I loved this video and I'm becoming obsessed with your channel. However, I do have one correction. FC5 was not set in the American south. Far from it. Infact, the state it takes place in borders Canada.
"Please don't accuse us of having an opinion" is such a perfect summary. This analysis was great, and I enjoyed how you tied in the actual controversial events the game was trying to capitalize on without having to do something drastic like maybe making a someone feel uncomfortable.
"Are you okay? you've been hunch walking through the office all day and havent once stopped for coffee or the restroom, Janet's crying in the supply closet because you didnt say hi, and your wife says you never went home last night."
I am gonna justify this one thing. If you're at work. Work sucks. If your co worker is having a day off and they WILLINGLY come in on full uniform. Somethings up. Lmao
I mean, you get love in other ways. Gundam destroys Sidney in the very first scene of the first series, actually getting to name the trope of Colony Drop after that moment.
@@charaznable8072 To be fair, Inside Job says that they actually believe that if you fall off the edge it somehow wraps back around and dumps them in Australia....also given I made a Gundam reference, quite appropriate to have Char commenting on it.
Please can we get a Ubisoft game based on the Emu war. I would unirocaly play the hell out of that. Hell we can even have a tower system where instead of revealing a map it instead reveals radio messages sent by Cobra... Erm Emu commander.
Hell yea and for some reason Ubisoft hate that game and have actively tried to prevent people from playing it. Before they took it off their online store for the first time in 2012 I bought it and instead of getting the game I got a apology message and instant refund. True story lol
It really isn't. After having replayed it this year I realized that the gimmick essentially boils down to either grabbing a car and making a head on collision or grabbing a car to get closer to the objective. It becomes nauseating after a couple of hours. The idea is indeed fun, but the execution severely lacked in that game.
This and Jacob Geller's Modern Warfare video are my go-to examples of video game companies being so afraid of being ""woke"" and ""PC"" they end up shitting themselves with the messages of their games. Amazing video
I dont think Legion is afraid to be woke, I think that they are just subtle with it. I found a character that was "male" but had womans clothes. Ots a subtle way to say the world is changing and Ibisoft embraces its changes in its game design
This is fantastic, so glad I found your channel! Glad you covered Ubisoft’s awful handling of the sexual assaults that happened within their company, as well as how ridiculously apolitical they try to be while making games centered around current political events.
Hey appreciate it! Thanks for the comment. After Jim Sterling talking about how frustrating it is to see Ubi games covered without referencing the abuse I figured it was needed.
As an American, yes Farcry 5's pissed me off. They pussyfoot around real issues, send out clearly politically charged advertising, then just release a game that tries to "no-side" everything. All so they can maximize profits (which they don't pay taxes on) while claiming to be neutral.
they also made the damn crazy cult leader right for some reason. immediately stopped playing once i figured out what they were doing and i actually like far cry 5 almost as much as primal. far cry games are boring to me but faith seed and her weird drug induced plot line actually made me interested.
So, would you cover the other Watch Dogs games? The realistic take on the fantasy of vigilantism, the attempt to cope with trauma and move on, the insecurity-based search for power, the way the series goes from personal vendetta to semi-social activist to full on activism?
I've never played the Watch Dogs series, but you still kept my attention the whole 2+ hours. Loved the mix of game analysis and political commentary--very well done!
Yeah Watch Dogs 2 is actually a good game.. you can "pacifist" your way through it by using non lethal guns and calling other gang members or cops to take out your targets.. I had so much fun with the game..
Man, I love these super long videos. There's so much depth to the thoughts you have concerning the way games can impact the world in a real sense, and I simply can't get enough
Hit all the nails on the head. I know it’s been ages but I am crazy curious to hear your long form thoughts on the dlc featuring Wrench and Aiden. I loved it. Felt like a different game at times JUST because there was a defined main character. Also school of rock? Incredible taste
Personally, I think the game is way better when you play as either Aiden, Wrench, or roleplay as the pig guy on all the box art. It doesn't fix all of Legion's problems, but it does give you a real fleshed out character to play as, and less pressure on playing human vehicles
Dude, I mean mate, you've hit all the right points about what this game got wrong. I've seen no one else talking about this. Instead most players are are turning a blind eye to the fact that the story sucks because they only care about multiplayer. You got just a few things wrong in regards to Skye's AI systems going rogue and Sabine's plan. Both the Hospital and Cab Driver AI were edited copies of those professionals' minds. Skye did to them what she did to her mother and brother. The whole point of the game is to gather "upgrades" for Sabine. She controls us around as her personal tools to get everything from the AR reconstruction tech to the THEMIS program, going through Skye's data so she could merge everything into Bagley to make him the ultimate random killing machine. I guess it's a poor way of escalating on the example set by Raymond Kenney when he caused the Balckout in Chicago when the first ctOS was implemented. He was trying to show that the system was flawed from the start but it didn't work. Worse still, 11 people died. Ray regrets that. Sabine's plan seem to mimic his in the intent, but with much worse in the collateral damage part. She is definely a terrorist and it's a shame we get bossed around by a character like her the whole game just for it to end like that
I would love to see an immersive sim Watch Dogs like it was clearly always meant to be. Like Hitman except with hacking things instead of killing people.
as someone who has been desperately searching youtube for long form content about video games (more specifically horror games but this is brilliant too) i am so happy i found your channel. the amount of times i have legitimately searched "video essays about horror games" on youtube is embarrassing and yeah i get that this isn't a horror game but it's still amazing commentary and yeah i'm gonna be here for a while lmao
Did anyone honestly expect Ubisoft to deliver a nuanced political take? It’s like going into a McDonalds and being upset that the food is cheap unhealthy garbage
This was an excellent video, Monty Zander. I highly doubt you and I have the same politics, but it's always great to see a video essay that so adeptly communicates these types of critiques with video games, especially ones like Ubisoft which go out of their way to latch onto some political or social gimmick, especially in their marketting. I think Legion could have benefitted from embracing a faction system where players are given the option to side with Albion or DedSec, and champion their respective factions across the map. I think there is something narratively wasteful about locking players into some designated "good guy" faction (in this case, DedSec) in a story about murder, hacking, the invasion of privacy, and dubious characters and factions whose loyalty you cannot be certain of. Just my two cents.
