Watch Dogs may have sold a hacktastic amount of copies this year, but the game itself wasn’t exactly perfect. Watch Dogs had quite a few chinks in the armour that prevented an otherwise decent game from soaring to new heights. Money talks however, and you can bet that a sequel is on the way in that universe. A sequel that has some ‘radical’ ideas for fixing certain problems.
“We had a lot of flaws in the replayability of gameplay loops and you could feel that the game was a first iteration”, Ubisoft Montreal vice president of creative Lionel Raynaud said to CVG, comparing the game to the first Assassin’s Creed.
At the time, there was clear potential but it was not easy to know it was going to become the franchise that it is today. It’s the same thing with Watch Dogs: it was difficult to do everything at the right level, which is why we took more time. The time we took was definitely useful – it allowed us to release the game without compromises and do everything that we wanted.
We also kept parts of the game we felt didn’t fit with the original for the sequel.
So what did work well in the game then? That would be the core sandbox elements that gave players free rein, gameplay mechanics that Raynaud wants to see more of in the potential sequel. “There are flaws, obviously. We absolutely want to tackle these flaws and surprise players, and the way to tackle some of those flaws is going to be quite radical. There are parts of the game that will need to change,” Raynaud said.
We have this ambition to have games that are worlds with systems that offer more agency and freedom for players, that allow them to discover the world in the way they want. We want them to be less narrative or character driven and more creative, with more choices for the player.
This is quite a high ambition and will require us to develop technologies that we didn’t have for Watch Dogs 1, but this combined with fixing and refining what worked well is probably the way to go for Watch Dogs 2.
Personally, I’d like to see them fix the biggest flaw in the game: namely Aiden’s stock-standard stoic protagonist personality, and give the game a hero we can get behind.
Last Updated: September 23, 2014
Alien Emperor Trevor
September 23, 2014 at 11:11
Let’s hope so. There was a pretty big step up between AC1 & 2.
Ceyber, Hans
September 23, 2014 at 12:18
Remember the overall jump Darksiders made?
THQ characterized Death bloody well.
RinceThis
September 23, 2014 at 12:19
Loved that game so much!
Ceyber, Hans
September 23, 2014 at 12:26
Running up and down got tiresome but I still couldn’t put it down. That story (nevermind graphic style, substance, & general quality) was simply too captivating.
A gem that’s always worthy of praise.
Either that or my nostalgia’s in overdrive today.
Johan du Preez
September 23, 2014 at 13:43
After seeing how they gimped the pc graphics, why would you want to support that even more ?
Alien Emperor Trevor
September 23, 2014 at 14:05
Because it’s a storm in a tea cup.
Hammersteyn
September 23, 2014 at 11:13
Up the ante, let us use tablets.
Jonah Cash
September 23, 2014 at 11:20
Liked the game, had no problem with Aiden… Would love a sequel!!
vicky john
September 23, 2014 at 15:16
Ya no problem with Aiden. But disappointed with car controls…
Anon A Mouse
September 23, 2014 at 11:21
Still have to play Watchdogs, there has been a nice decline in the price in the last month or so, after a few months more when I need to get a new game I’ll pick it up.
Spaffy
September 23, 2014 at 12:25
It’s worth getting. Just wasn’t all it was supposed to be.
Peet Luckhoff
September 23, 2014 at 11:43
If the sequel to original ratio is anything like AC, I would buy Watchdogs 2 in a second.
Corrie Botha
September 23, 2014 at 11:57
Please, Pleeeease fix the damn hack mechanic, seriously I thought I bought a Press Q to do everything simulator, I understand they can’t make over complicated but at least be informative and truer to the real thing
Otherwise stealth and gunplay were good, story felt a little too open at the end.
RinceThis
September 23, 2014 at 12:12
Guy is about as deep as a spoonful of bile.
ScubaSteve
September 23, 2014 at 12:37
What ? Hope there will be better story and gameplay. I got bored after 2nd section opened up and ooops I have not continued
OVGrounded new game+++
September 23, 2014 at 12:49
PASS.
Jedi Consular Kromas
September 23, 2014 at 13:30
Yep.
Johan du Preez
September 23, 2014 at 13:41
Yup after the joke that was Watch Dogs with ps4 graphics I wrote Ubisoft off.
Mossel
September 23, 2014 at 13:32
I hope they go the route of Nineteen Eighty-Four. That would make it really intense.