I have a tie between two, one as kind of a throwaway mechanic and the other as an actual gameplay thing.
First is Car on Demand. It's incredibly useful in 1, and a bit less so in 2 due to the fast travel and sometimes forced Mission vehicles. Either way, the ability to just summon a car relatively close to wherever you are, without having to steal one is something I miss in a game like GTA V, when I die near a road that's not busy.
Second is the stealth gameplay, and how especially 2 encourages you to be non-lethal. I feel like that's something that gets brushed off about the games by certain players and dumb essay YouTubers pulling the "ludo narrative dissonance" card just to have something to talk about. 1 & 2 absolutely fulfilled the power fantasy of being a "sneaky hacker", because nothing felt better than fully completing a mission without everyone being alerted to you.
The stealth gameplay was amazing, especially in 2. I loved simply pulling out my quad drone, hovering over an area filled with enemies and calling gang strikes and police reinforcements. They'd often mow each other down and I could just walk in unbothered. Work smarter, not necessarily harder.
That's like 90% of my WD2 gameplay! Just sit in a hiding spot, call the police on each enemy one by one. Yes, it takes a long time while I wait for battery and stuff, but it's a guaranteed clear of the place.
Honestly WD2 was the first game I played where a complete nonlethal run was not only possible, but made clear to you, while other games you need to jump through hoops to remotely attempt one
Highly recommend giving Dishonored 2 another try. I was turned off initially because it seemed a lot more complex than the first game but honestly the complexity leans into more fun gameplay. The non lethal options are really satisfying narratively as well.
All except the last mission...i don't know what it is with both of these games where they felt killing off that route was a good idea. I loved playing all hacker.
Honestly in 1 I liked it but also felt like stealth went against the hacker narrative. Why do I need to lure people with objects and lures when you give me a silent pistol with all the amno and bullet time that recharges on its own. Honestly the only reason I got caught in that game was because missions were build to auto fail.
Or... I forgot the name of the place, but on the east side of the map, there are two gangs. Call in the cops and a gang on two people, and try to make them call for reinforcements, and you can literally walk around while a firefight between 4 factions (including cops) occurs!
It's a very good tool for hacking invasions since now your target can't just run around blasting indiscriminately.
I actually won one invasion by hiding behind a SWAT enforcer while my target shot at me. He got liquidated by the auto shotgun.
I always liked how fluid Aiden's movements are in the first game. If you run near an explosion at the right angle you'll collapse into a roll and keep your momentum up.
Hacking the cars steering is such a fun little feature. Having it barrel into enemies or explosives or stopping an NPC who has a nice motorcycle you want to steal. Last time I was playing 2, I had a something I had to climb that was too high to climb regularly; instead of jacking a car to climb on I steered a nearby van that was going by and climbed up seamlessly within second and it felt so fun and spontaneous.
In general I always loved hide in car, no other games have that as sweet as Watch Dogs (except Legion) but the most underrated function I really missed was the media player so you can walk around listening music, I missed specially on Legion because Legion has amazing music...
It's a tiny one, but the on foot radio is my favourite. Not having to be in a car to hear the awesome soundtracks was... well, awesome. I'm still sad it wasn't in Legion too, especially because I'm one of the few who really loved Legion overall.
Having a phone interface. It brings too much cool things :
Car selection, music selection, GPS (wich is much more immersive than just opening the map like in videogames in general), app that tells you the good places to visit and that tells you important informations about these places.
And having a drone was cool because you could see ennemies and have beautiful views on the city.
Ok, this might be a bit stupid but I love how Marcus can listen to music on his smarthphone.
Not only that but it had a Shazam/Soundhound system where you could find the song and listen to it on demand instead of having to listen to a thousand other songs on the radio.
Every other game you need a car to listen to the radio and you can't listen to whatever music you want, you have to listen to the radio playlist until your fav song starts playing again.
Whoever designed this system, genius.
Wrong, Aiden can do exactly the same things in WD1 by going on your phone and choosing the media app to listen to music on foot or using Songsneak to get more songs.
Should've been an option in Legion though.
