"Killing is wrong." Well okay I suppose I can get behind tha- "Even when it's a guy who is going to probably produce a super weapon or a robot takeover that upsets the balance of power on earth, leading to millions of deaths" Ubisoft please.
Games like Watch Dogs: Legion are fine examples of how concepts like "rebellion" have been commercialized. The people who have fooled themselves into thinking that *purchasing* this game and playing it is somehow avant-garde are exactly the kind of audience Ubisoft want to cultivate. Ubisoft gives people a safe space to express their anti-corporate sentiments without hurting the bottom line. TL;DR: Rage with the Machine
Corporate hypocrisy has really evolved over the last decade. Now its all about being hip, and appealing to college grads wanting to change the system and stick it up to the man. Its always about being on the right side of the narrative and political discourse without actually making an statement. And the best thing about it is that this format is easily applicable to anything so its even easier to fool people into liking this companies. Its all so cynical its sad.
Corporations will attempt to find, leverage and profit from any desire or sentiment that they believe is widely held. Including anti-corporate sentiment.
I'm not sure anyone believes buying this game is an act of rebellion. That sort of thing usually comes from outside, nonfiction things, news and whatever. Conservatives deliberately buying something because the competition has gays in it and there being a media furore, for example.
I actually cried a little during Aiden's conversation with the skipper because I realized that people *cared*. They put honest heart and effort into their work. And they're chained up at fucking *Ubisoft*. Tragic, is what it is.
Ikr. Ubi devs are really fucking talented. They were able to make a combat system like For Honor that was so unique. Just wish they weren't bogged down by another Assassin's Creed.
@@psyoperator58 i've kind of been through the wringer, actually and i hope neither you nor anyone else has to go through what i have, or what the people close to me have if we cannot weep about the small things, the great ones will destroy us, and see us well and truly unraveled perspective is a bastard, and will be the death of us all
@@brokenbiscuit3609 Made me sad when they turned For Honor into a shitty Raimbow 6 Siege clone where they just add things to sell DLC and microtransactions rather than additions that fit organically within the game. Used to be my favourite game.
Raytracing reflections in a vampire hunting game where the vampires lack reflections would be sick. Like seeing someone who isn't reflected in a nearby window could be your tell if the vampire is hiding in plain sight.
Fun fact: some of Bagley's dialogue was written by Yatzhee Croshaw, of Zero Punctuation fame. It might go a long way to explain why he's more tolerable than your average snarky AI: that's real, artisanal snark in there, not that store-brand crap. Though it's also interesting to note that Yatzhee said Ubisoft didn't use some of the lines, as they deemed them "too inappropriate".
Reminds me of his story about auditioning for Duke Nukem Forever. His application was rejected because they wanted Duke to be taken seriously. He really dodged a bullet there.
As soon as he said that in the video, it all made sense. His writing works best with a delivery that sounds petty and small, like the only way they can get anything out of life by bringing other people down. Without that loser-y, low self-ssteem vibe, it's just being a smug git. One might wonder why they'd produce such an exceedingly self-satisfied performance, and then reveal that the AI is diagetically based on a man with neurological conditions. Then really rub it in that he had his mental faculties swept out from under him and his family exploited him for use in civil conflict, the AI tells him "Well, you got to walk about and feel the wind in your hair and had people that loved you, so your life was good, actually". Literally talked over and down to by your replacement self. British would definitely replace disabled people with enhanced authoritarian spy machines if they could, though, so at least it's accurate
That ending of Bloodlines is hilarious. "I won't kill you! Killing is wrong! I have grown as a person and learned that vigilante justice is never the answer! Oh, look! The thugs of a corrupt police state who kill their prisoners for no real reason! Here! Look after this bloke for me, would you?"
If anybody deserved a beating, it's Rampart. They couldve even made a reversal of the normal moral choice where you can either kill him or seriously injure and ruin his life, making him live with that pain, not out of "killing is wrong" but "death is kinder than you deserve". Would've been different if nothing else.
@@hereniho Honestly it clicked that another way to stop Rampart is well. Breaking his hands. Smashing them with that sledgehammer over and over. He'll live, sure. But he'll never be able to make something with his own hands again.
seeing aiden be properly humanized really solidifies my opinion that "edgelord characters are best after their story is done" on another note, that means aiden pierce is the same as sasuke
It’s almost like that makes perfect sense for Aiden to start to develop as a character when he isn’t so totally encased in his own self loathing and edge.
The brain hacker giving the elderly abuser immortality through the cloud before punching an ethicist was such a raw sequence of events, you'd think it came up from a particularly messed up TTRPG session. Still made me laugh, though.
"I can take a proper gander at some propaganda." It's that kind of wordplay that I absolutely love your videos, Snake. It's always a treat to see things from you, both to legit watch and to fall asleep to.
I don't understand how he manages to have such wordplay all over his scripts. His hours long scripts that are doing plenty of things other than wordplay.
1:02:38 Snake: "Albion allowed Clan Kelley to use a clinic at an immigrant internment camp to quietly dissapear people, implanting them with a poison secreting crisp. I mean chip."
Liberal Crime Squad is a game that I didn't think I'd ever see again. That game is exactly what happens when you give Tarn Adams, a madman obsessed with player choice and replayability, a specific vision and goal rather than exclusively just _"Generic medieval fantasy with a focus on dwarves but not always."_ I still really like Dwarf Fortress, I just don't think it's ever going to be *_'finished'_* the same way Liberal Crime Squad was, at least not without Tarn Adams achieving immortality.
I honestly got way more fun out of LCS, may have just been the relative straightforwardness and focus but yeah. Dwarf Fortress is a bloody marvel, but one I've never really been able to get into
@@Tehsnakerer I think DF is a lot of peoples' "favorite game they don't play." Mine is the Mass Effect series. I like everything about ME except playing it - but I had an obsessive friend who would 100% all three games for the good, neutral, and evil endings and then replay them again in between major game releases. Some of my favorite "gaming" memories are sitting on the couch and doing Mystery Science Theater 3000 over cutscenes we've both watched a dozen times.
@@AppleJaxc I had a somewhat similar experience, not to the same extent but yeah, a few games as a teen that I spent more time watching friends play than playing myself and just riffing and shooting the shit
I genuinely enjoy df but goddamn is it awkward to play. I'm looking forward to the quality of life updates, it'll be nice to be able to place walls without like 20 key presses every 10 sections.
"They don't want to look like they're making a stand, they just want to look like they aren't sitting down" You immediately earned a like from me there. It was as awesome as it was funny. That whole intro was just... marvelous. I don't think anybody could have said it better.
“Forget Kant. The only philosophers he needs are Heckler and Koch!” Congratulations! You’re more of a capable writer than 90 percent Ubisoft’s team, for that line alone.
I just realised. Apparently, according to Ubisoft, London's *civilian* population packs more heat than Postal 2's Paradise City's population on Insane-o difficulty!
I had a starting character who's trait was having a dead wife. Met a guy with her last name who hated dead sec for killing his daughter. Turns out I just ran into my father in law and the game didn't even bother making it obvious. I figured it out myself.
15:44-16:44 What’s funny about this thing to me is that Ubisoft blatantly ignoring the gun laws in their game settings was something that began in the original Watchdogs. The first Watchdogs takes place in Chicago, Illinois, which is notable for having the strictest gun laws in the US and for having the highest homicide rate in the nation. There’s honestly a lot to say about those two statements existing in the same city, but that’s not what we’re here for. The main point is that purchasing even a pistol for self defense is extremely difficult if not impossible, and in Watchdogs, almost a third of the stores in the game are gun shops and Aiden Pierce can buy fully automatic rifles without a background check.
It was always such a wild concept to me that in 2, DedSec are 3d printing and using full on functional fucking firearms in CALIFORNIA and their safehouses are pretty blatant, yet somehow the cops never come sniffing around.
Admittedly, you can't buy a fully automatic rifle anywhere in the US without a background check (and you can't legally buy any automatic weapons made after 1986), but yeah, I get your point. The problem is that the areas with looser gun laws tend to be more rural so you get less interesting video game settings for open-world stuff like this. I can't really think of a big, dense city with loose gun laws in the US off the top of my head.
@@Tehsnakerer Firearms are not the wild west that the BBC pretends they are in the US. Major cities - new york, Chicago, etc - HATE peasants being able to defend themselves and it's been an open secret for at least 3 decades that the only way to get a carry permit in these cities is to be politically connected. And believe it or not, most Americans are law abiding and peaceful and comply with these laws
Once again, the player/dedsec violating people's privacy to accomplish their goals could be a compelling narrative question about our rights to privacy and hypocrisy of freedom fighters using the exact same tactics as their oppressors, if the people making the games saw an issue with violating people's privacy to accomplish goals. It just comes off as hollow and cynical and one can assume that a certain expose just happened to be published the week they were brainstorming ideas for a new IP and they've been stuck telling stories about a cause they clearly don't believe in ever since.
Having finished the video, I'm very disappointed but also unsurprised that the writing still hasn't graduated past "BUT YOU KILL PEOPLE TOO DONT YOU". Like no shit, the point that PMCs are executing civilians is far past the threshold for most people of when violence becomes necessary, which was the point of the Legion system?. That sort of confrontation made more sense in WD1 and 2, but in L3gion only makes sense if the game is supposed to be some parody of the UK/London where even in the post-apocalypse you are being asked to present your TV loicense to the slaver gangs. I mean this is literally the company that makes games about Assassin orders and clandestine special forces groups but is still grappling with the moral plight of shooty shooty bang bang
I would like it a lot more if at least it acknowledged that DedSec is just group of hypocrites with a sense of superiority. Deconstructing the main characters actions is the first step to making a good story about rebellion. Dedesec should have been comprised of rapist, criminals, assholes to hammer in more the themes of guerrilla warfare and desperation. Imagine a gritty story with asshole characters that eventually redeemed themselves fighting for freedom .
This comment is accurate. I'm currently working on a game and I believe in privacy and self reliance online (that is, controlling your data rather than using third party services) so strongly it's a major theme in my game. Ubisofts approach is downright insulting with how few questions it asks
Could be a cool idea to play the first half of the game as someone who isn't a hacker, a normal person who doesn't understand technology enough to code, but does understand how his phone works. So, that guy is a victim of both the anarchic hackers draining his bank account for fun, and as he later learns, he is also the victim of corporations and the government spying on him. So, the first half is him getting revenge after being screwed over, but the character needs aid from either a corporate employee with access to information as well as teaching him how to access that information or a hacker online who teaches him how to hack and introduces him to the anarchic online communities. After that, the next half of the game is determined by who you sided with. You're either going against the corporations/government or against the hackers. The point of the story? Well, it's that in a war you have to take sides. The only neutral option is not to get involved, but by choosing to involve yourself in what is essentially just culture-wars, you had to choose a side, and you'd be kind of a scummy person to use the community for your own desires but leave them when it stops being fun and you are pressured to stand for something that doesn't perfectly align with your own ideals. It'd be pretty relevant for a lot of people, I think, and it would actually attempt to say something.
The first game was supposed to be about a corporate dystopia and became an exploration of a very miserable man without understanding what you can do with that premise. The second game took use from "corporate dystopia" to "gamers in a society" and forgot to have any real bite to it at all. Now, in the third game, we have a police state that can be evaded by simply outrunning it and doesn't use something as simple as handing out descriptions or photos of terrorists. Either they almost bait and switch us with the plot, or they forgot the gameplay they attached to the story, either way, you can't win.
an in depth wanted system could've made this game so much more interesting. it'd encourage pure stealth or no witnesses if you don't want police to constantly be on one of your characters
What do you expect. You asked to write a corporate dystopia to the least capable people of understanding it. The ones who helped build the real one in the first place. Ubisoft will probably still have 0 self awareness as it closes its doors when in a few short years all that's left is financial flops nobody buys, cancelled games and developers r@ping and killing each other. All actual things at Activision as we speak! Y'know, everyone kept saying "we need an industry crash" like, a decade ago, and in a way, yeah, we do. But you see shit nowadays and it feels the declive is about to reach the "collapse" part. Maybe next decade we will have *1* good game per year that isn't indie. Here's hoping.
