This review contains spoilers
I think I’m probably one of the few people that liked this game. I think viewing this game with the knowledge that this is clearly Ubisoft’s attempt at experimenting not only with their own technology, but pushing the boundaries of the title makes it a more enjoyable experience.
I’ll start with the negatives, since that’s what everyone’s probably looking for:
- Mishandling of politics: the ending gives itself a pat on the back because it put what it identified as a “good cop” in charge of the police, when I can tell you right now that’s not gonna fix anything. The game also likes to talk about the humanity of law enforcement when... that’s just utter nonsense. If you’re going to have a game set within the parameters of reality, at least have an understanding of what you’re talking about.
- Predictable twist you don’t care about: personally I think this is both a positive and a negative, and I’ll explain the positives of it later, but Sabine’s betrayal was horribly obvious, and not once did the game give me a reason to care about her. I legitimately laughed when she died because I thought it was rather pathetic.
- No main character: another thing that’s both positive and negative. Personally I played with permadeath off, so I was able to grow attached to the two or so operatives I’d switch between, but even then, you can tell everyone has similar scripts they read off of and that there’s not many distinct personalities.
- It’s an Ubisoft game: aka you’re gonna get glitches/ragdolls/clipping/etc on the regular. I think it makes for a funny experience, but there are times when it’s frustrating. Weirdly enough, I didn’t have framerate issues on PS4, but things definitely struggled to render at times.
- Accessibility: I enjoyed the large number of accessibility options, but one thing that actually really got under my skin were the subtitles. I have ADHD, and need subtitles because it’s difficult for me to process things just through sound alone, and the subtitles would give named characters random names, or characters with a clear affiliation aka “Albion Guard” or “Clan Kelley member” some weird titles like “Nutrionist” or “Swimmer.” It was happening faaaar too often, and made some of the more important scenes fall a bit flat for me. I get that it’s a technical issue and things are generated randomly, but I would have appreciated some more care put into something like that.
Ok, so the positives:
- Driving, Music, and Environments: these are things Ubisoft has always excelled at in their games. Most people tend to complain about the glitches or plot contrivances, but I think we can all agree that they’ve always succeeded in this department. The Skye Larsen mission alone (and mind you there are several other examples I can pull) is a perfect example of what I’m talking about. The atmosphere is tense, horrifying, and emotionally draining. It’s all an amalgamation of sound, orchestral, and environmental design culminating in such an ominous and foreboding experience. Phenomenal.
- The Game’s Overarching Theme: I cannot stress enough that this game’s overarching theme is done demonstrably well. WDL is a game about humanity’s codependent relationship with technology, and how that can be both for better and for worse. I’ll give some moments as examples:
- The Kelley chapter: humans are broken down for their parts as if they were machines, auctioned off and sold to people without a second thought to ethics.
- Skye Larsen: humans are essentially cyberized and permanently suspended in a digital space against their will. Their emotions are overwritten; their independence revoked; and so one. Technology is their one barrier between continuing to “live” in agony, or finding peace in death.
The Albion Guy Whose Name I Forgot: his name is not important, but this is our first legitimate (health-bar) boss fight in the series, and it is the perfect representation of someone’s over-reliance on technology in order to establish a sense of control, power, and purpose. He claims he lost his faith in humanity when his father’s life was taken from him due technology (i.e. weapons), and now here he is in the same position as his father’s killer. The main connecting factor being the weaponization of technology — turning machines to instruments of destruction for not only human lives but for the human psyche as well.
Bagley and Sabine: I mentioned earlier how Sabine’s pathetic betrayal had some merit to it, and it’s because of her contrast with Bagley. Both Sabine and Bagley sacrifice themselves for their causes in the end, but it’s Bagley’s supposed death that makes you feel any sort of sadness or emotion. The fact that the game makes you feel pain and sorrow over the death of an AI versus a human being is a testament to the game’s overarching theme.
You get the idea.
- Lack of a main character: this is something that I also said had merit, and it’s because of two things:
a.) Turning off permadeath allows you to essentially play as a main character of your choosing, I think my two main characters were someone named Claire and Claude, and it made the ending switching between the two much more impactful.
b.) It ties into the game’s themes that it’s humanity’s dependence on technology, and getting to play as multiple people who are electronically connected hit that much harder. One big computer family, if you will.
I could go on, but I’ll stop it there.
TL;DR
Cons:
- Bad handling of politics
- Bad twist
- No main character
- Bugs/Glitches
- Iffy accessibility options
Pros:
- Driving, Music, and Environments are all excellent
- Game has really great, thought-provoking themes that are generally executed well
- Bad twist contrasts with a good twist
- Lack of a main character can be good
This game is not perfect — nor will I ever claim that it is — but I was surprised at how good it was at times. This is Ubisoft’s experimental title at the end of the day, and I enjoyed it!
