The Future. Touched by the Light of The Traveler, we have braved the Stars. But an ancient Darkness is coming to end us all...
Destiny...The Place you will come to Rule. And Own. But not Teabag.
The Beta is near, and after showing you some of the Alpha's Solo and Co-Op Activities in my last post, let's take a look at the Competitive Multiplayer:
"The Crucible": It's Player-versus-Player Warfare - Train for the "Fight for the Light" by shooting other people that Fight for the Light. It totally makes sense.
Then again, PvP never had to make sense. It's about the friendly, competitive challenge that engaging another human-controlled player inevitably comes with. It's definitely not about owning people, or tea-bagging them into rage-quitting. Thing to note here: No corpses in Destiny - No Tea-Bagging. All that's left after a kill is a lone Ghost, one of each Guardians' floating robotic helpers - you might even be able to get revived, although that never happened in the Alpha to my knowledge.
Yes, you play with your own Guardian, with your own weapons, your own gear. No more Red vs. Blue. You also have access to your full inventory, and can change gear, weapons and even class ability upgrades at any time during the match. But don't you worry about high-level players having access to much better gear. Destiny is not Battlefield, after all. "Level Advantages (like higher Damage or better Protection from high Level Gear are) Disabled".
In short, this means, that in The Crucible, a level 20 gun will do the same basic damage as a level 1 gun, while level 1 Head Armor will offer the same protection as its level 20 counterpart. It's a very nice way to level the playing field, while still retaining your individual play-style preferences.
Now, there are small
differences, since the bonus stats of Uncommon and Rarer Gear are
still in effect, and weapon upgrades, like scopes, that are unlocked by
using a single weapon quite a lot, can give the more experienced player
slight advantages. But if there's one thing Bungie is good at, it's
matchmaking - something we've had to experience in the steep decline of
match-making from Halo Reach (Bungie) to Halo 4 (343 Studios) - so the
chances of level 20s battling level 5s are pretty slim.
As to what game modes will be available, the Alpha only had one ("Control" certain static areas on the map and kill enemies for points), but teased with icons of at least 5 more. One can safely assume that the (sad) staple of FPS Player-vs-Player "Team Deathmatch" will be present. Possibly there might be a "Free-for-All" Everyone kills Everyone game mode, as well. Hell, if Halo is any indication, two of the other icons may even just be "Big Team" Versions of Control and TDM, increasing the usual 6v6 into 12v12.
Something I am personally hoping for, is a mode that combines different game modes, like Killzone's Warzones or Ghost Recon Future Soldier's Conflict. Control was a lot of fun, but I like variety plus fun even better.
The two Maps in the Alpha were called "Rust Lands" - a relatively small, no-vehicle map in a dilapidated industry/warehouse area on Earth - and "First Light" - a bigger map, with both spawning offensive vehicles and use of your own speed bike, plus several threatening turrets on the Moon's surface.
The gameplay on each map differed accordingly, but take a look for yourself in the video montages below.
And before anyone worries, I am, at best, mediocre in PvP, yet I never
really felt helpless, nor frustrated. And best of all: (almost) no more
Bunny-Hopping. If you ever played Halo games, you will be familiar with
the concept of simply hopping everywhere. Thankfully, with the new
double jump feature, that was almost completely absent from MP. In the
20 or so matches I played, I saw a single guy hopping up and down behind
some cover.
And there you have it. All the things you could do... in the ALPHA. Yes, all caps. It deserves it. There were full Xbox 360 and PS3 games that had less content (Homefront, anyone?). If the Alpha is just a part of what the full game will have to offer, I honestly cannot wait for September.
So... you know. Wake me up, when September comes...
Seriously, though, Destiny is shaping up very nicely, indeed. If you get a chance to pre-order, see for yourself in the upcoming Beta, starting July 17th on PS3 and PS4, and the end of July on Xbox One, Xbox 360.
This marks the end of my four-part Destiny Blog Series. If you missed one, click the following links to get touched by the Light (ooohhh, that sounds dirty!):
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The Future. Touched by the Light of The Traveler, we have braved the Stars. But an ancient Darkness is coming to end us all...
Destiny...The Place you will come back to. Again and again. Because (possibly), there's just so much to do.
With the setup, races and the social hub explained in my previous post, let's look at some of Destiny's
activities showcased in the Alpha (apparently that's what you call game modes or missions, now,
because we're not playing video games, oh no, we're "engaging in social
activities").