That would have been an interesting idea. I still think the only game I've played where the binary choice system worked was Geneforge, and that's because the choice was 'Support the Authoritarian Mages who run the society with biological golems' or 'Support the rebellion, where those golems are trying to overthrow society...to install dragons as the new autocratic dictators over all'. It's well done because both are evil, and both are good, in part because they're organizations. You see that throughout that series. Here, you could have done something similar. The head of deadsec is a pure anarchist, and wants to 'Bring Down the Man', that is, pure anarchy, no government at all, while the head of Albion is...well, the guy we got. But beneath them are those doing things for other reasons. Deadsec has people trying to save others, Albion has officers that live up to their ideals, and even jump in the way of bullets to save civilians. On the opposite side, there's a member of Deadsec specifically trying to steal a certain amount of money, not for any reason, they're not taking it, they're just burning it because that's the joke. Meanwhile there's a member of Deadsec falsifying paperwork in order to steal the heirlooms from religious sites and stuff, to sell to the highest bidder. And you're in the middle of that. Both groups, you have to accept the good with the bad, as you are a member of them, and can't...choose for them. Hell, you should BE Baggly in this, the control should be justified in universe as you giving the objectives, and 'playing' as them through implants or a headset.
Ah yes Ubisoft, "We don't want to be political..." while trying to strip mine almost every major historical movement good and ill as a game hub....*Sighs in former assassins creed fan*
It's interesting to think that the "play as anyone" doesn't work to create connections to the characters here. I mean, yes, they're husks. But so are the soldiers in X-COM Enemy Unknown or X-COM 2 War of the Chosen. They are randomly generated and you can customize them. And if you keep them alive, you grow attached to them, especially if they somehow survive a terrible situation or if they pull victory from the jaws of defeat for you. Why doesn't this happen here? Do the operatives in this game advance in any way? Like the light RPG elements that the X-COM games have? It sounds like they remain static and therefore interchangeable - whereas a husk that grows and develops alongside you and becomes more important to your success, well, you'll care more about them.
As a factory worker, the worst part about brexit was when my English colleagues were cheering about turning away foreigners; half the staff were European, from Poland usually, and they were our friends. My colleagues didn't grasp that they were trying to get rid of our friends. And a good portion of those European staff left, meaning we all had to work much harder. The young English lads hired as replacements were, generally, lazy, entitled and difficult to train.
Uff, also imagine characters like on board becaus ethey are mad their friends got deported. As, sad and unnessesary and , sad thatr is, uff Like imagine the gamre covered that ersonal stories, that could be amazing, in a game, about brexit?! As sad that a party went through several premiers to, do brexit of all things :( it could make important stotytelling :( just add how people get deported and , How could a brexit game not have that human.:( While its probably , like if the game already gets overly dramatic, do that shocking human instead. I know its bad enough that what happens, but for a game going to the logical conclusions fully , as much as its really, bad, i mean it could have been very human deportation stories?
Man I loved your critique because you hit the nail on the head for me. Thankfully I didn't buy it myself but I pity my friend who was dumb enough to preorder the game. anyway love your videos and just commenting for the algorithm because you deserve a bigger platform in my opinion.
I would like to note that at 10:54, Far Cry 5 is actually set in the american north, the very far north, touching canada - mucking things up even further, politically speaking in relation to ubisoft's apolitical political nonstatements
I seriously cannot believe your channel has so few views. I catch myself being surprised at the 3 digit view numbers every time. You have the quality and depth in your videos of channels that are so much larger. Keep it up and you'll do incredibly well. Love all your stuff Monty. Do you have a patreon account?
You know what I find hilarious? People thought this game was so bad that Ubisoft had to not only release it on Steam two years later after bad-mouthing the platform, but they also had to pay influencers to play it and say good things about it.
They could of have Sky Larson ans Sabine working together using clan kellu and albion to steal key people to test her Project Daybreak. They could of left Brexit in the background and Cass as a evil neutral rather than maim antagonist
I think irs a parody of the winston Churchill quote about how if someone is not left when they are young theh have no heart and are not conservative when they are old the have no head
@@madelynspindle8797 The quote Im remembering is one I saw in a COD game Im sure. It was from Putin funny enough, “Whoever does not miss the Soviet Union has no heart. Whoever wants it back has no brain.” Not sure which COD it was, I think an older one from the early 2000s but I could be wrong. It was one of those quotes that pop up when you die in single player
“Didn’t expect… Jimmy Johns”. Ad came on right at that moment. I was listening to the video in the background and seriously thought that was a plot twist and the game, in the end, was actually all about the evils of the fast food industry.
I loved this video, but I think you got the ending a little off, not that I can blame you, I'm not entirely sure what happens and the way I perceived it is no less stupid in execution than what you saw. Sabine helped Cass with the bombing for Filament codes. He reneged on the deal so she reformed Dedsec to lead them into getting the Filament codes for her (and all the other tech they nabbed). It's really roundabout and convoluted either way.
@@MontyZander playing Legion made me realize that i like WD2 a lot more than i thought I did. As you point out in the video, the level design is so much more thoughtful and there are some very effective story/character beats. At the time of playing it originally I think I let myself get put off by the negatives without appreciating the positives.
It's a Ubisoft product... That's was enough for me. They have a very efficient assembly line production for gameplay, just as much as Activision with COD. Rote and boring basically since AC2, with a few notable exceptions which are well regarded, but those are rare like Black Flag.
The Sky Larsen choice is explained away after the mission anyway because if you keep her alive the company decides to shut down the cloud right after You catch a news report saying they are shutting it down
The RUclips algorithm is failing if it took this long for me to discover your page. You are a phenomenal talent and I'm looking forward to watching your entire catalog multiple times.
Another quality video. I don't often have the time to fully watch most of your videos, but I wanted to leave a comment nonetheless. I particularly enjoyed the political commentary. I think it adds something to the video that a more typical critique wouldn't. I would say keep up the good work, but at the rate you pump these out, I don't think you need my encouragement. Best of luck with the channel.
As vapid as I'm quite sure the new Watchdogs title is, Monty Zander still manages to squeeze 2-1/4 hrs of content from it. Quite masterful in my humble opinion
First 2 minutes watching and I was already comparing this game to how far cry 5 made me feel here in the US, then a few minutes later you bring it up lol
Why would you sidestep politics if you are inspired by politics? They just wanted to use hot topics to sell their games? It clearly didn't work. Games have to be about something!!! Plot ?themes? How does the gameplay tie into it all? Of course these games were gonna fail.