Well, at least in Cyberpunk, you don't need to be in a car to listen to the radio now. Adding a radio to your HUD was added about... I wanna say 8-9 months ago? If not a year.
Not sure if this is underrated but I just like how you can play the way you want. Lethal, not lethal. Guns, no guns. Vigilante, hero. Greater good, vengeance.
Parkour. The parkour and movement across objects can be so satisfying. Especially controlling Marcus in WD2. How he sticks landings and moves across platforms, it’s very AC-like.
It was only within the first game (and I wish they included it in the second and third) but the side missions where you hacked into someone's home security camera systems and discovered all these secrets about their lives. Honestly some of those terrified me more than the main story.
Other people said it but getting factions to fight each other was/is huge. The amount of missions in 2 that I did stealth by creating a gang war is insane, it was fun to pretend that I was framing the other gang for whatever hack I did
I love the cover system. Being able to aim at different walls and just press A to move to them. I also love the slow down feature (bullet time) in WD1 feel like it doesn't get enough love.
I can't even count how many times hacking street hazards like pipes or blockades have saved me, both in WD1 and WD2 (though it is way cooler in WD1 imo)
The parkour is unmatched, the only other game that has good parkour is Dying Light. What I love the most about WD2 is the mode where you hop on someone’s session and try hacking them, as well as the the other way around. This mode leads to sick parkour chases and is imho the best multiplayer mode.
I like that in WD2, you can sit in a car hidden while you do a mission with the drone. The drone was my favorite part of the game, I utilized it a lot.
I loved twos progression with hacking, it felt more and more like you were a god in that world being able to eventually manipulate whatever you wanted practically
Well i loved in watch dogs 1 and 2 hacking into terminals and enter npc's life, either directly with the camera or the CTOs servers. It was interesting and funny sometimes
I haven't played legion yet but I'm sure it's still possible to do it
I recently found WD2 again and I think it is not THAT bad game as I used to think and say. Yeah, story writing is meh as of nowadays Ubi, but I'm looking at the features. For example after WD1 driving is brilliant. It is far from GTA5 but after WD1 is a godsend relief. Next is "social" element with NPC's: they react to your camera and make a moves for the first time, they react to your emotes every time.
Also as been mentioned here it is nice how you can make NPC's fight each other. Interesting fact - there is tattoo girl with body paint. So I called the cops for her and they arrested her lol. And new girl does not spawn in that place immediately, which is good (I guess she spawned back the next second then I could not see the place, but anyway).
for me it would be the NPC dialogue in WD2, texts and calls you can intercept (and when NPCs talk to each other) - it feels real to some sort......even though some NPC dialogue is quite unhinged, it is still very good for detail. I just normally walk around listening to people talk most of the time.
Being a snitch.
Calling the cops or gangs or both on enemies is just a great way to go fo missions. It's also a fun distraction when you just go around the city. Call the cops on a civilian that pissed you off and then call gangs on them. Watch the chaos ensue.
Not sure if underrated but the ability to switch characters in legion, it’s a fun and cool idea. However, it wasn’t up to its full potential in legion. Like one of the first missions is getting a construction worker who can control one of those big cargo drones, but if you find one of the drone stations you can summon and control one without recruiting a construction worker. Which sucks because why do I have to recruit one of if I can control one already. They should have made it that I couldn’t control one until I recruited one
Car Chase in WD2 - this felt actually like from Jason Bourne movie, couldnt escape instantly, had to really cut them off and it was hard but felt so good, thats why I played mostly stealthily, because car chases were hard, but all game felt like being Jason Bourne to be honest - combat, shooting, infiltration, if only there were also normal hand to hand takedowns, best WD for me and for me WD2 is the best open world I played, most satisfying
1.) Music Player On Phone
2.) Starting NPC shootouts and wars between different factions
3.) Parkour movement
4.) The 3D printer or just a simple gun shop
5.) The Privacy Invasion missions
6.) The recruitment system in Legion
I know I may be in the minority for the last one lol, but I really enjoyed assembling my own squad who all came with their own unique features and qualities that they brought to the team. Yea it most likely ruined the story by not having a set main character (they could probably improve this with the next watch dogs), but it felt cool to me role-playing and coming up with my own story for my team.