And
"engaging" surely is the word, since most of what you do is about
either "engaging" other characters (violently), or preparing to engage
other characters (violently). Oh, yes, you can also chat and dance and
mess around, buy stuff and upgrade stuff, but Destiny is a First Person
Shooter - so saying it's mostly about shooting things, albeit in a very
"social" spirit, is nothing to be ashamed of.
Now, as I said in "that other post", you launch your "activities" from orbit. the Leader triggered his exit into Orbit, you automatically came along. The Alpha featured Four, Three "Campaign" Activities for Solo and Co-Op Play, and The Crucible, Destinies Player vs. Player Action (the latter of which will not be included here, but be looked at in the next post, specifically):
"The Dark Within" - Story Mission: Find out what the Fallen are hiding at Skywatch, part of the old Russian Cosmodrome.
A pretty straight-forward Mission of "Go, Look, Kill" from early in the game. Fun, but nothing special. Good, creepy atmosphere, though. Playable with up to three players.
"The Devil's Lair" - Strike Mission: Deep within the Cosmodrome, a powerful evil Servitor is up to equally evil Shenanigans. Go and stab the evil Cyclops in its eye! (creative license, people!)
A Co-Op Side-Mission (Strike) that is so much better than the Story Mission, simply because it's bigger, longer and features three nice set-piece encounters: a "Survive the Enemy Waves" and two nice boss fights. Recommended to be played with the maximum three players, unless you're hopelessly overlevelled for it.
Now, both of the Alpha's Mission Types, Story Missions and Strike Missions (and, I guess, the "Raid" Missions not present in the Alpha, all of which can be replayed) featured two Difficulties: Base and Legend. Legend (possibly an allusion to Halo's "Legendary" difficulty, who knows?) ramps up enemy level, HP, armor and damage (all of which was already said by "ramps up enemy level"). The game even tries to show you if you are prepared for it, by giving you "effectiveness percentages" of your currently equipped gear.
It's as confusing as it sounds - until you understand that the game is not lowering (red) or raising (green) your gear effectiveness by the stated percentage, just that it's better or worse than what the game deems necessary for the challenge.
To illustrate, playing the Story Mission on Base with my low-level starting character, I didn't die once. Playing it again on Legend (which switched the Mission Level from 3 to 6) with a slightly better character, I died a lot - and felt like I was not doing much damage, to boot.
"Explore the Cosmodrome": Take a look around, see what you can find and/or kill. This time, nobody will tell you where to go.
Well, until you accept one of the myriad (and, to be cruelly honest, for the most part dreadfully boring and monotonous) Patrol Missions you can find in the wild via Beacons, that tell you to "Go and kill" or "Go and Look". Bungie did state on their website, however, that the Alpha featured content they would never let the game ship with, so I dearly hope for better and more diverse Patrol Mission in the full game (or even already in the Beta).
Here's some non-commentary footage to give you a bit of the sense and scope of the Alpha's Free Roam Exploration:
Basically, you run or speed-bike around the huge (HUGE) Cosmodrome area (I'd say about a good two to three times as big as the bigger areas in Borderlands 2 - and that's just the part of the area you had access to), kill the constantly respawning enemies, look for loot in little nooks, crannies and caves, take a few Patrol Missions, and maybe get lucky and trigger a Public Event.
Public Events, as the name suggests, are public... well, events. Mini-Boss fights, Defend-and-Survive Missions, stuff like that. They're not easy, especially with a lower level, but the rewards are big, too. You even get some (considerably smaller) reward, for just competing. And, presumably, anyone in the area can join in - should it happen in their instance of the game. Exploration will already invariably have you meeting strangers in "your" game world, other players that do other stuff. You can help them, join up with them, or just ignore them - the choice is yours (but remember those Orbs of Light!).
Together we guard against the Darkness!
Well, that's the things you could do in the Alpha by yourself or in cooperation with others. In my next post, I will look at The Crucible PvP - and all the things you can do UNTO others :)
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The Future. Touched by the Light of The Traveler, we have braved the Stars. But an ancient Darkness is coming to end us all...
Destiny...The Place you will end up. Whoever you are...
With more and more info constantly dropping on Destiny (like the Trophy/Achievement list), and the Beta, only two weeks away (on Playstation, a bit longer sadly on Xbox), expected to present many more people with a bigger part of the game, let's take another look at what the Alpha already showed us. And let us being with the setup, and the social stuff:
The Races and Classes:
Destiny features three Races:
Human, Awoken (who may or may not be Alien-Human-Hybrids) and Exos (who may be Sentient Robots or things wearing a robot-like Exo-Skeleton that makes them look like Sentient Robots).
