thru the story.  If you want to roam around, you can use the Profiler option and look for potential crimes and choose whether or not to intervene (kinda like Persons of Interest). 



There's also chasing other hackers/players (in a couple different modes), and while I haven't come across them yet, there's additional side missions that you can complete.  All of this is on top of hitting all the "Hot Spots" around town.  This is like a sight seeing tour of the city where you "check in" at select landmarks and you can read about their claim to fame.  I'm not sure if there's anything else to the Hot Spots, but it's kinda need to learn about the city. 

The only "gripe" I have so far is that there are repeated missions where you have to access a CTOS station, find the guard with the access codes, and then hack the station to gain access to the neighborhood or to open something up (like in Husker's video).  That being said, the stations have been in various spots, with differing amounts of enemies and layouts, so they're different enough.  Also, while the video shows you going stealth, if you're fast enough and good enough you can take some serious fire power and plow thru many of these stations, especially if you use some hacks along the way.

NPC Interactions - The AI seems pretty good and the NPCs will call the cops if you start getting violent.  Also, I was roaming around town on foot and one guy recognized me (even when I wasn't causing mayhem) and he started to call the police.  I'm pretty sure this is based on your reputation level as to whether or not people will recognize and how they'll respond.  I do like that you can hack most people.  The easiest way to figure out how is to use the Profiler mode where your phone actively looks for things and people to hack.  This is a great way to make money since some of the people you hack you'll get their bank account info and you can pull small chunks of money from their accounts by accessing an ATM.  If you're in need of some quick cash, find an ATM in a busy area and start hacking people, you can pick up a couple grand in a matter of minutes, usually.

Overall - I'm pretty impressed with the game so far.  It has all of the fun of a GTA game, but it adds elements of Ghost Recon and AC and is different enough to make it stand on it's own.  I haven't really explored the city too much, but what I've seen so far I like.  There's everything from suburbs to city, so you can expect differing environments for your missions and shenanigans.  I think that anyone that likes GTA games will get into this and even those that like AC games should find the sneak and kill features to their liking.

Loving the game so far. Spent hours just trying to hack other players. Managed to completely hack 3 or 4 so far.

I'm digging the gang hideouts the most. Sneak in undetected and drop that banger. Justice!!!

The driving from in car is awesome to me. The dash and A pillar is kinda fuzzy like its out of focus. Honestly, I think that effect should be used a little in Forza. The faster you go, the fuzzier the dash gets.

I'm struggling with the Criminal Convoys. Those side missions are a B!TCH.

Watch Dogs is a wonderful sandbox game so far. Right up my alley and no mutha fuggin zombies.

I'm about 70% decided to get this game.  I just don't have the time that I used to, to play through games.  I have about three games that I need to finish, so I'll probably get through those before I make any more game purchases.  Watch Dogs is definitely near or at the top for the next game to get.

Not much more to add than what's already been said.  Played a couple hour last night and think it's a very good game so far even though I only played like 2 main missions.  In games like this I constantly get sidetracked and end up playing for hours on secondary stuff, lol.

The one thing I don't like is the inability to choose who you want to go up against in the MP aspect.  What if I want to pop into one of my friends games and try to hack them?  Can't do it.  That's not a big deal but thought we'd be able to do that for some reason.

All in all, very glad I bought it.

Yeah that would be cool husker. I sort of thought that was in there with the demo video they showed. I am hating not getting this from gamefly and this weeks pay check went in one hand and right oh the other. Maybe in two weeks I'll have the money in that one. 
I've been watching some videos and it looks good

Couple quickies...
Does anyone actually have a physical disc or did everyone just D/L?
If so, how long does a download take approx.?

Right now I am looking at picking this up next Friday (digitally) if all goes well.  I ended up doing a big house project this week so all my moniez went away  

S7 K1ll3rKlown wrote:Couple quickies...
Does anyone actually have a physical disc or did everyone just D/L?
If so, how long does a download take approx.?

I really have no idea how long it would take.  The DL is about 20GB so you should be able to narrow the time down depending on your connection.

With that in mind though, you can start playing at 5%.  I started my DL when I came home for lunch yesterday and at 5% it said it was ready to go but I didn't play until I got back from work later on.

Here's a good site to estimate how long it will take...

Download time calculator

With my connection it most likely took a little less than an hour @ 55Mb/s.

very shocked how much the graphics have been down graded  since E3

OneBadHuskerFan wrote:Not much more to add than what's already been said.  Played a couple hour last night and think it's a very good game so far even though I only played like 2 main missions.  In games like this I constantly get sidetracked and end up playing for hours on secondary stuff... All in all, very glad I bought it.

Kinda my thoughts.  I've played like half a dozen missions and then I started tooling around like in GTA to see what kind of shenanigans I can get into.  It's tons of fun to try and flip speeding car by activating the barricades as they roll over them or speeding along and jumping hacked bridges.  Not to mention it's fun to mete out vigilante justice on random people that try to commit crimes.

pickin it up today....headed out of town so will not be able to actually play until next week....looks good so far

Was just walking down the street really just doing nothing for a change and just beside me you could hear the screeching of tires and a second or so later BAM a car stopped at a stop sign got slammed in the rear by an SUV.  Both drivers got out and started yelling at each other.  It's this kind of stuff that just sucks me into this game more and more.

There's a ton of stuff going on that you can easily miss if you don't sometimes just take a bit of time to just walk around and enjoy the scenery.

Just don't look into those reflective windows all around the city. 

They don't quite reflect what maybe they should

S7 OC wrote:Just don't look into those reflective windows all around the city. 

They don't quite reflect what maybe they should

??huh?? what else do they reflect?

From what I have read and seen in videos it they all reflect random intersections not say you walking or driving by or what is actually there. I don't have the game to confirm this but check it out.

S7 K1ll3rKlown wrote:

S7 OC wrote:Just don't look into those reflective windows all around the city. 

They don't quite reflect what maybe they should

??huh?? what else do they reflect?

One example...

What in the ?  

S7 K1ll3rKlown wrote:What in the ?  

its easier on the mind if you dont think about it lol

It's easier on the developer if no one finds out about it....LOL

so got a free copy  of it .... and ya happy  it was a free copy would not pay for it to broken

You never cease to amaze me Sticky.

I think broken is a bit of exaggeration.
Played over a dozen hours with minimal issues.

S7 Zalacious wrote:I think broken is a bit of exaggeration.
Played over a dozen hours with minimal issues.

I agree.  There are things that are sometimes annoying/glitched/bugged/whatever, but so far I've not experienced anything even remotely close to broken.  At least not yet.

might not be bad on the console  but on pc  idk E3 made it look EPIC   now that they killed it  the graphic it looks rushed and un finished

but the store is ok but i would say rent it