Honestly, this game lives or dies on wether you play almost Nuzlocke style with the perma death and keep your gang small and specialized, giving every character a purpose. In my playthrough I had my first character be the recruiter, a middle aged VERY british man that got us money with every new recruit. He became sort of the leader, being in charge of talking to every new recruit and assist meetings with the plot NPCs such as the lady cop investigating clan Kelly but rarely engaging in direct action. Then I had a sneaky hacker girl for stealth, a construction man for flying, a vigilante wannabe for beating up people, a graffiti artist with non lethal options to go in guns blazing and a turn coat Albion officer plus a handfull of minor support characters like a doctor, a lawyer, etc... This gave everyone a purpose and made things interesting, I pick who I played depending on who I felt was best suited for a job: Infiltrate the abandoned warehouse filled with Clan Kelly? Vigilante you are up kick their asses! Get into the police station? Get in and out without alarms Albion spy. Its even better if you make up your own limitations. For example, the Albion officer refused to use violence on his former coworkers and could only cuff them, the hacker girl had to run away if caught, that sort of thing. It gave more personality to each one. But above all, this game cannot survive without perma death. I had only two casualties in the game (mostly because I played on normal and very cautiously) first was the painter: I got cocky, overly confident, I had just raided a bank guns blazing and repelled the police with a fucking paintball gun, so when I was asked to enter the MI6 headquarters I thought I had just the right man. It alm went pretty well actually, until a surprise, mandatory alarm sounded,y painter got sorrounded and shot dead. Next try I entered with the construction worker and, for the first time, used lethal force willingly, killing every armed fucker I came across with the nailgun until the mission was over. It marked an escalation of conflict, I substituted the painter with his father and the guy brought an AK-47, from them on, I stopped caring about the non lethal aproach and just killed as I saw fit. The second casualty was actually the first recruit. At that point of the game when you get betrayed and set up at a plaza, he was the one I sent as it was supposed to be a meeting. When the Albion drones showed up I tried to drive away and they fired rockets at him, never stood a chance. Mind you, I made a point of making that guy the recruiter and face of my Dedsec, if you checked their profiles almost all my characters had been hired by him, he was the leader, the guy of the inspiring speeches the one that contacted the boss personally... And he was dead. It made the transition into the final act of the game carry much more weight, it was my playthrough's belly of the whale. And it made going after the fucker that set him up with the construction worker and his nailgun a cathartic moment, amongst other things, because it was the hardest level of the game and he nearly died several times, but managed to pull through and earn the position as new leader of the cell. I left the game liking it much more than I would have thanks to those two moments and the feeling of having made up my own story from the tools given by the game. Not only the deaths but also the victories. The hacker who expressed being a fan of one of the bad guys being the one to discover her secrets and choosing her fate, the Albion guard confronting his boss openly in the final battle... I found my own fun in the game, but it all hinged on that very real feeling of "if I fuck up, this character's story will end"
That is an interesting way of looking at it. It seems like this game very heavily relies on the player being willing to roleplay with their characters. And if they're not, well then the game kind of falls apart.
@@tatsuyasuou3368 Yeah, I've played Darkest Dungeon, XCOM, Mordheim and a couple others. The tension is real, but so is the bullshit sometimes... Rest in peace my fallen men... Except you Jerry. It was a f*cking 95% pointblank shot, you deserved that... Schwarzenegger didnt, but you did.
@@tatsuyasuou3368 I have Valkyria chronicles 1 and 4, but I stopped playing 1 to get through other games a while ago and I'm having trouble summoning the will to get back since I barely remember the controls or the plot, but I really dont want to start a new game after finally beating that damn "rescue the princess" mission. Still, I really liked it and I will get back to it one day. Not hard to keep your men alive though so the whole perma death never played much of a role. As for fire emblem, I've heard about it, even played a little and its cool, but never really got into it.
I gotta say, Ubisofts efforts to remain apolitical are more impressive (in a liar digging a deeper hole sort of way), then anything they write intentionally anyway. And its left me ruminating on the nature of corporate writing and has impacted me more then any intentional dulldrum message ever could. By making me feel dirty and disgusted. Id say if anything, this is more honest to its true self. I wouldn't want this team trying to make a point intentionally.
I'd prefer them to actually gamble on trying, even though I know they wouldn't and it's naive to expect otherwise. That's the fun part of a corporate presentation of rebellion, it's them selling it back to you, repackaged to present evil as an individual boogeyman acting alone that can be struck down so that it doesn't lose face amongst company and looks meaningful to anyone who doesn't know better.
@@Tehsnakerer I don't think I have ever seen any writers really think about the nature of rebellion vs order, desire for security vs tyranny, in any media with even the vaguest amount of general popularity without it being boring and nihilistic (in a shallow way). If the writing team tried, it would probably just be boring and generic, as opposed to disgusting and slimey. Which got me to feel something at the very least. On a related note, being familiar with some of these corporate inner workings, I doubt there is any real fear of offending the top brass when marketting rebellion. The people on the top are just not creative enough to be offended by implications like this. Unless its literally "Shmubisofts head 'Vas Guilotine' abuses his staff" in a videogame, these sorts of people while poo-poo other corporate actions of greed and such, but are completly oblivious to their own faults. I don't even think they do 'But the city refused to change' shticks to have more sequels. They kill the dictator in far cry in every single game but they just go somewhere else to do it again. I think they just do it because they see 'Cynicism' as Watch Dogs identity.
@@Tehsnakerer hey just wondering this isn't related to your comment what game trailer did you use in the near beginning of the video what game was that and is that the trailer you have said you have worked on
I hope they eventually add politics to their live service model, so I can kill ten bears with a shotgun to be rewarded with a level designer's opinion on the morality of killing ten bears with a shotgun.
@@Tehsnakerer Hey, speaking of masterpieces and video games with the word “Legion” in it, would you like to review Super Mario World and its hacks at some point? m.ruclips.net/video/I3wIlJcRNVs/видео.html (I wouldn’t recommend for people to play the smw.games version because it’s soundtrack sounds like a literally broken version of the SNES version) m.ruclips.net/video/uHjd5rFt7qg/видео.html ruclips.net/p/PL34qJOC2cmi-fqdEsrex5MlT2E2TDJYaI m.ruclips.net/video/NDmU4vwABfo/видео.html m.ruclips.net/video/CzkGyf3ZRwE/видео.html m.ruclips.net/video/BsWrTVV61O0/видео.html ruclips.net/p/PLgrG5UxkV8GnKFGXFnw5EF-SRUoO3dBeK ruclips.net/p/PLRrPSkwBl7MfGCJVTN9OR4tZ6NldIVM2r ruclips.net/p/PLgrG5UxkV8GkXFU-8zzDjlRr4tZdQOe5w
Right off the bat, the Ubisoft rant is spot on! You've had a ton of profound things to say, but I loved this the most: "there's no ingenuity, no true player expression, no creativity in how the player takes back the city, except for the creativity that has been prescribed". Surgically accurate.
You can really feel the way Vaas shaped ubisoft writes villains, Vaas was built to be a minor antagonist/kind of a write off in the story, yet the fans found him to be the best villain in the plot, so ubisoft realized "wait we can just keep doing this?"
Vaas aside, “wait we can just keep doing this” is a death knell proposition. All that can come from it is a death of soul. Creativity tossed aside to recycle ideas, to greatly diminishing returns that quickly leave those once great concepts stale and empty. Caricatures used in place of characters, passion replaced entirely by pandering. You go down that road, the true value in your products slips away, as each reuse makes them more and more pointless.
"Using a tranquilizer gun is somehow seen as a positive." Well, yeah. Security guards cost a lot to train and kit out, plus if you knock them out they're only out of commission temporarily so the corpos aren't going to be too upset about it. It's when you geek them with real bullets that they'd throw a hissy fit and develop an unsurprising thirst for your blood. Edit: Wait, this isn't Shadowrun.
Alt-tabbed out of my game to salute you for the line "they clearly think speculative fiction meant the writer was wearing glasses" choked on my "pint".
Isn't it funny how this video game by a megacorp tries so hard to blame all of London's Megacorp-related and Government-related problems on the British? Albion=Another name for Britain and its people. And the "protestors" demand authoritarian action on the poor's behalf from the govt (something actual BritishFascists wanted) while calling capitalism... well, what their type usually calls capitalism.
@ashy I think it was more highlighting the obvious strawman approach Ubisoft took to characterising Albion and their view of capitalism... Though, maybe I don't get it.
Snake your videos really just are the best game analyses on RUclips. Your commentary, particularly when you discuss meta elements of story or gameplay such as the rocks and headspace of Mitchell in HDtF, is incredibly insightful as someone with a love for narrative game design. The long form nature of them too is so engaging to me, albeit not the RUclips algorithm. I know it takes a stupid amount of time to makes these Playing: videos, but your persistence really pays off for how good they are. Though remember to take time for yourself with plenty of breaks. Take care!
Thank you very much. I take the time I need but I'm quite comfortably a workaholic. I relax most when I have a lot of things to do so it doesn't bother me too much.
"Luckily for me, and Ubisoft, he decides to die before he arrives at a point." made me laugh so loud i woke up everyone in my house. thank u, great vid
I think the tonal whiplash from the Cass boss fight to the after-party lead to some interpretive emergent story-telling that's really got me attached to Dante. When he gets back it's like everyone's celebrating because they don't know what it's like to genuinely look death in the eye. Everyone who'd shared in the risk and danger of going on suicide missions against Albion are dead.The rest are effectively immortal scripted characters or rookies who've never faced a mission where death was the probable outcome. He's lost his squad, but more than that he's lost everyone who can share in his fear, dread and loss. He's alone. So now I have a character I'm rooting for, and I'm watching as much to see if he'll live as to hear your breakdown of the game. *edit* well I guess there's one regular left lol *edit 2* and now she's dead. *edit 3* He made it!...but his actions and the sacrifices of his friends have just delayed dystopia till the next game...yay
Wasn't expecting LCS to pop up, but you're spot on with it being a novel and surprisingly in-depth game for managing a resistance group (goofy as it is). I wonder, in an alternate timeline where ToadyOne kept working on it instead instead of Dwarf Fortress, just how crazy it could have gotten. This review also made me want to start up another XCOM2 run, so bless/curse you for that!
If Toady kept working on it, it'd probably be a shitstorm of controversy, as the game would likely be constantly updated to reflect the current times. Fox (who made LCS updates after Toady dropped it) was actually planning to work on Neoliberal Crime Squad, focused on the Trump era, but then he apparently dropped the development in part due to the "too soon" effect
LCS is actually based on a real-life nutjob leftist militant group from the 70s, the Symbionese Liberation Army. Today's modern nutjob leftist militants don't have shit on those guys, but they make up for it by being state-sponsored.
I would love to see a game where you are a rowdy rebel faction that is hell bent on destroying the tyranny of the ruling body. Then, when you dethrone the evil ruling body, your own rebellious faction becomes the new evil ruling body, and the player needs to take down their own former allies because you want to live in a world without tyrants.
Far cry 4 sorta did this and it was pretty interesting you pretty much trade one dictator for another sadly the game ends at that point so felt like wasted potential
Well there is Choice of Rebels but it isn't a game it's a choice you own adventure with rpg and management elements book kind of thing and it's a five part series with only the first part done
You could make a cyclical plot out of that. Heroes of your first game prestige and become the villains of your next go through. I swear there was a game that did that i just don't remember the name of it.
Everyone has standards. Also oh my god, he said "catch"? Now that part of the video makes a lot more sense, I kept hearing "patch" rather than "catch", which made me do a couple of double takes.
@@franciscusradityapamarta4645 Such a common thing and played out to the point of irrationality that it became contrarian and cool to root for them and pretend to be them. There was a day when I saw three simultanious irl cunny threads on certain video game discussion board. Strangely those were the least vitriolic and comfy threads I've seen in a while.
the moment my opinion changed on Albion from "reasonable villains" to "comically evil" was the suicide bombing being shown to actually be staged. The game had a chance to actually show that resistances aren't 100% a band of plucky heroes, there are extremes on both sides and the line between Good Meaning and Desperate Measures is never simple. But no, that would be too dangerous for a Ubisoft game, they need to make things as black and white as can be, almost as if they're self aware that their dedicated fans are window licking sponges and that moral complexity makes their brains hurt.
I absolutely agree. I feel like they rushed this and went with the first option that came to the writer’s mind. However, looking back at the E3 2019 presentation of Legion, the story seemed different. Anyway, even though I like Legion, they really should’ve expanded the concept of the game and should’ve thought about it thoroughly.
Virgin San Francisco/Chicago citizens: can only take one shot to the head before dying Chad Londoners: can literally survive multiple shots to the head from a fully automatic rifle without dying
David Foster Wallace (IIRC) said something about the convenience of irony - you can say something controversial and then backpedal if it's poorly received, instead of dealing with the consequences of what you've said. "It was just a joke" or "I didn't mean it" instead of committing to your own bullshit. Applies to a lot of stuff nowadays, especially corporations and politicians. Great video, as always. You're a poet
46:35. Even further back in AC:Brotherhood you could recruit other Assassins that you could call in for backup in a fight or kill enemies without drawing attention to yourself. No real customization in leveling them but at least they were on screen at the same time as the player character. kinda funny how little a gimmick they've had since 2010 has developed.
@@zyriantel9601 I remember being able to call four of those goons in on a pretty short cooldown. It was awesome watching from above as they wrecked house when fully upgraded.
It has been over a year since I watched your Playing: YIIK video and it has been over a year since I started regularly watching and binge watching your stuff. And I must thank Alex or well you for creating such journey to me and others. From games made by spiders, to boiling points, to passionate work of Brian and alike, to criminal melodrama, to evolutionary godhood, to misleading game with no subtitles, to jank of all nationalities and to this. It is a journey of discovery. Your videos been great food for thought, sleep aid and something to enjoy to watch fully or just have on in background to listen to. And even then on repeats of watching videos I still find new little details that I may haven't noticed on the first or second watch. Not to mention how over the years you have gotten way more punchier with your script and editing. While old snake still is great in his own way, it would be criminal not to mention how better you have gotten at this whole thing. Keep up the good work and thanks for your wonderful content!