Both genders are featured for each race, but the races, and their numerous customization features themselves, are only cosmetic in nature - and differ in their dance moves. Those features are quite extensive, with different faces, hair, colors for everything, and even the, almost obligatory by now, Face Paint. Or Tattoos. Or maybe the Exos have Etchings. Or something.
It's not as deep as other games', bu it is still quite fun to create your character. And the chances that you will see someone running the exact same face are really not that high.
The Three Classes, on the other hand, that's where the RPG elements come in. Each Class has different abilities (double-jumps, melee attacks, grenades and "super powers") and different basic stats: The Titan has more armor, but is slower, the Hunter has less armor, but moves faster, while the Warlock can recover from injuries much quicker.
Each Class has its own Ability tree, with additional abilities and ability upgrades to unlock, and it works (or worked in the alpha) by leveling up, then using the ability to upgrade it. Upgrades were not of the passive, permanent variety, though. To explain, once you gain the ability to double-jump, you will eventually unlock three different upgrades (more distance, more speed, more control in the air, etc) but only one upgrade could be applied at a time.
The most "interesting" ability are of course the "Super Powers" - Supers, in short. Once you unlock it, you charge the ability by killing enemies or just waiting for a long time (in the Campaign), or generally earning points (in "The Crucible" Multiplayer). But since Destiny is all about working together with your fellow Guardians, those life forms touched by "The Light" and chosen to fight against "The Dark" (yeah, it`s quite original) in a semi-Utopian Future, there is one more way to quickly charge your Super: Wait for someone else to use his and be effective with it.
Every time you successfully end an enemy's existence with your super, you will generate "Orbs of Light". These pick-ups are not for you, but for every other Guardian on your team (which are all Guardians during the Campaign, but only your, well, team, in The Crucible). It's a small, but very clever way to encourage sticking and playing together.
When you are "Super Charged" - little, cute side note: the Super Charge Bar turns yellow, when filled; and so does your PS4 controller's LED light - each class can unleash it's own special brand of "Super". There are actually two different Supers per class, but in the Alpha you only had access to the first due to the Level Cap.
The Titan's Super "Fist of Havoc" has him slamming down his fists in good old "Hulk SMASH!" style to obliterate anything around him. His second Super, not unlockable for the Alpha, will see him create a bubble shield around him.
The Warlock's "Nova Blast" sees him jumping into the air, then firing an arcing"artillery" shot at what he's aiming at, similarly obliterating anything around the point of impact. The second Super, which we didn't see, "boosts the effectiveness of all his abilities" by infusing your Warlock with the Power of The Light. Whatever that means.
The Hunter's "Golden Gun" is a bit more difficult to use, but it offers you three extremely powerful shots from a Golden Handgun - powerful enough, to kill any enemy in Multiplayer with one shot. The Hunter's second Super, "Bladedancer" seems to also infuse him with light, but that light allows you to run around really fast and stab people to death.
And I will unashamedly admit, that I very much dread this one, because it so eerily reminds me of "Marathon-Lightweight-Commando with the Tactical Knife", the most annoying thing to ever come out of Call of Duty.
Some might already have seen this vid in my first Destiny Alpha post, but it shows the three classes and races in Campaign Action (albeit only the female of each, but they are known to be the more deadly, anyway):
The Tower:
The Social Center or "Hub" is called "The Tower". And lo and behold, there is a tower at its center. The Tower is where you go to purchase weapons and new gear, decode "Engrams" (i.e. Blueprints) for weapons and new gear you looted from fallen enemies, upgrade your jump ship, your speeder bike, and much more.
Gear and weapons, as you might expect, will play a central role. The better the gear, the better the... well, gear, but better gear also comes with bonus perks, like faster reloads, more ammo, or quicker recharge of your abilities. The Tower also features a Vault, through which you can share your equipment between characters - and thankfully, it has 20 slots each for Armor, Weapons and Resources. Take that, Clap-Trap Vault. Presumably, you will also get missions here (more than just the "Do this and get stuff for it"-Bounties), enroll in a faction for PvP for more access to different gear, get mail (whatever that means), and possibly even more stuff. Or just... well, you know. Be social. (And please excuse the commentary.)
The social aspects still seemed a bit stunted, with emotes and chatting with strangers apparently the only option you had, but the Alpha really only showed a small part of what we expect to see and have available for us in the full game. And let's be honest, that whole social MMO thing is still pretty new on consoles. Console players lack the ease of impersonal communication a keyboard provides - and who wants to start chatting with some squeaky 10-year old, by mistake?