I’ll start with the negatives, since that’s what everyone’s probably looking for:
- Mishandling of politics: the ending gives itself a pat on the back because it put what it identified as a “good cop” in charge of the police, when I can tell you right now that’s not gonna fix anything. The game also likes to talk about the humanity of law enforcement when... that’s just utter nonsense. If you’re going to have a game set within the parameters of reality, at least have an understanding of what you’re talking about.
- Predictable twist you don’t care about: personally I think this is both a positive and a negative, and I’ll explain the positives of it later, but Sabine’s betrayal was horribly obvious, and not once did the game give me a reason to care about her. I legitimately laughed when she died because I thought it was rather pathetic.
- No main character: another thing that’s both positive and negative. Personally I played with permadeath off, so I was able to grow attached to the two or so operatives I’d switch between, but even then, you can tell everyone has similar scripts they read off of and that there’s not many distinct personalities.
- It’s an Ubisoft game: aka you’re gonna get glitches/ragdolls/clipping/etc on the regular. I think it makes for a funny experience, but there are times when it’s frustrating. Weirdly enough, I didn’t have framerate issues on PS4, but things definitely struggled to render at times.
- Accessibility: I enjoyed the large number of accessibility options, but one thing that actually really got under my skin were the subtitles. I have ADHD, and need subtitles because it’s difficult for me to process things just through sound alone, and the subtitles would give named characters random names, or characters with a clear affiliation aka “Albion Guard” or “Clan Kelley member” some weird titles like “Nutrionist” or “Swimmer.” It was happening faaaar too often, and made some of the more important scenes fall a bit flat for me. I get that it’s a technical issue and things are generated randomly, but I would have appreciated some more care put into something like that.
Ok, so the positives:
- Driving, Music, and Environments: these are things Ubisoft has always excelled at in their games. Most people tend to complain about the glitches or plot contrivances, but I think we can all agree that they’ve always succeeded in this department. The Skye Larsen mission alone (and mind you there are several other examples I can pull) is a perfect example of what I’m talking about. The atmosphere is tense, horrifying, and emotionally draining. It’s all an amalgamation of sound, orchestral, and environmental design culminating in such an ominous and foreboding experience. Phenomenal.
- The Game’s Overarching Theme: I cannot stress enough that this game’s overarching theme is done demonstrably well. WDL is a game about humanity’s codependent relationship with technology, and how that can be both for better and for worse. I’ll give some moments as examples:
- The Kelley chapter: humans are broken down for their parts as if they were machines, auctioned off and sold to people without a second thought to ethics.
- Skye Larsen: humans are essentially cyberized and permanently suspended in a digital space against their will. Their emotions are overwritten; their independence revoked; and so one. Technology is their one barrier between continuing to “live” in agony, or finding peace in death.
The Albion Guy Whose Name I Forgot: his name is not important, but this is our first legitimate (health-bar) boss fight in the series, and it is the perfect representation of someone’s over-reliance on technology in order to establish a sense of control, power, and purpose. He claims he lost his faith in humanity when his father’s life was taken from him due technology (i.e. weapons), and now here he is in the same position as his father’s killer. The main connecting factor being the weaponization of technology — turning machines to instruments of destruction for not only human lives but for the human psyche as well.
Bagley and Sabine: I mentioned earlier how Sabine’s pathetic betrayal had some merit to it, and it’s because of her contrast with Bagley. Both Sabine and Bagley sacrifice themselves for their causes in the end, but it’s Bagley’s supposed death that makes you feel any sort of sadness or emotion. The fact that the game makes you feel pain and sorrow over the death of an AI versus a human being is a testament to the game’s overarching theme.
You get the idea.
- Lack of a main character: this is something that I also said had merit, and it’s because of two things:
a.) Turning off permadeath allows you to essentially play as a main character of your choosing, I think my two main characters were someone named Claire and Claude, and it made the ending switching between the two much more impactful.
b.) It ties into the game’s themes that it’s humanity’s dependence on technology, and getting to play as multiple people who are electronically connected hit that much harder. One big computer family, if you will.
I could go on, but I’ll stop it there.
TL;DR
Cons:
- Bad handling of politics
- Bad twist
- No main character
- Bugs/Glitches
- Iffy accessibility options
Pros:
- Driving, Music, and Environments are all excellent
- Game has really great, thought-provoking themes that are generally executed well
- Bad twist contrasts with a good twist
- Lack of a main character can be good
This game is not perfect — nor will I ever claim that it is — but I was surprised at how good it was at times. This is Ubisoft’s experimental title at the end of the day, and I enjoyed it!
garie
3 years ago
- Stupid AI: literally braindead. Chases end before they even get a chance to start. No strategy is required.
- Spiderbot and Cargo Drones are OP: even if it ties into the themes well, it’s still not great that the game actively discourages creativity by making these options far superior to every other tool in the game. You don’t have to use them, but the game frequently incentivizes that you do, and often makes it a requirement for many things.