1:50:31 There is something so hysterical about Giancarlo laughing at the sarcastic “Delivering stories you know and love” before his face turns serious. It’s like a perfect visual gag.
Come to think of it, what a character moment it would have been if when shutting down the 'comedy' AI, after Josh the Pisser says "naw bruv it won't" and Bagley is reacting we get a sudden smash cut to black and a zipper sound.
It's a really, REALLY minor nitpick in the grand scheme of things, but I think the moment I realized Legion was a serious downgrade from 2 was the complete lack of an option to make a custom music playlist. I feel like that was something 2 did extremely well, there was a lot of great tracks that gave an slight air of character, letting you choose music that you felt fit your playstyle or whatever was currently happening. It was such a small simple thing and I have no clue why they didn't even bother adding it to Legion (especially when the soundtrack had Bloc Party and Fatboy fuckin' Slim), when it could have been a fun and easy way to add just a teeny bit more depth into whatever operative you were playing. Maybe that's just me being a soundtrack geek but it really irked me when I first started playing.
RIGHT. If they wanted to let you play music while walking like in 2, all they had to do was make an operative who could do that specific thing (if they wanted to make each operative unique). Plus, when I saw they switched the Google Maps inspired map from 2 into a basic open world map and when they changed the menu from Marcus' phone into a basic open world map, it sorta bummed me out.
Ngl as a Chicago native, who’s been to the baseball field at the beginning, it’s fascinating to see neighborhoods and buildings I saw as a kid, and that’s what I liked so much about Watchdogs 1
It feels like a missed opportunity, giving the players a huge cadre of characters they can constantly recruit more of, but never putting those characters in more scenarios where that actually means anything. Like what if some of the recruitment missions were actually setups or ambushes as Albion tries to shut down Dedsec recruitment. Maybe captured characters could end up feeding intel to Albion, compromising other agents, or resulting in freezing accounts. If they're gonna make a game that's all about an asymmetric fight against a security state, the least they could do is make it *feel* like that.
I have so many gripes with the recruitment system despite actually liking the idea of it a lot. Legion is the first Watch Dogs game I’ve played for more than a couple hours because I never cared about the characters in the previous games at all. At least the recruits in Legion have the benefit of being “my dudes” and permadeath to keep me invested, even if I’m not super engaged with the story. I hope they bring it back and improve it in a future game. Really wish there had been some kind of progression system, like a generic skill tree for individual recruits with some specialties depending on the traits they spawn with, that way you’d have a reason to recruit people with less desirable or no traits and it would feel more like you’re recruiting people and then training them to do what DedSec does, rather than just recruiting people who inexplicably know how to hack and do parkour from day one.
@@KickinRadTopHat If they wanted to keep the recruitment system in a future game, just make the single player have 1 protagonist and let us recruit people in the multiplayer.
Wow…that Bloodlines section really astounded me. It’s been ages since I’ve felt any sort of attachment to a Ubisoft protagonist, namely Altaïr, Ezio, and Jason Brody, yet they’ve somehow done it with Aiden. And I would say my journey through Watch *Underscore* Dogs was one of the few times in a game I cared very little for the story and only really stuck around for the gameplay. Where are these seemingly functioning humans for every Ubisoft IP?
Chained on the basement, being fed chicken bones when they feel like it. Jokes aside, it's not the first time that Ubisoft left devs to do whatever the fuck they wanted on the DLCs of their IPs, and then the devs, wanting to feel fulfilled after years of slavery on projects they ended up hating, end up releasing stuff like Bloodlines. Another example in another game from another company is Dead Space 3, which on the DLC Awakening they clearly vented out their frustations on the limitations they had imposed on them by showing what kind of story DS3 could've been if they got a modicum of creative freedom.
"Watch Dogs Legion: Resist™" is probably the single most elegant jab at this game and Ubisoft in general I've come across on RUclips. Quality content, this.
Off-topic comment but I just wanted to let you know that ever since I started watching your Yakuza videos all those years ago have finally inspired me to buy 0 and both Kiwami games. I'm going to be playing this great series for the first time in my life. Thank you.
Those are great but id avoid playing 3-5 for awhile just so you dont get burnt out like i did and i doubt ill ever finish 5 or start 6. Not that they are bad at all. Its just a lot.
I'm looking forward to snake's Yakuza 0 review, as it's the only game in the series I've played. I liked it a lot... but I also had my fill of Yakuza from it.
@@Tehsnakerer Gotta say, going punk in London really hasn't gelled well with Kiryu's combat style, it's made him a lot more flail-y and he stumbles around like he's on top level drunkenness at all times, with none of the combat benefits.
very excited to dig into this while also getting absurdly depressed at the knowledge that the Far Cry 2 and Chaos Theory director did this after a solid decade of nothing he made getting off the ground
Eh, Far Cry 2 is half a game that a bunch of people with literature degrees read a bunch of things into that weren't ever there. Look, it's not that the game has a giant empty map, don't you see, the giant empty map is about, um...something to do with Africa or civil wars or something! It's not _supposed_ to be fun, even though nobody who actually made the game has ever claimed that! In general if a brilliantly subversive game looks _exactly_ like one where they promised too large a map to fill with anything and ran out of time to make all that much for the player to do, you're setting a very low bar indeed.
Literally today I remembered that watchdogs legion existed and for the life of me the only thing i could recall about it was that one jerma stream where while playing it he realized that he actually hated all Ubisoft games
Permadeath, rolling over to another character in a continuing story after, and gradually taking over a country with a military/control focus could have been a really cool thing. Hell, it is a cool thing in Romancing SaGa 2 on the SNES. But unfortunately it's made by Ubisoft, so they can't really keep up with the dedication and complexity of a 16-bit era console game of the early 90s.
It has improved somewhat since his debut. It could be that Snake didn't show it off, but it seems like he has less opportunities to pair up hideously ungodly color combinations in Legion.
I mostly remember playing this that some characters were grossly overpowered, I think I just had a police officer so I got free access into most police areas and cleared all the hard missions with him
I got an assassin and he ended up being the chum i brought out every time one of my agents got Perma'd. Had a machine gun and an SMG, basically unstoppable
I discovered that anybody who came with a free cargo drone was utterly invincible. You can literally just fly right over to your objective, and nobody can do a thing to stop you.
They should've handled guns like Sleeping Dogs did, where they were rare set-pieces, and most combat was martial arts and melee. Although with how bad the melee combat is in Watch Dogs Legion, I think you'd be better off just playing Sleeping Dogs despite its age. :P
Yeah it could be really cool. I really love when game limited your best arsenal to force you to use other options. I feel limitation help you created more freedom for the player to improvise.
Man, Sleeping Dogs is one game I'm consistently amazed at. I've come back to beat it nearly a dozen times by now because every part of its design was just amazing. The closest thing i think we'll get to more of it are the Arkham games, where characters have their own fighting styles.
The gulf of quality between Legion and Bloodlines is night and living on the sun. Even that first cutscene, feeling very Uncharted, is a vast improvement over almost any other in the whole series, and that great start doesn't disappoint. It [& the rest of the Return of Punished Tech-Batman DLC] shows that Ubisoft was actually capable of something in regards to this series.
Yknow what, after like 45% of the video I feel that Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood and Revelation did the “legion” aspect better than Legion itself. You save operatives from oppression, they joined you, and you gotta level them up by sending them to missions. Some will die there. Some will die in the effort of aiding you. But you feel somewhat bad for any master assassin hopeful died, unlike Legion being a number generator guff.
1:00:12 But this mechanic actually did exist in Watch Dogs 2, if you knock out or kill the Dog's owner the dog will sadly sit next to it's owner. Unless somehow you're going to recruit the dog ( Which seems woefully unlikely ), keeping record of every generated dog would be a waste of resources.
Given their attempt at a seemingly "all or nothing" approach, I legit wouldn't be surprised if they did that. Maybe handwaving it as "every pet is required by law to have chip shit suplemented into their brains" or something in order to allow for playing as dogs. Probably would've made for a better game.
49:00 that's a brilliant idea! It works kind of like covert ops in xcom 2 war of the chosen, and FINALLY, gives you that “Legion” feeling, of a group of people cooperating, instead of a long list of lone wolves you periodically switch to. Also makes infiltrations look more impactful AND could also fix that mission objective where the whole base is alerted with no warning: you can now prepare for that event by setting up your own reinforcements, or assigning a dedsec member to sabotage tasks to delay or disable backup calls. It genuinely is a sick concept that Ubisoft likely won’t ever implement, looks like they are cutting support for the series anyway…
I will say this about drones - every time an enemy spots a player controlled drone or hacked gadget they always yell something like “find out who’s doing this”, “there’s a hacker nearby, fan out” and then they just.. never do. It’s like they completely forgot to give enemies the ability to search for you if you’re caught hacking, given the dialogue they clearly intended to have some sort of punishment for it, instead it’s totally unimplemented and makes the game a total breeze. I’d conquer enemy bases without even setting foot in them and wipe out dozens by just commanding cars to drive down sidewalks and no matter how much the guards say they’re going to search for who’s responsible they *never* do.
Worth noting, if you're playing on ironman, permanent death also applies to the "prestige" dlc agents like Aiden and Wrench. So you can permanently lose the content you paid real money to get.
I swear with each of these non-Yakuza videos, the thumbnails keep getting better and better by the sheer absurdity going on. Each and every pixel is so dense with detail. Your channel and a few other obscure ones really make me wish I had stable income in order to give support, because man you knock it out of the park with these feature length analyses.
I am so happy that this is 2 hours plus. Legion is a very complicated piece of Ubisoft release and I've been looking forward to this after watching your 1 & 2 deconstructions because you're probably the only one actually willing to go through with figuring out what the fuck happened.
OKAY. Your wordlplay is always clever, but "we have the Tube, but you can't ride it, so we'll have to take the "L" on that one", showing Chicago's "Elevated Train" or the "L", in Watch Dogs 1, that was fking FIIIIRREEE
You have no idea how happy I am that you mentioned good ol' Liberal Crime Squad. It's is one of my favorite strategy games ever and it'll be great seeing more people get introduced to it.
One last thing: I feel like with the privatized police force that is also militarized, The story could have been so much better by killing two birds with one stone - It could have been a robocop/judge dredd combination. A warning against for-profit criminal justice but also making fun of zero tolerance policing & arming the police to the teeth. It could have been the best of both worlds and be more profound than Judge Dredd: America. But like you said, it couldn't even say what it could. That's so pathetic, it's actually enrages me they wasted so much potential.
Seeing "First They Came" in an ad for a Ubisoft game honestly made me kind of upset so thanks for acknowledging that. In my opinion you're top tear on this whole game review thing, love the content mate cheers.
It floors me that you had it so easy shaking pursuers, because for me, it felt like no matter what I did, if I landed on the radar, that radar would keep ramping further and further up until I was on the run from missile-firing drones and APCs full of heavily armed soldiers for the crime of _trying to hack an ATM for the ten bucks I needed to buy a new hat._ I actually uninstalled the game twice because of this - the first time, because I was trying to slip out of a restricted area as part of a piss-easy stealth mission, got caught by the one NPC I hadn't knocked out, and kept getting hit by reinforcements until I ran out of bullets and got Swiss cheesed by the small army of rifle-toting Albion soldiers, and the second time when I was trying to recruit a person, got a stealth mission to steal a car, got caught, and the enemy AI decided that blowing the car up was the best solution to stop me in my tracks, which Bagley promptly blamed on me as though _I_ had blown up the damn car. I have since not reinstalled this game.
Don't know what to say, I had a harder time having a satisfying chase because I'd have to cooperate and slow down for the AI to keep it going, and I was on the hardest difficulty!
@@TehsnakererProbably not a good thing for Ubisoft, that their chases are either ridiculously impossible or ridiculously non-threatening with little to no in-between.
@@jackhazardous4008 Ain't that the truth. I can't entirely blame Watch Dogs for this, I remember going on an hours-long Templar killing spree in one AC game because I accidentally bumped into a guard, and then later on, in a different AC game, I was scrambling for ages trying to get off of one enemy faction's radar, only to stumble right at the feet of another and have both factions temporarily team up to beat my ass.
I really hope you hit the big time one of these days. It's criminal how comparatively little attention some of these videos get. Your stuff is consistently on par with guys like Mandalore.
@@Tehsnakerer by all means! my comparison may have come off a bit odd so I apologize for that. I thoroughly enjoy your content the way *you* make it, whether it's an analysis of some long lost console classic, or you tearing in to how nonsensical Aiden and his priorities were in Watch Dogs. Keep being you, Snake
I frequently encourage people to check out Tehsnakerer, Grim Beard, Warlockcracy and PatricianTV. All channels with surprisingly low subs for how great that are.
I feel... frankly, I feel sorry you had to sit through all of this. Thank you for all the videos you've made, Tehsnakerer. I don't think anyone can blend humor and genuine deep analysis as well as you can.
Snake, you’ve honestly inspired me in terms of what amazing critical analysis of media can be, while still being incredibly funny and engaging, great job!
