It’s interesting to compare the mission in the club here versus what they showed off at the original E3 reveal.
I can see what they were going for in the E3 reveal trailer, even watching it back now. There’s this very clear sense of progression from the club infiltration, to baiting a staffer into calling the boss, to sending a message by killing the owner, making sure to save civilians along the way.
It’s obvious that at some point the script was rewritten and Joseph DeMarco was no longer an important character. There’s nothing wrong with that. However, this mission makes it seem like Defalt only exists so that we can make use of this club in the final game. His first mention is in Act 3, where he is mentioned in passing. He presents himself as an obstacle at the end of Act 3, but we then defeat him very early into Act 4. Defalt exits the story about as quickly as he entered it.
I get the feeling that this game suffered the Uncharted 3 problem. They had developed all of the missions and level layouts first, and then wrote the story around those missions. It’s the only way I can explain all of the filler we see in the middle of the game. It’s why I almost forgot about the revenge story halfway through when I first played Watch_Dogs.
I dislike filler, and I dislike how it really hurt this game.
First off, I am very aware of how awful the audio quality was for this session. Sam’s equipment started acting up, and there’s not much we could’ve done to fix it.
You’re not supposed to think about the logistics of having an army of underprivileged, troubled youths in full military gear. However, I think that’s a good question to bring up. Not just because it’s implausible, but because it also raises to subsequent question of why did Ubisoft do this. We already have a group of mercenaries called fixers, so we didn’t need another excuse to have armed and armored enemies. On top of that, it’s downright painful to see these tropes and stereotypes invoked without any real attention being called to them.
Strap in and buckle up, ladies and gentleman, because this is only going to get worse. Just wait until we actually start talking about Iraq. I’m genuinely impressed at how awful this upcoming section of the game is.
Firstly, I must apologize for how long this episode has been in the making for. There were compounding issues with this episode.
As we explained in the video, our original footage for this episode was incomplete. My audio got recorded, yet Sam’s didn’t. That is what caused the re-recording.
Then, as Sam went to start editing, his motherboard in his computer needed replacement. This set us back an additional week, on top of his real life obligations.
So, there you have it. We hope that this doesn’t happen too often, but it would be naive to expect nothing but perfection from our setup. With that said, today’s episode:
I honestly cannot see what the point of this jailbreak mission is. There is not a single thing this game does, either narrative or mechanically, with the premise of a jailbreak in a CT_OS controlled city.
On the narrative front, the only reason we are doing this jail mission is because someone in prison saw us as we unleashed a terrorist attack upon a stadium full of unsuspecting citizens. Therefore, we must threaten him into silence. We’re not doing this for a friend or to accomplish some other vital objective inside the jail. This mission exists purely to add a jailbreak level in the game. In terms of the story, we could eliminate the set-up, the mission itself, and the end without breaking any other plot element. It is filler in the most obvious sense.
But that could be forgiven if the game did anything interesting mechanically with this mission. However, that’s not the case either. Our biggest, most important tool in this game are the hacks made possible with Aiden’s cell phone. It is the basis for much of the gameplay, and gives us our omnipotence in the world. Yet instead of exploring how Aiden Pearce can manage without this tool, we get it back before we get control again and happen to end up in the only jail in the entire state that has CT_OS installed on it, which is other element needed for hacking.
This could also be an interesting non-combat mission, focusing primarily on stealth and staying undetected. That could also work, yet we are given a gun extremely quickly, and blast our way out with brute force. In other words, Ubisoft went out of their way to make this section virtually indistinguishable of most of the other missions in the games.
The only positive I can give it is that it delays the complete bullshit that is Damien Brenks, if only for about 10 minutes. I really can’t stress enough how pointless his addition to the plot is. In the entire game, Damien may be the only person who deserves to get killed the moment Aiden Pearce comes into contact with him.
He adds nothing to this story. We have a hacker (Clara) who already gives us an easy way out to explain how Aiden Pearce can learn whatever fact we need him to for whatever story beat we have cooked up. Furthermore, we have no need to motivate Aiden into seeking revenge, because his entire character is about his inability to stop seeking revenge.
And remember, at the end of the day, this entire plot happened because someone’s niece died, and his former partner-in-crime (literally) had his leg broken.
As I stated in my last post, today marks the start of the new season of Interactive Friction, covering Watch_Dogs. But before we get to the game proper, Sam had the idea to do an episode talking about the initial E3 reveal.
The point here was to outline what we expected from the final product after watching this trailer. Hopefully, this should give more context to many of the points we will be making throughout the season.
What I find most interesting is just how different Aiden Pearce is here compared to the actual game. Even though it sounds like the same actor, he sounds so much better without the gravely voice. He’s also noticeably more personality is these few minutes than he does for most of the story in the main game. It makes me wonder exactly why Ubisoft changed him around so much. Do they legitimately think that the asshole in the main game is more palatable than the man from the trailer? Is that really what focus testers said?
There are many other differences, some subtle and others more overt, that are really obvious in hindsight. I’m curious as to what everyone else though when they saw this, as I suspect Sam and I are far from the only ones who felt as we did.
The actual game will start on the next update. Stay tuned, internet-goers!
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