42:57 I think a response system like in Cyberpunk 2077, where the outcome doesn't change much but the dialogue itself changes on depending on your response would work well in this system. I mean, it would still strip the NPCs of their personalities, but you could at least dictate something to them.
Yea my mum is a nurse in the nhs so both me and her got covid first few months even now she’s still being underpaid even though she’s been working there for decades
Your points on the 'play as anyone' feature reminds me of a pretty major issue with the pre-written "Beyond the Mountains of Madness" campaign for the Call of Cthulhu TTRPG. If your group is playing the campaign as-written, there are multiple situations in the beginning and middle of the campaign that--should none of the players in the game be able to find their solution--essentially involve waiting for an NPC to solve problems for the players. Despite the entire campaign taking place from the perspective of the player characters, a lot of your agency is taken away because the campaign wants things to progress a certain way. I think it really highlights the failure of procedural content. Experiences like this tend benefit the most from tailored content for the participants rather than generic, non-committal ones. And it's extremely challenging for procedural systems like this to be anything other than generic and non-committal without quickly falling to pieces.
What I hate the most about this game (besides all of the obvious) is that it went full futuristic. WD1's setting was just Chicago, there were no crazy robots, no flying bots, no bs. WD1's premise was that it wasn't a "dark future", it was a dark present. Absolutely no technology in WD1 is fictional, everything exists in the real world. The premise is "what if Google was given control of a city's infrastructure". That's it.
Great video, agree with a lot of your points. I'd recommend if possible that you go back and check out the Bloodline DLC for Legion. Actually having a 'Main Character' removes all the problems with the APC system, and provides some pretty interesting story beats. Not much changes from a gameplay point of view, still loads of 'hang around hacking the thing' bits (and they give the spider drone the ability to fly), but I think much more what the game would have been if they'd let you play as Nowt or something.
just came across your channel man on a comedown and hungover and its genuinely incredible content I finally got watchdogs Ultimate Edition on sale for like £30 on ps5 the other week and it turns out the games only decent with Aiden pierce or Wrench!!! also Aiden should've been younger then 55 lol
Stormzy! I stumbled across his music on Spotify and have been hooked since. I try not to learn to much about artists whose works I like unless their tools. But It’s nice to know that he is actually a good person.
When creepy anorak stalker and personality black hole Aiden Pierce from Watchdogs has more agency and charisma than the entire cast of your the third game, *combined*, then you know you dun goofed.
Im only in part 3 but I already noticed something you said about how the story requires you to play multiple people. This was done before, back in 2015 with Metal Gear Solid 5, you could recruit, play, and get upgrades depending on the people you meet in the field while also having a single main character! This could've worked if they potentially made it like a strategy game with base building! Plus they could add characters based on Aidens playstyle and Marcus and this could've led into the DLC where we play as Aiden and Wrench
My one point of hype i got when playing this game was hearing Architects on the radio. Except it wasn't a car radio, but outside a store. And the song isn't included in the songs you can buy/unlock/whatever. So I couldn't even have good music while driving....
I love the presentation of the video, but I strongly disagree when it comes to the gameplay loop, never have I felt limited when approaching the objectives in the game, despite how boring the objectives are. I finished the single player 3 times already in hard / permadeath mode and I mostly don't end up being in a "third person shooter" scenario, as I'm able to either hack my way in or stealth my way in.
im not even british so i dont know if what im about to say makes total sense, but i always cringed, like HARD, when seeing the new british flag in watch dogs legion, like ''oh now that brexit is a thing we are just gonna highlight the english part of the flag and put it above the rest'' its so unsubttle i dont know how it can be taken seriously, but the folks at ubisoft probably think they are creating some nuanced velibable narrative
18:57 - I’m glad IO Interactive will be making the next bond title instead of the uninspired sleazy creeper that is Ubisoft. Ubisoft has never made anything half as compelling and polished as the new Hitman trilogy, except for maybe the first couple assassins creed from way back in 2007.
The whole point of Watchdogs was a reasonable “what if?” Like what if a big tech company (like google) wanted to hyper-survey a city to harvest their data and personal space for profit? That was grounded and reasonable. Watchdogs 2 was the same but now less interesting than 1 (in my opinion) with worse writing but it built on hacking and mission options. Why is Legion full of full body holograms and human consciousness-AI??? I knew this game was going to flop because without a main protagonist, who do you root for? ZombiU (now know as just Zombi) had a system like Legion’s since when you died, you just became another character. I dont know if it had any sort of impact on player stats, but it did exist.
Imagine if the game was about how a fascist state forms, how propaganda plays the masses, the role of the media, how both sides always think they are right, how things in life are never binary AND had the hacking of Uplink (or comparable titles), which actually make you feel like you are hacking something. I'd sell my mum for an open world game with actual immersive sim (computer) systems which can be exploited and hacked. And OK, let the players who don't want to hack explode and shoot their way through, just, instead of adding useless **** minigames and melee combat, do a proper hacking simulation in your HACKING game. Thank you for listening to my TED talk.