For myself the Legion system is in the same boat as Shadow of Mordor's Nemesis system. Both are real cool concepts that make your brain run wild with potential in how it can be engaging, but ultimately are gimmicks with a nice honeymoon period in the games that presently use them. And when the player hits the end of that honeymoon period, they only loose their sense of engagement but they actively get in the way of the game they are in. This all makes me really disappointed in the Shadow of War series and Watch Dogs Legion, but also very much hoping more ambitious teams take these ideas and run with them.
Very well said. I was wondering why my two attempts to jump into Shadow of War failed, despite myself having fun. Now I realize I really didn't care for its Nemesis system, and saw it as a gimmick from the start. The rest of the game, unfortunately, didn't do enough to justify my time so I moved on.
While I don't disagree with the nemesis system being a gimmick, I wouldn't say it's anywhere near as bad legion. At least in in the second game. I found it engaging enough for one playthrough, which is decent for a gimmick. At least I didn't get bored in a few hours like in the first game.
@supertaoman12 luckily with the way that gane mechanic patents work, all the patent protects is the specific code used and the branded name Nemesis System. You can't actually own game mechanics, just their expression. So if another company made unique code and expressly does not call it the Nemesis System they can legally do it and any competent court will uphold that ruling since president has been set for this in previous cases. Really the reason they patented it at all is as a threat to bully smaller companies to settle out of court, if someone went to court the case would publicly be very open and shut
Having essentially no experience with this series, I definitely didn't expect any part of it to end with a P.T. reference wrapped inside an AITSF reference.
as someone who bought Legion day 1 i can confidently say that it was a purchase i entirely regretted. when the game first launched it was a poorly optimized mess that took several months to finally make stable. in my 20 ish hour playthrough, the game crashed a total of 32 times, even during loading screens. hell at one point it crashed before i could even open the main menu. this was on the Xbox One port of the game btw. there were several patches released for it but it was still a broken mess for a long time. there were also a few game breaking bugs. like for instance, i escaped a restricted area using a boat. once i left the area and got to a safe spot, i left the boat and my character bugged out when they jumped into the water, where they were rubber-banding up and down which prevented me from climbing the nearby ladder. essentially making me unable to leave the water or even move effectively. another weird bug that happened is that i turned on the game one day and suddenly two of my operators came back from the dead. i don't know how but they were just in my operator list, fully alive and ready to do whatever. As for gameplay it's mediocre at best. the only part of the overall gameplay that would make me want to return to the game is the unique kill animations for every type of character but that's a very minor positive. there are far too many armored enemies, especially at the end game. it makes it so i rarely ever get a chance to use the suppressed guns because the enemy will just tank the damage and then sound the alarm. so throughout the game you're just knocking out enemies with melee takedowns and most fights are brawls. by the time an enemy gets the nerve to pull out a gun in a firefight, you can take out everyone else and then move onto them. the cloak and disrupt give you two free takedowns already and attacks are incredibly easy to dodge and counter so melee is ultimately a lot easier than pulling out a gun. additionally stealth is just the same shit from the previous games with added in tools that make it trivial. the spider bot comes to mind. why go into an objective area when your drone can climb through vents while doing all the same shit you can except shoot guns? if you wanna do things personally the invisibility cloak turns you into a ghost and the unlockable ability to cloak bodies makes it so taking out guards poses no risk whatsoever. additionally, restricted areas are very easy to breach if you have construction worker in your team because they can just summon a drone that can fly them wherever they want, making it so locked gates don't matter. essentially making them a better infiltrator than someone like a spy. I entirely agree with Snake that there should be more opportunities for recruiting rarer types of operatives similar to the fight clubs. having your only spy or hitman get killed and have no opportunity to recuperate your losses is a massive bummer, especially since you can only find 2 of each special type of operative. one in their selected mission for the borough, and another just bumming it around London. Personally i always found that the two most useful operatives were the Spy and the Hitman. the Spy had access to a watch that disables firearms making it so i can get in a cheeky melee kill or just cap some heads recklessly without consequence. and the Hitman having one shot melee kills, access to assault rifles and hand cannons, made them the best suited for combat once you get the ability to hijack every type of drone. the only other class that comes close to those two in terms of capability are the enforcers that have access to grenade launchers. my next complaint is a sentiment that Snake has already shared but one i feel the need to add my own perspective to. i feel as if we're given no reason to care about our operatives. they have a bland personality and are more often than not, fucking annoying. the most customizable aspects of our operatives are their choice of clothing and weapons, but even that is somewhat restrictive. i can understand why someone's grandma can't use an LMG but when you have someone who's job is literally "black market weapons dealer", it becomes hard to believe that they can't use whatever they want, or have any sort of options to customize their weapons of choice. Another choice of gameplay that came as a shock to me was random NPCs kidnapping your operatives. this was the most interesting thing Ubisoft did with the operatives and it's the fact that they can be kidnapped by another NPC who has a grudge against them. this rarely happens but when it does, it usually happens to somebody who is used frequently. i feel Ubisoft could've done more to expand this though. what if your operatives could be targeted by an entire faction and they're eventually stuck in a situation that requires your help? like wiping away records and protocols pertaining to them. what if they're being pursued and you had to help fend off their pursuers? maybe you can send your operatives out on their own missions and you have the option to help them if everything goes tits up. something like that would give your recruits some actual weight to them and their actions. Something Ubisoft could do to make the "X NPC hates DeadSec because of this reason" could've been expanded further. Clan Kelly is a gang who are just as opposed to the idea of Albion as Deadsec is. the only reason why these two don't work together is because Deadsec has morals according to the story at least. Ubisoft could've make them far more interesting by allowing you make unethical actions as DeadSec in order to gain their trust but it would create a ripple effect where certain NPCs would hate you forever. such as the ones who inherently hate Clan Kelly like the police or Albion, making it so you can't recruit them, but you could gain access to a variety of items exclusive to Clan Kelly along with access to their restricted areas. Another side effect that could come of this is that any Clan Kelly recruits you collect that don't dress in civilian clothing would be targeted by the police and Albion and would be chased down on sight. however, with Clan Kelly recruits, there would be fewer of them that dislike DeadSec due to their comradery with the gang leader. in terms of story this could also open up a new philosophical question of "should you throw away your morals simply so you can rip down a tyrant who is just as cruel as you are?" this would also have the consequence of making any recruits you have that are opposed to Clan Kelly just flat out leave DeadSec, and you would have to hunt them down in order to prevent them from spilling any information. When it comes down to Ubisoft's breed of story telling i guess the best way to summarize it is to just use a metaphor. Ubisoft is basically that one bloke who asks you if you want to go out for a bite to eat but won't actually drive you there, and if you take them they'll just dip out halfway to the joint. when Ubisoft asks the player something it's always a surface level question that they never want to take a serious dive into. in Assassin's Creed, the main theme was unobtainable freedoms vs authoritarian order. and they showed you what that means in a real world context by showing you who the Assassin's and Templars sided with. the Assassin's would team with free thinkers, inventors, and artists. whereas the Templars took the side of dictators, leaders, politicians, and kings. and that was the furthest Ubisoft ever went with one of their themes. they never bothered to conclude that thought, they instead keep Assassin's Creed alive with cheap and uninspired ideas. For anyone who finds the idea of having playable NPCs that can permanently die in an oppressive and bleak world a fascinating idea then i would instead recommend playing the Stalker Anomaly standalone mod and hopping into its "Azazel mode", where if you die, you take control of a randomly selected NPC somewhere in the world who has randomly selected weapons, armor, and items. it's a shooter game set in a fictional version of the Chernobyl NPP post nuclear disaster. you don't need to download any of the mainline Stalker games to play the Anomaly mod either, it's entirely standalone and free so the only thing you lose is your time if you decide to try it.
@@polytanksan5761 i'm sorry to hear that. i don't really know of any other game that has a similar concept that's available on console. but who knows. maybe at some point in the future you'll get a PC.
Most of these DeadSec operatives could cause much more damage to Albion by deliberately doing their dayjobs wrong, then having them sneak around, and outright attack them.
The "sweeping area" and "speculative fiction" joke being about author wearing glasses are some top notch puns. Has anyone ever told you that your pun game is incredible? After the hefty narrative analysis in the last Playing episodes (both self made and not) it was really refreshing to have a more gameplay oriented essay : ]
what you said about the skill points and repetitions happens exactly the same way in valhalla and odyssey, when i played odyssey i went exploring the map before doing side quests or main quests, what happened was that i got to a location, killed the guards looted and when i went to get the mission it made me go to the exaclty location with the guards respawned and a npc to talk to. after this i just made the missions on the regions and after went exploring. ended up enjoying the game a lot more this way.
"Killing is wrong."
Well okay I suppose I can get behind tha-
"Even when it's a guy who is going to probably produce a super weapon or a robot takeover that upsets the balance of power on earth, leading to millions of deaths"
Ubisoft please.
At least you get to hold your head up high over the millions dead and say "Well I didn't dirty MY hands"
Turns out that Rising Up™ against the robot uprising just gets you shot by the robots faster.
To be fair, if one employs proper climbing techniques and care, a hill of corpses does make for good moral high ground.
@@vetreas366 Easier yet burry them in mass grave or put them in an oven
@@Tehsnakerer *after millions of random goons got ventilated while you were getting to that point.*
Games like Watch Dogs: Legion are fine examples of how concepts like "rebellion" have been commercialized.
The people who have fooled themselves into thinking that *purchasing* this game and playing it is somehow avant-garde are exactly the kind of audience Ubisoft want to cultivate. Ubisoft gives people a safe space to express their anti-corporate sentiments without hurting the bottom line.
TL;DR: Rage with the Machine
No OUR machines are raging
Corporate hypocrisy has really evolved over the last decade. Now its all about being hip, and appealing to college grads wanting to change the system and stick it up to the man. Its always about being on the right side of the narrative and political discourse without actually making an statement. And the best thing about it is that this format is easily applicable to anything so its even easier to fool people into liking this companies. Its all so cynical its sad.
The Revolution™ is televised
Corporations will attempt to find, leverage and profit from any desire or sentiment that they believe is widely held. Including anti-corporate sentiment.
I'm not sure anyone believes buying this game is an act of rebellion. That sort of thing usually comes from outside, nonfiction things, news and whatever. Conservatives deliberately buying something because the competition has gays in it and there being a media furore, for example.
I actually cried a little during Aiden's conversation with the skipper
because I realized that people *cared*. They put honest heart and effort into their work. And they're chained up at fucking *Ubisoft*.
Tragic, is what it is.
Ikr. Ubi devs are really fucking talented. They were able to make a combat system like For Honor that was so unique. Just wish they weren't bogged down by another Assassin's Creed.
You need some real problems bruh
@@psyoperator58 i've kind of been through the wringer, actually
and i hope neither you nor anyone else has to go through what i have, or what the people close to me have
if we cannot weep about the small things, the great ones will destroy us, and see us well and truly unraveled
perspective is a bastard, and will be the death of us all
@@psyoperator58 Ow the edge
@@brokenbiscuit3609 Made me sad when they turned For Honor into a shitty Raimbow 6 Siege clone where they just add things to sell DLC and microtransactions rather than additions that fit organically within the game. Used to be my favourite game.
The enemies are bullet sponges because their arteries have been hardened by a steady diet of Gregg's pastries.
I spent my whole run looking for that buff
I think they did that for hard mode as a more merciful way to make the game difficult rather than decreasing your own health
Not partnering with Greggs was a massive missed opportunity on Ubisoft's part.
Ardened
They all stopped by Toby's and loaded up that plate.
Raytracing reflections in a vampire hunting game where the vampires lack reflections would be sick. Like seeing someone who isn't reflected in a nearby window could be your tell if the vampire is hiding in plain sight.
That'd be sick
@@Tehsnakerer I would fight a scalper to the death to get a raytracing-capable GPU just to play a game like that
@@areallyboredindividual8766 honestly man that's the sickest idea ive heard, for, ray tracing.
VTMB 2, are you getting this?
battlefield 5 had some rare moments where it was beneficial
Fun fact: some of Bagley's dialogue was written by Yatzhee Croshaw, of Zero Punctuation fame. It might go a long way to explain why he's more tolerable than your average snarky AI: that's real, artisanal snark in there, not that store-brand crap.
Though it's also interesting to note that Yatzhee said Ubisoft didn't use some of the lines, as they deemed them "too inappropriate".
Release the Yatzhee Cut Ubisoft!
The fact they didn't use all of his written lines is a them just being too scared to fly close to the sun and actually achieve something noteworthy
Reminds me of his story about auditioning for Duke Nukem Forever. His application was rejected because they wanted Duke to be taken seriously. He really dodged a bullet there.
@@SAUglaz That’s hilarious as that guy is now known as the biggest joke of a fps protagonist ever
As soon as he said that in the video, it all made sense. His writing works best with a delivery that sounds petty and small, like the only way they can get anything out of life by bringing other people down. Without that loser-y, low self-ssteem vibe, it's just being a smug git.
One might wonder why they'd produce such an exceedingly self-satisfied performance, and then reveal that the AI is diagetically based on a man with neurological conditions. Then really rub it in that he had his mental faculties swept out from under him and his family exploited him for use in civil conflict, the AI tells him "Well, you got to walk about and feel the wind in your hair and had people that loved you, so your life was good, actually". Literally talked over and down to by your replacement self.
