Ubisoft games are the most notorious examples of what I like to call open world bloat- they’re full of so many banal and trite side activities, the map littered and peppered with all manner of busywork that amounts to absolutely nothing, that these side activities actively detract from the game experience. Collecting feathers, hunting down chests, climbing towers- at some point it’s like going down a checklist.
Ubisoft had already promised that the side activities in Watch Dogs 2 will be more meaningful (at the very least, there won’t be any more towers). It seems like they meant it, too. According to Ubisoft’s Lucien Soulban, the side missions in Watch Dogs 2 will contribute to the game’s main storyline.
This is in the end good news, as long as the side activities themselves don’t feel like busywork. If they don’t, then Ubisoft will have addressed one of the biggest flaws and problems that their games tend to have.
