Partridge Senpai's 2017 Beaten Games:
1. Tales of Hearts R (Vita)
2. UPPERS (Vita)
3. Volume (Vita)
4. Overlord: Minions (DS)
5. Kirby: Planet Robobot (3DS)
6. Overlord II (PS3)
7. Overlord: Dark Legend (Wii)
8. La-Mulana (Remake) (PC)
9. Infamous: Second Son (PS4)
10. htol#NiQ: The Firefly Diary (Vita)
11. Blood Bowl (360)
12. Dead to Rights: Retribution (360)
13. Bioshock Infinite (360)
14. Bioshock Infinite: Burial At Sea Part 1 (360)
15. Bioshock Infinite: Burial at Sea Part 2 (360)
16. Singularity (360)
17. Seifuku Densetsu Pretty Fighter X (Saturn)
18. Ultraman: Hikari No Kyojin Densetsu (Saturn)
19. Donkey Kong 64 (N64) (repeat)
20. Song of the Deep (PS4)
21. Naruto Gekitou Ninja Taisen 3 (GCN)
22. Banjo-Tooie (N64) (repeat)
23. Wario Land (VB)
24. Yakuza HD Edition (PS3)
25. Yakuza 2 HD Edition (PS3)
26. Vanquish (PS3)
27. Watchdogs 2 (PS4)
Heard some raving about this on the Podquisition podcast last week, and they really sold it to me. Add that in with how I was able to get it for just over 20 bucks at the local resale store in the middle of last week. HOoooly crap was it worth it. For the record it took me about 40 or 50 hours to get through it on normal mode. I did every main and side mission along with the Zodiac Killer DLC. I also did not play the multiplayer at all, as it didn't interest me (and I also don't have PS plus, but things like getting invaded and bounty hunted are still things even if you don't pay for online (but you can turn them off like I did really easy)).
These GTA-style game has been done so well before that newer entries in this genre live and die by their theme and story telling. Watchdogs 1 had the theme, but fell SO hard on the storytelling part (or so I've been told). The sequel seems to have learned from all the complaints about the first game and really made a quality sequel.
The theme and narrative this time along goes for a much more Saints Row 3-style approach, and it's much to the game's benefit. It never reaches quite that level of 4th wall breaking or insanity, but it's somewhere between Watchdogs 1 and Saints Row 3. I have some minor complaints about the pacing of the story, but that's a potential problem in any game like this. There's also one main character who kiiinda feels like they were thrown in near the end of the writing phase given all of the story content they just don't feature in for some reason, but that's a minor complaint. The story itself was really well told, though. There's also A LOT of really surprisingly well implemented representation of various minority groups, which I also greatly appreciated. Not enough games seem to have that now a days. The dialogue is so nerdy and silly. It gave me a very Saints Row feel in that regard. There were many a goof that had me in stitches laughing. The characters are all very vibrant, unique, and funny. MUCH more so when compared to the boring pile of tar that was the first game's protagonist.
The gameplay is somewhere between GTA and Infamous, which I suuuper dug. There are no control points around the city like in Saints Row or Infamous, but instead missions you can do to progress the story (or just side stories) a lot like GTA. However, like Infamous, as you do things you can earn XP to level up and gain skill points to put into a tech tree. You can even find these level-up points scattered around the map in places a lot like Infamous. Honestly I had tons of fun in the 20-ish hours I spent JUST wandering around the map looking for goodies. San Francisco looks amazing, and it was just so much fun to drive around and see all the sights.
The gameplay is very GTA V-ish, but a bit closer to Saints Row. Markus also feels like he controls a lot tighter than the "more realistic" movement of the GTA V characters. You can climb up buildings a lot, but you're no Cole Mcgrath: Your climbing skils are much more like that of a normal fairly fit guy. It's got gunplay like Saints Row/GTA but your hacking powers feel a lot like Infamous, which is why I use those two games as a comparison to this one so often. You also have a little flying drone and a jumping RC car-thing which you can use for doing anything from distracting enemies, to setting up traps to stealthing past enemies. I played the game mostly stealthily, as it felt more appropriate for the narrative (and my play-style because I don't aim well on a controller), but there are a time or two where you're forced to take things very head-on with action. Using the RC-car and drone in tandem to set up traps and to activate cars and bombs to fuck with people just never got old though. It was always such a refreshing puzzle in a new location: It's a really well crafted stealth game in that regard, though it can be played actiony as well. I did a lot of the non-story repeatable missions (which you can do online co-op in but I did solo) just because I loved that stuff so much.
Verdict: Highly Recommended. If you like GTA-style open-world-in-a-city games, you will definitely like Watchdogs 2. Perhaps you won't adore it as much as I did, but this is definitely one of my favorite games I've played in this genre, right up there with Saints Row 3 and Infamous 2.