British would definitely replace disabled people with enhanced authoritarian spy machines if they could, though, so at least it's accurate
That ending of Bloodlines is hilarious. "I won't kill you! Killing is wrong! I have grown as a person and learned that vigilante justice is never the answer! Oh, look! The thugs of a corrupt police state who kill their prisoners for no real reason! Here! Look after this bloke for me, would you?"
Yeah like, we just handed over the bad guy to the other bad guys.
If anybody deserved a beating, it's Rampart. They couldve even made a reversal of the normal moral choice where you can either kill him or seriously injure and ruin his life, making him live with that pain, not out of "killing is wrong" but "death is kinder than you deserve". Would've been different if nothing else.
@@hereniho Honestly it clicked that another way to stop Rampart is well. Breaking his hands. Smashing them with that sledgehammer over and over.
He'll live, sure.
But he'll never be able to make something with his own hands again.
@@DeathAngel-ft8oz He never did in the first place. That wouldn't change anything
seeing aiden be properly humanized really solidifies my opinion that "edgelord characters are best after their story is done"
on another note, that means aiden pierce is the same as sasuke
It’s almost like that makes perfect sense for Aiden to start to develop as a character when he isn’t so totally encased in his own self loathing and edge.
What a horrible and lovely realisation
"Sasuke and his iconic sharingan"
I dunno about that as a general rule, anyone remember how Alex Mercer was ruined in the sequel ?
@@jerryjezzaberry5009 You mean the mustache twirling lunatic who stole Alex Mercer's identity?
Old joke but it's applicable here:
"Why is EA the worst company in America? Because Ubisoft is French!"
The brain hacker giving the elderly abuser immortality through the cloud before punching an ethicist was such a raw sequence of events, you'd think it came up from a particularly messed up TTRPG session. Still made me laugh, though.
It sounds absolutely hilarious.
"I can take a proper gander at some propaganda."
It's that kind of wordplay that I absolutely love your videos, Snake. It's always a treat to see things from you, both to legit watch and to fall asleep to.
There are other video game youtubers in the same league as snake on insight and critique, but nobody can beat him on puns.
I don't understand how he manages to have such wordplay all over his scripts. His hours long scripts that are doing plenty of things other than wordplay.
6:48 "Our Majesty's secret Sewers"
Some other bits:
34:33 Police: "Suspect is unsighted, unsighted, sweeping area." [PC literally sweeps a street with a broom]
1:02:38 Snake: "Albion allowed Clan Kelley to use a clinic at an immigrant internment camp to quietly dissapear people, implanting them with a poison secreting crisp. I mean chip."
Liberal Crime Squad is a game that I didn't think I'd ever see again.
That game is exactly what happens when you give Tarn Adams, a madman obsessed with player choice and replayability, a specific vision and goal rather than exclusively just _"Generic medieval fantasy with a focus on dwarves but not always."_ I still really like Dwarf Fortress, I just don't think it's ever going to be *_'finished'_* the same way Liberal Crime Squad was, at least not without Tarn Adams achieving immortality.
I honestly got way more fun out of LCS, may have just been the relative straightforwardness and focus but yeah. Dwarf Fortress is a bloody marvel, but one I've never really been able to get into
@@Tehsnakerer I think DF is a lot of peoples' "favorite game they don't play."
Mine is the Mass Effect series. I like everything about ME except playing it - but I had an obsessive friend who would 100% all three games for the good, neutral, and evil endings and then replay them again in between major game releases. Some of my favorite "gaming" memories are sitting on the couch and doing Mystery Science Theater 3000 over cutscenes we've both watched a dozen times.
@@AppleJaxc I had a somewhat similar experience, not to the same extent but yeah, a few games as a teen that I spent more time watching friends play than playing myself and just riffing and shooting the shit
I genuinely enjoy df but goddamn is it awkward to play. I'm looking forward to the quality of life updates, it'll be nice to be able to place walls without like 20 key presses every 10 sections.
@@Tehsnakerer Ever tried rimworld? I’ve found a lot more accessible than Dwarf Fortress.
"They don't want to look like they're making a stand, they just want to look like they aren't sitting down"
You immediately earned a like from me there. It was as awesome as it was funny. That whole intro was just... marvelous. I don't think anybody could have said it better.
“Forget Kant. The only philosophers he needs are Heckler and Koch!”
Congratulations! You’re more of a capable writer than 90 percent Ubisoft’s team, for that line alone.
I'm more interested in the philosophy of Smith and Wesson
I prefer Colt and Kalashnikov
@@pt8306 Do you have a moment to talk about our lord and savior, Fabrique Nationale?
@@zyriantel9601 I might, but are you familiar with the philosophy of Browning?
@@AgentDanielCross Luckily, the philosophies of Fabrique N. and Browning have quite a bit of overlap, as the two were frequent collaborators.
"When hell has an exit, people will leave."
Your channel as always been a wellspring of insightful quotes.
I just realised. Apparently, according to Ubisoft, London's *civilian* population packs more heat than Postal 2's Paradise City's population on Insane-o difficulty!
I had a starting character who's trait was having a dead wife. Met a guy with her last name who hated dead sec for killing his daughter. Turns out I just ran into my father in law and the game didn't even bother making it obvious. I figured it out myself.
15:44-16:44
What’s funny about this thing to me is that Ubisoft blatantly ignoring the gun laws in their game settings was something that began in the original Watchdogs.
The first Watchdogs takes place in Chicago, Illinois, which is notable for having the strictest gun laws in the US and for having the highest homicide rate in the nation. There’s honestly a lot to say about those two statements existing in the same city, but that’s not what we’re here for. The main point is that purchasing even a pistol for self defense is extremely difficult if not impossible, and in Watchdogs, almost a third of the stores in the game are gun shops and Aiden Pierce can buy fully automatic rifles without a background check.
I was unaware of this, fascinating, thank you.
Hell all three Watch Dogs games have been set in places with very strict gun laws.
It was always such a wild concept to me that in 2, DedSec are 3d printing and using full on functional fucking firearms in CALIFORNIA and their safehouses are pretty blatant, yet somehow the cops never come sniffing around.
Admittedly, you can't buy a fully automatic rifle anywhere in the US without a background check (and you can't legally buy any automatic weapons made after 1986), but yeah, I get your point. The problem is that the areas with looser gun laws tend to be more rural so you get less interesting video game settings for open-world stuff like this. I can't really think of a big, dense city with loose gun laws in the US off the top of my head.
@@Tehsnakerer Firearms are not the wild west that the BBC pretends they are in the US. Major cities - new york, Chicago, etc - HATE peasants being able to defend themselves and it's been an open secret for at least 3 decades that the only way to get a carry permit in these cities is to be politically connected. And believe it or not, most Americans are law abiding and peaceful and comply with these laws
Once again, the player/dedsec violating people's privacy to accomplish their goals could be a compelling narrative question about our rights to privacy and hypocrisy of freedom fighters using the exact same tactics as their oppressors, if the people making the games saw an issue with violating people's privacy to accomplish goals. It just comes off as hollow and cynical and one can assume that a certain expose just happened to be published the week they were brainstorming ideas for a new IP and they've been stuck telling stories about a cause they clearly don't believe in ever since.
Having finished the video, I'm very disappointed but also unsurprised that the writing still hasn't graduated past "BUT YOU KILL PEOPLE TOO DONT YOU". Like no shit, the point that PMCs are executing civilians is far past the threshold for most people of when violence becomes necessary, which was the point of the Legion system?. That sort of confrontation made more sense in WD1 and 2, but in L3gion only makes sense if the game is supposed to be some parody of the UK/London where even in the post-apocalypse you are being asked to present your TV loicense to the slaver gangs. I mean this is literally the company that makes games about Assassin orders and clandestine special forces groups but is still grappling with the moral plight of shooty shooty bang bang
I would like it a lot more if at least it acknowledged that DedSec is just group of hypocrites with a sense of superiority. Deconstructing the main characters actions is the first step to making a good story about rebellion. Dedesec should have been comprised of rapist, criminals, assholes to hammer in more the themes of guerrilla warfare and desperation. Imagine a gritty story with asshole characters that eventually redeemed themselves fighting for freedom .
This comment is accurate. I'm currently working on a game and I believe in privacy and self reliance online (that is, controlling your data rather than using third party services) so strongly it's a major theme in my game. Ubisofts approach is downright insulting with how few questions it asks
Could be a cool idea to play the first half of the game as someone who isn't a hacker, a normal person who doesn't understand technology enough to code, but does understand how his phone works.
So, that guy is a victim of both the anarchic hackers draining his bank account for fun, and as he later learns, he is also the victim of corporations and the government spying on him.
So, the first half is him getting revenge after being screwed over, but the character needs aid from either a corporate employee with access to information as well as teaching him how to access that information or a hacker online who teaches him how to hack and introduces him to the anarchic online communities.
After that, the next half of the game is determined by who you sided with. You're either going against the corporations/government or against the hackers.
The point of the story? Well, it's that in a war you have to take sides. The only neutral option is not to get involved, but by choosing to involve yourself in what is essentially just culture-wars, you had to choose a side, and you'd be kind of a scummy person to use the community for your own desires but leave them when it stops being fun and you are pressured to stand for something that doesn't perfectly align with your own ideals.
It'd be pretty relevant for a lot of people, I think, and it would actually attempt to say something.
The first game was supposed to be about a corporate dystopia and became an exploration of a very miserable man without understanding what you can do with that premise.
The second game took use from "corporate dystopia" to "gamers in a society" and forgot to have any real bite to it at all.
Now, in the third game, we have a police state that can be evaded by simply outrunning it and doesn't use something as simple as handing out descriptions or photos of terrorists.
Either they almost bait and switch us with the plot, or they forgot the gameplay they attached to the story, either way, you can't win.
I can't believe they're failing to make the mediocare standard they set in 2014
an in depth wanted system could've made this game so much more interesting. it'd encourage pure stealth or no witnesses if you don't want police to constantly be on one of your characters
@@fortysevensfortysevens1744 Especially since it's set in London, a locations known for being full of CCTV cameras as is.
What do you expect. You asked to write a corporate dystopia to the least capable people of understanding it. The ones who helped build the real one in the first place. Ubisoft will probably still have 0 self awareness as it closes its doors when in a few short years all that's left is financial flops nobody buys, cancelled games and developers r@ping and killing each other. All actual things at Activision as we speak!
Y'know, everyone kept saying "we need an industry crash" like, a decade ago, and in a way, yeah, we do. But you see shit nowadays and it feels the declive is about to reach the "collapse" part. Maybe next decade we will have *1* good game per year that isn't indie. Here's hoping.
Third game is realistic tho :^)
Honestly, this game lives or dies on wether you play almost Nuzlocke style with the perma death and keep your gang small and specialized, giving every character a purpose.
In my playthrough I had my first character be the recruiter, a middle aged VERY british man that got us money with every new recruit.
He became sort of the leader, being in charge of talking to every new recruit and assist meetings with the plot NPCs such as the lady cop investigating clan Kelly but rarely engaging in direct action.
Then I had a sneaky hacker girl for stealth, a construction man for flying, a vigilante wannabe for beating up people, a graffiti artist with non lethal options to go in guns blazing and a turn coat Albion officer plus a handfull of minor support characters like a doctor, a lawyer, etc...
This gave everyone a purpose and made things interesting, I pick who I played depending on who I felt was best suited for a job:
Infiltrate the abandoned warehouse filled with Clan Kelly? Vigilante you are up kick their asses! Get into the police station? Get in and out without alarms Albion spy.
Its even better if you make up your own limitations. For example, the Albion officer refused to use violence on his former coworkers and could only cuff them, the hacker girl had to run away if caught, that sort of thing.
It gave more personality to each one. But above all, this game cannot survive without perma death.
I had only two casualties in the game (mostly because I played on normal and very cautiously) first was the painter:
I got cocky, overly confident, I had just raided a bank guns blazing and repelled the police with a fucking paintball gun, so when I was asked to enter the MI6 headquarters I thought I had just the right man.
It alm went pretty well actually, until a surprise, mandatory alarm sounded,y painter got sorrounded and shot dead. Next try I entered with the construction worker and, for the first time, used lethal force willingly, killing every armed fucker I came across with the nailgun until the mission was over.
It marked an escalation of conflict, I substituted the painter with his father and the guy brought an AK-47, from them on, I stopped caring about the non lethal aproach and just killed as I saw fit.
The second casualty was actually the first recruit.
At that point of the game when you get betrayed and set up at a plaza, he was the one I sent as it was supposed to be a meeting.
When the Albion drones showed up I tried to drive away and they fired rockets at him, never stood a chance.
Mind you, I made a point of making that guy the recruiter and face of my Dedsec, if you checked their profiles almost all my characters had been hired by him, he was the leader, the guy of the inspiring speeches the one that contacted the boss personally...
And he was dead.
It made the transition into the final act of the game carry much more weight, it was my playthrough's belly of the whale.
And it made going after the fucker that set him up with the construction worker and his nailgun a cathartic moment, amongst other things, because it was the hardest level of the game and he nearly died several times, but managed to pull through and earn the position as new leader of the cell.