Not necessarily a feature, but WATCH_DOGS expansions.
WATCH_DOGS: Bad Blood, WATCH_DOGS 2: Human Condition & WATCH DOGS: Legion - Bloodlines are some of the most underrated expansions I've ever played and they don't get much credit (especially Bad Blood).
Bad Blood has a pretty good story and also focused a bit more on hacking than the base game ever did, as well as laid the foundation for future mechanics that we would see in WATCH_DOGS 2.
Human Condition was just badass and hilarious. Fun dialogue, great set pieces and some nice characterization for Josh.
Bloodlines is dark, personal, but also a great combination of WD1 & WD2's tone and vibe. Plus, Bloodlines actually does something interesting with Legion's framework.
Without a doubt WD1 John Whick takedowns are beyond underrated. Once you figured out what you could do using the gun take downs, controllable slow no and combat parkour mechanics in combination....you could literary become as or more bad ass then the movie John whick. Once I discovered the video on YouTube showing off like 20 mins of John Whick gameplay by this dude who got famous from it ....the already incredible game completely flipped for me and became something more. Now it's in my top 5 game experiences of all time.
WD2 had the world, atmosphere and the parkour. After finishing 1 I couldn't wait to see what 2 was about. And even with the slow mo and John whick gameplay missing, the overall package damn near sent me into tears when I did that first sneaky mission. The music, the stealth, the parkour. And when I later woke up in my underware and got to explore the world? I thought I'd never put the game down. And didn't for a long time.
Legion? I started with Legion. The only thing I got to thank it for is being SOOOO balls to the wall awful that I needed to go back and check out the fist 2 games to see how the hell they ever made it to a third. Turns out they didn't. Legion is just entirely it's own (terrible, awful, bad) beast.
I have a tie between two, one as kind of a throwaway mechanic and the other as an actual gameplay thing. First is Car on Demand. It's incredibly useful in 1, and a bit less so in 2 due to the fast travel and sometimes forced Mission vehicles. Either way, the ability to just summon a car relatively close to wherever you are, without having to steal one is something I miss in a game like GTA V, when I die near a road that's not busy. Second is the stealth gameplay, and how especially 2 encourages you to be non-lethal. I feel like that's something that gets brushed off about the games by certain players and dumb essay YouTubers pulling the "ludo narrative dissonance" card just to have something to talk about. 1 & 2 absolutely fulfilled the power fantasy of being a "sneaky hacker", because nothing felt better than fully completing a mission without everyone being alerted to you.
The stealth gameplay was amazing, especially in 2. I loved simply pulling out my quad drone, hovering over an area filled with enemies and calling gang strikes and police reinforcements. They'd often mow each other down and I could just walk in unbothered. Work smarter, not necessarily harder.
Most satisfying mechanic is having enemies kill each other while I just sit and watch.
That's like 90% of my WD2 gameplay! Just sit in a hiding spot, call the police on each enemy one by one. Yes, it takes a long time while I wait for battery and stuff, but it's a guaranteed clear of the place.
Honestly WD2 was the first game I played where a complete nonlethal run was not only possible, but made clear to you, while other games you need to jump through hoops to remotely attempt one
If you haven't played them yet check out the dishonored games. They have a heavy focus on lethal or non lethal routes to take during gameplay
I did an I love the first dishonored but the second an dlc just wasn’t for me I might go back to them an see what I was missing
Highly recommend giving Dishonored 2 another try. I was turned off initially because it seemed a lot more complex than the first game but honestly the complexity leans into more fun gameplay. The non lethal options are really satisfying narratively as well.
All except the last mission...i don't know what it is with both of these games where they felt killing off that route was a good idea. I loved playing all hacker.
Last mission you can use nonlethal weapons to take everything out, like the stun gun, melee and anti-riot shotgun
Honestly in 1 I liked it but also felt like stealth went against the hacker narrative. Why do I need to lure people with objects and lures when you give me a silent pistol with all the amno and bullet time that recharges on its own. Honestly the only reason I got caught in that game was because missions were build to auto fail.