One thing you couldn't do from the tower was launch a mission. Which was weird, and, coupled with the pretty long load times, a bit aggravating. No, to launch a mission - sorry, an "activity", you had to go into Orbit. At least, if you had joined a "Fireteam" (.i.e. Party), once the Leader triggered his exit into Orbit, you automatically came along.
From Orbit, in your nifty Jump Ship, you could launch your activities - or first gather friends, and then launch your activities.
On which I will expand (copiously) in the next posts :)
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The Future. Touched by the Light of The Traveler, we have braved the Stars. But an ancient Darkness is coming to end us all...
Destiny... The Place where it will all end. Or, maybe, all begin? Who knows?
I do. At least, I had a chance to see (my) Destiny in... I'm hesitant to say "in its full glory", because this was supposed to be an Alpha Test. But truth be told, that Alpha looked more polished, played far better and was a lot more stable than some "finished versions" of certain Battlefield games of a certain Franchise I will not mention here.
Bummer.
To illustrate that point, during my... I'd say good 15+ hours of the Destiny - First Look Alpha, in Single Player, Co-Op and Competitive Multiplayer, 15+ hours in which I raised all three possible characters/classes to the Alpha Level Cap (of 8), explored every part of the Alpha Campaign Map, and participated in every activity and mission the Alpha had to offer, I disconnected once (ONCE!), couldn't log in three times, and was victim of a single obvious bug, where I repeatedly found myself in a completely empty Social Hub usually teeming with other players.
Let me reiterate. One Disconnect. About 10 Minutes of not being able to log-in (which means I couldn't play). One Obvious Bug.
Of course, I only saw a fraction of Destiny's full content in the Alpha, and it was a part of the game we had seen footage from for quite some time, so it stands to reason, that this was a quite polished tidbit I could test. And it played like a dream:
Solo-Missions and Exploring in a huge area, in which you could just run into other random players, potentially having the joy of triggering a public event - a mini-mission with often surprising difficulty, but grand rewards.
A full Co-Op Mission with diverse and fun engagements, featuring two good boss-fights.
Two PvP Maps for "The Crucible", playing a venerable "Capture and Control" game-type, in a PvP Suite that already seems more polished and balanced than many other shooters were at release.
And it really played amazingly well. And it looked amazingly... amazing. Digital Foundry took a look, and the Alpha ran at a solid 30 FPS in 1080p - and Xbox One owners rejoice, that same is the very possible performance you will get to enjoy, too. At the cost of any Kinect features, but still, I'd say it's a win. Final PS4 numbers for the full game are not yet known, by the way.
Destiny's release is less than three months away, and if this is the state of the Alpha, I can see great things for the coming Beta in July, and even greater things for the full release on September 9th.
Destiny doesn't reinvent the wheel. It's not terribly or outrageously inventive, like for example Okami, Shadow of the Colossus or Little Big Planet were. It's a Sci-Fi Shooter from the guys that brought you Halo 1-3, plus ODST and Reach. That heritage is very evident - some might say too evident. If you played Halo you will find yourself instantly on very familiar ground with Destiny. You will also, obviously, see parallels to Borderlands.
So what's so special about Destiny?
Everything.
No, it's not (yet) perfect. Yes, everything it does has (kinda) been done before. But never has "Everything" looked and worked this good.
And in an Alpha, to boot.
In the last week(s) - hey, I do have a life - I have taken the time and now posted
several more posts about many if not all aspects of the Alpha, look at the different Classes, the "Alpha
Campaign", Co-Op, PvP
Multiplayer and other stuff.
With quite a lot of direct gameplay
footage, so scroll down below for Part 2 :)
Now, you had enough of pretty pictures and want so see some Action? You wanna take a look for yourself?
Well, here you go (but please look in HD)!
Spotlighting the 3 Different Classes with Action from the Alpha's Open World, on good Old Earthen Russia:
For all your Playstation or Xbox or PC Gaming needs, especially the European needs, head over to Amazon UK - best deals in Europe (mostly). For TV or Movie Streaming needs, as well. Yes, I do buy there myself. Exclusively. Unless I find a better deal, elsewhere...
So, maybe that Title was a bit... iffy, but it got you reading, so there's that.
(Updated to include the MP modes, I missed. Thanks Tetsou88 from the Ubi-Forums)
Watch_Dogs. What a ride it has been, and the game's not even out yet. From "awesome next-gen launch title" to "delayed, with major graphics downgrade" to "5-27-2014, and no, those graphics are just fine", Watch_Dogs has created quite the online hype - and not exclusively in a good way.
Michigan Avenue Bridge in Watch_Dogs
But that's all water under the Michigan Avenue Bridge, now (that's a Chicago reference with digital proof, by the way), with the game being released in a bit more than two weeks.