Hey bro I've been watching a lot of long-form video essays on video games (niche RUclips let's get it) and I just need you to know how much I enjoyed this one. Your voice was really unique in your perspective on this game, it was really refreshing. I loved the Bloodborne vid you made, but your take on this game had a rawness and (if you'll excuse the term) vulnerability I haven't seen enough from this format. Imma keep watching through your other stuff but like, I couldnt watch this joint and not send my best regards
Hey mate so this is your first video I’ve watched and man am I glad I’ve found this channel! It’s not very often that a 2h video captures my attention for its entirety but this was just fantastic. I really appreciate your brexit commentary - as someone from Poland I had no idea of how it all actually went down but hearing your insight was very helpful in understanding why people chose what they chose. It also made me realize how many similarities can be found between the Brexit campaign and the 2020 presidential campaign in Poland. Your government using hatred towards immigrants as one of Brexit’s selling point is honestly parallel to our government using propaganda to spread hatred towards the LGBT community - even going as far as calling it “an organization” or “a danger to the catholic church” and referring to homosexuality as some sort of a disease Speaking of the game itself - I remember being very hyped for legion when it was first announced, to the point I even bought it on release day. I’ve played the game on the Xbox Series X and it run fine for the most part, the loading screens were very quick on an SSD and the ray tracing looked phenomenal - although 30fps was and still is the only option even on next generation consoles, which I find bullshit After spending about 21h with the game I can say that while the game did have potential it unfortunately didn’t fulfill it in the slightest. A lot of the features feel very unrefined - especially when compared to WD2. The play as anyone system felt fun for the first 5h but after that, the novelty ran off. I agree with what you said on the difficulty - some sequences felt like they weren’t play tested in the slightest, the “upload a virus to Themis” one being the worst offender. I remember kinda liking the story and some of the set pieces, like flying the microdrone or even climbing the big ben with a spiderbot, but the ending was shit and don’t even get me started on the Stormy mission. The Skye Larson quest line is obviously the highlight of the entire game and I also think that the ending side mission about Bagley’s true identity was very interesting albeit kinda depressing as well With all of that being said, I can’t wait to explore more of your videos. I’d also love to see you make this sort of a critique video on Cyberpunk 2077
Such a good explanation of why it was so disappointing. 1 had excellent story and good gameplay. 2 had excellent gameplay and good story. 3 had neither.
To be specific, Yahtzee Croshaw did not write Bagley's dialogue. He was hired to punch up the dialogue already written. What the difference was however, we can only speculate.
Wait what bloodborne video? I only see one bloodborne video and it's his gf playing it and it came out AFTER this video... where's the bloodborne critique? Someone link it please!
Thanks so much! Its honestly the one I've been most worried about. I'm wary of being on my soapbox a lot recently haha - seriously appreciate the kind words
So farcry five is pretty on the nose with its topics. As a montana resident, I can vouch that all you have to do is remove the mysticism, swap meth for the flowers, and increase the prevalence of guns to turn it into a documentary.
i love watch dogs but i think this my last one because they didnt put that much in this that put a Cyberpunk 2077 that announcement where they said they would put old characters from past games and that is how they got me they did aiden pearce wrong in watch dogs 2 it was a unplanned game where they had to wait after they failed with ghost recon breakpoint they delay the game and didnt make it better i follow this game before it come out and the play as anyone was fun until you start to see that your playing with people who dont know how to talk shop but now after you recruit people now they know about tech it made me head cannon it many times i have one more game until im done with ubisoft and thats far cry i been stop playing assassins creed back after rogue and after what they did to watch dogs i have to face facts and walk away from them and stop buying their games just like i did capcom so many years ago after RE6
I won't - especially after E3 this year I'm exhausted with Ubisoft. The Aiden and Wrench DLC could be the best thing they've ever made and I still wouldn't want to touch it at this point!
"the goal isn't to reflect on anything happenign in the real world" what's the point of telling a story then. what is the story even going to be about.
![Twenty One Pilots - The Line (from Arcane Season 2) [Official Audio]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/XCz7WUotXs8/mqdefault.jpg)
God dammit. I really missed a trick in making the letters of each part spell something.
Watch Dogs Legion is UDPSCLBE
So, we get another stay in Brexit poiltical jackass.
@@Elknkam true true
I loved this video and I'm becoming obsessed with your channel. However, I do have one correction. FC5 was not set in the American south. Far from it. Infact, the state it takes place in borders Canada.
UDPSCLBE: The feeling of being unable to escape a sinking ship that everyone claims is perfectly waterproof.
Is that in the Cat Dictionary?
"Please don't accuse us of having an opinion" is such a perfect summary. This analysis was great, and I enjoyed how you tied in the actual controversial events the game was trying to capitalize on without having to do something drastic like maybe making a someone feel uncomfortable.
Thanks! I appreciate it big time. I think I reworked this script half a dozen times because I was worried about that.
@Monty Zander shows you cared more than Ubisoft did
"it's only Political if Tom Clancy is involved.... but seeing as he's dead" Ubisoft, probably
Wait. You're telling me that your own coworkers are alerted when they see you at your job?! Who though that that's a good idea?
“Hey, you’re always slacking off usually. Something’s amiss.”
XD
YOU SLEPT WITH MY WIFE BOB,
*Pulls out Glock*
"Are you okay? you've been hunch walking through the office all day and havent once stopped for coffee or the restroom, Janet's crying in the supply closet because you didnt say hi, and your wife says you never went home last night."
I am gonna justify this one thing. If you're at work. Work sucks. If your co worker is having a day off and they WILLINGLY come in on full uniform. Somethings up. Lmao
I am suddenly so glad there's no Australian games outside heartfelt Indies
I mean, you get love in other ways. Gundam destroys Sidney in the very first scene of the first series, actually getting to name the trope of Colony Drop after that moment.
I bet you're also extremely happy flat earthers doesn't believe Australia even exist! At least you're free from those weirdos.
@@charaznable8072 To be fair, Inside Job says that they actually believe that if you fall off the edge it somehow wraps back around and dumps them in Australia....also given I made a Gundam reference, quite appropriate to have Char commenting on it.
Mad max
Please can we get a Ubisoft game based on the Emu war. I would unirocaly play the hell out of that. Hell we can even have a tower system where instead of revealing a map it instead reveals radio messages sent by Cobra... Erm Emu commander.
they already did the "play as anyone" gimmick in Driver: San Francisco, which is infinitely more enjoyable then any modern Ubi Game
Man. Driver. I forgot about Driver. Damn.
Hell yea and for some reason Ubisoft hate that game and have actively tried to prevent people from playing it. Before they took it off their online store for the first time in 2012 I bought it and instead of getting the game I got a apology message and instant refund. True story lol
It really isn't. After having replayed it this year I realized that the gimmick essentially boils down to either grabbing a car and making a head on collision or grabbing a car to get closer to the objective. It becomes nauseating after a couple of hours. The idea is indeed fun, but the execution severely lacked in that game.
They also did it in Liberal Crime Squad
This and Jacob Geller's Modern Warfare video are my go-to examples of video game companies being so afraid of being ""woke"" and ""PC"" they end up shitting themselves with the messages of their games. Amazing video
I dont think Legion is afraid to be woke, I think that they are just subtle with it. I found a character that was "male" but had womans clothes. Ots a subtle way to say the world is changing and Ibisoft embraces its changes in its game design
they shouldn't be woke at all
@@4evermilkman That's not woke, it's bare minimum representation and could very well just be a bug.
