By now, Ubisoft has become fluent in the art of open-world games. Most of their successful franchises (Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, etc.) happen to be open-world. Watch Dogs, however, is a little disappointing.
Watch Dogs takes place in a fictional Chicago, where the entire city is run by one operating system. You play as the one and only hacker/murderer/thief/uncle/vigilante: Aiden Pearce. After the death of his niece, Aiden goes looking for revenge. The entire plot revolves around finding who killed your niece, and hunting them down.
Gameplay
The gameplay is alright, but it is very standard to most open-world crime games. You have a weapon wheel with seemingly unlimited carrying capacity, the controls for which are frustrating. The player can usually only change one weapon/tool at a time. For example, if you wanted to select a pistol and grenades, you have to select one, close the weapon wheel, then open is back up and select the other. The fact that time does not slow when the wheel is open makes changing weapons very difficult under fire.
Shooting is standard cover based, where you stay behind a wall until a stupid enemy pops up and you promptly shoot him in the face. Aiden Pearce does indeed love his cover. So much, in fact, that he sticks to it all the time. There isn’t a button for “leave cover,” so maneuvering the battlefield is awkward and treacherous.
That brings me to another point. The game looks like a stealth/action crime game, but repeatedly put the player in situations where the only option is to shoot their way out. Aiden does not handle damage very well, so dying a lot is almost guaranteed.
The main thing Watch Dogs has going for it in terms of gameplay is the hacking system. In Chicago virtually anything electronic is hackable, including phones, computers, draw bridges, trains, and even steam pipes that run underneath the city. All this content makes for fun car chases and good environments to play around in.
Plot
The story of Aiden Pearce and his adventures as the vigilante is boring, drawn out, and loosely connected. If you are expecting a plot with a complex setup and dramatic twists and turns, you will be almost certainly disappointed.
Watch Dogs tries to juggle multiple conflicts, while also trying to introduce an unnecessary amount of characters that get limited screen time. Ironically, these supporting characters are more appealing and well rounded that Aiden himself. It is funny to watch suck brilliant and creative characters interact with the bland, empty husk that is Aiden Pearce.
The plot also doesn’t flow very well. The player will often spend time doing missions that seem completely unrelated to Aiden’s main goal, and that causes confusion in some parts of the game.
Graphics/Sound
I’m sure it is convenient for Ubisoft to make a game about hacking and glitching, so that whenever something is the game goes fuzzy, blurred, or pixelated, that it seems like they did it on purpose. The cutscenes, despite the “intentional” mistakes, look really good. The open world is another story.
The world of Watch Dogs is not anything close to what Ubisoft had promised originally. Not to say that it looks bad; it’s just not what most people expected. Leaving the let down of lesser graphics behind, Watch Dog’s world is colorful and for the most part look very good. Not great, but good.
The sound in the game works very well. However, occasionally dialogue gets mumbly if you are watching through a camera, so make sure to play with subtitles just in case.
Appeal/Replay
Watch Dogs’ main story may seem at times drawn out, it is actually not very long. However, if you get distracted by side missions and collectibles, which most certainly will, then the game gets much longer. In fact, I would say that side missions and collectibles make up almost 70% of what you can do in this game, and to be honest, that’s too much.
Side missions in the game include fixer contracts, criminal convoys and gang hideouts, all of which get repetitive quickly. The true beauty of Watch Dogs’ extra content lies in its collectibles and online modes.
Collectibles in the game are usually entertaining puzzle games that involve “riding the cameras” to unlock certain areas. These are fun, engaging and make for quick pit stops for Aiden on his way to the next main mission.
Multiplayer is seamlessly integrated into the single player so that it could occur randomly, or whenever the player calls upon it. In multiplayer, you can race, hack other people, stalk other people, or compete on a team in a conquest/capture the flag kind of game. Other people can also enter your game at any time and hack and/or stalk you. These are interesting ideas and are, for the most part entertaining.
All the extra content extends Watch Dogs by several hours, and while you are not likely to replay the main story over and over, Watch Dogs will call the player back into its open world time after time.
Conclusion
Watch Dogs is the first in what will almost definitely become a Ubisoft franchise. Like the original Assassin's Creed, Watch Dogs brings a lot of new ideas to the table, but still has major problems. Overall I give the game a 6.5/10. I recommend you wait on the price drop for this one, but don’t let that discourage you from picking it up; it’s fun.
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