I left the game liking it much more than I would have thanks to those two moments and the feeling of having made up my own story from the tools given by the game. Not only the deaths but also the victories.
The hacker who expressed being a fan of one of the bad guys being the one to discover her secrets and choosing her fate, the Albion guard confronting his boss openly in the final battle...
I found my own fun in the game, but it all hinged on that very real feeling of "if I fuck up, this character's story will end"
That is an interesting way of looking at it.
It seems like this game very heavily relies on the player being willing to roleplay with their characters.
And if they're not, well then the game kind of falls apart.
Many tactics games have permadeath and force you to play carefully. (If your looking for consequences like that.)
@@tatsuyasuou3368 Yeah, I've played Darkest Dungeon, XCOM, Mordheim and a couple others. The tension is real, but so is the bullshit sometimes...
Rest in peace my fallen men... Except you Jerry. It was a f*cking 95% pointblank shot, you deserved that... Schwarzenegger didnt, but you did.
@@axios4702 These might be a bit to anime for you, but Fire Emblem and Valkyria Chronicles are also some great tactics games with perma-death.
@@tatsuyasuou3368 I have Valkyria chronicles 1 and 4, but I stopped playing 1 to get through other games a while ago and I'm having trouble summoning the will to get back since I barely remember the controls or the plot, but I really dont want to start a new game after finally beating that damn "rescue the princess" mission.
Still, I really liked it and I will get back to it one day. Not hard to keep your men alive though so the whole perma death never played much of a role.
As for fire emblem, I've heard about it, even played a little and its cool, but never really got into it.
I totally agree with your criticism on Ubisoft's cynical use of politics for marketing reasons. As Tom Cat said, "Don't you believe it!".
Thank you for yet another apolitical banger, Snake. This just fills me up with "Resistance Points".
Please Resist™ responsibly
I gotta say, Ubisofts efforts to remain apolitical are more impressive (in a liar digging a deeper hole sort of way), then anything they write intentionally anyway. And its left me ruminating on the nature of corporate writing and has impacted me more then any intentional dulldrum message ever could. By making me feel dirty and disgusted.
Id say if anything, this is more honest to its true self. I wouldn't want this team trying to make a point intentionally.
I'd prefer them to actually gamble on trying, even though I know they wouldn't and it's naive to expect otherwise. That's the fun part of a corporate presentation of rebellion, it's them selling it back to you, repackaged to present evil as an individual boogeyman acting alone that can be struck down so that it doesn't lose face amongst company and looks meaningful to anyone who doesn't know better.
@@Tehsnakerer I don't think I have ever seen any writers really think about the nature of rebellion vs order, desire for security vs tyranny, in any media with even the vaguest amount of general popularity without it being boring and nihilistic (in a shallow way). If the writing team tried, it would probably just be boring and generic, as opposed to disgusting and slimey. Which got me to feel something at the very least.
On a related note, being familiar with some of these corporate inner workings, I doubt there is any real fear of offending the top brass when marketting rebellion. The people on the top are just not creative enough to be offended by implications like this. Unless its literally "Shmubisofts head 'Vas Guilotine' abuses his staff" in a videogame, these sorts of people while poo-poo other corporate actions of greed and such, but are completly oblivious to their own faults.
I don't even think they do 'But the city refused to change' shticks to have more sequels. They kill the dictator in far cry in every single game but they just go somewhere else to do it again. I think they just do it because they see 'Cynicism' as Watch Dogs identity.
@@Tehsnakerer hey just wondering this isn't related to your comment what game trailer did you use in the near beginning of the video what game was that and is that the trailer you have said you have worked on
I hope they eventually add politics to their live service model, so I can kill ten bears with a shotgun to be rewarded with a level designer's opinion on the morality of killing ten bears with a shotgun.
In far cry 6 nobody is willing to so much as say the word socialism, it's incredible
apolitical masterpiece of a video. just what we needed to rise up™
rise up dogecoin 2025
We. The Gamers
@@Tehsnakerer Hey, speaking of masterpieces and video games with the word “Legion” in it, would you like to review Super Mario World and its hacks at some point?
m.ruclips.net/video/I3wIlJcRNVs/видео.html (I wouldn’t recommend for people to play the smw.games version because it’s soundtrack sounds like a literally broken version of the SNES version)
m.ruclips.net/video/uHjd5rFt7qg/видео.html
ruclips.net/p/PL34qJOC2cmi-fqdEsrex5MlT2E2TDJYaI
m.ruclips.net/video/NDmU4vwABfo/видео.html
m.ruclips.net/video/CzkGyf3ZRwE/видео.html
m.ruclips.net/video/BsWrTVV61O0/видео.html
ruclips.net/p/PLgrG5UxkV8GnKFGXFnw5EF-SRUoO3dBeK
ruclips.net/p/PLRrPSkwBl7MfGCJVTN9OR4tZ6NldIVM2r
ruclips.net/p/PLgrG5UxkV8GkXFU-8zzDjlRr4tZdQOe5w
Kiryu-Chan
@@carinhafelizgames2308 who is that?
“Yeah, our games are very political and controversial. Have you ever considered that genocidial megalomaniac regime bad, actually?”
meanwhile the alarmist clocks are screaming 'WOKE'
Right off the bat, the Ubisoft rant is spot on! You've had a ton of profound things to say, but I loved this the most: "there's no ingenuity, no true player expression, no creativity in how the player takes back the city, except for the creativity that has been prescribed". Surgically accurate.
If only Boris were here. The resistance would've only needed 1 member.
It would have been too easy
Shame they couldn't contact Saul Meyers.
He used to kick ass at Driv3r so running a resistance shouldn't be any problem.
I'm still disappointed there wasn't a boss fight against Boris Johnson in a mech.
@@planescaped Boris and Saul Meyers togheter is too much power in a single place to be safely contained on this earth...
You can really feel the way Vaas shaped ubisoft writes villains, Vaas was built to be a minor antagonist/kind of a write off in the story, yet the fans found him to be the best villain in the plot, so ubisoft realized "wait we can just keep doing this?"
Vaas aside, “wait we can just keep doing this” is a death knell proposition. All that can come from it is a death of soul. Creativity tossed aside to recycle ideas, to greatly diminishing returns that quickly leave those once great concepts stale and empty. Caricatures used in place of characters, passion replaced entirely by pandering. You go down that road, the true value in your products slips away, as each reuse makes them more and more pointless.
"Using a tranquilizer gun is somehow seen as a positive."
Well, yeah. Security guards cost a lot to train and kit out, plus if you knock them out they're only out of commission temporarily so the corpos aren't going to be too upset about it. It's when you geek them with real bullets that they'd throw a hissy fit and develop an unsurprising thirst for your blood.
Edit: Wait, this isn't Shadowrun.
Alt-tabbed out of my game to salute you for the line "they clearly think speculative fiction meant the writer was wearing glasses"
choked on my "pint".
God this video ended up so good! Also that footage of chasing Aiden with buses ended up so much funnier from your Aiden's perspective holy shit
It's a shame neither of you got a chance to be the Aiden in that situation, dodging busses (or failing to) was bloody hilarious
Isn't it funny how this video game by a megacorp tries so hard to blame all of London's Megacorp-related and Government-related problems on the British?
Albion=Another name for Britain and its people.
And the "protestors" demand authoritarian action on the poor's behalf from the govt (something actual BritishFascists wanted) while calling capitalism... well, what their type usually calls capitalism.
@ashy I think it was more highlighting the obvious strawman approach Ubisoft took to characterising Albion and their view of capitalism... Though, maybe I don't get it.
Snake your videos really just are the best game analyses on RUclips. Your commentary, particularly when you discuss meta elements of story or gameplay such as the rocks and headspace of Mitchell in HDtF, is incredibly insightful as someone with a love for narrative game design. The long form nature of them too is so engaging to me, albeit not the RUclips algorithm. I know it takes a stupid amount of time to makes these Playing: videos, but your persistence really pays off for how good they are. Though remember to take time for yourself with plenty of breaks. Take care!
Thank you very much. I take the time I need but I'm quite comfortably a workaholic. I relax most when I have a lot of things to do so it doesn't bother me too much.
"Luckily for me, and Ubisoft, he decides to die before he arrives at a point." made me laugh so loud i woke up everyone in my house. thank u, great vid
"Have to take the L on that one"
That's the clever writing I'm here for, Snake. Kudos from a Chicagoan.
I think the tonal whiplash from the Cass boss fight to the after-party lead to some interpretive emergent story-telling that's really got me attached to Dante.
When he gets back it's like everyone's celebrating because they don't know what it's like to genuinely look death in the eye. Everyone who'd shared in the risk and danger of going on suicide missions against Albion are dead.The rest are effectively immortal scripted characters or rookies who've never faced a mission where death was the probable outcome. He's lost his squad, but more than that he's lost everyone who can share in his fear, dread and loss. He's alone.
So now I have a character I'm rooting for, and I'm watching as much to see if he'll live as to hear your breakdown of the game.
*edit* well I guess there's one regular left lol
*edit 2* and now she's dead.
*edit 3* He made it!...but his actions and the sacrifices of his friends have just delayed dystopia till the next game...yay
When you picked your first operatives and said "mage, rogue, and fighter" my first thought was "if only they were actually that different."
Wasn't expecting LCS to pop up, but you're spot on with it being a novel and surprisingly in-depth game for managing a resistance group (goofy as it is). I wonder, in an alternate timeline where ToadyOne kept working on it instead instead of Dwarf Fortress, just how crazy it could have gotten. This review also made me want to start up another XCOM2 run, so bless/curse you for that!
If Toady kept working on it, it'd probably be a shitstorm of controversy, as the game would likely be constantly updated to reflect the current times. Fox (who made LCS updates after Toady dropped it) was actually planning to work on Neoliberal Crime Squad, focused on the Trump era, but then he apparently dropped the development in part due to the "too soon" effect
@@cdru515 Nothing is too soon these days whether for better or worse
LCS is actually based on a real-life nutjob leftist militant group from the 70s, the Symbionese Liberation Army. Today's modern nutjob leftist militants don't have shit on those guys, but they make up for it by being state-sponsored.
As the Joker once said: "I wanted to see your Watch Dogs Legion review, and you didn't disappoint.". Love your reviews of big budget games!
1:11:39
>Pro Eternal Life
>Dies
What did he mean by this? 🤔
What did he mean by this?
What did he mean by this?
Oh jesus christ its the furry
"They don't want to take a stand. They just don't want to look like they're sitting down." We're of to a GREAT start!
"unsighted, *cuts to man sweeping* sweeping area."
God your jokes are so good.
I’m honestly thankful you still refer to Wrench as “spanner”
I would love to see a game where you are a rowdy rebel faction that is hell bent on destroying the tyranny of the ruling body. Then, when you dethrone the evil ruling body, your own rebellious faction becomes the new evil ruling body, and the player needs to take down their own former allies because you want to live in a world without tyrants.
Hi MadMatty
Far cry 4 sorta did this and it was pretty interesting you pretty much trade one dictator for another sadly the game ends at that point so felt like wasted potential
Well there is Choice of Rebels but it isn't a game it's a choice you own adventure with rpg and management elements book kind of thing and it's a five part series with only the first part done
You could make a cyclical plot out of that. Heroes of your first game prestige and become the villains of your next go through. I swear there was a game that did that i just don't remember the name of it.
while i am sure it could make an interesting gameplay mechanic story wise that just reeks of cowardly both-sidesism
"and hey, for all the evil they've done, Albion did at least catch some pedophiles"
B A S E D
Everyone has standards. Also oh my god, he said "catch"? Now that part of the video makes a lot more sense, I kept hearing "patch" rather than "catch", which made me do a couple of double takes.
Let's be real, in sunny Britain that was more a matter of catching enough people that they accidentally caught a bunch of them.
it ain"t based tho because everybody hates pedo
@@franciscusradityapamarta4645 Such a common thing and played out to the point of irrationality that it became contrarian and cool to root for them and pretend to be them. There was a day when I saw three simultanious irl cunny threads on certain video game discussion board. Strangely those were the least vitriolic and comfy threads I've seen in a while.
@@Shiroi0moi Cunnychads have good taste, what do you expect?
the moment my opinion changed on Albion from "reasonable villains" to "comically evil" was the suicide bombing being shown to actually be staged. The game had a chance to actually show that resistances aren't 100% a band of plucky heroes, there are extremes on both sides and the line between Good Meaning and Desperate Measures is never simple. But no, that would be too dangerous for a Ubisoft game, they need to make things as black and white as can be, almost as if they're self aware that their dedicated fans are window licking sponges and that moral complexity makes their brains hurt.
I absolutely agree. I feel like they rushed this and went with the first option that came to the writer’s mind.
However, looking back at the E3 2019 presentation of Legion, the story seemed different. Anyway, even though I like Legion, they really should’ve expanded the concept of the game and should’ve thought about it thoroughly.
Virgin San Francisco/Chicago citizens: can only take one shot to the head before dying
Chad Londoners: can literally survive multiple shots to the head from a fully automatic rifle without dying
'All cause of the pint, mate.
"normally bullets hurt people, but in London, bullets are a suggestion" - Max0r
How do you think they got that intercontinental empire?