@@4evermilkmanit's ok to enjoy the game without excusing the company's BS. no need to shill for them.
“Go woke go broke” he says pretending to enjoy legion
This is fantastic, so glad I found your channel! Glad you covered Ubisoft’s awful handling of the sexual assaults that happened within their company, as well as how ridiculously apolitical they try to be while making games centered around current political events.
Hey appreciate it! Thanks for the comment. After Jim Sterling talking about how frustrating it is to see Ubi games covered without referencing the abuse I figured it was needed.
As an American, yes Farcry 5's pissed me off. They pussyfoot around real issues, send out clearly politically charged advertising, then just release a game that tries to "no-side" everything. All so they can maximize profits (which they don't pay taxes on) while claiming to be neutral.
they also made the damn crazy cult leader right for some reason. immediately stopped playing once i figured out what they were doing and i actually like far cry 5 almost as much as primal. far cry games are boring to me but faith seed and her weird drug induced plot line actually made me interested.
Sincerely hope your channel blows up soon, your videos are incredibly well put together.
Thanks so much man man!
So, would you cover the other Watch Dogs games? The realistic take on the fantasy of vigilantism, the attempt to cope with trauma and move on, the insecurity-based search for power, the way the series goes from personal vendetta to semi-social activist to full on activism?
I've never played the Watch Dogs series, but you still kept my attention the whole 2+ hours. Loved the mix of game analysis and political commentary--very well done!
Thanks so much man! If you can find watch dogs 2 second hand I can't recommend it enough. Had more fun with that game than I expected.
Yeah Watch Dogs 2 is actually a good game.. you can "pacifist" your way through it by using non lethal guns and calling other gang members or cops to take out your targets.. I had so much fun with the game..
@@MontyZander Can you do a breakdown of Watch Dogs 2?
My first was 2 and my last will be legion
Man, I love these super long videos. There's so much depth to the thoughts you have concerning the way games can impact the world in a real sense, and I simply can't get enough
Hey thanks dude!
Hit all the nails on the head. I know it’s been ages but I am crazy curious to hear your long form thoughts on the dlc featuring Wrench and Aiden. I loved it. Felt like a different game at times JUST because there was a defined main character. Also school of rock? Incredible taste
Personally, I think the game is way better when you play as either Aiden, Wrench, or roleplay as the pig guy on all the box art. It doesn't fix all of Legion's problems, but it does give you a real fleshed out character to play as, and less pressure on playing human vehicles
Dude, I mean mate, you've hit all the right points about what this game got wrong. I've seen no one else talking about this.
Instead most players are are turning a blind eye to the fact that the story sucks because they only care about multiplayer.
You got just a few things wrong in regards to Skye's AI systems going rogue and Sabine's plan. Both the Hospital and Cab Driver AI were edited copies of those professionals' minds. Skye did to them what she did to her mother and brother.
The whole point of the game is to gather "upgrades" for Sabine. She controls us around as her personal tools to get everything from the AR reconstruction tech to the THEMIS program, going through Skye's data so she could merge everything into Bagley to make him the ultimate random killing machine.
I guess it's a poor way of escalating on the example set by Raymond Kenney when he caused the Balckout in Chicago when the first ctOS was implemented. He was trying to show that the system was flawed from the start but it didn't work. Worse still, 11 people died. Ray regrets that.
Sabine's plan seem to mimic his in the intent, but with much worse in the collateral damage part. She is definely a terrorist and it's a shame we get bossed around by a character like her the whole game just for it to end like that
Perfect example of why triple checking a script is always a good idea! My bad. Appreciate it!
This video is amazing even if you’ve never played the game. I legit clicked on it by accident but stayed for the UK commentary 👍🏾
Shit thanks! Not gonna lie I was a little worried about this one so really appreciate it.
I would love to see an immersive sim Watch Dogs like it was clearly always meant to be.
Like Hitman except with hacking things instead of killing people.
There is this game Watch Dogs 2 thats the thing you're talking about.
as someone who has been desperately searching youtube for long form content about video games (more specifically horror games but this is brilliant too) i am so happy i found your channel. the amount of times i have legitimately searched "video essays about horror games" on youtube is embarrassing and yeah i get that this isn't a horror game but it's still amazing commentary and yeah i'm gonna be here for a while lmao
Did anyone honestly expect Ubisoft to deliver a nuanced political take? It’s like going into a McDonalds and being upset that the food is cheap unhealthy garbage
then they shouldn't market it that way.
This was an excellent video, Monty Zander. I highly doubt you and I have the same politics, but it's always great to see a video essay that so adeptly communicates these types of critiques with video games, especially ones like Ubisoft which go out of their way to latch onto some political or social gimmick, especially in their marketting. I think Legion could have benefitted from embracing a faction system where players are given the option to side with Albion or DedSec, and champion their respective factions across the map. I think there is something narratively wasteful about locking players into some designated "good guy" faction (in this case, DedSec) in a story about murder, hacking, the invasion of privacy, and dubious characters and factions whose loyalty you cannot be certain of. Just my two cents.
That would have been an interesting idea. I still think the only game I've played where the binary choice system worked was Geneforge, and that's because the choice was 'Support the Authoritarian Mages who run the society with biological golems' or 'Support the rebellion, where those golems are trying to overthrow society...to install dragons as the new autocratic dictators over all'. It's well done because both are evil, and both are good, in part because they're organizations. You see that throughout that series.
Here, you could have done something similar. The head of deadsec is a pure anarchist, and wants to 'Bring Down the Man', that is, pure anarchy, no government at all, while the head of Albion is...well, the guy we got.
But beneath them are those doing things for other reasons. Deadsec has people trying to save others, Albion has officers that live up to their ideals, and even jump in the way of bullets to save civilians.
On the opposite side, there's a member of Deadsec specifically trying to steal a certain amount of money, not for any reason, they're not taking it, they're just burning it because that's the joke. Meanwhile there's a member of Deadsec falsifying paperwork in order to steal the heirlooms from religious sites and stuff, to sell to the highest bidder.
And you're in the middle of that. Both groups, you have to accept the good with the bad, as you are a member of them, and can't...choose for them. Hell, you should BE Baggly in this, the control should be justified in universe as you giving the objectives, and 'playing' as them through implants or a headset.