And it's shaping up quite nicely, if the following "lore" and gameplay (single player, side activities and 1v1 multiplayer) vid is any indication (the longer gameplay walkthrough starts at 14:30, but it's all worth watching):
Well. That does look nice. So what did we see here?
I mean, apart from the whole "the internet knows your porn-consumption", "everything is connected" conspiracy... well, we can't really call that a theory anymore, can we? It is true, the internet knows, and thus people know. One of the the questions Watch_Dogs poses to the player, is what do you do with that? Knowledge is power, and with great power comes great... fun. I guess.
Nimble little minx
What we see seems very akin to what I'd imagine Assassin's Creed: Modern Online Warfare might look like, albeit with less climbing and more cars. Plus: Jedi Smartphone Tricks. The movement does seem quite similar, even a bit more energetic, yet not as vertical as what the Creeds offered, but hey: did I mention cars? Doing "something" to regional enemy "outposts" to "unlock" the area, also seems familiar. But WD comes with a cover mechanic and a "sneaky-stance", the second of which I am still waiting for in the Creed series, so hello obvious evolution.
I do need some kind of connection...
All in all, Watch_Dogs' Chicago, controlled by ctOS (ctOS is Chicago's Central Operating System, a Computer in control of a city's interconnected electrical systems), looks and feels quite enticing - and exciting: An open, living city (confirmed via tweet: without loading screens), criminals and damsels in distress, a legally misunderstood hero, and, with access to ctOS, lots of possibilities to interact with that world.
There's a very deep and socially aware storyline somewhere, too, I'm sure, but the joy of open world games always lay (for me anyway) in doing exactly the opposite of what the story wanted me to do, and see how it holds up, once the open world is supposed to "stand on its own."
But let's look at some details, especially from the longer gameplay walkthrough:
Is there a waiting period for the military grade stuff?
First off, guns. Quite a good amount, too, including a .50 cal Sniper Rifle. It remains to be seen if WD will actually accommodate long-range enthusiasts in any meaningful way (i.e. 100+ meters), something nobody seems to have asked or commented on, yet (aside from Ubisoft's own game description, touting "long-range sniping" as one way for the player to tackle enemies), but we can hope. Unless the Rifle is just a token offering to check all the "weapons needed in video game" boxes, and I haven't really seen anything confirming that the player could get to the roof of some of these skyscrapers, but at least head shots seem to equal One-Hit-Kills even with handguns, (and you can blow out tires on moving cars, which is very awesome) so, yes. Hope. And not just for the sniping, but combat in general. Unless you prefer the sneaky way. Which is cool, too.
Anyway, there`s lots of different guns, that, hopefully (there is that "h"-word, again), have their own unique characteristics and handling.
Focus on the Head
And judging from the shown combat, with cover-shooting, and the ubiquitous bullet-time slo-mo (something not only restricted to shooting, mind you), it's good to know that gun-play will be a viable option, especially when combined with the hacking and distracting seen in the video while infiltrating the ctOS Control Center.
It looks like a lot of fun, playing with, and then killing the AI - something I have learned to really enjoy in my time playing games, from the over-the-top skill-kill-setups of Bulletstorm, to the fiendishly gruesome and creative options of Dishonored.
Look, up on the Wall. It's Electro!
Manipulating good AI is always a joy, and something WB Creative Director Jonathan Morin said in an early April interview, about how enemy NPCs in WD will not automatically associate something going wrong around them with a hidden perpetrator and start looking (or even worse, know who and where that person is), makes me hope that what happens in the video around 18:15 (IED explodes, takes out guard, and apparently right after the other guards shoot at the player's location) is a glitch or from old code. And according to (not only) the "ctOS Report", the options are indeed many: Traffic Lights, Street Lights, Bridges, Steam Pipes, Fuse Boxes, Road Blockers, Cameras, Stuff that Moves... Trains... and, possibly, More Stuff. Cellphones, maybe.
It's a playground, for sure, and it will be very interesting to see, how diverse that will really "play out". Will players really experiment and enjoy the options, or will you soon fall into a trot of "run, shoot, disable, steam pipe, boom, repeat"?
Choices, choices...
Undoubtedly, the developers put a lot of thought into their vision of Chicago, but to really make people enjoy and employ the variety of options, each must be effective in their own way - and not just one way. I imagine foot chases might get pretty stale, if all you really do is wait for your prey to run past a conveniently placed fuse box. Hacking, as other gameplay aspects, like Combat, will feature upgrades and a skill tree, although not that much is known about it. There will be an upgrade to completely plunge virtual Chicago into a black-out, though. Which sounds like fun, if a bit drastic.