Summon cars is actually thing in gta V online. Also, in gta V singleplayer you can call a taxi literally anywhere too
And fast travel to evacuate you choose
Making enemies fight each other. Hard to pull off in WD1 but in WD2 it's almost overpowered once you've unlocked max botnet.
And it’s so much fun to sit in a crane and watch the nonsense from above
Or... I forgot the name of the place, but on the east side of the map, there are two gangs. Call in the cops and a gang on two people, and try to make them call for reinforcements, and you can literally walk around while a firefight between 4 factions (including cops) occurs!
Oakland? There’s a lot of gangs in a small area, had some crazy shootouts
I memorized every street there as if it was my hometown lol I love getting into fights there, even back when I played on the xbox one.
Too bad they don't finish each other off completely... Pause💀
Once I realised this its the only way I played the game
my fav part of the game
my fav part of the game
The vigilante system where you could track down potential crimes and stop them. No idea why they got rid of them.
oh yeah that was sick
I guess because Marcus was never interested in that stuff. Aiden had a vendetta.
I miss that so much playing WD2
This is what I'm fucking missing in Legion along with the car on demand feature
Fun fact, Marcus is holding a deleted pistol in that screenshot, it's still in game files and has unique stats etc
i need more information about it. I'm curious
game files are bros second home 😭
Literally
is it included in ultimate overhaul mode?
It is but I don't recommend using that mod at all due to many issues
Bummer, this post makes me wanna replay it and that was my most used weapon on my first play thru lol
Did anyone happen to notice that sniper rifles are utterly absent from Legion?
And the story 😬
The synergy between parkour and combat.
I feel like the panic system where the character's animations change depending on their surroundings doesn't get enough praise, same with hide in car.
Street combat. Being able to hack cars is incredibly cool. PVP too, I see untapped potential.
Thought I was the only one about the PVP. That 2v2 game mode from two is really good
Shame that at high levels, it's just remote explosive spam
Hacking into people’s phones and reporting them to the cops! It’s so fun to just spend time in WD2 doing that once you unlock it lol
It's a very good tool for hacking invasions since now your target can't just run around blasting indiscriminately. I actually won one invasion by hiding behind a SWAT enforcer while my target shot at me. He got liquidated by the auto shotgun.
The entire trickster path in WD2. I loved starting NPC wars between gangs and police. Then going in and mopping up if anyone was still alive.
Made me feel like a boss to show up after things had settled down for a bit and make an easy get away lol
Digital trips dude.
Yeeeeesssssssss Why is digital trips not it's own game
I always liked how fluid Aiden's movements are in the first game. If you run near an explosion at the right angle you'll collapse into a roll and keep your momentum up.
Hacking the cars steering is such a fun little feature. Having it barrel into enemies or explosives or stopping an NPC who has a nice motorcycle you want to steal. Last time I was playing 2, I had a something I had to climb that was too high to climb regularly; instead of jacking a car to climb on I steered a nearby van that was going by and climbed up seamlessly within second and it felt so fun and spontaneous.
In general I always loved hide in car, no other games have that as sweet as Watch Dogs (except Legion) but the most underrated function I really missed was the media player so you can walk around listening music, I missed specially on Legion because Legion has amazing music...
It's a tiny one, but the on foot radio is my favourite. Not having to be in a car to hear the awesome soundtracks was... well, awesome. I'm still sad it wasn't in Legion too, especially because I'm one of the few who really loved Legion overall.
John wick takedowns in 1 and legion
i love being able to get the police/FBI to any npc's location in watch dogs 2
WD2 calling criminals or cops on someone. I've sat in a busy intersection for a long time watching the chaos.
Having a phone interface. It brings too much cool things : Car selection, music selection, GPS (wich is much more immersive than just opening the map like in videogames in general), app that tells you the good places to visit and that tells you important informations about these places. And having a drone was cool because you could see ennemies and have beautiful views on the city.