David Foster Wallace (IIRC) said something about the convenience of irony - you can say something controversial and then backpedal if it's poorly received, instead of dealing with the consequences of what you've said. "It was just a joke" or "I didn't mean it" instead of committing to your own bullshit. Applies to a lot of stuff nowadays, especially corporations and politicians.
Great video, as always. You're a poet
46:35. Even further back in AC:Brotherhood you could recruit other Assassins that you could call in for backup in a fight or kill enemies without drawing attention to yourself. No real customization in leveling them but at least they were on screen at the same time as the player character. kinda funny how little a gimmick they've had since 2010 has developed.
It's developed in reverse, even. It actually was useful in Brotherhood, and now has become useless in Legion!
@@zyriantel9601 I remember being able to call four of those goons in on a pretty short cooldown. It was awesome watching from above as they wrecked house when fully upgraded.
1:05:49
"Rest now, friend. We'll finish your mission for you."
Ragley: "Operative KIA. Apologies. *Look at that, your plan worked!"*
XD
"proper gander" has been stuck in my head since childhood and you just casually break it out in a video. I love you
It has been over a year since I watched your Playing: YIIK video and it has been over a year since I started regularly watching and binge watching your stuff. And I must thank Alex or well you for creating such journey to me and others. From games made by spiders, to boiling points, to passionate work of Brian and alike, to criminal melodrama, to evolutionary godhood, to misleading game with no subtitles, to jank of all nationalities and to this. It is a journey of discovery. Your videos been great food for thought, sleep aid and something to enjoy to watch fully or just have on in background to listen to. And even then on repeats of watching videos I still find new little details that I may haven't noticed on the first or second watch. Not to mention how over the years you have gotten way more punchier with your script and editing. While old snake still is great in his own way, it would be criminal not to mention how better you have gotten at this whole thing. Keep up the good work and thanks for your wonderful content!
1:50:31
There is something so hysterical about Giancarlo laughing at the sarcastic “Delivering stories you know and love” before his face turns serious.
It’s like a perfect visual gag.
Come to think of it, what a character moment it would have been if when shutting down the 'comedy' AI, after Josh the Pisser says "naw bruv it won't" and Bagley is reacting we get a sudden smash cut to black and a zipper sound.
"This one's for you bags."
It's a really, REALLY minor nitpick in the grand scheme of things, but I think the moment I realized Legion was a serious downgrade from 2 was the complete lack of an option to make a custom music playlist. I feel like that was something 2 did extremely well, there was a lot of great tracks that gave an slight air of character, letting you choose music that you felt fit your playstyle or whatever was currently happening. It was such a small simple thing and I have no clue why they didn't even bother adding it to Legion (especially when the soundtrack had Bloc Party and Fatboy fuckin' Slim), when it could have been a fun and easy way to add just a teeny bit more depth into whatever operative you were playing. Maybe that's just me being a soundtrack geek but it really irked me when I first started playing.
RIGHT.
If they wanted to let you play music while walking like in 2, all they had to do was make an operative who could do that specific thing (if they wanted to make each operative unique).
Plus, when I saw they switched the Google Maps inspired map from 2 into a basic open world map and when they changed the menu from Marcus' phone into a basic open world map, it sorta bummed me out.
Ngl as a Chicago native, who’s been to the baseball field at the beginning, it’s fascinating to see neighborhoods and buildings I saw as a kid, and that’s what I liked so much about Watchdogs 1
It feels like a missed opportunity, giving the players a huge cadre of characters they can constantly recruit more of, but never putting those characters in more scenarios where that actually means anything. Like what if some of the recruitment missions were actually setups or ambushes as Albion tries to shut down Dedsec recruitment. Maybe captured characters could end up feeding intel to Albion, compromising other agents, or resulting in freezing accounts. If they're gonna make a game that's all about an asymmetric fight against a security state, the least they could do is make it *feel* like that.
That would require effort on top of copy and pasting the Ubisoft formula into a new location.
I have so many gripes with the recruitment system despite actually liking the idea of it a lot. Legion is the first Watch Dogs game I’ve played for more than a couple hours because I never cared about the characters in the previous games at all. At least the recruits in Legion have the benefit of being “my dudes” and permadeath to keep me invested, even if I’m not super engaged with the story. I hope they bring it back and improve it in a future game.
Really wish there had been some kind of progression system, like a generic skill tree for individual recruits with some specialties depending on the traits they spawn with, that way you’d have a reason to recruit people with less desirable or no traits and it would feel more like you’re recruiting people and then training them to do what DedSec does, rather than just recruiting people who inexplicably know how to hack and do parkour from day one.
@@KickinRadTopHat If they wanted to keep the recruitment system in a future game, just make the single player have 1 protagonist and let us recruit people in the multiplayer.
@@brokenbiscuit3609 that would be even worse for me because I don't play multiplayer lol
Wow…that Bloodlines section really astounded me. It’s been ages since I’ve felt any sort of attachment to a Ubisoft protagonist, namely Altaïr, Ezio, and Jason Brody, yet they’ve somehow done it with Aiden. And I would say my journey through Watch *Underscore* Dogs was one of the few times in a game I cared very little for the story and only really stuck around for the gameplay.
Where are these seemingly functioning humans for every Ubisoft IP?
Chained on the basement, being fed chicken bones when they feel like it. Jokes aside, it's not the first time that Ubisoft left devs to do whatever the fuck they wanted on the DLCs of their IPs, and then the devs, wanting to feel fulfilled after years of slavery on projects they ended up hating, end up releasing stuff like Bloodlines. Another example in another game from another company is Dead Space 3, which on the DLC Awakening they clearly vented out their frustations on the limitations they had imposed on them by showing what kind of story DS3 could've been if they got a modicum of creative freedom.
"Watch Dogs Legion: Resist™" is probably the single most elegant jab at this game and Ubisoft in general I've come across on RUclips. Quality content, this.
Off-topic comment but I just wanted to let you know that ever since I started watching your Yakuza videos all those years ago have finally inspired me to buy 0 and both Kiwami games. I'm going to be playing this great series for the first time in my life. Thank you.
Those are great but id avoid playing 3-5 for awhile just so you dont get burnt out like i did and i doubt ill ever finish 5 or start 6. Not that they are bad at all. Its just a lot.
I'm looking forward to snake's Yakuza 0 review, as it's the only game in the series I've played.
I liked it a lot... but I also had my fill of Yakuza from it.
@@oh-not-the-bees78725 truly is BIG.
Man Kamurocho and Kiryu look a lot different in the latest Yakuza installment.
Fighting got a lot worse too
Yeah, Electronic King really crashed and burned lately.
@@Tehsnakerer Gotta say, going punk in London really hasn't gelled well with Kiryu's combat style, it's made him a lot more flail-y and he stumbles around like he's on top level drunkenness at all times, with none of the combat benefits.
"Fuck Kant! The only philosophers he needs are Heckler and Koch."
This genuinely destroyed me lol
very excited to dig into this while also getting absurdly depressed at the knowledge that the Far Cry 2 and Chaos Theory director did this after a solid decade of nothing he made getting off the ground
It's a bit of a sad comeback
knowing that he's immediately going from this into a GAAS assassin's creed is just brutal
The Far Cry 2 dude? Damn...that is sad.
@@Batchan I think the only way to avoid making a GAAS Ubisoft™ Open World Romp is to not work for Ubisoft at all.
Eh, Far Cry 2 is half a game that a bunch of people with literature degrees read a bunch of things into that weren't ever there. Look, it's not that the game has a giant empty map, don't you see, the giant empty map is about, um...something to do with Africa or civil wars or something! It's not _supposed_ to be fun, even though nobody who actually made the game has ever claimed that!
In general if a brilliantly subversive game looks _exactly_ like one where they promised too large a map to fill with anything and ran out of time to make all that much for the player to do, you're setting a very low bar indeed.
"And then i punched an ethicist in the face" i lost my shit lmao that was incredible
Literally today I remembered that watchdogs legion existed and for the life of me the only thing i could recall about it was that one jerma stream where while playing it he realized that he actually hated all Ubisoft games
He's a smart guy, that Jerma
I forget about most Ubisoft games near immediately these days. It's a weird gaming-amnesia.
He hit rock bottom (during that stream I should add)
@@Hemostat why
Permadeath, rolling over to another character in a continuing story after, and gradually taking over a country with a military/control focus could have been a really cool thing. Hell, it is a cool thing in Romancing SaGa 2 on the SNES. But unfortunately it's made by Ubisoft, so they can't really keep up with the dedication and complexity of a 16-bit era console game of the early 90s.
For what it's worth, I actually really like Aiden's visual design. It's sort of a budget Deus Ex style getup that just kind of clicks with me.
It has improved somewhat since his debut. It could be that Snake didn't show it off, but it seems like he has less opportunities to pair up hideously ungodly color combinations in Legion.
I mostly remember playing this that some characters were grossly overpowered, I think I just had a police officer so I got free access into most police areas and cleared all the hard missions with him
I got an assassin and he ended up being the chum i brought out every time one of my agents got Perma'd. Had a machine gun and an SMG, basically unstoppable
I discovered that anybody who came with a free cargo drone was utterly invincible. You can literally just fly right over to your objective, and nobody can do a thing to stop you.
They should've handled guns like Sleeping Dogs did, where they were rare set-pieces, and most combat was martial arts and melee.
Although with how bad the melee combat is in Watch Dogs Legion, I think you'd be better off just playing Sleeping Dogs despite its age. :P
I'd be totally down for that if the melee was good
Especially given it's set in London.
Yeah it could be really cool. I really love when game limited your best arsenal to force you to use other options. I feel limitation help you created more freedom for the player to improvise.
Man, Sleeping Dogs is one game I'm consistently amazed at. I've come back to beat it nearly a dozen times by now because every part of its design was just amazing. The closest thing i think we'll get to more of it are the Arkham games, where characters have their own fighting styles.
@@jackhazardous4008 And Yakuza, i guess.
The gulf of quality between Legion and Bloodlines is night and living on the sun.
Even that first cutscene, feeling very Uncharted, is a vast improvement over almost any other in the whole series, and that great start doesn't disappoint. It [& the rest of the Return of Punished Tech-Batman DLC] shows that Ubisoft was actually capable of something in regards to this series.
Yknow what, after like 45% of the video I feel that Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood and Revelation did the “legion” aspect better than Legion itself. You save operatives from oppression, they joined you, and you gotta level them up by sending them to missions. Some will die there. Some will die in the effort of aiding you. But you feel somewhat bad for any master assassin hopeful died, unlike Legion being a number generator guff.
1:00:12
But this mechanic actually did exist in Watch Dogs 2, if you knock out or kill the Dog's owner the dog will sadly sit next to it's owner.
Unless somehow you're going to recruit the dog ( Which seems woefully unlikely ), keeping record of every generated dog would be a waste of resources.
Given their attempt at a seemingly "all or nothing" approach, I legit wouldn't be surprised if they did that. Maybe handwaving it as "every pet is required by law to have chip shit suplemented into their brains" or something in order to allow for playing as dogs.
Probably would've made for a better game.
49:00 that's a brilliant idea! It works kind of like covert ops in xcom 2 war of the chosen, and FINALLY, gives you that “Legion” feeling, of a group of people cooperating, instead of a long list of lone wolves you periodically switch to. Also makes infiltrations look more impactful AND could also fix that mission objective where the whole base is alerted with no warning: you can now prepare for that event by setting up your own reinforcements, or assigning a dedsec member to sabotage tasks to delay or disable backup calls. It genuinely is a sick concept that Ubisoft likely won’t ever implement, looks like they are cutting support for the series anyway…
I will say this about drones - every time an enemy spots a player controlled drone or hacked gadget they always yell something like “find out who’s doing this”, “there’s a hacker nearby, fan out” and then they just.. never do. It’s like they completely forgot to give enemies the ability to search for you if you’re caught hacking, given the dialogue they clearly intended to have some sort of punishment for it, instead it’s totally unimplemented and makes the game a total breeze. I’d conquer enemy bases without even setting foot in them and wipe out dozens by just commanding cars to drive down sidewalks and no matter how much the guards say they’re going to search for who’s responsible they *never* do.
Worth noting, if you're playing on ironman, permanent death also applies to the "prestige" dlc agents like Aiden and Wrench. So you can permanently lose the content you paid real money to get.
That actually sounds really based
I was gonna sleep but this apolitical gem dropped
So you got woke?
@@Tehsnakerer
took his pills to stay up
@@redline841 Took his based pills to rise up.
I swear with each of these non-Yakuza videos, the thumbnails keep getting better and better by the sheer absurdity going on. Each and every pixel is so dense with detail.
Your channel and a few other obscure ones really make me wish I had stable income in order to give support, because man you knock it out of the park with these feature length analyses.
I am so happy that this is 2 hours plus.
Legion is a very complicated piece of Ubisoft release and I've been looking forward to this after watching your 1 & 2 deconstructions because you're probably the only one actually willing to go through with figuring out what the fuck happened.
OKAY. Your wordlplay is always clever, but "we have the Tube, but you can't ride it, so we'll have to take the "L" on that one", showing Chicago's "Elevated Train" or the "L", in Watch Dogs 1, that was fking FIIIIRREEE
You have no idea how happy I am that you mentioned good ol' Liberal Crime Squad. It's is one of my favorite strategy games ever and it'll be great seeing more people get introduced to it.