Let me put that necklace on...
On to the systemically generated "side-missions" of a "potential crime" - something that just happens, something that is not even a mission per-se, something you can actually choose to engage in or just walk by, should your conscience allow it. Fans of the TV show "Person of Interest" will be familiar with the concept of a computer program using electronic surveillance to predict crimes. In WD's Chicago, ctOS, the City's Master Control Program, does just that, and with the player's access to ctOS, he can choose to follow potential victims, then intervene once these potentials turn into a "Crime in Progress".
I remember that term from Batman: Arkham Origins, specifically from trying to get these annoying challenges done and waiting at certain locations for the always similar "random crime" to occur. WD seems to go for a different approach, something seemingly less predictable in form and outcome, yet it's still unclear how varied those events will be (the two shown in the video look depressingly similar, not in the least for once more portraying the stereotype of the victimized female), or how exactly player actions will have an impact: Can you hack someone's bank account (on a side note: Morin confirmed via twitter, that you can hack multiple bank accounts and only have to go to an ATM once to collect your loot) and send them on a desperate crime spree, then swoop in to save the day? Wouldn't that be something?
Just like you saw on the telly!
Public actions will influence how the city and its inhabitants will regard you and react to you, from helping you out (possibly via a shop discount) to calling the police on you, but how much personal influence can you really exert on the individual?
But if what is claimed in the vid turns out to be true, and the criminals once you're in pursuit actually do act unpredictably, these events should at least be an enjoyable distraction - for the first 50 times or so. There's always a potential pit-fall with these kinds of semi-random "Help Me! Help Me!" events, especially for those closet heroes among us.
Crime stopped. Literally.
Because how can you walk away once you get a number- I mean, the name of a potential victim? And when does NOT walking away, over and over and over, become tedious? Will you be able to simply traverse the city, without having to rescue kittens at every corner?
We'll have to wait and see, but I am (once more) hopeful, that with WD's generally more gray moral approach, they won't constantly pressure the hero types into saving their fellow citizen from durance vile.
Finally, then, to the Multiplayer, only one of (EDIT:) six modes was portrayed in the first vid, so let's take a look at another video, previewing three of the different MP modes (Ubisoft confirmed again that Multiplayer is completely optional and can be turned off completely):
Now, that does not look half bad. And it's apparently seamlessly integrated into the game, with the matchmaking for the 4v4 working in the background while you play, the match starting when everyone is ready. And yes, just to say it again, there are NO MAP RESTRICTIONS for the MP modes. The whole city is open. This is confirmed. Twitter. Tell your friends.
Let's look at the modes seen here:
Who are you? Who, Who? Who, Who?
Online Hacking Contracts (1v1), is more of a deadly hide and seek, something that the Profiler in your smartphone does not make very easy for the hacker. In both videos, the hacker does not get very far into his hack before being detected and forced to flee, but apparently "Mission Success" is a pretty pliable term here, and rewards are awarded even for partial hacks - as long as you get away alive.
We don't get fooled, again!
Speaking of which, Hacker Spared" does sound so much better than "I let the Bastard got away!" But... did he? As seen in the first vid, if someone tried to hack you, you hack 'em right back! Yes. Retaliation, a founding principle of every modern society - and PvP video games.
Teenage Wasteland!
Funnily enough, if you let the hacker escape alive, you, as the hacked, are rewarded a Mission Success. But if you as the hacker kill the intended hacked, you fail. At least that's what the red writing indicates to me. I guess that makes sense, but it's still weird.
As I was alerted to by my (one) avid reader(s), there is another, less dangerous variant of the Online Contracts, that simply involves tailing the main character unnoticed. It gives less Notoriety (i.e. XP), but the hacked will not be alerted that he is hacked, and it's thus less likely to end in potential bloodshed. Not that it will be easy to inconspicuously tail another player should he choose to race recklessly through the city, mind you.
Competitive Decryption Combat (4v4, only available on Next Gen Consoles and PC), looks like even more fun, and quite diverse fun, at that.
Get the file...
With two teams of... hackers (apparently, you will always look like the main character in your game, but look like someone else in other people's games - but you CAN make it so you'll always look like the same someone else), well, two teams of hackers fighting for a file, that you have to first hold, then decrypt.
...get away...
It's an interesting mix of Capture the Flag, Hold the Flag and Don't let the Baddies get close to the Flag. The file is acquired by downloading it to your smartphone, and can be stolen by downloading it from the enemy's smartphone once you get in range - and stay in range (and alive) for long enough to steal it. If the file carrier dies, the file is free to be grabbed anyone, and from there it's a matter of keeping the file and decrypting it, i.e. keeping the enemy away from it.