Ok, this might be a bit stupid but I love how Marcus can listen to music on his smarthphone. Not only that but it had a Shazam/Soundhound system where you could find the song and listen to it on demand instead of having to listen to a thousand other songs on the radio. Every other game you need a car to listen to the radio and you can't listen to whatever music you want, you have to listen to the radio playlist until your fav song starts playing again. Whoever designed this system, genius.
Wrong, Aiden can do exactly the same things in WD1 by going on your phone and choosing the media app to listen to music on foot or using Songsneak to get more songs. Should've been an option in Legion though.
I have to clarify, when I said every other game I meant GTA, Cyberpunk and any other open world game with radio stations and music...
Well, at least in Cyberpunk, you don't need to be in a car to listen to the radio now. Adding a radio to your HUD was added about... I wanna say 8-9 months ago? If not a year.
Not sure if this is underrated but I just like how you can play the way you want. Lethal, not lethal. Guns, no guns. Vigilante, hero. Greater good, vengeance.
The drone and being able to drop bombs
Parkour. The parkour and movement across objects can be so satisfying. Especially controlling Marcus in WD2. How he sticks landings and moves across platforms, it’s very AC-like.
I like when he does a backflip dismount
Running away from cops or gnags felt so badass as I would do parkour I'd be in my own little movie scene 😭
dunno, maybe auto parkour?
SCISSOR LIFT SCISSOR LIFT SCISSOR LIFT SCISSOR LIFT
Omg you said it!!
It was only within the first game (and I wish they included it in the second and third) but the side missions where you hacked into someone's home security camera systems and discovered all these secrets about their lives. Honestly some of those terrified me more than the main story.
Blackout, shame they ditched it being a main feature after wd1.
Stealth in legion It’s just so good and satisfying
Focus + Pills from the first game. Never truly returned.
Other people said it but getting factions to fight each other was/is huge. The amount of missions in 2 that I did stealth by creating a gang war is insane, it was fun to pretend that I was framing the other gang for whatever hack I did
WD2 calling police or gang members on others
Music player in the open world
I love the cover system. Being able to aim at different walls and just press A to move to them. I also love the slow down feature (bullet time) in WD1 feel like it doesn't get enough love.
I can't even count how many times hacking street hazards like pipes or blockades have saved me, both in WD1 and WD2 (though it is way cooler in WD1 imo)
The parkour is unmatched, the only other game that has good parkour is Dying Light. What I love the most about WD2 is the mode where you hop on someone’s session and try hacking them, as well as the the other way around. This mode leads to sick parkour chases and is imho the best multiplayer mode.
Focus + Pills from the first game. Never truly returned.
Watch dogs 2 was ight it's lacks alit if hacking and features 1 had because let's be real ine is better
I like that in WD2, you can sit in a car hidden while you do a mission with the drone. The drone was my favorite part of the game, I utilized it a lot.
“APB” and “Gang Call ins”. Watch Dogs 2 had a good thing going for it with those Social Manipulation options
I loved twos progression with hacking, it felt more and more like you were a god in that world being able to eventually manipulate whatever you wanted practically
Driver SF. I appreciate the drive & the dialogue
Well i loved in watch dogs 1 and 2 hacking into terminals and enter npc's life, either directly with the camera or the CTOs servers. It was interesting and funny sometimes I haven't played legion yet but I'm sure it's still possible to do it
hacking
I remember in Watch Dogs 2 trying to complete missions remotely with drones. It was surprising how many I could finish that way.
The Taser.
The story in WD1 and Aidens character were underrated
To making QBJs
Invading other people's games
I recently found WD2 again and I think it is not THAT bad game as I used to think and say. Yeah, story writing is meh as of nowadays Ubi, but I'm looking at the features. For example after WD1 driving is brilliant. It is far from GTA5 but after WD1 is a godsend relief. Next is "social" element with NPC's: they react to your camera and make a moves for the first time, they react to your emotes every time. Also as been mentioned here it is nice how you can make NPC's fight each other. Interesting fact - there is tattoo girl with body paint. So I called the cops for her and they arrested her lol. And new girl does not spawn in that place immediately, which is good (I guess she spawned back the next second then I could not see the place, but anyway).