One last thing: I feel like with the privatized police force that is also militarized, The story could have been so much better by killing two birds with one stone - It could have been a robocop/judge dredd combination. A warning against for-profit criminal justice but also making fun of zero tolerance policing & arming the police to the teeth. It could have been the best of both worlds and be more profound than Judge Dredd: America.
But like you said, it couldn't even say what it could. That's so pathetic, it's actually enrages me they wasted so much potential.
I really think Cass should’ve been explored and more thought out. He sounds like a powerful paranoid man other than a convincing, interesting villain.
Seeing "First They Came" in an ad for a Ubisoft game honestly made me kind of upset so thanks for acknowledging that. In my opinion you're top tear on this whole game review thing, love the content mate cheers.
It floors me that you had it so easy shaking pursuers, because for me, it felt like no matter what I did, if I landed on the radar, that radar would keep ramping further and further up until I was on the run from missile-firing drones and APCs full of heavily armed soldiers for the crime of _trying to hack an ATM for the ten bucks I needed to buy a new hat._
I actually uninstalled the game twice because of this - the first time, because I was trying to slip out of a restricted area as part of a piss-easy stealth mission, got caught by the one NPC I hadn't knocked out, and kept getting hit by reinforcements until I ran out of bullets and got Swiss cheesed by the small army of rifle-toting Albion soldiers, and the second time when I was trying to recruit a person, got a stealth mission to steal a car, got caught, and the enemy AI decided that blowing the car up was the best solution to stop me in my tracks, which Bagley promptly blamed on me as though _I_ had blown up the damn car.
I have since not reinstalled this game.
Don't know what to say, I had a harder time having a satisfying chase because I'd have to cooperate and slow down for the AI to keep it going, and I was on the hardest difficulty!
@@TehsnakererProbably not a good thing for Ubisoft, that their chases are either ridiculously impossible or ridiculously non-threatening with little to no in-between.
TBH thats one of those ubisoft moments there always are
@@jackhazardous4008 Ain't that the truth. I can't entirely blame Watch Dogs for this, I remember going on an hours-long Templar killing spree in one AC game because I accidentally bumped into a guard, and then later on, in a different AC game, I was scrambling for ages trying to get off of one enemy faction's radar, only to stumble right at the feet of another and have both factions temporarily team up to beat my ass.
Aidon getting a proper character arc is really interesting and not what i was expecting
I really hope you hit the big time one of these days. It's criminal how comparatively little attention some of these videos get. Your stuff is consistently on par with guys like Mandalore.
Snake is just a tempo change and some jet set radio tunes away from becoming Lord Mandalondon
I appreciate the compliment and have a lit of respect for what Mandalore does but I'd rather be recognised as myself
@@Tehsnakerer by all means! my comparison may have come off a bit odd so I apologize for that. I thoroughly enjoy your content the way *you* make it, whether it's an analysis of some long lost console classic, or you tearing in to how nonsensical Aiden and his priorities were in Watch Dogs.
Keep being you, Snake
I frequently encourage people to check out Tehsnakerer, Grim Beard, Warlockcracy and PatricianTV.
All channels with surprisingly low subs for how great that are.
Legion'll be remembered for its Iconic resistance movement
I can't wait to flush them down the toilet
I just think the recruit system is cool, like if Shadow of War let you take control over the orcs directly
Your sacrifice playing Ubisoft Game #15283 will not be forgotten.
Thank you, they are hours I can never recover
Okay I appreciate that throughout the Bloodlines part as you play as Aiden Pierce you drive on the "right" side of the road
God you are CRIMINALLY underrated snake, I really appreciate your attention to detail. Really solid stuff!
that intro was excellent.
looking forward to finishing this video throughout the week. keep up the good work, Snake!
I feel... frankly, I feel sorry you had to sit through all of this. Thank you for all the videos you've made, Tehsnakerer. I don't think anyone can blend humor and genuine deep analysis as well as you can.
Snake, you’ve honestly inspired me in terms of what amazing critical analysis of media can be, while still being incredibly funny and engaging, great job!
For myself the Legion system is in the same boat as Shadow of Mordor's Nemesis system. Both are real cool concepts that make your brain run wild with potential in how it can be engaging, but ultimately are gimmicks with a nice honeymoon period in the games that presently use them. And when the player hits the end of that honeymoon period, they only loose their sense of engagement but they actively get in the way of the game they are in. This all makes me really disappointed in the Shadow of War series and Watch Dogs Legion, but also very much hoping more ambitious teams take these ideas and run with them.
Very well said. I was wondering why my two attempts to jump into Shadow of War failed, despite myself having fun. Now I realize I really didn't care for its Nemesis system, and saw it as a gimmick from the start. The rest of the game, unfortunately, didn't do enough to justify my time so I moved on.
Well too bad the nemesis system is patented
While I don't disagree with the nemesis system being a gimmick, I wouldn't say it's anywhere near as bad legion. At least in in the second game. I found it engaging enough for one playthrough, which is decent for a gimmick. At least I didn't get bored in a few hours like in the first game.
@supertaoman12 luckily with the way that gane mechanic patents work, all the patent protects is the specific code used and the branded name Nemesis System. You can't actually own game mechanics, just their expression. So if another company made unique code and expressly does not call it the Nemesis System they can legally do it and any competent court will uphold that ruling since president has been set for this in previous cases. Really the reason they patented it at all is as a threat to bully smaller companies to settle out of court, if someone went to court the case would publicly be very open and shut
Having essentially no experience with this series, I definitely didn't expect any part of it to end with a P.T. reference wrapped inside an AITSF reference.
as someone who bought Legion day 1 i can confidently say that it was a purchase i entirely regretted. when the game first launched it was a poorly optimized mess that took several months to finally make stable. in my 20 ish hour playthrough, the game crashed a total of 32 times, even during loading screens. hell at one point it crashed before i could even open the main menu. this was on the Xbox One port of the game btw. there were several patches released for it but it was still a broken mess for a long time. there were also a few game breaking bugs. like for instance, i escaped a restricted area using a boat. once i left the area and got to a safe spot, i left the boat and my character bugged out when they jumped into the water, where they were rubber-banding up and down which prevented me from climbing the nearby ladder. essentially making me unable to leave the water or even move effectively. another weird bug that happened is that i turned on the game one day and suddenly two of my operators came back from the dead. i don't know how but they were just in my operator list, fully alive and ready to do whatever.
As for gameplay it's mediocre at best. the only part of the overall gameplay that would make me want to return to the game is the unique kill animations for every type of character but that's a very minor positive. there are far too many armored enemies, especially at the end game. it makes it so i rarely ever get a chance to use the suppressed guns because the enemy will just tank the damage and then sound the alarm. so throughout the game you're just knocking out enemies with melee takedowns and most fights are brawls. by the time an enemy gets the nerve to pull out a gun in a firefight, you can take out everyone else and then move onto them. the cloak and disrupt give you two free takedowns already and attacks are incredibly easy to dodge and counter so melee is ultimately a lot easier than pulling out a gun. additionally stealth is just the same shit from the previous games with added in tools that make it trivial. the spider bot comes to mind. why go into an objective area when your drone can climb through vents while doing all the same shit you can except shoot guns? if you wanna do things personally the invisibility cloak turns you into a ghost and the unlockable ability to cloak bodies makes it so taking out guards poses no risk whatsoever. additionally, restricted areas are very easy to breach if you have construction worker in your team because they can just summon a drone that can fly them wherever they want, making it so locked gates don't matter. essentially making them a better infiltrator than someone like a spy. I entirely agree with Snake that there should be more opportunities for recruiting rarer types of operatives similar to the fight clubs. having your only spy or hitman get killed and have no opportunity to recuperate your losses is a massive bummer, especially since you can only find 2 of each special type of operative. one in their selected mission for the borough, and another just bumming it around London. Personally i always found that the two most useful operatives were the Spy and the Hitman. the Spy had access to a watch that disables firearms making it so i can get in a cheeky melee kill or just cap some heads recklessly without consequence. and the Hitman having one shot melee kills, access to assault rifles and hand cannons, made them the best suited for combat once you get the ability to hijack every type of drone. the only other class that comes close to those two in terms of capability are the enforcers that have access to grenade launchers. my next complaint is a sentiment that Snake has already shared but one i feel the need to add my own perspective to. i feel as if we're given no reason to care about our operatives. they have a bland personality and are more often than not, fucking annoying. the most customizable aspects of our operatives are their choice of clothing and weapons, but even that is somewhat restrictive. i can understand why someone's grandma can't use an LMG but when you have someone who's job is literally "black market weapons dealer", it becomes hard to believe that they can't use whatever they want, or have any sort of options to customize their weapons of choice. Another choice of gameplay that came as a shock to me was random NPCs kidnapping your operatives. this was the most interesting thing Ubisoft did with the operatives and it's the fact that they can be kidnapped by another NPC who has a grudge against them. this rarely happens but when it does, it usually happens to somebody who is used frequently. i feel Ubisoft could've done more to expand this though. what if your operatives could be targeted by an entire faction and they're eventually stuck in a situation that requires your help? like wiping away records and protocols pertaining to them. what if they're being pursued and you had to help fend off their pursuers? maybe you can send your operatives out on their own missions and you have the option to help them if everything goes tits up. something like that would give your recruits some actual weight to them and their actions.
Something Ubisoft could do to make the "X NPC hates DeadSec because of this reason" could've been expanded further. Clan Kelly is a gang who are just as opposed to the idea of Albion as Deadsec is. the only reason why these two don't work together is because Deadsec has morals according to the story at least. Ubisoft could've make them far more interesting by allowing you make unethical actions as DeadSec in order to gain their trust but it would create a ripple effect where certain NPCs would hate you forever. such as the ones who inherently hate Clan Kelly like the police or Albion, making it so you can't recruit them, but you could gain access to a variety of items exclusive to Clan Kelly along with access to their restricted areas. Another side effect that could come of this is that any Clan Kelly recruits you collect that don't dress in civilian clothing would be targeted by the police and Albion and would be chased down on sight. however, with Clan Kelly recruits, there would be fewer of them that dislike DeadSec due to their comradery with the gang leader. in terms of story this could also open up a new philosophical question of "should you throw away your morals simply so you can rip down a tyrant who is just as cruel as you are?" this would also have the consequence of making any recruits you have that are opposed to Clan Kelly just flat out leave DeadSec, and you would have to hunt them down in order to prevent them from spilling any information.
When it comes down to Ubisoft's breed of story telling i guess the best way to summarize it is to just use a metaphor. Ubisoft is basically that one bloke who asks you if you want to go out for a bite to eat but won't actually drive you there, and if you take them they'll just dip out halfway to the joint. when Ubisoft asks the player something it's always a surface level question that they never want to take a serious dive into. in Assassin's Creed, the main theme was unobtainable freedoms vs authoritarian order. and they showed you what that means in a real world context by showing you who the Assassin's and Templars sided with. the Assassin's would team with free thinkers, inventors, and artists. whereas the Templars took the side of dictators, leaders, politicians, and kings. and that was the furthest Ubisoft ever went with one of their themes. they never bothered to conclude that thought, they instead keep Assassin's Creed alive with cheap and uninspired ideas.
For anyone who finds the idea of having playable NPCs that can permanently die in an oppressive and bleak world a fascinating idea then i would instead recommend playing the Stalker Anomaly standalone mod and hopping into its "Azazel mode", where if you die, you take control of a randomly selected NPC somewhere in the world who has randomly selected weapons, armor, and items. it's a shooter game set in a fictional version of the Chernobyl NPP post nuclear disaster. you don't need to download any of the mainline Stalker games to play the Anomaly mod either, it's entirely standalone and free so the only thing you lose is your time if you decide to try it.
But I don't have a pc
@@polytanksan5761 i'm sorry to hear that. i don't really know of any other game that has a similar concept that's available on console. but who knows. maybe at some point in the future you'll get a PC.
@@frostsoul4199 I had one but it was shitty anyway and it's power cable thing broke
@@polytanksan5761 that absolutely sucks man. i feel for ya.
hot off the heels of Panama, I haven't expected a video this long in so short a time! What a welcome surprise
Most of these DeadSec operatives could cause much more damage to Albion by deliberately doing their dayjobs wrong, then having them sneak around, and outright attack them.
careful, that's a work slowdown which would be Political
The "sweeping area" and "speculative fiction" joke being about author wearing glasses are some top notch puns. Has anyone ever told you that your pun game is incredible?
After the hefty narrative analysis in the last Playing episodes (both self made and not) it was really refreshing to have a more gameplay oriented essay : ]
I think the phrase "Go Kamurocho on cookie monster" is now my faviroute set of words ever said
what you said about the skill points and repetitions happens exactly the same way in valhalla and odyssey, when i played odyssey i went exploring the map before doing side quests or main quests, what happened was that i got to a location, killed the guards looted and when i went to get the mission it made me go to the exaclty location with the guards respawned and a npc to talk to. after this i just made the missions on the regions and after went exploring. ended up enjoying the game a lot more this way.