...win?
There are obviously different ways to do that, but with all of WD's Chicago as your map, you can take the whole match on the road, try to flee your pursuers and keep the file out of their hands during decryption. Decryption as seems to be a lengthy process, even if proximity to your team members will speed up the process. If the enemy gets close enough to try and steal it, the decryption halts until you get out of their range.
It's still unclear how the respawn system works, or if a partly decrypted file, once lost, then recovered, will have to be decrypted from scratch, but the enormous round time (28 minutes for a 4v4 match) seems to be designed to allow for lengthy back and forth exchanges.
And then, there's the ctOS Mobile Companion App, allowing people on their mobile devices to challenge players in the game to a checkpoint race-course through the city. Sounds simple enough, but where`s the "versus" aspect?
Reach out, touch me
Well, should the player accept the challenge, for the duration of the race, the person on the Mobile App gains control of ctOS, i.e. all those hacks you could use while driving to stop pursuers will now be used against you, from road blockers to steam pipes to traffic lights. Additionally, the person that holds control over Chicago in the palm of their hands (not my words), can set the police on your trail, and keep track of you with a helicopter and its spotlight.
Impending BOOM!
From the short gameplay shown, it seems that the ctOS Mobile App functions akin to a very simple Real-Time-Strategy game, with limited resources (police cars, hacks etc.), so a bit of tactical thinking and quick reactions will definitely be a plus.
The player in the game tries to reach the end of the course before time runs out or he is stopped, while the mobile player (obviously) tries to prevent that - and can actually gloat over his victory (or lament his loss) through an instant message system from mobile app to game. A feature that most definitely won't be abused by the chronically immature. In any way. Ever.
Goddammit you ****-ing ****-tard on ****!
But the app is free, is not region restricted (you can challenge people around the world, but with the inevitable lag that will incur, you might not want to), and you don`t even have to own the game. Which makes this, after Splinter Cell: Blacklist Spiderbot, another potentially very enjoyable mobile game Ubisoft releases for free to everyone. Which I kinda like.
Playing any of these modes will net you experience you can then use to upgrade your character, underlining the seamless nature of WD even more (although it's not known if playing on the Mobile App will translate to XP for your game character, or be used to upgrade your mobile app playing abilities).
As I said, I was told by my rabid fan base, that I had missed two MP game modes - but I actually missed three. The first, Tailing, I already mentioned. The second and third are still somewhat shrouded in mystery, but here's what I could find out: Free Roam (only available on Next-Gen and PC) allows up to 8 players to team up and just roam the city to have some fun.
UPDATE: Creative Director J.Morin went on twitter again to give some new info on Free Roam:
"Free roam is a bonus way for players to go in the entire city without
any activity and define together what to do. You can flag who is
friend/enemy with others and then its up to players to define the rest.
It is not a controlled experience."
Might that mean, players could possibly create their own Multiplayer Modes, albeit in (for now, at least) private lobbies? And what about a DLC "Free Roam Mission Editor", where you could use existing "missions" or objectives from the Single Player, from ctOs Control Centers to Side Mission Objectives, and play those out in PvP versions? I don't know, but it would be pretty cool...
And there will be a Race-Mode, letting you participate in car-races against other players on predetermined tracks, UPDATE: which has been confirmed to be on all platforms, current-gen consoles included.
Well, that was quite a lot to see, a lot to know, and a LOT to do. We may only have been given a small (and somewhat repetitive) glimpse of Watch_Dogs here, but it does seem to come with a quite staggering amount of content - and that`s without even mentioning the main story missions, something that Ubisoft usually does quite good, but just free-roaming Chicago, online or not, might be gratifying enough on its own.
I mean, aside from the usual mini-games like poker and whatnot, there's also this whole other game-inside-the-game, the
Digital Trips. Using some kind of Cyber Drug, the player enters an
altered state of mind, an altered state of Chicago. Three different
trips are known, Spider Tank, Madness and Conspiracy.
No Words :)
Spider Tank has you killing and destroying stuff in a tank that... well, looks like a spider, a mechanical Spider of Death, with Gatling-Guns and Rocket Pods. Destruction earns points, and points earn Spider Tank Upgrades.
Madness is a Game Mode reminiscent of Grand Theft Auto, but with Demons, as you are supposed to take an armored car into the streets - and into as many "demons" as you can. Again, upgrades are available through playing the mode.