Ah yes Ubisoft, "We don't want to be political..." while trying to strip mine almost every major historical movement good and ill as a game hub....*Sighs in former assassins creed fan*
It's interesting to think that the "play as anyone" doesn't work to create connections to the characters here. I mean, yes, they're husks. But so are the soldiers in X-COM Enemy Unknown or X-COM 2 War of the Chosen. They are randomly generated and you can customize them. And if you keep them alive, you grow attached to them, especially if they somehow survive a terrible situation or if they pull victory from the jaws of defeat for you. Why doesn't this happen here? Do the operatives in this game advance in any way? Like the light RPG elements that the X-COM games have? It sounds like they remain static and therefore interchangeable - whereas a husk that grows and develops alongside you and becomes more important to your success, well, you'll care more about them.
As a factory worker, the worst part about brexit was when my English colleagues were cheering about turning away foreigners; half the staff were European, from Poland usually, and they were our friends. My colleagues didn't grasp that they were trying to get rid of our friends.
And a good portion of those European staff left, meaning we all had to work much harder. The young English lads hired as replacements were, generally, lazy, entitled and difficult to train.
Uff, also imagine characters like on board becaus ethey are mad their friends got deported. As, sad and unnessesary and , sad thatr is, uff
Like imagine the gamre covered that ersonal stories, that could be amazing, in a game, about brexit?! As sad that a party went through several premiers to, do brexit of all things :( it could make important stotytelling :( just add how people get deported and ,
How could a brexit game not have that human.:(
While its probably , like if the game already gets overly dramatic, do that shocking human instead. I know its bad enough that what happens, but for a game going to the logical conclusions fully , as much as its really, bad, i mean it could have been very human deportation stories?
Man I loved your critique because you hit the nail on the head for me. Thankfully I didn't buy it myself but I pity my friend who was dumb enough to preorder the game. anyway love your videos and just commenting for the algorithm because you deserve a bigger platform in my opinion.
I would like to note that at 10:54, Far Cry 5 is actually set in the american north, the very far north, touching canada - mucking things up even further, politically speaking in relation to ubisoft's apolitical political nonstatements
That is a bloody good point.
I seriously cannot believe your channel has so few views. I catch myself being surprised at the 3 digit view numbers every time. You have the quality and depth in your videos of channels that are so much larger. Keep it up and you'll do incredibly well. Love all your stuff Monty. Do you have a patreon account?
Thanks my dude! Appreciate it! I don't, not yet. I don't want to have one unless I know I can commit to it regularly the the videos. Soon though!
You know what I find hilarious? People thought this game was so bad that Ubisoft had to not only release it on Steam two years later after bad-mouthing the platform, but they also had to pay influencers to play it and say good things about it.
The opening of this video is an incredible video to watch at the end of 2022.
Great Video, looking forward to seeing more of your work. Super well thought out and researched.
They could of have Sky Larson ans Sabine working together using clan kellu and albion to steal key people to test her Project Daybreak. They could of left Brexit in the background and Cass as a evil neutral rather than maim antagonist
Just found this channel and wanted to say keep it up. Loving the content.
Thanks so much!
47:49
“If a person is not an anarchist when he is black, he has no heart; if she is not an amateur boxer when she is forty, she has no head."
Isnt this a parody of an old quote about the USSR? I cant remember who said it
I think irs a parody of the winston Churchill quote about how if someone is not left when they are young theh have no heart and are not conservative when they are old the have no head
@@madelynspindle8797 The quote Im remembering is one I saw in a COD game Im sure. It was from Putin funny enough, “Whoever does not miss the Soviet Union has no heart. Whoever wants it back has no brain.”
Not sure which COD it was, I think an older one from the early 2000s but I could be wrong. It was one of those quotes that pop up when you die in single player
@@Frostaltered oh that's very interesting! Im not very familiar with call of duty
Aaay, let's go Monty! i'm one of those that ended up here through your bloodborne video.
Fuck yes! Let me know your thoughts on the new style when you finish it; less cutscenes etc - appreciate it my dude!
“Didn’t expect… Jimmy Johns”. Ad came on right at that moment. I was listening to the video in the background and seriously thought that was a plot twist and the game, in the end, was actually all about the evils of the fast food industry.
“Christ, Jimmy John’s! DedSec TRUSTED YOU!! I trusted you…”
I loved this video, but I think you got the ending a little off, not that I can blame you, I'm not entirely sure what happens and the way I perceived it is no less stupid in execution than what you saw. Sabine helped Cass with the bombing for Filament codes. He reneged on the deal so she reformed Dedsec to lead them into getting the Filament codes for her (and all the other tech they nabbed).
It's really roundabout and convoluted either way.
You sir, deserve more views (and likes, and subscribes)! I have been binge watching your videos for 2 days now, and I've really enjoyed my time here.
Thank you!
I can’t put my finger on why but the watchdog series has never interested me
I honestly can't recommend 2 enough if you're looking to dip your toe. I had A LOT of fun with that game that I didn't expect I would at first.
WD1 is amazing
@@brainiac_studio Jumping back into it for this video made me realise it wasn't nearly as bad as everyone says. I had fun with 1 at the time!
@@MontyZander playing Legion made me realize that i like WD2 a lot more than i thought I did. As you point out in the video, the level design is so much more thoughtful and there are some very effective story/character beats.
At the time of playing it originally I think I let myself get put off by the negatives without appreciating the positives.
It's a Ubisoft product... That's was enough for me. They have a very efficient assembly line production for gameplay, just as much as Activision with COD. Rote and boring basically since AC2, with a few notable exceptions which are well regarded, but those are rare like Black Flag.
The Sky Larsen choice is explained away after the mission anyway because if you keep her alive the company decides to shut down the cloud right after
You catch a news report saying they are shutting it down
The RUclips algorithm is failing if it took this long for me to discover your page. You are a phenomenal talent and I'm looking forward to watching your entire catalog multiple times.
Can’t wait man! As always pure quality!
This a great channel! All around very well done!
Another quality video. I don't often have the time to fully watch most of your videos, but I wanted to leave a comment nonetheless. I particularly enjoyed the political commentary. I think it adds something to the video that a more typical critique wouldn't. I would say keep up the good work, but at the rate you pump these out, I don't think you need my encouragement. Best of luck with the channel.
