Its characters relate to each other more in geek sci-fi references and cheesy one-liners than in anything that actually reveals to us who they are and what makes them tick, so it’s hard to get invested in their struggle and their relationships with each other. This is a by-the-numbers open-world game with mediocre gunplay and systems that interact so erratically that all you can do is try to manage them well enough to complete your objective and get out alive.Īs important as it is that games give us heroes and supporting characters who break from the long-established molds, there’s more to great characterization than simply ticking off a few boxes on a diversity checklist, and Watch Dogs 2 falls short here. In games with precise combat, the prospect of a significant setback can raise the stakes, encouraging you to master the mechanics and making your victories all the more rewarding.
Of course, sometimes it’s a strength when a game punishes you for failure. It was passive and often tedious, but it got the job done. The core of my strategy was hanging back, hacking into the building’s security systems, and picking off the enemies who could call for reinforcements one by one by forging criminal records and having the police come in and arrest or kill them.
This makes sense in a game that wants you to use your hacker abilities to tackle the situations you’re faced with, but because failure in this game can be so punishing and send you back so far, I tended to complete most missions using the same tactic.