Come with me if you want to live
Conspiracy, then, appears to be a cyber-zombie hunt in the streets of Chicago. Imagine you're Kyle Reese, it's 2014 and hundreds of T-800s have infested Chicago, but only you can see them. You're Rowdy Roddy Piper, They Live as cyborgs and not aliens, and your special glasses are just an eye-patch. Not that I don't have had enough of zombies, but the trailer from the season pass is definitely intriguing.
Which is leading, quite nicely, to the already announced Season Pass and its contents. Only two Digital Trips (that we know of), will be part of the vanilla game, with Conspiracy being DLC, and part of the Season Pass Bundle. It's a mixed blessing, those season passes, especially if, like this one, part of its contents are cosmetic in nature. Like, costumes and stuff. There's also a single player campaign with a different playable character included, as well as some more missions for the regular character, plus a Chicago Cosa Nostra Pack including a vintage Tommy Gun, but chances are, the savings of the Season Pass compared to the regular purchases will have Season Passers end up getting the costumes for free. Yay. But take a look for yourself, here`s the preview:
And before I go, a few more little tidbits of info (mostly from twitter and on via youtube):
The seamless online play will be available on all consoles, but only 1v1 Hacking and Tailing (and Racing (UPDATE: confirmed on all platforms), and probably Mobile App vs. Player) will be present on the Current Gen Consoles - no Free Roam or Decryption for Xbox 360 and PS3.
The Xbox 360 version will come on two disks, one being a mandatory 7.5 GB installation disk.
You cannot choose the weather in Watch_Dogs, but you can determine time of day by sleeping as long as you want.
Poker and other "Social Mini Games" are actually not. Social. No online for the mini-games. Bad Call, that one.
The Focus Ability in Multiplayer sessions will not slow-down time (Duh!), but still give you helping hints.
Cops will arrest you if you don't resist and are not "Wanted: Dead or Alive".
Open World Games has made an "informed guesstimate" of Watch_Dogs' map size compared to GTA 5`s map size, and WD comes up with about half of the whole of GTA 5, but most, if not all of it, city, as opposed to GTA 5's rolling hills and stuff. The way to this comparison included a digital mock-up of a part (20%) of the printed map of WD's Chicago included (I think) in some editions of the game, resizing it to fit with GTA 5's map, and then putting it five times on top of that.
Here's the result:
"It might not look big, but it will FEEL big", he said...
Watch_Dogs will release on PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One on May 27th 2014. A Wii-U version will (maybe) come later.
For all your Playstation or Xbox or PC Gaming needs, especially the European needs, head over to Amazon UK - best deals in Europe (mostly). For TV or Movie Streaming needs, as well. Yes, I do buy there myself. Exclusively. Unless I find a better deal, elsewhere...
Then again, PvP never had to make sense. It's about the friendly, competitive challenge that engaging another human-controlled player inevitably comes with. It's definitely not about owning people, or tea-bagging them into rage-quitting. Thing to note here: No corpses in Destiny - No Tea-Bagging. All that's left after a kill is a lone Ghost, one of each Guardians' floating robotic helpers - you might even be able to get revived, although that never happened in the Alpha to my knowledge.
In short, this means, that in The Crucible, a level 20 gun will do the same basic damage as a level 1 gun, while level 1 Head Armor will offer the same protection as its level 20 counterpart. It's a very nice way to level the playing field, while still retaining your individual play-style preferences.
Now, there are small
differences, since the bonus stats of Uncommon and Rarer Gear are
still in effect, and weapon upgrades, like scopes, that are unlocked by
using a single weapon quite a lot, can give the more experienced player
slight advantages. But if there's one thing Bungie is good at, it's
matchmaking - something we've had to experience in the steep decline of
match-making from Halo Reach (Bungie) to Halo 4 (343 Studios) - so the
chances of level 20s battling level 5s are pretty slim.
As to what game modes will be available, the Alpha only had one ("Control" certain static areas on the map and kill enemies for points), but teased with icons of at least 5 more. One can safely assume that the (sad) staple of FPS Player-vs-Player "Team Deathmatch" will be present. Possibly there might be a "Free-for-All" Everyone kills Everyone game mode, as well. Hell, if Halo is any indication, two of the other icons may even just be "Big Team" Versions of Control and TDM, increasing the usual 6v6 into 12v12. 
The two Maps in the Alpha were called "Rust Lands" - a relatively small, no-vehicle map in a dilapidated industry/warehouse area on Earth - and "First Light" - a bigger map, with both spawning offensive vehicles and use of your own speed bike, plus several threatening turrets on the Moon's surface.