The engagement's appreciated all the same my dude 😉 a shorter one coming soon.
As vapid as I'm quite sure the new Watchdogs title is, Monty Zander still manages to squeeze 2-1/4 hrs of content from it. Quite masterful in my humble opinion
This is really good. Surprised your channel doesn't have more subs. You've got one from me.
I was 100% anti brexit, immigrants have been integral to our economy. What are your thought a few years down the line?
This is a great video. Well done!
Loved the commentary on Brexit and such. I found it very interesting as an American who was young and not super involved in the world news at the time
Really enjoyed this. Glad I found your channel, this deserves many more views.
First 2 minutes watching and I was already comparing this game to how far cry 5 made me feel here in the US, then a few minutes later you bring it up lol
Why would you sidestep politics if you are inspired by politics? They just wanted to use hot topics to sell their games? It clearly didn't work. Games have to be about something!!! Plot ?themes? How does the gameplay tie into it all? Of course these games were gonna fail.
What he said ^
Wow. When I heard this I thought I was listening to a top channel. Was so surprised to see you only have 990 subs. In subbing!
Thanks so much! So close to the golden 1K!
@@MontyZander just realized you were the one who made the bloodborne eat the rich and kill god! I loved that video
42:57 I think a response system like in Cyberpunk 2077, where the outcome doesn't change much but the dialogue itself changes on depending on your response would work well in this system. I mean, it would still strip the NPCs of their personalities, but you could at least dictate something to them.
Yea my mum is a nurse in the nhs so both me and her got covid first few months even now she’s still being underpaid even though she’s been working there for decades
Your points on the 'play as anyone' feature reminds me of a pretty major issue with the pre-written "Beyond the Mountains of Madness" campaign for the Call of Cthulhu TTRPG. If your group is playing the campaign as-written, there are multiple situations in the beginning and middle of the campaign that--should none of the players in the game be able to find their solution--essentially involve waiting for an NPC to solve problems for the players. Despite the entire campaign taking place from the perspective of the player characters, a lot of your agency is taken away because the campaign wants things to progress a certain way.
I think it really highlights the failure of procedural content. Experiences like this tend benefit the most from tailored content for the participants rather than generic, non-committal ones. And it's extremely challenging for procedural systems like this to be anything other than generic and non-committal without quickly falling to pieces.
What I hate the most about this game (besides all of the obvious) is that it went full futuristic. WD1's setting was just Chicago, there were no crazy robots, no flying bots, no bs.
WD1's premise was that it wasn't a "dark future", it was a dark present. Absolutely no technology in WD1 is fictional, everything exists in the real world. The premise is "what if Google was given control of a city's infrastructure". That's it.
Great video, agree with a lot of your points. I'd recommend if possible that you go back and check out the Bloodline DLC for Legion. Actually having a 'Main Character' removes all the problems with the APC system, and provides some pretty interesting story beats. Not much changes from a gameplay point of view, still loads of 'hang around hacking the thing' bits (and they give the spider drone the ability to fly), but I think much more what the game would have been if they'd let you play as Nowt or something.
just came across your channel man on a comedown and hungover and its genuinely incredible content I finally got watchdogs Ultimate Edition on sale for like £30 on ps5 the other week and it turns out the games only decent with Aiden pierce or Wrench!!! also Aiden should've been younger then 55 lol
Stormzy! I stumbled across his music on Spotify and have been hooked since. I try not to learn to much about artists whose works I like unless their tools. But It’s nice to know that he is actually a good person.
When creepy anorak stalker and personality black hole Aiden Pierce from Watchdogs has more agency and charisma than the entire cast of your the third game, *combined*, then you know you dun goofed.
I dont mean to enjoy your suffering but the accent getting stronger when the game makes you mad is great 😂
They could have actually written characters and just have whichever randoms you choose be the skin they cover those characters with.
You want intriguing reflections on modern politics and deep lore to the factions involved?
Too bad.
*SPIDERBOT*
Its doing its best, okay? It's not its not its fault that it's in an Ubisoft game.
I know I’m late but you have to admit the trailer by the guy from Jibaro in Love Death + Robots is absolutely awesome.
Far Cry 5 tried to be about the far right, but it was so wrong that it just offended me as an American
Im only in part 3 but I already noticed something you said about how the story requires you to play multiple people. This was done before, back in 2015 with Metal Gear Solid 5, you could recruit, play, and get upgrades depending on the people you meet in the field while also having a single main character! This could've worked if they potentially made it like a strategy game with base building! Plus they could add characters based on Aidens playstyle and Marcus and this could've led into the DLC where we play as Aiden and Wrench
'A Taxi AI has become self aware and is furious because he thinks automation has made him lose his job.'
Then he is not very self aware is he?
Just found your channel love your videos
Personally, the greatest sin of legion is removing the ability to make your own in game playlist, you are forced to listen to the 'radio'
I'd like to consider myself a relatively intelligent 'Merican and I've learned more about Brexit in the past 2 hours than I have in over 3 years.
My one point of hype i got when playing this game was hearing Architects on the radio. Except it wasn't a car radio, but outside a store. And the song isn't included in the songs you can buy/unlock/whatever. So I couldn't even have good music while driving....
I love the presentation of the video, but I strongly disagree when it comes to the gameplay loop, never have I felt limited when approaching the objectives in the game, despite how boring the objectives are. I finished the single player 3 times already in hard / permadeath mode and I mostly don't end up being in a "third person shooter" scenario, as I'm able to either hack my way in or stealth my way in.
I noticed How you barely mentioned WD1, tragic.
im not even british so i dont know if what im about to say makes total sense, but i always cringed, like HARD, when seeing the new british flag in watch dogs legion, like ''oh now that brexit is a thing we are just gonna highlight the english part of the flag and put it above the rest'' its so unsubttle i dont know how it can be taken seriously, but the folks at ubisoft probably think they are creating some nuanced velibable narrative
18:57 - I’m glad IO Interactive will be making the next bond title instead of the uninspired sleazy creeper that is Ubisoft. Ubisoft has never made anything half as compelling and polished as the new Hitman trilogy, except for maybe the first couple assassins creed from way back in 2007.
