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The good:
The bad:
Final score: 8.5 / 10
System requirements:Watch Dogs focuses on protagonist Aiden Pearce, a hacker who uses Chicago's ctOS infrastructure to hack wirelessly into all sorts of situations. The game's opening sees him rob a hotel with the help of a friend but, inadvertently, they stumble upon something much bigger ran by dangerous individuals.
Flash forward a few months and Aiden's niece is killed while his ally is crippled as payback. This turns Pearce into a vigilante who's now tracking down the perpetrators in order to exact his own revenge for what happened.
The plot is quite good and filled with all sorts of savory and less than savory characters. Aiden isn't your stereotypical hero, as he is willing to do anything in order to protect his family and get revenge. He meets along the way quite a few great characters, such as Jordi, a fixer who can make anything look like an accident
, or Clara, a hacker and member of DedSec, a hacker activist group modeled after the real-life Anonymous movement.There are plenty of twists and turns along the way and, while you don't exactly have a choice in the proceedings, the linear story offers quite a few rewards for sticking with it.
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Gameplay
Watch Dogs is an open world experience in which you can explore Chicago and its neighboring areas using cars, bikes, boats, and even the L Train
.The actual exploration is pretty good, but the physics system that's ruling over cars and bikes is slightly erratic. Fast sportscars are really tricky to control at high speeds and collisions while on a bike will either keep you glued to it while flying in the air, or toss you and the vehicle in wildly different directions
.Of course, one of the most important mechanics in the game is the hacking one, which sees Aiden use his trusty smartphone to break into the ctOS-controlled mechanics in the city. From surveillance cameras to traffic blockers, steam pipes, and all sorts of other things, you can manipulate them easily.
However, in order to keep things from going overboard, you are limited by the battery
of your phone, so the first thing you might want to invest in when unlocking new skill points is extra battery slots. Besides this easy hacking system, there is a second, more complex mechanic that’s more like a "pipe dream" mini-game, which sees Aiden manipulate the flow of energy in a system to reach the end point. This one is slightly confusing, especially as you don't have that good a view on the system overall, meaning you need to constantly tilt and pan the camera to figure out the flow of energy. When a security timer is introduced, things get even more frustrating.
Hacking brings a variety of tactical elements into the game, as shootouts and infiltrating enemy bases can become much easier if you trigger certain
explosions or distractions in order to thin out the number of foes or at least attract the most aggressive ones or those who can call in reinforcements, for an easily stealth kill.Speaking of stealth, the game leans quite heavily towards this type of gameplay, as Aiden can sneak just like an assassin from Ubisoft's other major franchise, Assassin's Creed, and use melee takedowns via his telescopic baton. Using the cameras to spot enemies and potential sabotage points is quite fun but it does become tedious after a while, especially since this system is treated more like a puzzle by Ubisoft, meaning you need to jump from camera to camera until you spot all foes and the special opponent who has access codes for certain things.
Going in guns blazing is also an option, but Aiden has very little health and opponents have a really good aim. As such, expect to die a lot, even on easy difficulty. This makes certain encounters, like the criminal convoys, really hard. What's more, a lot of the missions require you to perform melee takedowns of certain targets, meaning you can't kill them and must often run after them for a long while until you're in takedown distance.
Running after opponents or chasing after them with a car is an extremely common requirement in most of the missions, and it gets annoying after a while, especially since triggering takedowns by hacking blockers or spikes require split second timing and reactions.
The game has a complex progression system that rewards players with skill points as they unlock new levels. These can be spent on augmenting your hacking abilities, your shooting ones, your driving, and your crafting proficiency.
The police is also quite aggressive throughout the city, but one really great mechanic allows you to hide in a car and hope that the police doesn't notice you. Even so, chases are often tedious and you're better off just running towards a pier and driving off in a boat, as apparently the Chicago police department doesn't have any actual boats to chase you with.
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Multiplayer
Watch Dogs offers a suite of multiplayer options for users, with the most famous being the online hacking. In this mode, you can infiltrate the game session of another player and hack them while they're trying to find you. While such missions may seem dull, the fact that you're facing off against another human player makes it really exhilarating.
For those who don't prefer such confrontations there's also an online tailing mode in which you just need to follow other players around and not alert them of your presence.
Of course, there are online races, in which players compete in different trials in and around the city. Triggering traffic lights and blockers is encouraged and the circuits imagined by Ubisoft are quite good, especially those around Chicago.
One special mode is online decryption, in which players must compete to secure a package and decrypt it while fending off others who are also chasing after the same thing. This is quite hectic and prepare to die a lot while trying to figure out just what's going on.
There's also a Free Roam system, in which you and other players can explore the city alone or together and cause havoc.
Last but not least, there's the ctOS Mobile Challenge mode, in which a player inside the game goes up against someone using the companion application. The player must escape the police and the traps triggered by the app user, but we haven’t been able to test it ahead of launch as the actual app isn't available on Android or iOS just yet.
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Visuals and Sound
Watch Dogs is a great-looking game on the PS4, managing to deliver some gorgeous visual
effects, particularly when it's raining. However, it still doesn't have that really next-gen style that's seen in Infamous: Second Son for example.We also got to try out for a short bit Watch Dogs on a PC equipped with an Nvidia graphics card and the difference is pretty big, especially due to special options like the HBAO+, which produces better shadows, or the TXAA, which eliminates the jagged edges seen on all sorts of objects in the game world.
The soundtrack is quite good and there's an extra incentive to hack different Chicago citizens, as you can unlock more songs to play while driving cars. The voice acting is really well done, with Aiden sounding reasonably rough and grizzled. The other actors also do a good job, but it depends more on their dialog.
Conclusion
Watch Dogs is a fun open world experience. However, the repetitive chases and the formulaic gameplay tend to get tedious and boring after a while. As such, you might want to enjoy the different multiplayer experiences and take frequent breaks to just roam around the city.
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