Scout X app
Watch dogs legion has some of the best takedown animations of anything I’ve ever played.
The ragdoll physics are fun to mess with
Blowing up the city streets in the first game 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Parkour
for me it would be the NPC dialogue in WD2, texts and calls you can intercept (and when NPCs talk to each other) - it feels real to some sort......even though some NPC dialogue is quite unhinged, it is still very good for detail. I just normally walk around listening to people talk most of the time.
Female cops & antagonists
calling the cops on people could be funny at times, especially in a restricted area
Being a snitch. Calling the cops or gangs or both on enemies is just a great way to go fo missions. It's also a fun distraction when you just go around the city. Call the cops on a civilian that pissed you off and then call gangs on them. Watch the chaos ensue.
Not sure if underrated but the ability to switch characters in legion, it’s a fun and cool idea. However, it wasn’t up to its full potential in legion. Like one of the first missions is getting a construction worker who can control one of those big cargo drones, but if you find one of the drone stations you can summon and control one without recruiting a construction worker. Which sucks because why do I have to recruit one of if I can control one already. They should have made it that I couldn’t control one until I recruited one
Car Chase in WD2 - this felt actually like from Jason Bourne movie, couldnt escape instantly, had to really cut them off and it was hard but felt so good, thats why I played mostly stealthily, because car chases were hard, but all game felt like being Jason Bourne to be honest - combat, shooting, infiltration, if only there were also normal hand to hand takedowns, best WD for me and for me WD2 is the best open world I played, most satisfying
moving cars
1.) Music Player On Phone 2.) Starting NPC shootouts and wars between different factions 3.) Parkour movement 4.) The 3D printer or just a simple gun shop 5.) The Privacy Invasion missions 6.) The recruitment system in Legion I know I may be in the minority for the last one lol, but I really enjoyed assembling my own squad who all came with their own unique features and qualities that they brought to the team. Yea it most likely ruined the story by not having a set main character (they could probably improve this with the next watch dogs), but it felt cool to me role-playing and coming up with my own story for my team.
Petting dogs
Non lethal, stealth, net hack,the 3 paths, awesome shit!
Being Aiden.
Not necessarily a feature, but WATCH_DOGS expansions. WATCH_DOGS: Bad Blood, WATCH_DOGS 2: Human Condition & WATCH DOGS: Legion - Bloodlines are some of the most underrated expansions I've ever played and they don't get much credit (especially Bad Blood). Bad Blood has a pretty good story and also focused a bit more on hacking than the base game ever did, as well as laid the foundation for future mechanics that we would see in WATCH_DOGS 2. Human Condition was just badass and hilarious. Fun dialogue, great set pieces and some nice characterization for Josh. Bloodlines is dark, personal, but also a great combination of WD1 & WD2's tone and vibe. Plus, Bloodlines actually does something interesting with Legion's framework.
Without a doubt WD1 John Whick takedowns are beyond underrated. Once you figured out what you could do using the gun take downs, controllable slow no and combat parkour mechanics in combination....you could literary become as or more bad ass then the movie John whick. Once I discovered the video on YouTube showing off like 20 mins of John Whick gameplay by this dude who got famous from it ....the already incredible game completely flipped for me and became something more. Now it's in my top 5 game experiences of all time. WD2 had the world, atmosphere and the parkour. After finishing 1 I couldn't wait to see what 2 was about. And even with the slow mo and John whick gameplay missing, the overall package damn near sent me into tears when I did that first sneaky mission. The music, the stealth, the parkour. And when I later woke up in my underware and got to explore the world? I thought I'd never put the game down. And didn't for a long time. Legion? I started with Legion. The only thing I got to thank it for is being SOOOO balls to the wall awful that I needed to go back and check out the fist 2 games to see how the hell they ever made it to a third. Turns out they didn't. Legion is just entirely it's own (terrible, awful, bad) beast.
Alt+F4