Did you just read my mind? GET OUTTA THERE
The whole point of Watchdogs was a reasonable “what if?” Like what if a big tech company (like google) wanted to hyper-survey a city to harvest their data and personal space for profit? That was grounded and reasonable.
Watchdogs 2 was the same but now less interesting than 1 (in my opinion) with worse writing but it built on hacking and mission options.
Why is Legion full of full body holograms and human consciousness-AI??? I knew this game was going to flop because without a main protagonist, who do you root for? ZombiU (now know as just Zombi) had a system like Legion’s since when you died, you just became another character. I dont know if it had any sort of impact on player stats, but it did exist.
Imagine if the game was about how a fascist state forms, how propaganda plays the masses, the role of the media, how both sides always think they are right, how things in life are never binary AND had the hacking of Uplink (or comparable titles), which actually make you feel like you are hacking something. I'd sell my mum for an open world game with actual immersive sim (computer) systems which can be exploited and hacked. And OK, let the players who don't want to hack explode and shoot their way through, just, instead of adding useless **** minigames and melee combat, do a proper hacking simulation in your HACKING game.
Thank you for listening to my TED talk.
I think your on to something.
WD1 is still my favroute.
Good job mate
The start of this video hurts more with every month that passes! Happy cost of living crisis and recession everyone!
Hey bro I've been watching a lot of long-form video essays on video games (niche RUclips let's get it) and I just need you to know how much I enjoyed this one. Your voice was really unique in your perspective on this game, it was really refreshing. I loved the Bloodborne vid you made, but your take on this game had a rawness and (if you'll excuse the term) vulnerability I haven't seen enough from this format. Imma keep watching through your other stuff but like, I couldnt watch this joint and not send my best regards
What a lovely comment to wake up to! Cheers my dude
You mentioned a bloodbourne analysis video though I don’t see it on the channel? I would be ver interested in watching it!
Niegal cass boss battle should of been like Ghost in the shell
Hey mate so this is your first video I’ve watched and man am I glad I’ve found this channel! It’s not very often that a 2h video captures my attention for its entirety but this was just fantastic.
I really appreciate your brexit commentary - as someone from Poland I had no idea of how it all actually went down but hearing your insight was very helpful in understanding why people chose what they chose. It also made me realize how many similarities can be found between the Brexit campaign and the 2020 presidential campaign in Poland. Your government using hatred towards immigrants as one of Brexit’s selling point is honestly parallel to our government using propaganda to spread hatred towards the LGBT community - even going as far as calling it “an organization” or “a danger to the catholic church” and referring to homosexuality as some sort of a disease
Speaking of the game itself - I remember being very hyped for legion when it was first announced, to the point I even bought it on release day. I’ve played the game on the Xbox Series X and it run fine for the most part, the loading screens were very quick on an SSD and the ray tracing looked phenomenal - although 30fps was and still is the only option even on next generation consoles, which I find bullshit
After spending about 21h with the game I can say that while the game did have potential it unfortunately didn’t fulfill it in the slightest. A lot of the features feel very unrefined - especially when compared to WD2. The play as anyone system felt fun for the first 5h but after that, the novelty ran off. I agree with what you said on the difficulty - some sequences felt like they weren’t play tested in the slightest, the “upload a virus to Themis” one being the worst offender. I remember kinda liking the story and some of the set pieces, like flying the microdrone or even climbing the big ben with a spiderbot, but the ending was shit and don’t even get me started on the Stormy mission. The Skye Larson quest line is obviously the highlight of the entire game and I also think that the ending side mission about Bagley’s true identity was very interesting albeit kinda depressing as well
With all of that being said, I can’t wait to explore more of your videos. I’d also love to see you make this sort of a critique video on Cyberpunk 2077
Hey! Thanks so much, I appreciate it!
Such a good explanation of why it was so disappointing. 1 had excellent story and good gameplay. 2 had excellent gameplay and good story. 3 had neither.
To be specific, Yahtzee Croshaw did not write Bagley's dialogue. He was hired to punch up the dialogue already written. What the difference was however, we can only speculate.
hey man! did you make that thumbnail?
it dope
I did yeah! I canva skills are GROWING 😂
Wait what bloodborne video? I only see one bloodborne video and it's his gf playing it and it came out AFTER this video... where's the bloodborne critique? Someone link it please!
I might have found a new favorite youtuber
They were sticking it to the man by voting for brexit, sadly for them the man was both sides.
Also should add separately the game does make commentary on facism and politics, you can find the podcasts in the car’s radios while driving.
_This is the first I've heard Monty's Accent pop up full force._
*_What did you do Ubisoft?!_*
I legitimately had to do a double take when I saw the view count. For video of this great quality, the lack of subs is criminal. Amazing video!
Thanks so much! Its honestly the one I've been most worried about. I'm wary of being on my soapbox a lot recently haha - seriously appreciate the kind words
Sabine's last name, Brandt, is literally derived from "Fire" in German. On the Nose, Ubisoft.
Has the bloodborne analysis been deleted? Seen multiple videos referencing it, but all I can find is the one with your girlfriend playing it
So farcry five is pretty on the nose with its topics. As a montana resident, I can vouch that all you have to do is remove the mysticism, swap meth for the flowers, and increase the prevalence of guns to turn it into a documentary.
i love watch dogs but i think this my last one because they didnt put that much in this that put a Cyberpunk 2077 that announcement where they said they would put old characters from past games and that is how they got me they did aiden pearce wrong in watch dogs 2 it was a unplanned game where they had to wait after they failed with ghost recon breakpoint they delay the game and didnt make it better i follow this game before it come out and the play as anyone was fun until you start to see that your playing with people who dont know how to talk shop but now after you recruit people now they know about tech it made me head cannon it many times i have one more game until im done with ubisoft and thats far cry i been stop playing assassins creed back after rogue and after what they did to watch dogs i have to face facts and walk away from them and stop buying their games just like i did capcom so many years ago after RE6
Will you do an analysis on the Aiden and Wrench expansion?
I won't - especially after E3 this year I'm exhausted with Ubisoft. The Aiden and Wrench DLC could be the best thing they've ever made and I still wouldn't want to touch it at this point!
@@MontyZander Shame because I'd love to hear your thoughts.
"the goal isn't to reflect on anything happenign in the real world" what's the point of telling a story then. what is the story even going to be about.
Very thorough breakdown of how this game falls flat.
Also based